The Graduate Hotel hosted the final Lowercase reading of the semester this Saturday at the Cabin 82 coffee shop.
Lowercase is a poetry and prose reading at which undergraduate students have the opportunity to publicly read creative writing pieces that they have been working on throughout the semester.
Christopher Roberts recites at the Lowercase poetry reading on Saturday. Photo by Sarah Liese
The readers this weekend were junior English majors Christopher Roberts and Victoria Mulqueen, junior linguistics major Heath Wooten and junior general studies major Jaz Brisack. Roberts, Wooten and Brisack all read multiple pieces of poetry, and Mulqueen read three pieces of flash fiction titled “Material Girl,” “Fly” and “In That Kitchen.”
“One of [my pieces] was from my creative writing class, another from fiction [class] and the other one I wrote for an automatic writing from when we had a guest speaker,” Mulqueen said. “I thought it was time to share these works that no one else has seen but me.”
Roberts’ poetry readings included “Alone on a Bench,” “Severance” and “A Glimpse at my Psyche.”
“The pieces that I chose all have a similar theme, in a way. They’re not exactly the same, but they all cover depression and neglect,” Roberts said. “That’s a huge theme in the poetry that I write, and I wanted to choose some poems that reflected that.”
Earlier this month, Wooten’s poetry was selected for the Ella Somerville Award, an award given to juniors or seniors who “demonstrate the most talent in fiction and poetry.” Winning the award was what sparked Wooten to bring his particular poems to Lowercase this past weekend.
Tori Mulqueen reads her fiction at the Lowercase reading on Saturday. Other student writers recited their poetry at the event. Photo by Sarah Liese
Each reader offered a unique voice to the overall experience, and different readers resonated with each audience member in different ways.
“It’s really tough because I happen to know all of the readers this time around. Personally, I don’t think that I have a favorite, but I will say that one piece in particular that really stuck out to me was the last poem by Roberts on initialism. It was very short and succinct, but hilarious,” said junior English major Gunnar Ohberg.
It appeared that all of the readers and everyone in attendance considered this last reading a resounding success.
The Lowercase readings were organized by junior English major Malerie Lovejoy, who also served as emcee for the event.
“The readers did amazing(ly). I think we had a great turnout. I mean, I’d always love to have more people, that’s the biggest thing. We’re trying to get as much of a voice for these readers as possible,” Lovejoy said.
Lovejoy said that, as of right now, she plans to continue leading the readings in the fall semester. She also indicated that the Graduate has been supportive of this program and foresees no change in venue.
“The Graduate has been an incredible venue for us, and we really appreciate (its) help and support for this program. This wouldn’t be possible without them at this point, so there are no plans to change venues,” Lovejoy said. “I’ll be in charge until I graduate or someone comes along who has bigger and better plans than me.”
