Recently, Floral Park Memorial’s Trumpet Club hosted its annual Poetry Cafe. Guest speaker, Alan Semerdijan, attended and performed music and poetry for the students. The annual café is held to provide an opportunity for students to share their poetry and become more comfortable expressing themselves in front of an audience.
After talking to the club’s editor, Aniquah Biswas, she was able to describe the different kinds of poetry shared and the overall environment of the event. As editor, Aniquah has the role of helping select the theme for the club‘s annual magazine, and she’s tasked with gathering content from students to submit to the magazine. She explained how the event is extremely important to the club because it allows their writers to share their passion and art with others. The overall environment at the cafe is very creative and non-judgemental. Additionally, when asked why expression through art and poetry is so important, Biswas replied that it’s something anyone can use to relieve stress and express hard to describe emotions. The aspect of individuality that comes with art and poetry is also vital because it allows for customization with no pressure to meet a specific standard.
This was Alan Semerdijan’s second Poetry Cafe at FPM as a guest speaker. He is the Nassau County Poet Laureate, which means he was chosen by the Nassau County Poetry Society to help compose poems for events throughout the county. He encourages the art of poetry in the new generation, and has been recognized internationally with two Pushcart Prize Nominations and a Frontier New Poets Award. At the cafe, he performed a song called “Miko’s Song”, which he wrote for his son. The song described their experience while they were living in the city before they moved. Being a musician, Semerdijan has been able to use music as an output for his poetry.
Overall, the event was successful with a turnout of around 45 students all coming to share their poetry or listen to others. The audience enjoyed the poetry along with snacks, music, and games. While the club was thrilled with the success of this year’s cafe, the only changes they would make for next year included selecting another Poet Laureate to share new wisdom, experience, and art insight as well as finding a way to ensure an even larger turnout.
The Trumpet’s theme for this year‘s magazine is Tapestry of Time: Written In The Stars. Their goal is to get more art submissions than last year and hopefully win awards for the magazine. The theme was chosen because it revolves around perception and how individuals perceive the world around us as well as their lives. The club worked off of ideas of space, time, illusions, perception, and more. They wanted to incorporate all of them into one theme, which they did, with Tapestry of Time. If any students are interested in making a submission or learning more about the club, listen to the daily announcements for updates and contact the club advisor, Ms. Poulos, to learn more.
