Around 40 people packed the Whitebone lounge on Thursday night for the first ever Vox- Lorenzo coffee house.
“There were people at every table really enjoying it,” says organizer Allison Hughes.
8 different poets presented their work with contributors from both the community and the university reciting and performing. The night ended with featured guest, Shannon Webb-Campbell, hailing from St John’s, reading from her book Still No Word.
Student Kyle Roberts read from a short story titled Male Hysteria; a satirical commentary on anti-feminism. Laughter filled the room as Roberts read aloud, entertaining the laid back audience with explanations of his dystopian “diswomantling of society”.
One of the highlights of the performances included a dynamic reading by Chris Wanamaker, reading an original poem about the Lorenzo society itself If I had a name like Lorenzo.
The humorous and rhythmic recital elicited laughs and smiles from the crowd, leaving them wondering more about who Lorenzo was, why the society was named after him, and perhaps, if they had such a great name, what could be accomplished.
The guest of the night, Webb-Campbell was very generous to the crowd, reading many of her works, as well as explaining some of the stories about the people and events behind them. She read from Still No Word, a publication of her own original poetry.
“One night I snuck out and followed the fiction writers,” she joked with the crowd, talking about an experience at an internship she was attending in British Columbia which led to one of the poems in her book.
Webb-Campbell’s work has a quiet quality to it, hushing the room and drawing the listener into the work itself. The imagery is vivid yet fluid, graciously allowing the listener to let imagination run without restraint.
Vox is a publication of the Lorenzo Society and is UNB Saint John’s student arts annual.
The Lorenzo Reading Series is put on by the Lorenzo society. 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, Sean Michaels, is the next instalment in the series and will be reading from his book Us Conductors. Sean Michaels is a Canadian novelist, blogger and music critic and will be reading on March 24 at 7 pm in the Ganong Lecture Theatre.
