Brown’s Words Energize Exeter Community

By AUDREY ASLANI-FAR, JEANNIE EOM and MINSEO KIM

Captivating the students and faculty who crowded the room, Lamont Poet Jericho Brown read his poem Riddle in Assembly Hall. A hybrid of poem and riddle, Brown noted that even he does not know the answer to his work. The event, held on Jan. 15, was followed by a Q&A session for students the next day.

Jericho Brown has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and is currently the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University. He published The Tradition, his third collection of poems and a finalist for the National Book Award, last summer. 

Brown’s poetry addresses a wide variety of topics, including his childhood and police brutality in America. Brown describes himself as “part of a longer tradition of Southern poets”— his writing is informed by both his personal experiences and his heritage. Brown reinvents form, engagement and our perception of the world through his strong poetry. 

The Lamont Poetry program seeks to bring well-established poets during the fall and winter terms, while spring term is usually reserved for emerging writers. During springtime, the Lamont Poetry Committee also awards the Lamont Younger Poets Prize to prep and lower poets.

According to English Instructor Todd Hearon, who serves as the Chair of the Lamont Poetry Committee, the Lamont Poetry Series has existed since 1982, when the Academy invited Jorge Luis Borges. “Since that time, we have brought to campus virtually every acclaimed contemporary poet that we can lay our hands-on, both nationally and internationally,” Hearon said.

Hearon explained the committee’s choice to bring Jericho Brown, primarily facilitated by English Instructor Chelsea Woodard. “We knew that he would connect with the students, and the students with him,” he said. “The timing seemed perfect to bring this acclaimed poet to campus and get the students excited about the work.”

English classes have been delving into Brown’s works, including Microscopes, Ganymede and several poems entitled Duplex. Brown’s personal anecdotes have brought further understanding and depth into his work. 

English Instructor Alex Myers noted that being able to listen to poetry recited by the poet themselves is a unique privilege. “Poetry is sound as well as words on a page. And when the person who wrote that poem reads it, it’s a whole other level of sound,” he said. “They inflect them with a rhythm and a cadence and a volume that is just beautiful. So I really think you can get just an acre of meaning of hearing a poet read their own work.”

Brown explained his own emphasis on sound. “In the definition of poetry, there is something oral,” he said. “It’s meant to be heard… My relationship to the poem is one that I’m trying to create when I read it to you.” 

Exonians were eager to hear poetry straight from the source. “It was nice to hear the poems I read in class in the author’s voice,” prep Cassie Perez said. “It definitely changed some of my interpretations.”

Specifically, Brown’s delivery impressed the student body. “Not only does the material have good subject matter, but he executes it very well,” lower Pedro Coelho said. “The way he engaged the audience was extremely unique.”

Coelho noted the humanization of the poetry itself. “I remember at certain points he asked us, ‘I’m going to do this now. Is that okay?’ I felt like this just added a certain depth to the reading,” he explained. “It’s not just a person spitting out poems without regard to the audience.” 

Prep Joey Dong agreed. “He kept a beat—it was so melodic, almost like singing,” she added.

Dong further praised Brown’s imagery and language. “His poems are really vivid and create striking imagery,” Dong said. “Even in the ones that are hard to read, there is some kind of beauty.”

Lower Rose Chen felt that Brown’s reading resonated with the experiences of students of color; she also noted how Brown was able to transfer his specific stories into the universal. “Even though I have very little in common with him—he’s a gay, African American man, and I’m a 15- year old Asian American student—he takes a very national issue and makes it into a personal one,” she said. “He turned something from his heart into something that I think everyone in that Assembly Hall could really relate to.”