Just hours before the main event with Diaz and Joudah, students had the opportunity to join a conversation facilitated by Professor Moriel Rothman-Zecher. In this more personal setting, Diaz and Joudah discussed the craft of writing and offered 2 prompts for students to try. Diaz asked students to look up a word in the dictionary and compose a poem pivoting on that word, and Joudah invited students to first notice and then write about someone else’s feelings or actions.

The evening event moderated by Professor Sangina Patnaik, titled, “‘You will be when we be’: Poetry, Survival, Settler Colonialism: A Reading and Conversation,” brought together students, faculty, and community members for an evening of poetry and discussion.