Poetry an ‘art of risk-taking’

The sixth annual Poet’s Summit, held Saturday at the Columbia Museum of Art, rendered audiences inspired by the captivating poetry and the creative open-mic performances.

The event brought poets and the community together for an unforgettable day of literature.
Charlene Spearen, the associate director of SC Poetry Initiative, said Poet’s Summit was a visionary idea from Kwame Dawes, who first shared his idea with her when she was in graduate school.

“Kwame explained that South Carolina did not have a central core organization or any type of entity that could bring together those citizens in our state that are interested in poetry via writing poetry, via sharing news, putting into news about poetry,” Spearen said. “It was through that seed that the Poetry Initiative began.”

After word spread slowly and USC’s English department gave the initiative a small allotment, the group began talking to well-known poets to bring them to the state.
So far internationally known poets, including Li-Young Lee, Terrence Hayes, Elizabeth Alexander, Rosanna Warren and Sharon Olds, have shared their work in Columbia in addition to the poetry of young emerging writers.

“The beauty of poetry today is that in most instances it’s narrative: it’s telling stories, it’s sharing stories, it’s taking you to places that the human connection is,” Spearen said. “One of the things we look at that really defines the Initiative is bringing in as many voices as we possibly can. The stories will resonate on a personal level and human level.”

Spearen said she doesn’t know what the next ten years will bring, and that the Initiative’s hope is being challenged.

“It’s the young poets that sit down and begin to work out conflict and the moments that perplex them by the writing of the word and the sharing of that word,” Spearen said. “We have in our state a spoken word or page poet. They may use language in different ways, but it’s language, it’s words, using words in a way that creates art.”

Spearen said the event had over 100 people in attendance for the sharing of words, thoughts and images.

“The idea of risk which is the focus of this summit is part of the world we’re living in today,” Spearen said. “I think that our young people are being challenged in that perspective. I think that is what poetry helps us do.”

Bhavin Tailor, a poet and teacher said “We’re here for the Poet’s Summit today and we’ve got Sharon Olds, who is a phenomenal poet, she’s won so many different awards around the country and over the world and DeLana Dameron, winner of 2008 Poetry Initiative Book Award. The event today is about the art of risk, risk-taking and writing.”

Tailor said he has been writing poetry for nine years, an essential act for him. He teaches many poetry workshops and stresses to his students that their words have weight.

Sierra Young, a Poet’s Summit attendee, said she attended the event because she has aspirations to be a screen writer and finds poetry and its writers inspiring.

“I’ve only done a couple of half-written manuscripts, which is really not a whole lot. I wanted to get an idea of how the form of writing takes place, how the thought process is done. The speakers spoke about how their thought processes.” Young said.

Worthy Evans, 2009 Poetry Book contest winner, described what writing and poetry mean to him.

“I’m relativity new to poetry,” Evans said. “I’m not a stranger to writing, but it’s the community and getting people into a room that I’m interested in and I like this. It takes a lot to break through the mundane. You all the sudden find something of value in it and you can write it.”