By: Lizzy Jamnik
To start off, I want to say that I loved Writers Week. The thing I most learned through it is that it is important to share your ideas. The way I learned this is twofold: first because of the wonderful performers and second because I performed. To me, Writers Week is more than just a week vacation from English class; it’s experiencing different genres of literature and learning more about your peers than you knew before.
Onto the presenters…
Julie Halpern: She was definitely my favorite writer. She combined important ideas and funny stories in an effective way. I think the most important part of her presentation was that she was so open about her past and her reluctance to change her writing for anyone.
Tuesday Student Presenter: Some were good; some were bad. I’m not about to name names. I will say that the good presenters managed to evoke pathos, or humor, from me. Tomar’s piece about her best friend was fantastic. There were, however, a couple of inappropriate presentations that somewhat ruined the period for me. Without going into too much detail, I can assure you that in no uncertain terms that the last performance crossed the line with the anagram. Perhaps I am biased because that presentation was tied to Varsity Speech Team (which isn’t really set, JV and Varsity people switch all of the time according to openings), but I didn’t like it.
Sierra DeMoulder: She pretty much addressed every possible horrific situation with her poetry. Although that is an overstatement, her poems were about awful things in the world. She used words in her poems to make various points, most of which seemed to have to do with people who ignore the suffering. I wrote down some of the topics she covered (even if only briefly): self-mutilation, bullying, spousal abuse, miscarriage, cancer, eating disorders, school shootings, serial killers, love, death of a child, LGBT prejudice, and several others. As talented as she is, it got to the point where I wanted her to stop so the sadness would end.
Music Day: I had no idea how talented people were. The singers were all amazing, but I wasn’t a fan of either rapper.
Billy Lombardo: Although his work allowed me to reminisce in the days of old when I played baseball, I didn’t particularly like his performance. His poem (I think) about Bridgeport, the town he grew up in, was probably my favorite. I liked the criticism of racism he had and I liked his inclusion of his son in the poem.
All in all, I enjoyed Writers Week 17.