Maps maps maps maps maps

We got a new map! 
And some cool new map tacks!
Watch as we update it to show what parts of the world we've visited!

 

                                   

                    

Viscountess of Affairs, '12-13

Previously, in LEP . . .

We had a super top secret meeting earlier this week that we invited the whole world too. And the whole world showed up and drank some secret punch.

Speaking of secret punch. Yeah, we'll be getting the rooms set up for our future meetings, but this time we kind of just decided to go into this one seemingly empty room in the Science Building and use it as our secret meeting headquarters.

I guess it would've been okay if there wasn't going to be a class going on in there five minutes after we finally got ourselves settled and poured the punch.

Fortunately, the professor (I think he's a physics guy) was pretty cool about the whole thing, and was even brave enough to try our punch. I mean, a professor has to be brave to say yes when a random student he's never met before asks "would you like to try some of our secret punch?" He said it was good. I think he was just trying to be nice though.

(I had to tell him what the ingredients were though after he tasted, kinda felt obligated to answer his question. Professors just have that effect on you.)

Meeting minutes are on CTools, so you can see what we talked about there. I wanted to say though, that I'm kinda hoping we do more with these cute little journals. Take it around with you wherever you go - it can slip into your pocket or purse or fanny pack really easily. Jot down things that inspire you. Write a poem from the point of view of the rock behind the UC. Anything really. Just write.

This time, our Princess of Rhymes gave us a prompt - to write a limerick. I wish I had Sara M.'s or Erich's written down so I could share them. You'll just have to bear with me here and read mine instead:

One day on the way to Manila
I stopped at a shop for vanilla
to add to a cake
I was planning to bake
for the 1st birthday of my chinchilla.

No idea why, but my default limerick rhymes are Manila or Nantucket. Go figure.

Viscountess of Affairs, '12-13

Pasta, Pears, and Poetry

I don't know how many people use Google Reader or even know what that is.

If you have a Google account, you need to try it out. It's definitely not a new thing; Wikipedia says that it was introduced in 2005. But if you have a Google account, you like to follow a lot of different websites and blogs, and you're not using Reader, then you're doing it wrong. Go check it out!

I use Google Reader to stay updated on:

- my friends' Tumblr blogs (here and here)
- The Onion: America's Finest News Source (my favorite one!)
- Neil Gaiman's journal
- my friends' updates on Goodreads
- A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor
- Inkygirl: an illustrated guide for those who write and draw for young people
- the Makes Me Think site
- new book releases on Amazon
- xkcd, a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language
- Bakerella (the lady who came up with cake pops!)
- Savage Chickens: Cartoons on Sticky Notes
- NY Times Health
- NY Times Books

In case you were wondering, no, I'm not getting paid to advertise the wonderful thing that is Google Reader. Nor am I getting paid to advertise for any of the above sites. If only making money were that easy, I'd be singing about these guys from the rooftops.

Kevin Young

I'm really bringing this up because I just read an article on NYT Books about a poetry anthology that just came out, called The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink." It's an anthology compiled by an editor named Kevin Young.

I've never heard of him before today, but a quick glance at his page on the Academy of American Poets site says that Young is a pretty important poet (Harvard, Stanford, AND Brown?!). He's an award-winning poet known for his poetry centered around African American culture and themes.

This article was a review about Young's latest anthology, a collection of poems related to the world of food. The NYTimes review was not entirely favorable; the author, Dwight Garner, said that there are a number of great poems included, but to find them you have to sift through a lot of the lesser ones. Garner was also critical of several omissions Young made of  "canonical" food poetry. You can, of course, read the full article yourself for more details.

What made me laugh in the review, though, is Garner's suggestion that a "Best Bathroom Book" category should be added to the National Book Awards. Apparently Hungry Ear would be a sure winner for 2012.

Viscountess of Affairs, LEP

General Body Meeting Tomorrow!

Super exciting news!

