April is National Poetry Month here in the United States, and this year Sinclair is joining in on the festivities. All month long, students and staff have been able to express themselves through the medium of poetry.
Anytime in April, anyone can come to the Sinclair Library and perform Redacted Poetry, which is sometimes referred to as Blackout Poetry. Sinclair Student Success Librarian Julie McDaniel, who has been running this program, further explains the concept:
“Redacted Poetry is when you take any body of text – a page from a book or magazine, memo, website – and read through it to find words or phrases that have meaning for you. Then you cross out everything else usually with a black marker – essentially you are redacting all of the text that you cross out. The words that are left on the page are read in order to create a poem….The poems that are left are hung up on boards near the station for anyone to stop and read.”
The Sinclair Library has set out magazines, books and other media for any students and staff who might be interested in partaking in the writing. This is free whenever the library is open, which is from 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m Monday through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m on Friday and 10 a.m to 3 p.m Saturdays. McDaniel also noted that there are texts available for students in multiple languages. Alongside English, visitors can find works in Spanish, French and Arabic.
Besides Redacted Poetry, Sinclair also held its annual Poem in Your Pocket event on April 20, 2022. Held digitally this year, Poem in Your Pockets sees students and faculty reading poetry, either written by themselves or already existing works. This event was held from 11 a.m to 12 p.m.
National Poetry Month has been a yearly tradition since 1996, where it was founded by the American Academy of Poets. Since then, it has grown tremendously, with corporate sponsors and schools across the country starting their own festivities to celebrate. For any students who might be interested, visit the Sinclair Library now through the end of April to partake in Blackout Poetry.
Alex Cutler
Reporter