A Celebration of International Poetry
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Language students, professors, and Moravian College staff members celebrated poets and poetry at the International Poetry Night, held November 14 in the HUB Pavilion. The event was sponsored by U.S.G., French Club, International Club, Multicultural Club, German Club, and Spanish Club.
Students read original poems as well as poems by famous international poets. The students of Nilsa
Lasso-von Lang, associate professor of Spanish and chair of foreign languages, performed a representation of the poem "La muralla" by Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989), an Afro-Cuban poet, writer, journalist, and social activist. "La muralla" ("The Wall") speaks of building a gate of hands around the world, joined in unity. Spanish singer Ana Belén also sang "La Muralla."
Participants and audience enjoyed an evening of multi-cultural food and poetry.
About Nicolás Guillén: Guillén’s father, a journalist, was assassinated by the Cuban government. As students in pre-revolutionary Cuba, Nicolás and his brothers and sister experienced racism, just as black Americans did. Guillén began writing about the social problems of blacks in the 1920s, and his first poems appeared in Camaguey Gráfico in 1922.