CORRECTION: A previous version of this story did not include the photo caption.
The BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) poetry reading on the Liberal Arts Campus had students out the door to listen to poets in the M-Building on April 15, contrasting the normally low attendance for school events.
Poets Mimi Tempestt and Maestro Gamin stood and recited lines from their original poetry to students, focusing on themes of race, politics and feminism.
“Because I’ve always been a rough and tumble kind of artist, the underground gave birth to me, I’ve never felt like I had to contend with the preconceptions and standards of American poetry,” Tempestt said.
The poets took time to answer questions from students both during the presentation and personally after the event.
The organizers chose to focus on bringing poets who reflected DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) and the campus.
The event was organized by English professors in anticipation of Black Student Success Week, with the acceptance of the equity grant submitted by professors Kirsten Moreno and Angeli Francois, a part of LBCC’s grants that promote equity and students of color.
“It was of the utmost importance we specifically picked out DEIA month to bring the poets, it’s also poetry month,” said Francois.
Superintendent President Mike Munoz said in an email regarding the recent decisions on DEIA in the nation, “As challenges continue to shift around us, we stand firm in our dedication to fostering a welcoming and supportive environment for all.”
“We just were really focused on the inclusivity and intersectionality of Mimi, making sure we had layers of being a queer female writer, and to bring a black male writer where a time Long Beach is saying as a college we are not backing down from these labels, from DEIA,” Francois said.
The poets took time reading from their own work, Tempestt bringing her own book “The Delicacy of Embracing Spirals,” a collection of poetry, social and political critique and playscript.
A lot of the questions asked by students revolved around finding inspiration and overcoming writer’s block.
“When we come and we are all talking about the same problems that affect professional writers, non-professional writers, amateurs, people who just do it, there’s an exchange,” Gamin said.
While normally reciting their poetry to “like-minded” groups at open mics, the difference hit the artists when speaking to the students in the room.
“I feel like the stakes are higher because I’m responsible for engaging with young minds who are curious, more hungry, and really engaged with the work today,” Tempestt said.
“This is very rewarding in a lot of ways,” said poet Gamin, “I feel like all writers have the same problems: being inspired, identity, should I write this, should I not?”