This reporter attended the final reading of the Poetry for Scientists club and left in a sort of impressed daze. Performers played music, recited or read poetry — everything blended and stood apart.
Kate McCobb, the club’s founder, was happy to see most of the nearly 100 chairs filled in the Student Union on April 26.
“I didn’t recognize, I’d say, 75 percent of them,” McCobb said, smiling.
McCobb founded the club two weeks into the spring semester and it has gained an impressive loyalty since, with about 10 attendees each week.
McCobb said having a final event was important to the development of Poetry for Scientists and the retention of its members, serving as a bonding experience as well as a final deadline to keep excitement and anticipation up.
What has really kept the club cohesive, McCobb feels, is that every member can have the opportunity to share. Every meeting opens with a 15 minute freewrite, based on the group’s discussion of a certain reading or concept. After, everyone is encouraged to share their work.
“We’re kind of in a unique position as a club because we have people that are so immersed in all these different topics,” McCobb said. The core group of regular attendants are mostly math or various science majors. “We’re really face down in text books.”
In addition to the reading, the club put out a zine and developed a blog this semester. Next year, McCobb plans to invite creative non-fiction writer Amy Leach, who McCobb credits as the inspiration for the reading, to come speak to the club.
Until then, McCobb seems to consider the club precious.
“I feel like it’s a baby and I don’t want to drop it,” she said.
The Poetry for Scientists blog: http://poetryforscientists.blogspot.com/
