The Oberlin Review

The Cat in the Cream was packed on Monday night, as middle schoolers, family members and Oberlin students gathered to hear Langston Middle School students read poetry from anthologies of their work. The subject matter ran the gamut, touching on times they felt powerful, people that are important to them, advice they don’t like to hear, and their relationships with their hometowns, among other sources of inspiration.
This work came out of seven-day residencies in the middle school Language Arts classes, taught by college students through the Writers in the Schools Program. This program, directed by Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing Lynn Powell, is the focus of her Teaching Imaginative Writing course. College students compiled the culminating anthologies of middle school poetry, will be on shelves at the school and the Oberlin Public Library.
“I preach to my Oberlin students that to teach well you must prepare yourself as well as you can, and then go have an authentic conversation with your students,” Powell wrote in an email to the Review. “Staying curious and learning together is what keeps both teaching and poetry alive.”
College third-year Elmo Tumbokon participated in the class last year, and taught again as a practicum this fall.
“If you’ve heard the poems that eighth-graders read, it’s literally the most profound thing in the world,” said Tumbokon. “And [to help] kids have access to poetry over and over again, and all I have to do is volunteer my time. … It means the world to me.”
Another student teacher, College fourth-year Jack McMillin, participated in WITS when he was a student at Langston Middle School. In his final year at the College, he’s come full circle with the program.
“As a middle school student, the program was such a joy because it allowed me to think imaginatively in a school setting,” McMillin wrote in an email to the Review. “For me, it’s early chances like the poetry [residency] where I could play around and experiment with my voice that made writing a liberating world, and the more this expanded during my time at Oberlin, the more I wanted to pursue creative writing.”

Middle School Students Celebrate Poetic Accomplishments

December 6, 2019

Professor of Hispanic Studies Ana Cara, Amanda Dargan, and Steve Zeitlin.

Ana Cara, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Amanda Dargan, Steve Zeitlin, “In the Moment” Co-directors

November 15, 2019

Steve Zeitlin and Amanda Dargan directed In the Moment: Poetry Duels and Improvisations from Around the World, a documentary film that screened on campus last Tuesday. Professor of Hispanic Studies Ana Cara sponsored the screening. The film, spanning a 20-year body of work, explores different histories and traditions of poetic improvisation around the world. All three have Ph.D.s in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. Zeitlin and Dargan are the respective Founding Director and Education P...

German Department Celebrates 50-Year Anniversary

November 8, 2019

Visiting German Writer-in-Residence Nora Gomringer gave a public reading of her book Hydra’s Heads on Thursday, Nov. 7, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Max Kade German Writer-in-Residence Program’s partnership with Oberlin College. The book, released in 2018, contains the first official English translation of her poetry. The publisher, Burning Eye Books, describes the book as “poems about the darker times of Germany’s modern history, reworkings of myths and fairytales and a...

Alyesha Wise shared her poetry at the Cat in the Cream last Sunday as part of programming sponsored by OSlam and the SIC.

Poet Alyesha Wise Performs at Cat in the Cream

March 15, 2019

Students jumped to their feet at the end of Alyesha Wise’s performance last Sunday night at the Cat in the Cream. Wise’s work as a poet and teaching artist has taken her from her hometown of Camden, NJ, to Philadelphia, and now to Los Angeles, where she currently resides. She is the cofounder of two slam poetry organizations, the Spoken Literature Art Movement (known as S.L.A.M.) and The Pigeon Presents: The Philadelphia Poetry Slam. She is also the winner of the 2013 Philadelphia Knight Arts...

An Introduction to Oberlin’s Newest Publication, “Two Groves Review”

February 22, 2019

The Two Groves Review is a new student publication dedicated to poetry, literary criticism, and “writing about writing.” We seek to bring an attentive, intentional, and clear editorial process to the publication of student work at Oberlin. An online-only magazine, we offer enhancements to the pieces we publish, including annotations and audiovisual accompaniments. The first issue of Two Groves was released on Thursday, Feb. 14 on www.twogroves.com. The inaugural issue featured essays analyzing and...

