By Katie Stobbart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: April 3, 2013
Last Wednesday, the English Students Association hosted another “Poems, Pints, and Prose” event at AfterMath campus lounge. The dim room hummed with conversation as students gathered, mingled and sipped their drinks.
After distributing writing materials to each table for the purpose of on-the-spot compositions, emcee Ryan Petersen began the evening with a humorous poem that allegedly came to him three seconds before taking the microphone.
“I drew a smiley face in pink ink / It made me happy / Now where’s my drink?” he quipped.
Readings officially started following the ESA president Scott Sparrow’s recitation of Steven Colman’s “I wanna hear a poem,” which seemed like a fitting way to encourage those in attendance to step up and read.
A number of students did, including James Linde who read a poem inspired by Terry Pratchett’s “Reaper Man” and Alison King who shared her poem, “The Divine Internet.” Jennifer Colbourne read her poem, “The Prayer” from the third issue of the Louden Singletree literary magazine, and a new politically-focused poem she wrote about Justin Trudeau.
“You’re hot / You’re not Stephen Harper / You box / You’re hot,” she read, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
As per tradition, Petersen called on (and dragged if necessary) members of the audience to participate in a trivia game entitled “Things Pertaining to Literature and Other Things I Could Find on the Internet.” Participants were asked questions ranging from Canadian history to Harry Potter books to the colours of the Polish flag, and were rewarded with miniature candy bars.
Writer-in-residence Rex Weyler took the stage, impressing the crowd when he delivered two of his own poems entirely from memory, “I will wait for us” and “Water love.”
“Sometimes I wonder what happened to generosity – do you really think we were made to watch each other like hawks?” Weyler recited. He added that he welcomes students to come to him with any projects they might have over the next few weeks, and declared glowingly that his term at UFV has been one of the best experiences of his life.
Petersen then called more students to read, including James, Fred, Catherine and “Mr. Red Shirt with the Nice Eyes.”
Towards the end of the evening, UFV professors John Carrol and Rajnish Dhawan performed a short skit they had written for their CIVL Radio series, “We have the WMD!”
They were followed by the ESA vice president Sasha Moedt—who read her poem “Bukowski on the bus”—and by Scott Sparrow – who read his short story, “The Sentence.”
“Poems, Pints, and Prose” events are clearly venues for a thriving literary community at UFV, full of spontaneity and comic relief. Is there any better way to spend a Wednesday night than with good entertainment, good company and a pint of liquid courage?
