Mary Wisniewski
Assistant A&E Editor
Sometimes finding a leprechaun in Ireland seems more feasible than finding a poet at Pepperdine. After all, the liberal arts school is more populated by business majors than creative arts majors. However, writers do exist at this school, no matter how sparse, and are coming out of hiding to perform at “Un Soir Literraire,” a Coffeehouse put on by Pepperdine’s literary magazine, Expressionists.
The event will include, rappers, rhymers and poet performances beginning at 8 p.m and lasting until 10 p.m. in the HAWC tonight.
Katrina Spencer, editor of the magazine, said the Coffeehouse generally draws in an artsy, bohemian, liberal crowd.
“There are not many science people,” she said. However, that does not mean aspiring scientists cannot perform a work and are limited to only labs.
Faculty adviser for Expressionists Courtenay Stallings said there will be an array of students at the Coffeehouse.
“You don’t need to be a creative writing person. It’s open for everyone,” she said. “We just want to create an atmosphere where students feel safe as well as expose people to poetry.”
Stallings said more people are writing poetry than one would think, in fact.
“There are a lot of students who just don’t share it with others,” she said. “Plus, the creative writing as a major and minor is growing.”
Additionally, many writers may not want to perform because they find performing their work challenging or embarrassing, and therefore, their writing goes unnoticed. Spencer said sometimes administrators are in the audience, and students have to pick and choose what he or she reads.
“Performing is sometimes more intimate than you would like,” she said. “Some feel naked on stage, but I don’t.”
Besides written word performances at the Coffeehouse, there will be coffee, food, soda and candles at the event.
“It will feel like you went somewhere other than the HAWC,” Stallings said.
Additionally, a poetry game will be played and prizes of gift certificates to various local hangouts will be given out to the best performers.
The Expressionists staff has been advertising the Coffeehouse as much as possible through announcements at Convocation, posters and even a Facebook group. However, Spencer said people are just not that interested in poetry.
Regardless of popularity, there will be 13 performers at the Coffeehouse. This means that there will be fewer performers than the previous semester, however this was done purposefully. Last year, there were 18 performers, but Spencer said it was too time-consuming.
Stallings agreed.
“It went too long,” she said. “We eliminated song and music this time because there are other Coffeehouses for that.”
Spencer said the Coffeehouse is good for The Expressionists because it gets people to learn more about the magazine.
“It draws a lot of attention to the magazine because a lot of people don’t know about it,” she said.
Spencer said she hopes The Expressionists can continue to get support from everyone.
She would like 50 people to show up or at least stop by the Coffeehouse.
“I feel like it would be a success,” she said.
However, it should not take just a Coffeehouse to get The Expressionists well-known. After all, it has a long, extended history. The literary magazine has been published at Pepperdine since 1968. Students, faculty and others in the Pepperdine community fill the magazine’s pages with poetry, short fiction, and literary essays. It is the only
literary magazine Pepperdine publishes.
02-17-2006
