On April 23, the Deadbeat Poets Society hosted “To Ukraine: Poetry Against War,” an event that allowed participants to share their feelings about what is happening in Ukraine through poetry.
The event hosted at Margaret T. Hance Park served as both a poetry reading and a fundraiser where participants could read the poems they wrote or come to listen and support those performing.
Callan Fuqua, leader of Deadbeat Poets Society, organized the minimalist event in support of Ukraine.
“I wanted to host ‘To Ukraine: Poetry Against War’ as a subtle act of poetic defiance,” Fuqua said. “We as general Americans, can’t do much at the mercy of political affairs but poetry has no bounds.”
The Deadbeat Poets Society is a nonprofit organization, and all proceeds raised from the To: Ukraine event went toward the International Rescue Committee. IRC is an organization dedicated to supporting families during war and is majorly helping people in Ukraine at this time.
Deadbeat Poets Society is a selected collective of writers who contribute to the organization’s bi-monthly poetry zine. Many people who participated in the “To Ukraine” event were individuals who had submitted work to the organization before.
The majority of the people who came to the event performed a poem they wrote themselves. Each person had a unique approach to how they wrote and performed their poem.
Irene Amrine was the first to perform her poem at the event. Amrine moved to the United States from Ukraine when she was only 14 years old, so she performed her poem in both English and Ukrainian.
Amrine wanted to partake in the event because she said she believes it is important to support “American friends” who are organizing and hosting events that allow people to share their feelings and emotions specifically through poetry.
“What is happening in Ukraine right now is so difficult to process and apply any kind of logic to, but poetry is very therapeutic in that sense,” Amrine said.
Participants took turns reading through the poems they wrote for the event. The majority of the poems read were about people’s feelings toward the war in Ukraine, but there were also times when people could discuss their feelings and opinions with one another as well.
Ash Hooke, one of the people who performed, teaches a seminar called war and conflict at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson where her students read, analyze and write about war like they would in an English class.
Hooke received a notification about “To Ukraine” because her work had been published by the Deadbeat Poets Society. Since the event was so closely tied to what she teaches she decided to come from Tucson and participate.
“When I saw this event, I thought wow this is a little bit of me being a hypocrite since I have written a lot of feelings and a lot of things about Ukraine, but I haven’t written a poem for it,” Hooke said.
Hooke said to her poetry feels like such a pure thing and she did not know if she could do the war in Ukraine with that purity but that did not stop her from trying and performing in the event.
“To Ukraine” event gave people the opportunity to share their feelings in a setting that raised visibility to benefit an important cause which is why Fuqua wanted to organize the event.
“Poetry can teach and open a door to perspective,” Fuqua said. “That is doing something in an odd time.”
Contact the reporter at mkwhitak@asu.edu.
