By Stefan Cozza

This past weekend, the English and Creative Writing Department held their homecoming open mic, along with manning a tent at the homecoming tailgate. From 11-2 on Saturday, faculty from the English and Creative Writing departments, along with a few students, promoted the program through the use of interactive writing prompts. Alumni and community members sat down for a few minutes, picked a notecard with a particular prompt, and wrote whatever came to their heads. Later that evening, the department held their usual homecoming open mic. Since the pandemic, the open mics have been virtual, but that hasn’t stopped them from being engaging and fun events. To start the event, everyone was given a few writing prompts, similar to the ones earlier in the day, and allowed a few minutes to generate some writing. Some participants even read what they came up with. Students, along with alumni read some of their work, whether it be poetry or short fiction and got enthusiastic feedback from the audience. The event lasted well over an hour and the energy carried throughout. Despite being virtual, the success of another open mic in this format just proves the communal power of writing.