Although most people know downtown Akron’s Musica for bringing both local and national music acts to their stage, on Thursday night, a group of students from the University of Akron filled the room with poets.
The Upstart Crows in conjunction with the Literary Guild, campus groups formerly headed by UA faculty member Mary Biddinger, had previously hosted a poetry reading once a semester for several years. In addition, the group also hosted poetry-related campus activities like workshops.
After taking over the NEO MFA program, Biddinger stepped down from running the group, and it has now become completely student-run for the first time. However, being a student-run organization doesn’t seem to have hindered them.
They already hosted another open mic earlier in fall at Angel Falls Coffee Co., and are planning future events for next semester. Although the majority of the crowd at Musica consisted of UA students, the approximately 45-member audience—as well as a number of those performing at the open mic—also included non-students.
During the reading, several students riffed on the common theme of “Indian summer”, one reader presented a piece of short fiction, and local musician, Rachel Roberts, performed a poem in Spanish.
Because of their affiliation with UA, the group also offered free copies of The University of Akron Press poetry titles. One of those books, I have My Own Song for It, was an anthology of Ohio poets edited by Elton Glaser and William Greenway, and included poems from David Young, Rita Dove, Mary Oliver, Kenneth Patchen, Ray McNiece, Michael Salinger, and Larry Smith, just to name a few.
The group can be found through UA’s English department, and they also post FaceBook events for their upcoming readings. Keep an eye out for flyers around Akron next semester. You just might find some poetry gems.
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