Open Your Ears & Mind.

Honestly I never knew about the English conference that was held at IUP until Justus had brought it up in class. It was interesting to attend a one hour sharing of pieces that students had written. I had attended one that was from 10:10 till 11:00 on Wednesday in room 218, where three students read aloud their pieces. The first girl had written a story called “My Sanctuary” which was from what I had understood was a true story of where she grew up. The story was very interesting because it took a full circle from explaining how her mother was ashamed of their living arrangements, but for the writer she had always seen their home as part of the love, enrichment and in essence a part of who she was. In the end the overall story had to say to the audience that we should appreciate what we have and little things matter because life is what you make it.
The next short story was called “Belvedere’s Shaking Hand”, this story was very descriptive, ironic and quirky. At first I wasn't quite sure what it was about, but eventually you could understand where the story was going. It soon dawned on me that this short story was about a previous tenant in the room that the girl reading had moved into within the past year, and all of the things that were referred to in the story were things he had left behind. The story was interesting because she had made a whole person and personality that had gone along with all of these left behind items. It was neat to think that such a simple concept had grown into a mystifying story. In the end most people do make assumptions of the type of people who were there before when certain items are left behind.
Third to read was a boy who read a poem titled “Dead Sea” which ended up being about 3 or 4 pages long, he informed us later that this piece was a small part of a bigger piece. I had spoken to him before he was ushered to the front of the room, and insisted that he was nervous, but really once he read the poem it was so powerful and no trace of nervousness. The poem was a speech that a man was giving partly to relate to the theme and ideas that run throughout the novel 1984. If you had read the novel before you could totally understand exactly what was going on throughout the poem.
Lastly the first girl to read filled in for an absent student and began to read another story that I’m guessing was real. I can’t recall the title, I’m not quite sure if it had one, but it was journey of this young woman who was in love, but at the beginning there were quite a few clues to her being pregnant. Eventually it was brought up so that the audience knew for sure what was happening; it told of the growth of love between the two main characters until the day she had a miscarriage. This event changed everything for the two love birds, and skips to the future where they don’t end up together and nothing seemed to ever be the same. The end of the piece left you hanging and basically with the idea that she needed to heal, but nothing more was told.
I think that this was a good experience to listen to students that are putting their work out there to be heard. I liked that fact that this particular panel was very different in their stories and demeanor because it made things more interesting and diverse.