Newly registered student organization Between the Lines Poetry Club held its first open mic event at the Legacy Gazebo on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Multiple hours of performances marked the very first event the club has hosted since becoming registered this past summer.
One of those students who performed Tuesday evening was first-year psychology major Isatou Gaye.
“The best way to heal is through relating to things personally — and with art, there is every form of yourself in it,” Gaye said. “If you find yourself in something, it helps you heal — and that’s my thing with art. It is so versatile. It helps me.”
The piece Gaye shared was a spoken word poem infused with music — just one of the varying types of art presented. She shared that the club has inspired her to create more often while also introducing her to talented individuals.
For students like freshman political science major Scott Edgar, this was their first time performing.
Edgar engaged audiences in a series of short poems inspired by different emotions he has experienced over his lifetime. He shared his appreciation of the club being on campus, hoping this would encourage the community such artists on campus could benefit from.
“I was tired of only being able to do it behind a closed door,” Edgar said. “I was literally just walking and saw it was there. I told myself I have got to stop being afraid at some time.”
One highlight of the event was guest performer Jae Michelle, a published poet and traveling artist currently based in Atlanta. Her caliber of work and skills includes poetry, screenwriting and ghostwriting.
Michelle’s presence was as electric as her work, inviting audiences to experience a series of emotions. By the time she left the stage students had laughed, empathized and questioned their own perspectives.
“I have realized the things that I talk about are a lot of the things people go through,” Michelle said, “It is stuff I wish I had as a student — for the longest time I thought I was alone.”
Michelle shared that her professional artistic journey truly began following the publicity received from her poem on anxiety, “Friends with Benefits.” She has since traveled to numerous university campuses, where she encourages students to be honest and “tell their truth.”
The origin of the club stems from the KSU Writing Center, where members are required to adopt a periodical project such as clubs, conferences or events.
Senior English major Kara Ireland and junior English major Elizabeth Dean had the idea of starting the club after they realized there was not a club exclusively for poets or similar artistic expressions.
“Not only is it something I am required to do, but it is something I am passionate about,” Ireland said. “There are [poets] kind of hijacking other clubs and tweaking it for their own desires because it is not for them. This is a club for them.”
Bi-weekly meetings are held in the Writing Center’s conference room where interested students can enjoy writing workshops, skill-building and a space of belonging, Ireland said.
