Various outlets offered on campus to gain exposure

If you are wallowing in soul-sucking coursework for mind-numbing subjects and feel the flash of your creativity slowly fading, drawing or writing can be a release.

While art is often a solitary hobby, you can share your work with others by getting it published in a few publications around campus.

Luna Negra, Kent State’s literary magazine, features poetry, prose, short stories, photography and illustrations. Wick Poetry Center not only hosts guest poets for readings but also provides scholarships for high school and college students and gives students the opportunity to publish chapbooks of their work.

Submit poetry for Peace And War: Vietnamese Children’s Art Become Templates For Poems

An illustration by a 15-year-old Vietnamese child depicts a pair of yellow legs against a harsh blue background. Its caption reads “My Brother’s Body Was Damaged By the Agent Orange.”

Though Huynh Thi Ngoc Tran, the artist of this image, has never lived through war, “If you look at the paintings, you can clearly tell they are still suffering from the effects of war,” said Nicole Robinson, Wick Poetry’s outreach coordinator.

Another one of the 60 paintings, which have been chosen from the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, depicts a sleeping child and an exploding city in the background. Its caption reads “The Sleep of an Iraqi Child.”

“There’s just this understanding,” Robinson said of the children of Vietnam. “They really do seek peace at a young age.”

Along with local veteran’s healing group Soldier’s Heart and Kent State art galleries, Wick Poetry Center has posted these images on its Web site, inviting poets to submit their work, which will tour America and Vietnam along with the paintings.

“I hope it (the collaboration) opens up people to not only think about the effects of war, but to heal the wounds of war,” Robinson said as she contemplated the implications of Vietnamese paintings accompanied by American text. “We (Americans) are also completely scarred by war.”

Robinson hopes this project will act as a bridge between the people of Vietnam and the United States, creating a sense of unity and taking away the boarders of nationalities, which is “more than just a separation by a line on a map.”

Five hands, each a different nationality, hold an origami dove, the drawing’s caption reads “Together Protect Peace.”

Contact features reporter Nicole Hennessy at [email protected].

What you can do:

Wick Poetry Center

2010 UNDERGRADUATE POETRY COMPETITION

A total of $1,750 in scholarships will be awarded for the best poetry submitted by Kent State undergraduates. Entries must be postmarked by Feb. 1, 2010. Late entries will not be accepted.

Entries should be sent to:

Wick Poetry Undergraduate Competition

Kent State University

PO.Box 5190

Kent, Ohio 44242

Ph: (330) 672-2067

http://dept.kent.edu/wick/wick/News.html for more information.

Submissions: The deadline is May 1, 2010

Luna Negra

Respond to a news story in “the form of a poem, prose, short story, illustration, photo, or any other literary outlet you can think of.”

Deadline: midnight Feb. 4

Submit to [email protected] or in the submission boxes at the entrance of Satterfield Hall.