Lit Night is Back, Read Your Literature for a Live

Audience

The Creative Writing department encourages students to participate.

By Emma Pratt espratt8@mail.ccsf.edu

City College’s Creative Writing program hosted its first semester-long monthly Lit Night on Feb. 13. Readers and listeners alike gathered at the Ocean Ale House to sip on brews and enjoy poetry, fiction, and nonfiction literature, delivered verbally from author to audience.

“It’s a lowkey event, close to campus, anybody can come and read. There’s food and drink, and it’s a way to kind of extend what we do in the classroom in a very kind of non-structured, loose way, so that’s what it’s about for us,” said John Isles, an instructor in the English department.

The night saw 10 readers take the stage. Some came with printed scripts and others decided on the spot to handle the mic.

“I’ve read here before, usually something very carefully prepared, although I’m always somewhat spontaneous because I think that’s the only way you develop a report with your audience. I think it’s important they think about what you’re saying,” said Lyman Dave Roberts, a former City College film student.

No readers at the event were City College students, however, creative writing instructors encourage students to participate in future Spring 2023 Lit Night’s.

“This was the first reading of the semester. Usually, the first readings are a little quieter than later ones because we have to build up some steam. Honestly, I was hoping for more creative writing classes to show up tonight and so we’re going to really push to have more of the students come for next time,” said Isles.

In the past, Lit Night has been themed - Rreaders were expected to explore topics such as guilt, redemption, and betrayal. This semester, things are different. “In the past we have had themes but we decided to begin not to have themes just because we wanted to get the ball rolling and see what happens. We don’t have plans yet to have themes,” said Isles. “That could change depending on what people really want to do.”

If you don’t want to be tied down to a theme, this semester is the time to read. Plus, “It’s a really easy crowd to read for,” said Susana Ferrer, a regular at Ocean Ale House.

Lit Night will be hosted every second Monday of the month during the Spring 2023 semester from 7-8:30 pm. Ocean Ale House opens its doors especially for the event and it's only a seven-minute walk from campus.

For more details, email English department member Chanté McCormick , or explore the Lit Night website at litnight.org.

Interdisciplinary Studies Poetry for the People Increasing Enrollment in College

City College’s Poetry for the People class of the Interdisciplinary Studies department reaps civic engagement through nightstand of poetry inspired by “Little Free Libraries.”

By Lolie Mahe Mahelolie@gmail.com

City College’s Poetry for the People course has found its spotlight in the bustling city of San Francisco encouraging residents to enroll and begin writing poetry.

Amanda Barrows, a student of Poetry for the People, placed a nightstand in parks of San Francisco intended for bringing poetry to the community in a creative way, as mentioned by Sydney Page of the Washington Post.

The nightstand consists of a drawer full of poems on one side and blank pieces of paper and pens on the other, with the written instructions, “Take a poem, leave a poem.”

The Poetry for the People course is available under the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at City College because of Lauren Muller, treasured Poetry for the People instructor and IDST chair of department who CCSF lost to cancer this past month.

The idea of Poetry for the People came from one of Muller’s best friends, Leslie Simon, who in 1974 drew inspiration after visiting Mexico and seeing “Art for the People.” Simon wrote an article and decided to deliver “Poetry for the People” to Bay Area colleges, “But we didn’t get enough people for the class. We needed like 25 people, maybe 15 or something like that.”, said Simon. Glenn Nance, who is the chair of African American Studies, wound up with the article on his desk which he liked a lot and he and some students pushed it through; as Nance was on the curriculum committee.

“So we offered two sections one day and one night, long story short, we got 28 people, we got plenty of people, and it was a great success.”

However, City College had only offered the course from 1975 to 1984. It was not until 15 years later that the IDST department chair at the time, Abdul Jabbar, asked Simon about Poetry for the People, as UC Berkeley began offering the same course meaning CCSF would be able to offer UC/CSU transferable credits with Poetry for the People.

Simon was employed in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department while doing part-time in English until she went on to become full-time in Women’s Gender Studies as chair.

Muller and Simon first connected in the Spring of 1990 at the English department of UC Berkeley where they became friends. Because of Simon’s workload as chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies, Simon asked Muller to teach one class of Poetry for the People.

“ She joked about it because she said, ‘Beware of Leslie Simon. She’ll say, you just have to teach us one class… And the next thing, you’re living at City College.’

Muller began teaching in 2000 before becoming the department chair in 2002. “Over 20 years, she chaired the department, and she grew it.”

The IDST department of City College offers, African American Studies, Latin American Studies, Asian American Studies, Labor Studies courses on racism, classism, sexism, transphobia, ageism, design, trauma prevention and recovery, Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies, Middle East Studies, all very committed to civic engagement.”

Simon mentions how there is a whole series of diversity in the IDST department, with a number of certificates available, “which Lauren was very instrumental in getting launched.”“In the ethics, science, and social justice classes, we have a lot of community oriented classes. For example, in Women’s and Gender Studies, I founded Project Survive It’s a sexual violence prevention program where students get trained to help end sexual violence.”

“These are all housed in Interdisciplinary Studies to kind of incubate programs that are not big enough to be their own department yet; it’s kind of an incubator, innovator.”

Poetry for the People of City College can be found on Instagram @ccsf_p4p.