Cody Shepard | Editor-in-Chief
Senior Tea was held on April 10 as part of Arts Week.
Last week brought ENC’s annual Arts Week, which has been around for about 10 years and is held by the library staff. Every year, the library collaborates with a different academic department to make Arts Week a unique experience.
April is poetry month, so this year the library teamed up with the Language, Theatre, and Communication Arts Department to include poetry and the art of writing within Arts Week.
Monday night was “Glimpses of Africa,” which showcased the artwork of alumna Beth Restrick, as well as a facilitated discussion about art and Restrick’s work, which will be hanging up in the first floor of the library all week.
A women’s ministry’s poetry reading was also held on Monday. Although this event was not coordinated through the library, it nonetheless gave students an additional opportunity to celebrate Poetry month and Arts Week.
On Tuesday, another poetry reading coordinated by the library staff featured Professor Kate McCann, who read from her latest book, “Barn Sour.” McCann’s creative writing class was also present, both showing support for McCann’s poetry and also coming to read some work of their own. After the poetry reading, the group discussed the importance of poetry and writing in today’s world.
The Language, Theatre, and Communication Arts Department held its annual Senior Tea event on Wednesday evening. Five seniors from the various majors—including journalism and writing, and literatures in English—presented their senior thesis projects.
A magnetic poetry contest was also held all week on the first floor of the library. A station was set up with magnets in which would-be poets could put together a poem and then submit it into the competition.
The winner, announced Tuesday night, was Liam McCoy, whose poem read:
“Mysteries of art
Immense universes
Elaborate strength
A promise through eternity”
For many, the highlight of Arts Week is the spring play “Fools,” which was performed at 7:30 p.m. in Cove from April 11-13.
Patty Vazquez, who coordinates Arts Week and all the events involved, shared the importance of Arts Week here at ENC.
“There aren’t as many art classes here as there were once,” she said, “So we like to enjoy and encourage students to use their creativity … we like to highlight different talents and artistic things on campus.”
To Vazquez, and much of the student body and staff, Arts Week at ENC is an opportunity to express one’s self in a creative way.
Although nothing is official yet, it looks like next year we can expect the library here at ENC to be teaming up with the Language, Theatre, and Communication Arts Department again and coming up with some great new ideas to encourage students and the community to express themselves through art.