Cultural Events

I believe I have mentioned the cultural events I have been to so far, but I am not sure I correctly managed to explain exactly what I did and what the events were about. I felt I should take this opportunity to revisit the events which I have attented.

This past Tuesday, Oct 25, I attended the Sigma Tau Delta monthly poetry reading. This group meets at the Blue Moon on the last Tuesday of every month and people are welcomed to read poetry (or anything else). Usually there is a theme to the readings, and this weeks theme was "What you believe in". There were quite a few readers who all read something different. A few people read their own work, which is always interesting to hear. People have many different tastes. While the work that is read surrounding the theme is interesting, I noticed that above all, there is a lot of fun and friendship that goes on at the readings. The listeners do not care what people read, they just like to be there and share in the artistic nature of literature.

Along with this, I attended Sigma Tau Delta's Literary Conference earlier in the month. I believe I posted a blog after on this subject. During this conference, I presented two papers (one creative, one critique) as well as sat through many other presenters. It was very interesting to see what students, not only from Shepherd, but other colleges write about. There are some very bright and intelligent people around, and it is good to know that young people are willing to work hard on English papers and critique other works.

The week before the conference, I attended the Writer's Masterclass with Ron Rash. These were different people from not only Shepherd, but Shepherdstown, who submitted their original work, in both poetry and prose, and were able to read their work in front of Ron Rash and an audience. They were than able to receive critical feedback from both Rash and the audience in how they might be able to improve your work. What I found most interesting about this, was that I got to hear work from people other than students. Mainly, I am only able to read original work from other students in classes, but this allowed me to see what other writers were working on. I noticed a strong difference between the older writers and the younger writers. I felt the younger writers had a stronger (or maybe more energetic) voice. This is not to say the older writers were not good, but there is a difference between the generations.

So far, those are the three events I have been to and they have all been worthwhile in my opinion. I would recommend if people get the chance they should try to attend a similar event.