International Education Week ends with poetry

The International Education Week concluded Friday with the special “Just Words” Open Mic Night at the Bean Broker Coffehouse. The event was organized by Sigma Tau Delta. Besides the common performers of the Open Mic Night, the “Just Words” featured members of International Club who performed poetry in their native languages, while wearing the traditional outfits. Some students were also reading the English translation of poems in different languages.

Khawla Bali, 23, an exchange student of Tunis, Tunisia, read two poems in two different languages: a French poem by Maxalxis titled “La liberté de pensen”, and an Arabic poem titled “Words” ( Arabic: الكلمات “Kalimat” ) by Nizar Kabbani.

Mark Schuessler, of Crawford, who regularly performs at the Open Mic Nights, brought his own taste of international influence. Schuessler read his poem “Marseéh”, which means “Serenity”, in Persian.

He translated one verses of the poem as: “Tonight the heavens never end and my soul is free with the eternal song of God.”

Schuessler said that he studied at the University of Texas but wrote the poem while incarcerated for eight months for drunk driving. Among the few personal belongings he was allowed to bring to jail was his Persian dictionary, which he used to wrote the poem.

The “Just Words” Open Mic Night presented an opportunity for all the audience to get acquainted with foreign cultures, as well as hear poems in foreign languages and meet the International students