The Hispanic/Latino Cultural Center hosted a “Word Up” event on Thursday, Aug. 26 at the David L. Eisler Center fireplace.
Word Up was a slam poetry event that had two guest speakers from The Diatribe, a performing arts activism group, read their poetry to students.
The first guest speaker was Vanessa Jimenez, a Hispanic woman who writes and performs her poems with themes of her identity, heritage and belonging. She also makes sure to emphasize reclaiming her cultural stories from her perspective.
During her poems, she spoke about her ancestors who paved the way for her to be where she is today and her experiences being a Latina-American.
She has been writing since she was 11 years old and only started performing her poetry in college. She thinks it is important for the Latino community to be able to have a platform to express themselves artistically because it is a way to share their various stories.
“We’re not a monolith, we all have different stories,” Jimenez said. “It’s important for us to reclaim those experiences and know that there is not just one story that represents Latino culture.”
Even though she came for Hispanic Heritage Month, she felt this should not be the only time universities should celebrate culture, and that culture should be celebrated throughout the year.
“It’s important for us to celebrate not only Latino culture, but all the cultures here,” Jimenez said. “It’s also important to embrace that year-round because culture is all around us.”
Shayna Haynes-Heard was also a guest speaker who shared her poetry. In her poetry, she spoke about themes of social justice, human experience and her life story. She also believes that the celebration and expression of cultures and people of color is important for all institutions because even though some cultures may be a minority, they still are a part of the community.
“The least that universities can do is shine the light on our skills, talents history and our truth,” Haynes-Heard said. “We’re here and we are not going anywhere so we might as well embrace it.”
During the event, there was also a small poetry performance from a recent Ferris graduate, Massiel Caldron. Although she has a bachelor’s degree in English and has written many poems before, this was her first time sharing her poetry with a group of people.
She decided to share one of her poems, where she expressed her experience of moving from New York to Michigan. She also gave the audience a physical representation of the differences and changes she made before and after her move.
She showed the difference in her attire for each state and what that meant to her, with New York being tough and straightforward and Michigan being more subtle when it comes to the inequalities she experiences.
“In New York, it was a lot rougher to stick to your identity,” Caldron said. “[In Michigan] it’s more of a soft ignorance.”
Even though she found out about this opportunity on short notice, she is glad that she could be a part of the event and feels that it was very relevant to her story and Hispanic History Month.
Throughout the event, you could hear the crowd clapping and snapping at times when they felt like they resonated with a specific part.
Elizabeth Milan, a sophomore in design, was in the crowd during the event.
Milan loved the event. She felt like the poems shared were impactful and was glad she went. She also feels like people in her culture need to be heard and able to be unified.
“Hearing all the poets say each poem and how they felt when they were writing them helped make their voices heard,” Milan said. “It lets the world know that people of color are amazing no matter what circumstances we go through.”
Biology freshman Anjaleah Barraza also went to the event. She went because she thought that it was important to see people who look like her be able to express themselves.
She believes that when people of color can express themselves through art, it provides a different perceptive to others who are not in that culture. She already loved slam poetry, so she thought that the event was great.
“I think it draws people in a way that people wouldn’t normally be able to be,” Barraza said. “It was really powerful, especially for the people who spoke and were able to use their voices, which is not as common for people like us.”
HLCC will be hosting more events for Hispanic Heritage Month and throughout the year. Their next event for Hispanic Heritage Month will be a Hispanic Film Showcase on Tuesday, Oct. 8 in the Interdisciplinary Resource Center building from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
To keep up with HLCC and their events anyone can follow their Instagram for any updates: @ferrishlcc.