Unearth Your Inner Artist

The process of writing allows individuals to express everyday interactions, future aspirations, and inner views and make them tangible. It gives allows the writer to escape from the hectic world outside of the mind and zone into their thoughts. Plymouth has a wealth of dreamers, writers, and rhymesters. That's why Poets and Writers is here to pave the path of our future authors. 

PSU Poets and Writers, a student-based organization opens the door to the literary world for ambitious writers to express passion through the creativity within words. It's an organization open to writers of all kinds and allows participants to express themselves not just simply with words on paper but also host Open Mics and Poetry Slams several times throughout the academic year, helping bring together Plymouth's campus and community.

Open Mic nights brings out many artists and gives them an opportunity to get their voices heard, to read their work aloud to a supportive sea of people who are riding the same wave to success. This event, hosted on and around campus offers an optimistic atmosphere for everyone to feel comfortable reading his or her work. 

Poetry Slams on the other hands sets the bar high for creativity, turning poetry into a competition. Experienced poets are welcome to join Poetry Slam events. Each poet competes for the 'winning' title and in order to hold that title, the audacity of the poet and their work has to hold spunk, edginess, and characteristics that baffle the audience. Poetry Slams challenge artists with a fast paced reading and performance to impress their audience and judges. These events hold an ambiance that's hard to find elsewhere, the supportive sways and cheers of the crowd tells the artist in the spotlight they are appreciated.

Students at Plymouth State University take advantages of the events Poets and Writer's has to offer and are eager to get their work heard. "It's a really nice community of poets that just make you feel really comfortable. Everyone is very open and makes you feel welcome. Everyone has their own story and everyone is eager to hear other people's stories. It's a really wonderful and free space, but it's also got that nice bit of a competitive undertone of everyone looking at different poets and going "shit I wish I wrote that," said Dan Bosco, a Senior English Major and avid writer who attends many Open Mics.  

Another PSU student, Hayden Leith, Junior, Creative Writing Minor "always starts with a shot of whiskey." 

"I try not to take myself too seriously...then I produce what I really feel. The trick in my writing process is to forget I am writing, that's when I am most honest. I've learned that in my writing style, which is mainly free verse, its important to forget my audience when I am writing. So I am free to do what I want instead of judging if the people will approve," said Leith. 

As for Open Mics, "[They] are what initially inspired me to continue writing, seeing the passion others have for writing and the community I could be a part of was refreshing and made me feel more inspired. Finding my voice was what made open mics important to me, because I feel that my free verse poetry is meant to be heard by people, and in this way I am able to portray my writings in their real emotion. This gives me a lot of confidence in writing, editing, peer reviews. etc, because each and every one of the open mic readers are also striving to improve, like myself," said Leith.

Poets and Writers also intricately weave the pieces together as one and presents the final works of skill in Centripetal, the literary and art magazine of Plymouth State University. This student-run publishing features poetry of any length and style, micro-fiction, prose, graphic fiction, and art and photography. All students, staff, faculty, and alumni are welcome to submit their work to this publishing throughout the academic year. Once Centripetal is published, copies are available for everyone. 

Everyone has an inner light of creativity in them and those skills are expressed in many different ways. Poets and Writers, Open Mic nights, Poetry Slams, and Centripetal allow fellow PSU artists' to share what makes them proud because it's their work that makes them who they are.