Don't forget to attend our second general body meeting tomorrow! We'll be meeting somewhere in the science building, either room 216 or 217, on the second floor of the SB. If not, we'll just camp out in the halls somewhere and wreak havoc among the lab students :D

Also, in case you were wondering, here are a few pics of what our writing notebooks look like. They're about 4 x 6in in size, so compact and portable! :)

Wow, it's been so long since we last posted...

It really has.

The last post was from . . . over a month ago. So much has happened since then. Really. I don't know where to start updating you guys about what we've been up to. Should I go in order of my favorite things that happened? Or maybe random order is more fair? How about alphabetical order? That sounds reasonable to me.

Actually, chronological order makes the most sense. Yeah, let's go with that.

So, on Tuesday October 2nd we had our first event of the year! Last year we thought we'd kick off our first year with a coffee shop poetry reading. You know, the greatest, most cliched thing there is about poetry. Yeah, well this year we thought we'd be punny (ha. ha.) and have a kick off event that tied in with our "Global Diversity" theme. We called it "Global di-VERSE-i-TEA." So great, right? :D

Well, it was! It was really fun! We had plenty of people stop by and read their favorite global poems. One guest read some of her own work, which was really great. I wish I could remember what her name was because she read her poems fantastically, very animated and it drew you in to what she was saying. My favorite reading was our own Sara M's! She read "But He was Cool" by Don Lee or Haki Madhubuti.

You need to see pictures of our decorations, too! Find them on our Facebook page!

On October 11th, we went to the Homecoming Week Family Fun Night in the Fieldhouse and had a ton of fun with the kids and their alumni families. We helped them transform into princes and princesses by decorating crowns, wands, and shields. A case of missing bedazzled jewels didn't stop our station from being the most popular one at the party! UM-Dearborn has a lot of royal students in its future.

We were so busy trying to turn our guests into royalty, but we did manage to snap a few pictures in the process!

Also on Thursday October 11th, we had our first general body meeting of the semester where we talked and drank punch and had a jolly good time. Our meeting minutes are up somewhere on CTools if you missed it! Science building is where we met. Not the place you'd expect to find a group of poets, but yeah, the majority of our Royal Court consists of scientists. Who says poetry and science don't mix?

I (hopefully) surprised the gang with some brand new world-themed notebooks to write in. You're supposed to carry it around with you wherever you go, and jot down any ideas or verses that come to mind that you'd think would be part of a great poem. If you're a member of the LEP, let me know when you're coming to one of our next meetings so I can be sure to have one for you too!

Okay. that's it for this super long post. I promise to start posting more regularly!

Amal

Global Di-VERSE-ity: New year, new people!

I've been on campus pretty much every day this past summer. At least, every weekday. And from the start of July til the end of August, I've gone to school as early as 6am and stayed as late as 8pm (only once though!).  I felt like I owned the place- got the first parking spot in the SSB lot, was one of the first and last people at school, there were no geese around, I knew who all the people who were there doing research, and the halls weren't crowded at all. It was FABULOUS. I felt like I was in my own home and I made the rules and that I had the keys to the kingdom.

Then all of a sudden it's September 5th. And SCHOOL STARTS. And there are LOTS of PEOPLE. And there are so many CARS and people DRIVING and the lots are FULL. And people ask you for directions to the Science Building. And people are reading the campus MAPS. I tried doing that freshman year and couldn't for the life of me figure it out. And there are GEESE. How do the geese know that school started?! They were gone all summer then, bam! first day of classes and there are all these geese EVERYWHERE.

Campus is not the sleepy, quiet, quaint little place it was over the summer. It's full of people and noises and stuff going on and full parking lots and I can check out a billion books from the library again and there are long lines at the McKinley Cafe. Speaking of the MKC, did you know that there's now a TOASTER in Subway! A whole slew of new things happened this summer in prepping for the new year - the TOASTER, the library was PAINTED, its computers were UPGRADED, there's a new RECYCLING system, a FLAG MURAL was installed, the BOOKSTORE got a makeover (if you look up!), the SAO became the Office of Student Engagement, there's a new cell phone charging station in the UC, and there are SO MANY NEW PEOPLE. 

