Art, spokenword, short story, rap, written word are all topics shown within the new group on campus: Dat Poetry Lounge.
As a group, Dat Poetry Lounge gives marginalized people and people of color a place to feel at home and comfortable being themselves. The group’s goal is to give a voice to underrepresented groups through art and creative expression.
Using these art styles, Dat Poetry Lounge advocates for social justice and gives members of the group a voice to speak out on important issues and events. President and master of ceremonies, senior Lydia Lara, talked more about their goal.
“Dat Poetry Lounge gives a specific space dedicated to people of color and other marginalized people so that they can come together and have real conversations about these things, either through art or just talking in general,” Lara said.
Dat Poetry Lounge plans to act as a uniting force for students to come together through to fight and speak out against injustices such as oppression and racism.
Besides the activism element, the poetry itself unique, because there has never been an official poetry group at Augie.
The poetry group merges social justice with ever more creative uses of language, which is a refreshing and new idea on campus. Although the group is still getting started, Dat Poetry Lounge has already done a collaboration with Her Campus to present themselves to the whole school; they had an Open Mic performance in the brew as well.
“At Open Mic performances, anyone can come on stage and perform in their own art style, whether it’s spoken word, poems, or short stories” manager and vice president of Dat Poetry Lounge, Ashanti Mobley, said.
The group has also performed at the convocation of Dr. Monica Smith and the Martin Luther King Jr. event in Centennial Hall.
In regards to future events, the group plans to begin performing at OSL events and at least one more Open Mic night before the end of this school year.
The group will present a poem on sexual violence during the Take Back The Night event later this month, which is a night dedicated to discussing and healing from gender-based violence.
Weekly meetings for Dat Poetry Lounge will begin soon, with dates and time information coming in the near future.
“We will have an official constitution and concrete structure to the group by the end of this term, including plans for future events,” Lara said.
Dat Poetry Lounge is a truly new piece of campus culture that is seeking to better and change the current culture of Augustana and the surrounding community.
Through the use of poetry and creative language performances, the group teaches students to express themselves, their feelings and dreams to the world around them.
Fusing these creative performances with social change advocacy, Dat Poetry Lounge is here to shake things up and be heard by all.