Guest speakers recite their favorite poems at poetry event

An enchanted evening of Middle Eastern poetry celebrating the 15th annual Middle Eastern heritage celebration, featured authors poetic works in various languages at the Student Center on Wednesday, April 15.

“As in previous years, each guest speaker will recite his and her favorite poems in the original tongue, followed by the English translation,” Jorge L. Escobar, the vice president of administrative services wrote in an email.

Salwa Ghamrawi, a guest speaker said that now they use the modern Islamic language.

“Poetry is very appreciated in the Islamic world,” Ghamrawi said.

Guest speakers like Roohi Vora used two languages in her poetry that she recited for students at the poetry event.

“My poetry is mixed with Persian and Turkish,” Vora said. “Many wrote poetry in those languages.”

Some guest speakers like Jorge L.  Escobar, a MSC representative was inspired by a poet because it conveyed who he was as a person.

“There are a couple of things to which I relate in that poem.  First of all, it makes references to when the poet died away from home, which I connect to immigration,” Escobar wrote in email.  “As time passes, our families abroad are affected by losses… who knows we may also die away from home.”

Some students were inspired by the poetry works that were recited by various diverse guest speakers at the poetry event.

“I was able to see that poetry in all the same in all types of languages,”, said Marlene Casanova, a medical coding major student.   “Even if you don’t understand the language, you still can get the feelings through the different cultures.”