students in certain creative writing classes at clarion university wrote academic responses to me taking the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county to the western pennsylvania campus in the final week of april. therese holzapfel offered her assignment to share as a way to show how this poetry project's efforts impacted her as a student in the english department and the co-editor of the campus literary and artistic journal which i managed in my time there, too.
Jennifer Hetrick Reading Review
By Therese Holzapfel (pictured above at a Tobeco open mic)
On Thursday, April 28th from 6:00 to 8:00pm, I attended a poetry reading and open mic at Michelle’s Café featuring Jennifer Hetrick as the visiting poet. Hetrick is the author of the labors of our fingertips, the first of a three-volume project that collects the stories of senior citizens who worked in mills or factories in the past. Hetrick uses the stories as inspiration for her poems, several of which she read at the open mic. The event also included readings from several different students of Clarion University, as well as poetry from one faculty member, Dr. Melissa Downes.
For me, Hetrick’s poetry stood out from the rest of the visiting writers’ works this year because it had such a strong narrative element. Obviously, other writers we have studied in class have told stories through their poems, but Hetrick’s works are deliberately centered on sharing the senior citizens’ stories. I think that that is an impressive blending of two different genres because Hetrick tells interesting narratives while still using the form of poetry, which is difficult as she needs to choose the most powerful and significant details of a story to put into a poetic form.
I also really admire Hetrick’s dedication to this project. In classes and at the open mic she explained every poem that she read, her method of gathering the stories, and her writing process to actually create the poems, all of which reveal the effort she has expended for her craft. I was also glad to see that Hetrick really seems to care about the people who inspire her poems and that they are so involved in her writing process. Hetrick’s commitment to her books and to the people who have inspired her poems was evident when she spoke about them and in the time she has put into “the labors of our fingertips” project. I think that it’s very important for writers to understand the level of time and energy that must be put into writing, whether it’s poetry, prose, critical, or any other type of writing, in order to develop it to the best level it can attain.
The students who read at the open mic also presented impressive work, and it was really enjoyable to hear them read. One student read his poem, “The Checklist of an African American,” while another performed a slam piece about prejudice in our society today. I thought it was fascinating that both of these poems focused on a similar topic, but did so in completely different ways. There were also very strong examples of prose works at the open mic. For instance, a junior read her piece “Interwoven Fabrics,” and a freshman read her short story “The Customer is Always Right.” Both are pieces that were published in the 2015-2016 edition of the Tobeco Literary & Arts Journal. I read both of these pieces while selecting submissions to put in this year’s journal and was impressed with both; however, it was really great to hear them aloud and get a better sense of the writers’ voices.
Attending this open mic night gave me the opportunity to learn more about the craft of writing, not only from Jennifer Hetrick but from my fellow students as well. Hetrick’s poetry is an example for me of how to choose the best details to place in a work, whether it is prose or poetry, as well as how to integrate those details so that they are as effective as possible. Listening to the students’ pieces also emphasized the significance of finding one’s own style and voice, as each writer presented a work that was completely unique to him or her.
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