Poetry Brings Students and Faculty Together
Poetry Nights put me and our professors on the same level. …. we are typically situated at the same table and there isn’t a divide between the students and faculty. I like that we can work collectively to analyze these poems and make sense of them together.
Matthew Bees, EMA Treasurer, has been attending the UCI English Majors Association “Faculty Poetry Night” since Winter 2023. Each quarter, the members of the EMA collectively decide on a topic (recent ones include “Fruit,” “Liminality,” “Touch” and “Immigration”) and then put together a collection of poems that address the topic in some way. On Poetry Night, 20 or 30 people gather to read the poems aloud, talk through them, and figure them out. Just for the fun of it.
Plenty of people resist or fear poetry. The poet Marianne Moore famously wrote a poem called “Poetry” in which she declared, “I, too, dislike it.” The contemporary poet Ben Lerner has written a book called The Hatred of Poetry that explores the widespread resistance to the form, even among people who self-identify as lovers of literature more generally. And yet here at UCI students regularly gather for an evening of reading poetry in the company of English faculty. Just for the fun of it.
The event is casual. Everyone is welcome, regardless of major. No one needs to do any reading in advance. The selected poems are provided on handouts, and there are snacks and drinks. Everyone spends an hour or two discussing the poems, which range from medieval to contemporary, rhymed verse to prose poetry, with a special focus on the inclusion of underrepresented writers. Although there are always a few English professors in the room alongside the students, everyone approaches the poems on an equal footing.
The EMA poetry events date back to the founding of the English Majors Association, eight years ago, in 2015. The main goal in creating the EMA was to give students a way to forge a sense of belonging, as English majors on a campus where students in the Humanities often feel a little marginalized, and to provide a space for them to meet each other outside class time. Hugh Roberts, one of the professors who worked with students to establish the EMA, says:
"It was important for us, from the beginning, to provide opportunities for students to get together with each other and with faculty outside of the context of formal instruction…. As someone who loves and teaches poetry, too, I was hoping that the Poetry Nights would provide a space where we could focus on enjoying the poems together without judgment."
The very first EMA student-faculty poetry event was held on Valentine’s Day, 2015. With typical humor, it featured poems of anti-romance like Bernadette Mayer’s “You Jerk You Didn’t Call Me Up” and Fleur Adcock’s “Advice to a Discarded Lover.” Poetry Nights have happened every quarter since then, including ones held on Zoom during the height of the pandemic. Professor Roberts expresses some surprise at its durability:
"From the outset, it felt like a risky experiment: the students could have felt intimidated by the expertise of the professors in the room, they could have felt put off by poems which are often challenging to understand and which express and arouse strong and sometimes difficult feelings.… I’ve lost count of the students who have told me at graduation that the EMA in general and the poetry events, in particular, are among the things they will remember most fondly from their time at UCI."
Over the years students from all over the campus—including many STEM and Social Sciences students—have dropped into the poetry events, and sometimes become regulars. Everyone is welcome, including UCI alumni and friends and family members of current students. Every year the EMA has made sure that the poetry event continues. In the words of the EMA’s board:
"We get so excited every time the Faculty Poetry Night rolls around! We love seeing new and old faces alike and are so grateful for anyone that comes. We encourage students of all backgrounds to attend because we believe in the pure magic of poetry. One does not need to be a poet or an English major to join in on the discussion; come as you are and we will welcome you with open arms!"
Whether you love poetry or hate it, if you’re a currently enrolled UCI student and have any interest in literature, you should consider joining the English Majors Association. Just for the fun of it.
As a student club the EMA is open to all UCI students regardless of their major. Students can ask to be added to the EMA mailing list by messaging the Instagram account (@emaatuci) or simply by signing up at a regular EMA meeting.