In its last few installments, Woodbridge’s poetry night (a production of the Outreach Committee) has been a place where people come to read aloud some of their favorite poetry in a language of their choosing and both original and published works have been recited.
This semester, the Outreach committee tried something different by inviting Henri Cole* (a renowned poet and visiting faculty member) and his poetry workshop class to the event. Henri brought his own poems to the reading and in the perfect international spin, read them along with translations in numerous languages. Along with the reading, there was also very interesting discussions on the implications of translating poetry in languages foreign to the poet and the more general process of editing and publishing poetic works. Adams Upper Common Room, with its gold-paneled walls and ornate, old fireplace was the perfect setting for this cozy evening. Perhaps the most linguistically diverse Poetry night Woodbridge has hosted this far, there were readings from works in English, French, Spanish, Latin, German, Sanskrit, Hindi and Chinese. Bolstered by the tea and conversation, many who had earlier been prepared to read already published works were emboldened to read original works aloud to the appreciative audience. The event succeeded not only in being a great poetry reading session, but also in being a very informative and novel study break!

*For more information on Henri Cole please visit http://henricole.com/