By Michael Cutler
Students spent Wednesday night vocalizing poetry about the human body in a Terpoets event.
The Ulrich Recital Hall in Tawes Hall was silent except for the sounds of snapping as students applauded those who went up to the stage to express their poetry during Love Your Body Week.
This is the first event on a new stage since Milkboy ArtHouse closed. The atmosphere was very chill and welcoming as students would wander into their seats over time.
“I like the theater kind of vibe,” The president of Terpoets, Ambi Narula, a senior journalism major and creative writing minor said.
Told from their website, “Terpoets seeks to create a space for free and open expression, as well as necessary cross-cultural dialogue.” The Terpoets host meetings in Queen Anne’s Hall every Monday at 8 p.m.
A member of the organization, Sara Fredrick, an astronomy graduate student, talked about how the group is “improving our poetry. Getting together to talk about ideas and writing around the prompt kind of puts us all on even footing and we just kind of write something spur of the moment and talk about what inspired us to write that.”
Narula opened up the stage with one of her poems she wrote for the TOTUS course, a credit-experience that has the main goal of understanding social justice through poetry. Narula expressed her own struggles with the color of her skin in her poem.
“We don’t typically do themes so I think this is a little different for me. I think that’s something to get out of my comfort zone,” Narula said. “This is a safe space.”
Char Freedberg then took the stage and said a monologue about her mind. The monologue displayed deep emotions and stories of her life as she showed the audience how strong she was and how everyone should “try to find a way to cope” with the daily struggles of life. The room was silent as Frederick spoke with such emotion that she did not allow herself time to breathe in between her words.
“It’s therapeutic to scream into a microphone,” Char Freedberg said while talking about how she does voice acting as a way to express herself.
Other students took to the stage such as Matt Herskovitz, a sophomore English and government and politics major, who read his own poem.
“The sun rises to its peak at the house across the street. There’s milk in the kitchen, kids playing basketball,” he began with his poem.
The event was co-sponsored by the University of Maryland Counseling Center.
“The promotion really was about the fact that the Counseling Center is available just for whatever their concerns are,” Dr. Kimberly Y. Campbell said.
The Counseling Center Staff Psychologist Campbell passed out refrigerator magnets to everyone who attended the event which contained self-care tips such as nourishing yourself daily, getting some rest, and expressing yourself.
“The promotion is just to remind students of the service that the university has at their disposal,” Campbell said.
Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of Cameryn DeLuca.
Michael Cutler is a journalism major and can be reached at mjcutman42@gmail.com.
