December 4 was the last of the English Majors and Minors’ Club open mics for the semester.
Anyone reading political poetry and prose was considered for the writing contest. This excludes anyone within the English Majors and Minors Club, as it was decided that members would not be eligible for participation.
There were three winners and each were given prizes.
The first prize was to participate in a poetry workshop and the other two prizes were gift cards to the Long Beach City College bookstore.
“I think we had 28 participants, maybe about half participated. It was really good, really successful, ” English Club president Matthew Jacobs said.
“I was worried we were going to run out of readers…But we wound up going for the entire hour and a half…it went pretty smoothly,” he said.
Regarding the contest’s participants, Jacobs said, “Both of Aakifah’s poems were really outstanding. Vicki Whipple read a prose story about immigration and she always knocks it out of the park. She always brings something that is emotionally charged and really well-executed.”
“Everyone seemed very surprised and delighted that they were picked,” he said.
Aakifah Aboobakar won second place in the poetry contest.
“I think they had an open mic for Halloween, I attended that one, I did not perform, I was just watching. I’ve gone to a few workshops on Zoom for mental health and stuff like that,” Aboobakar said.
Aboobakar studies early childhood education, and hopes to either be an elementary teacher or an English teacher.
“I’m actually from the U.K. I moved here about two years ago. I did a lot of poetry stuff in England and won a lot of competitions there. I did a couple of other things too. But since moving here, I hadn’t really gone back into poetry and writing. So when I saw the open mics, I signed up for it.”
Energized by the experience, she said, “It felt really good to be back. I hadn’t performed in a really long time. I’m usually quite shy and reserved, but when I’m performing I’m just a different person. So it was really good to get back into the swing of that. Everyone was really nice and welcoming.”
When asked if she would be back for future open mics, she said, “I definitely will be.”
Jacobs offered insight into the plans for the coming semester and how things will change compared to the fall.
“We have a couple things planned (for next semester). We are going to try and apply for a grant and see if local writers could come and talk to the creative writing students about publishing options. It’s an area of concern and many ask about getting published. It would be helpful for students unsure how to go about being published. (We) are also pushing for a Slam Poetry event. We are also thinking of a Film and Fiction event where we discuss a movie’s literary influences, Shakespeare comes to mind. We have a lot of exciting plans for next semester.”
For more regarding the English Club and Department, the English Club has an Instagram: @emmclublbcc and website for the English Department: www.creativewritinglbcc.org