Junior Elias Rios reads out the poem he has been working on all night, “Smile”, and receives some snaps and smiles of his own when he is done. More follow in sharing aloud, some even on the spot having not signed up beforehand, getting swept up in the environment.
National English Honor Society’s (NEHS) annual Poetry and Pastry Night provides a place for students to express themselves without fear.
“We had a lot of good feedback last year, and people actually requested us to do a second time because they enjoyed it so much. So we just wanted to bring it back,” said NEHS President Hannah Blonski.
Junior Sarah Pretorius likes freestyle poetry, but she enjoyed engaging in some of the other options offered during the evening.
“[Blackout poetry is] really just to have fun and just so calm, you can just do whatever you want,” Pretorius said. “I really like poetry, and I also write poetry myself, so any events that have poetry in it, I’ll do it.”
Students enjoy the event because it offers a relaxing, non-judgemental environment to work on anything they want.
“It’s a really fun event,” said NEHS member Lily Siple. “It’s just very peaceful and low pressure, and it’s a good way to do something creative without feeling pressure, some sort of need to finish it.”
Students outside of NEHS, like Rios, enjoyed the event as well.
“I’ve been doing [poetry] as a kind of outlet for a lot of what I go through with my days, or to express my opinions on certain things or expressions,” Rios said. “The fact that [some people] can manage to blend words together well is, in itself, already something that I feel takes a lot of refinement.”
NEHS Vice President Kerrigan Philavanh’s older sister Kiersten Philavanh created NEHS at Fossil in 2019.
“She wanted a place for people to bond over community, over their main language, or just ways in literature, which we see every day in school or outside of school,” Philavanh said about her older sister.
Historian Zoe Harmon believes NEHS, along with Poetry and Pastry Night, has helped achieve that.
“[This night] is just a really fun way to connect with literature. A lot of people don’t read, or a lot of people don’t read physical texts. [So] it’s just like a fun way to get hands-on with real literature.”
As the night came to a close, the board thanked their sponsor, Britony Mirowski, for supporting them throughout the year.
“She’s done a lot for us so far, especially for today, just recognizing our sponsorship and all of our support,” Philavanh said. “And I hope that this organization, and especially this tradition, can continue.”
