Mills International Center hosted their annual World Poetry Night at the Redwood Auditorium in the EMU on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The 38 presenters represented nine different languages, sharing original poems and material from their favorite authors. Some poems were encouraging, others sad, romantic or thoughtful. Some shared poems in essay format to elaborate on their personal stories.

Jisu Lee, a senior at UO, kicked off the event with his original Shijo poetry, traditional Korean poetry. Lee started writing Shijo poetry when he was in the United States Army as a coping mechanism. By writing, Lee said he was able to focus on and appreciate the small things in life.

“I was blown away by the presenters,” Konoha Horiguchi, an exchange student from Japan, said as she listened and followed the English translations of other presenter’s poems. Horiguchi said she was nervous waiting for her turn as she had never presented in front of that many people before. 

“It is such a big step for me today,” she said. She saw the poster for the event a couple of months ago, and saw it as a great challenge and opportunity for her. She wrote her first-ever original poem, “when you remember me” and presented it in front of the crowd.

“If you write poetry, you are a poet,” Lee said. He sees the value of poetry as the ability to share what a person is feeling and wanting to share.

“I get to fully express my Korean side and American side,” Lee said. He writes poems in both Korean and English as he sees his identity as fully Korean and fully American, not one way or another, and he likes to show his appreciation for each culture.

Favour Foday, the student coordinator for the event, first encountered poetry from her mother as a child. She would read or write poems and share them with her family and friends. 

“Poetry is a good medium of communication and expression,” Foday said. She said that she was moved by each and every one of the poems throughout the night, and she loved seeing the audience paying attention to the presenter and carefully following the English translation. 

Between the presentations, Foday hosted an activity where each person wrote a short poem inspired by the quote, “Let words flow like rivers, let thoughts dance like the wind.” After each attendee wrote down whatever came to mind, each of them exchanged their poem with someone close by. Foday picked the quote because she thought it was a great way to start writing and encourage writing.

Foday hopes to perform a poem at the World Poetry Night next year. She loves how this event fosters connections with people through the art of poetry across different cultures, backgrounds and languages.

“I was really happy,” Foday said as she looked back on the night of poetry and languages.