Students performed poetry each day at noon this week as part of “Poetry Week at Hawthorne-Longfellow.” Taking place underneath the centrally-located Alexander Calder mobile on the first floor of the library, the event featured students including Kanene Nwokeji ’26, Isa Cruz ’27, Kaitlin Weiss ’25, Ray Mitchell ’28 and Luisa Wolcott-Breen ’25. Poet, musician and screenwriter Weatherspoon ’25 curated the event, which celebrated National Poetry Month.

Weatherspoon worked with Humanities and Media Librarian Carmen Greenlee to host and plan the event, a process they described as natural.

“It was so easy. There’s so much talent on this campus, and it’s not hard to spot,” Weatherspoon said. “So, when Carmen asked me if I wanted to get my friends involved, I said, ‘Absolutely, let’s make this a community thing.’”

Nwokeji, one of the five student performers selected, was an effortless choice for Weatherspoon.

“The first time Kanene shared a poem with me, I cried,” Weatherspoon said. “I thought, let’s make other people cry. Let’s share this wonderful, explosive healing. The curation experience was as it should be: easy.”

The theme for the week’s performances was “Becoming,” and students explored identity, history and connection through their readings. Nwokeji shared how this theme informs her work.

“I think a lot about my relationship with my family, our dynamics and our history together. I feel like [much of my work] was just inherently, almost on the theme of becoming, because I wrote it while I was becoming,” Nwokeji said. “Especially in college, you have to reevaluate who you are, who you want to be and what you’re turning into.… I feel like all of the poems fed into that.”

Weatherspoon hopes the event will inspire more community members who may shy away from the form or find it daunting to connect with poetry.

“You don’t need to ‘understand it,’ and you don’t need to like it,” Weatherspoon said. “It’s necessary. It’s a part of who we all are, saying how we feel, which is art, and the more that people do it, the less people are afraid to do it. Winning out over fear is a goal here.”

For Weatherspoon, poetry has always been an essential form of connection.

“For me, [poetry means] freedom and access. I have relationships with people that don’t exist anymore. [Poetry is] immortality. It’s a space in the ongoing conversation of humanity, and that’s something that I look forward to forever,” Weatherspoon said.

Nwokeji also finds poetry to be an inherently connective force. She first encountered it after a high school teacher shared his passion for the medium with her.

“Poetry is deeply rooted in community and sharing with others. I always think back to my teacher, sharing all of these poems that he loved, and that’s what I get from it. [When you’re] reading a poem and connecting with it, you’re connecting with the poet, the author, ” Nwokeji said.

For Weatherspoon, both poetry as an art form and the event’s theme were profoundly personal.

“My mom died, and that affected me in a big way. ‘Becoming’ is like shedding and gaining. I feel shame and pride for what I am now, because I feel I wasn’t there for her because I was chasing my dreams.… I very much like the person I am, because I worked hard to build that person, but I left people behind to do it,” Weatherspoon said.

Weatherspoon found that poetry was the best medium to communicate this transformation. Their fifth poetry book, “Did You Do the Laundry,” which they will celebrate in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library on May 6, will further commemorate this becoming.

“I have things to say because I read, because I love people, and because I’m in the world,” Weatherspoon said. “Poetry makes the most sense to me. For that reason, freedom of expression, voice, passion, being who I am, unapologetically, always [is important to me].… I want to be great; that’s my ambition. That’s what I’m striving for. I want to tell stories, and I’ll do it till I’m gone.”

Bowdoin faculty and staff members, including Administrative Coordinator of the Baldwin Center for Teaching and Learning Logan Arrowood, shared their immense respect and appreciation for Weatherspoon and their work.

“I love to see people who are just so themselves, and Weatherspoon is someone who just takes every aspect of themselves into the space. I feel they’re very authentic and a great voice for Bowdoin,” Arrowood said.

To Nwokeji, part of what makes Weatherspoon special is their ability to create space for other artists.

“Weatherspoon encourages and makes these spaces for people to feed into poetry, community and interconnectedness. They hold hands with everyone,” Nwokeji said.

Isa Cruz ’27 is a member of the Bowdoin Orient.