Annika Hansteen-Izora, OC ’17, performed at the Cat in the Cream last weekend. While at Oberlin, she founded OSlam and went to three College Unions Poetry Slam Invitationals quarterfinals.

Annika Hansteen-Izora, Poet

November 9, 2018

Annika Hansteen-Izora, OC ’17, returned to Oberlin this past weekend to perform poetry at the Cat in the Cream as the opening act for Porsha Olayiwola. While a first-year at Oberlin, Izora founded OSlam, now one of campus’ most influential organizations, which turned five this year. To quote the event description, she “is a queer Black poet, artist, and activist. She believes in the power of Black joy, of protecting Black girl rage, and uplifting the stories and magic of the women before he...

Chanda Feldman, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing

October 12, 2018

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Chanda Feldman read her original poetry during the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s Tuesday Tea series this week. Some of her poems were directly inspired by a multimedia exhibit currently on display in the Ripin Gallery, Radically Ordinary: Scenes from Black Life in America since 1968. Feldman has been teaching at Oberlin since the fall of 2017. This year, she was one of two professors in the department to be offered a coveted tenure-track position (alongside As...

Oslam Open Mic Highlights Talent of New Poets

Kate Fishman, Arts & Culture Editor

September 14, 2018

Each time a poet took to the stage and announced their name and pronouns followed by “I’m a first-year,” the audience erupted into a chorus of snapping and cheering. This was “Back 2 School Open Mic,” hosted by OSlam, Oberlin’s poetry collective. The event, which occurred last Friday at the Cat in the Cream, was the first opportunity this academic year for Oberlin students to hop on stage alongside OSlam’s three current members and share some of their work. “I’ve worked a lot of open mics because I work at the Cat in the Cream, and it can be really hard,” College junior Amy Sahud said. “The energy can definitely dip, [but] I feel like we sustained it. I thought [the audience] was really supportive,...

“Citizen Illegal” Rejects Generalizations of Immigrant Experience

Nathan Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief

September 7, 2018

The current immigration system in the United States is a hopelessly broken contradiction. We demonize immigrants and yet rely on and exploit their labor to sustain our economy. Our highest court upholds policy that uses the arbitrary justification of borders to dictate who is banned from entering our country. It is within this context that Citizen Illegal — a stunning debut by poet José Olivarez — exists. As its title suggests, the collection of poems focuses significantly on immigration, borders, home, and movement, particularly in a Mexican and Mexican-American context. Olivarez’ work is so powerful, however, because of its personal anecdotes and its commentary on how our national contradictions complica...

OSLAM Poets Present Grand Slam, Select 2018 CUPSI Team

Julia Peterson, Arts & Culture Editor

December 8, 2017

Poets of OSLAM, the College’s slam poetry team, convened for their biggest performance of the semester, the Grand Slam, in Dye Lecture Hall Saturday night. The Slam, which featured performances from ten student poets, was not only a moment to showcase these poets’ work to the wider student community — it was also a competition. The poets were vying for a spot on Oberlin’s College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational team, which will travel to Temple University in Philadelphia this April to compete at the national level. This year’s CUPSI team will be formed by College sophomore Zite Ezeh, College junior Sarah Ridley, and OSLAM co-presidents and College juniors Hanne Williams-Baron and Deborah Johnson. College fi...

Students perform on stage at the Cat in the Cream on Dec. 1, as part of a series of performances to commemorate World AIDS Day. The event, titled “Music, Healing & Celebration of Life,” was dedicated “in memory of all those who lost their lives to AIDS, in celebration of all those living despite” and featured The Obertones, OSLAM, and Pitch Please, as well as a variety of individual performers.

Cat Presents Healing Musical Commemoration for World AIDS Day

December 8, 2017

Safia Elhillo Delivers Sharp, Candid Poetry Performance

Ananya Gupta, Arts and Culture Editor

September 15, 2017

“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 has performed at the South African State Theatre, the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, and at TEDxNewYork, and has competed nationally with the New York University collegiate championship slam poetry team and the DC Youth Slam Poetry Team. Having earned accolades including the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize (co-winner) and the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Elhillo, though young, is truly...