Safia Elhillo Delivers Sharp, Candid Poetry Performance
Ananya Gupta, Arts and Culture Editor
September 15, 2017
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry
“As usual, I was thinking about race; I wrote a poem.” said Sudanese-American performance poet Safia Elhillo as she delivered her sassy wit in a soothing voice last Friday at the Cat in the Cream. Author of the full-length poetry collection The January Children, Elhillo is an acclaimed slam poet who ...
Second-Person Prevails in Pagel’s Occult, Political Poetry
Julia Peterson, Production editor
May 5, 2017
Filed under ARTS, Features, Literature & Poetry
There is something haunting about Caryl Pagel’s poetry — and it’s not just the gravestones that frequently appear in her work. Pagel’s writing is heavily steeped in the occult and references to Gothic literature, which she weaves into poetry that is both lyrical and feminist. In addition to h...
Poetry Picks
Izzy Rosenstein, This Week editor
April 14, 2017
Filed under THIS WEEK
https://issuu.com/theoberlinreview/docs/4.14.2017_final/8
Intersectional Comedian D’Lo Brings Variety Show to Oberlin
Daniel Markus, Arts editor
February 24, 2017
Filed under ARTS, Features, Literature & Poetry, Recent Stories
A unique blend of stand-up comedy, poetry and storytelling awaits guests at the Cat in the Cream Sunday as actor and comedian D’Lo brings his touring variety show, D’FaQTo Life (pronounced “de facto”) to Oberlin. The show will be his first in Oberlin since 2013, when he performed as part of Co...
Slow Train Hosts Romantic Annual Multilingual Poetry Event
February 17, 2017
Filed under ARTS, Features, Literature & Poetry
Some say that love is a universal language. This idea was explored Monday evening at Love in Many Tongues, a multilingual poetry reading at Slow Train Cafe. The Oberlin Center for Languages and Cultures organizes Love in Many Tongues each year as a way to promote the dozen languages offered at Oberli...
Fang First Femme of Color to Win Howell Poetry Prize
Louise Edwards, Arts Editor
May 6, 2016
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry
College senior Dana Fang won this year’s annual Emma Howell Memorial Poetry Contest, awarded by Oberlin’s Creative Writing department. Fang is both the first femme of color and the first Asian-American poet to win the prize, which honors Creative Writing and Comparative Literature major Emma Howell,...
Nautical Poetry Tells Tale of Hurricane Sandy
Matías Berretta, Staff Writer
April 1, 2016
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry
Chair of the Creative Writing Program Kazim Ali began a poetry reading by Margaret Ross and Robin Beth Schaer on March 10 by asking those in attendance if they recognized the metrical pattern of the radiator’s rhythmic banging — a trochaic beat. This was a fitting observation, as both Ross and S...
Multimedia Poet Taps into Subconscious Realms
Matías Berretta, Staff Writer
March 11, 2016
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry, Recent Stories
Poetry has long existed as a multimedia art form. Homeric poems, for example, used to be performed with musical accompaniment. The relationship between poetry and other art forms was evident last Thursday in Dye Lecture Hall when New York-based performance poet Adeena Karasick wowed the students present...
Smith’s Poetry a Bible Verse, Queer Anthem
Louise Edwards, Arts Editor
March 11, 2016
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry
Slam Poet Danez Smith, hailing from St. Paul, MN, opened their performance at the Cat in the Cream Saturday with “Genesissy,” a piece that was part Bible verse, part hymn and part queer anthem. They balanced humorous lines like, “And on the tenth day, God wore a blood-red sequin body suit, dropped...
Poetry Promotes Honesty, Reveals Feelings
CJ Blair, Columnist
February 26, 2016
“Poetry is more than just words in a strange order, CJ.” These were the words of my uncle, a well-known poet in my hometown, after reading my earliest attempts at poetry. I had written a handful of poems in high school but didn’t start writing in earnest until I decided to try and enter Oberli...
OSLAM Switches Focus with Love-Centric Slam
February 19, 2016
Filed under ARTS, Literature & Poetry
The night before Valentine’s Day, the Cat in the Cream filled with excited OSLAM fans. The large audience spilled onto the floor; friends huddled in from the cold with coffee and cookies. OSLAM is best known for its gripping political and emotional poetry, but the group’s Feb. 13 performance focused...
WITS Poetry Residencies Expand
Louise Edwards, Arts Editor
December 4, 2015
Filed under ARTS, Features, Literature & Poetry, Recent Stories
Seventh-grader Leo Carter read his poem “Sequoia Trees” at the Langston Middle School poetry reading and book launch at the Cat in the Cream Monday. “So tall, it looks like they could / shishkabob the sky. So wide, / the shadow is like an eclipse / over the ground,” Carter read. His poem, part...
