By Alyssa Gautieri
Staff Writer
The College’s creative writing organization, INK, hosted its spring Student Reading Series on Tuesday, March 22, in the Library Auditorium. The series featured four talented poets: Hope Sirimis, Emily Miller, Daniel Marino and Kira DeSomma.
Sirimis, a freshman English major, has been recognized regionally and nationally for her poetry. She described her fast writing process as “frantic” and admitted it usually only takes her 10 minutes to write a poem. While she explained she can not always sit down and dissect exactly what she wants to say, a lot of her writing happens through editing.
Sirimis’s love for poetry began in second grade, however, she didn’t muster the courage to begin sharing her work until her junior year of high school, when a friend asked to read an intimate poem she had written about her sister.
“(My friend) read it and she just bursted out crying,” Sirimis said.
This was Sirimis’s first time seeing how her poetry could impact others.
“I felt like I had helped to give her a voice with her sister that she never thought existed,” Sirimis said.
For Sirimis, human connection is incredibly important.
“These days, it is really hard to get that intimate setting and I felt like through that poem, (my friend and I) were able to connect,” Sirimis said.
Once Sirimis discovered how helpful and inspiring her poetry could be to other people, she started writing with a main purpose of sharing.
“Poetry is very important to me and the main reason why I started writing poetry was to give others a voice who are usually unheard,” Sirimis said.
The next reader, senior English major Marino, had other ideas on why poets write.
“I think sometimes, people make art because they love it or sometimes because it makes them money,” Marino said.
However, Marino explained the reason he believes most people write poetry.
“Ultimately, I think we are just trying to get something on paper that we can’t quite get out otherwise,” he said.
For DeSomma, a senior English major, putting her emotions down on paper and establishing a voice through her poetry is also very important.
“While the poems (I wrote for tonight’s Student Reading Series) were fiction, they are sort of like a reflection of my life,” DeSomma said.
DeSomma’s close friend, senior interactive multimedia major Amanda Yuocolo, attended the event to support her work.
“Kira’s personality is reflected so well in her writing that I feel like I can hear her voice when I read it,” Yuocolo said.
DeSomma has a different way of presenting her poetry than the evening’s other readers. She is currently working with her aunt, who will create illustrations, to transform her work into a storybook.
“I wanted to do something where the art style is kind of childish and you could almost see it as a child’s book,” DeSomma said. “But it is not a child’s book.”
According to DeSomma, it was interesting to see the illustrations her aunt created when she was given complete creative freedom.
“I had trouble visualizing what it would look like, but I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out,” she said.
DeSomma’s one-of-a-kind poetry presentation during the Student Reading Series is just one example of the creativity, passion and diversity that the poets reflected through their work.
According to INK President and senior English major Rachel Friedman, in order to be a participant in the reading series, there is an competitive application process. Students must send their applications to INK’s executive board, where their literary works are voted upon. Friedman emphasized that being able to speak at INK’s Student Reading Series is both a privilege and an honor.
