By Betsy Carreño
This semester marked the first poetry salon hosted at Dominican that was open to faculty and staff. Beginning from 2024, previous poetry salons were student only spaces.
The intent of this was for students to have a place to share their art in the contemplation room without feeling nervous about sharing it in front of faculty or staff.
Senior Sofia Alessandri, who hosted and led the salon, emphasized the importance of having a space dedicated for students to explore their creativity.
“These types of things are unique to the college experience,” she said. “This the time you can experiment and try new things and see what your peers are up to.”
Alessandri explained that her past poetry salons were student only spaces to encourage students to break from their shell and share a story, poem, song, etc. that was an original.
She also encourages students to share art from others that they might have come across.
Once a poetry salon is announced, flyers of an iconic rat drawing appear around the halls, and the English department posts announcements of the upcoming salon on their social media.
“I’ve come to every single poetry salon that Sophia has ever put on,” says student Io Curtin. “Some of them have had more people, some of them have had less people, but they’ve all been fantastic. I really appreciate a student led space where we can voice artistically [and] we can speak freely.”
Alessandri’s goal with hosting the poetry salons is to get people to feel pleased within themselves and their writing.
“I hope that people will be proud of themselves for their own writing and that people feel peaceful when they leave,” she explained. “Hearing other people read their stuff always makes me feel peaceful and I hope that people feel like they actually experienced something real.”
Dr. Sheila Bauer-Gatsos, chair of the English Department, loved “hearing students share their work or share poems that are meaningful to them.”
“This is the first salon I’ve been at, so it was a great opportunity to experience it with the students,” she said. “Even though normally faculty try to let this be a student only space, this time we were allowed to come, so I was kind of thrilled about that.”
Alessandri is also open to conversations regarding future ideas of events or functions.
“If anyone has any great ideas for the English department, I’m all ears,” she said. “If anyone has any ideas in the world, join a club and do it because it’s fun.”
Alessandri usually attempts to host around three poetry salons per semester and encourages other students to attend future salons on campus.
“Going somewhere and seeing someone read their own work just really feeds your soul, not be corny or hippie,” she explained. “It’s just such a powerful experience and makes me feel so peaceful and connected to everybody.”
