On March 2, 2022, Upstart Crows, a student writing group at The University of Akron, is hosting an open mic event called “What’s Race Got to Do With It?” This event is part of the Rethinking Race: Black, White, and Beyond program taking place at UA from Feb. 20, 2022 to March 5, 2022.
Since the program’s intention is to engage with the community about topics such as race, diversity, inclusion, and change, Upstart Crows is providing students an avenue to share their creative works with others. Readers will have up to five minutes to share their creative piece(s). All forms and genres of writing are welcome.
“Don’t feel like you need to be profound!” says David Giffels, a creative writing professor at UA. “Every voice is welcome. The more of them, the better.”
Professor Giffels and Upstart Crows leaders Clover O’Mordha and Sylvia Moran will be discussing the power of literature in public conversion, especially with volatile topics.
In Giffels’s experience, literature has served as a bridge to bring people together. Giffels recalled participating in “Writers Resist” in January 2017, part of a nationwide reading event that originated with the poet and activist Erin Belieu.
“In a packed room at Nighttown restaurant, I felt a sense of hope, in the way that our shared witness of the first American freedom –expression– can remind us that we all have power when we speak,” said Giffels.
Giffels also described how spoken literature is “an articulation of things most of us feel, but can’t express.” When we hear someone express themselves in this way, we can better understand ourselves and our culture, he said.
The open mic event will take place in the Jean Hower Taber Student Union room 310.
Light refreshments will also be served.
“I hope people who come, whether to listen or to read, will recognize the way communal events like these can remind us we’re more alike than different,” Giffels said.
If you have any questions concerning registration for the event or other details, you can contact David Giffels at dg@uakron.edu or Clover O’Mordha at bew45@uakron.edu.