Large turnout at relationship-focused poetry night

The Association of Black Collegians hosted its first annual poetry event, Silver Elements of Relationships, at 7 p.m. on April 16 in the Southeast Missouri State University Center's Ballroom B.

"The poetry night was a great success," ABC president Siera Tellis said. "It was really great to hear the different perspectives of relationships, especially from the men in the show."

Poet and emcee Brandon Thornton, stage name Xplicit, opened the show by introducing the Southeast student poets. Each performed an original piece before Thornton took to the stage. He started out with short, humorous poems inspired by Twitter before launching into his full-length poetry. He was followed by another round of student poets.

"Tonight was excellent," Thornton said. "The students did an awesome job and ABC did a good job of hosting the event. They truly created the perfect poetry setting."

Thornton is a math professor turned full-time poet. He has been reciting original poetry for five years.

"All of my poetry comes from personal experiences, my imagination, how I want things to be and from experiences of the people I'm surrounded with," Thornton said. "When performing poetry, I always want to be relatable, so I try to reach my audience where they are."

Thornton's performance included poetry about living in a dorm, his mother, daughter and previous relationships.

"Tonight's topic was relationships, so I definitely tried to give the audience a wide variety of relationships that they could not only relate to, but hopefully also learn something new," Thornton said. "I choose to make educating fun."

"We will definitely be turning this into an annual event," Tellis said. "I think the campus takes a liking to poetry events, but with the specific topic [of relationships], that just tugged on their interest even more."

Some Southeast poets included Adam Hopkins, Candace Rice, Rakeda Akasha, Stephanie Lott, Troy Smith and Halston Hutchison, stage name Nina Mackenzie. About 100 audience members were in attendance.

"I thought it was great," Southeast sophomore Chauncey Warren said. "I enjoyed the event all around. I loved the students and the guest speaker because the things that they said in their poems actually related to me and situations I have been in."