Jericho Brown brings passion and poetry to UML
Last Wednesday afternoon, students, professors, and poetry lovers piled into O’Leary 222 to witness what was one of the most inspirational readings to come to UMass Lowell. Jericho Brown, a respected southern poet, visited our campus and shared his first book, “Please.”
UMass Lowell’s gifted students Giselle Sterling and Matt Hopkins started off the event by reading some of their very own poetry, and they blew the crowd away. Both of them had intriguing and interesting work, and though it was both of their first time reading poetry at an event, they were professional and enthusiastic. Brown took the stage after them and said “You’re going to make me follow those two? That’s no way to treat a guest,” and laughed his contagious laugh.
The outcome of the event was impressive.
“There were over 170 people at Jericho Brown’s reading, and yet he made it feel like an intimate event. Despite the poignant, sometimes painful content of his poems, the afternoon was a celebration. It was a great reminder that poetry remains a living force, even in a rather unpoetic world,” said Julie Nash.
The topics of Brown’s poetry range from his experiences as an abused child to Janis Joplin. He creates poetry that forces you to feel what he is feeling. Though he laughs and jokes in normal conversation, he is in a whole new zone once he begins to read his poetry. His strong personality brought out the beauty in each poem, and the audience was in a trance.
Julie Nash says”Jericho Brown is an important voice in American literature, and we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to see him perform his works and discuss his influences. His generosity and good-humor came through during the long question and answer period as he encouraged students to pursue their dreams by working hard and surrounding themselves with supportive people.”
At the end of his reading, Brown answered questions from the audience, and his uniqueness truly showed through. He spoke about his past experiences, such as sitting in the library as a child and reading for hours upon end and learning new things from the books. From a young age, he knew he wanted to be a poet. Though he did not consider himself to be a poet until he was about 24 years old, Brown said that he does not remember ever not writing, With his whole life worth of practice and a long lifetime ahead of him, Brown is bound to produce more moving, deep poetry and will continue to please crowds across the country.
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