The Department of English at Eastern Connecticut State University hosted its third annual Literary Festival for High School Students on April 4 in the Student Center. Coordinated by English Professors Daniel Donaghy and Christopher Torockio, the event recognized aspiring writers from 10 different high schools across the state.

“Today’s high school students are hungry to express themselves, but they don’t always get the chance to do that in their classes,” said Donaghy. “Our festival gives them a chance to be seen and heard and to hear, see, and learn from others.” 

Following an open poetry mic in the Student Center Cafe, participants and their teachers were ushered into the Betty R. Tipton Room, where Frederick Douglass Knowles II ‘99 delivered the keynote address, beginning with a poem that ponders how his existence fluctuates with the rest of the world: 

“If I were a cloud,  
I wonder where I would go.  
I wonder by being free of responsibilities that make me who I am... 
I'd be transparent so that you see right through me.  
You see, I hold no jealousy or envy, no sorrows to conceal me, and no gravity to ground me. 
I’d protect the people of this planet, for I can be seen on the other side of the galaxy.  
I am the guardian of my God, the messenger of the meek.  
If I were a cloud, I don't want to be in the materials of man.”

In a smooth transition from verse to prose, Knowles encouraged the young writers to seek inspiration from their circumstances. Using his own upbringing as an example, Knowles explained how hip-hop music was his introduction to poetry. 

“(Hip-hop and I) are the same age. By the time I was around 10 years old, I was hearing people like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rhyming and using poetry to beats,” he said. “We gather these memories, and writing is a way to capture them. There's something about the vulnerability in writing to ourselves, to me as an individual where I sit with myself and pick through my mind.” 

He concluded: “The original Frederick Douglass (abolitionist) had a saying to combat injustice: ‘agitate, agitate, agitate.’ Today, I tell you all ‘write, write, write.’” 

After Knowles’ speech, the winners and runners-up for the literary entries were announced before the groups disbanded into individual workshops to further their writing, with the finalists being invited to a workshop with Knowles. 

“Between the two open mic sessions, Knowles’s inspiring keynote address, and the workshops run by Eastern creative writing faculty and advanced creative writing students, our visiting high school students had a fun, full day that I hope they’ll remember for a long time,” said Donaghy.