The League has spent the sleepy and hot summer preparing for this new year, the new crowd, and these new changes. We want to match the diversity of our campus community by celebrating the diversity that exists in the world of poetry. Hence: Global Di-VERSE-ity! It's brilliant, isn't it? We'll be exploring diversity in poetry in multiple REGIONS of the world, in different TIME periods, by looking at how various THEMES are treated in poetic works, by looking at cultural TRADITIONS, and by FOOD. Always the food.

We have so much planned and in the works that we'll be unveiling and talking about each week, and of COURSE you can join us whenever and however you'd like! We're on here, Facebook, Twitter, CTools, and Tumblr. And we have meetings and stuff too with SECRET PUNCH. You might need a passport to join us, though. I'm not sure.

This is my 5th (and final!) year on campus, but with so many of my friends gone and so many new faces around here, it almost feels like freshman year all over again. I'm excited for everything this year has in store, and I'm really excited that all of you will be there to share it with us!

- LEP Viscountess of Affairs

Global Di-VERSE-Ity: A new year for LEP

Hey! I'm Wafa, the current Princess of Rhymes, taking over for (but never achieving the same blog-worthy status as) our former Princess Myra, Master Blogger. As the summer drags on, my favorite LEP people are welcoming a new and amazing year of poetry. This year, we're trying something different and we've decided to have a theme to inspire wonderful works and performances. So get ready for "Global Di-VERSE-ity!"

To kick off our trot around the globe, here's a cool story I heard in the seventh grade. It's about a Caliph in eighth century Iraq who had a great memory for poetry. Poets would come to Basra to present their work to him with hopes of receiving payment for their original pieces. Being a particularly stingy and somewhat clever guy, the Caliph tricked the unsuspecting poets out of their pay. He had the ability to memorize something after only hearing it once, so when the poets would recite their poems, he could recite it back and claim that he had heard it before. To make his story more believable, the Caliph would call upon his servant, who could memorize things after hearing them twice. So the servant would hear the poet and the Caliph recite the poem and then follow suit. Is it a coincidence that the maid memorized things after hearing them three times and joined in on the fun? This went on for some time and the poets of the time were out of luck unless they could out-do the Caliph.

An Imam named Asma'i heard about the plight of the poets and decided to do something about it. He disguised himself and paid a visit to the Caliph with a new work. The Caliph agreed that, if this was in fact an original work, he would pay his veiled visitor the weight of his poem in gold. So the Imam recited his poem and the Caliph was dumbstruck. He heard a long, winding poem filled with outrageous rhymes and amazing alliterations that had such a quick tempo it was difficult to follow. The Caliph called his servant and maid and neither of them had heard anything like it. Admitting defeat, the Caliph ordered his servant to give the stranger the promised payment.

"Excuse me, sir, but I've carved my poem on a large boulder, one so big you need ten people to carry so please send some of your strongest men to weigh it," the Imam said.

"What kind of joke are you playing?" the Caliph demanded. "Who are you? Uncover your face and tell me who you are!"

The Imam unveiled his face and the Caliph was shocked.

"Imam Asma'i! What do you mean by all of this?"

"You were conning the poets out of their money and they have no way to make a living, so I did the only thing I could do. I'd like my payment now." But the embarrassed Caliph did not want to pay so the Imam and the Caliph agreed that the payment would go to the poets.

I really like this story and I think the poem is really cool. My Arabic teacher had a contest to see if any of the students could memorize the poem and a few of us did (I did!). Here's a link! It's not as fast paced but you can hear the alliteration and rhyme.

If you have any favorite poems from around the world you'd like to see featured here on our blog, tell me about it in the comments or contact LEP on Facebook, Twitter, or email us at umdlep@gmail.com.