Visiting Writer’s Series opens a new year

Sy Hoahwah (right) speaks with a student after his session.
Sy Hoahwah (right) speaks with Dr. Hardy Jones after his session.

Casey Brown

Staff Writer

Sy Hoahwah, the first writer in this year’s annual Visiting Writer Series read his poetry at 7 p.m. on Oct. 11 in CETES. Students, professors, writers and community members were in attendance to hear Hoahwah read from two of his poetry collection.

The reading lasted 45 minutes and was followed by a Q-and-A segment where students and faculty had an opportunity to ask the professional writer questions about the writing process, inspiration and influential authors. Hoahwah then spoke to audience members while signing copies of both collections.

The Visiting Writer Series is a Cameron tradition. The Lectures and Concerts Committee and the Helen C. Schutz Endowed Lectureship are funding the series this year.

Hoahwah, a poet with an M.F.A in Poetry from the University of Arkansas and a member of the Comanche Nation, read several poems from his 2009 collection “Velroy and the Madischie Mafia.”

“It is a collection that I have worked on for several years,” Hoahwah said.  “It loosely revolves around these four personas. They are composites of individuals that I’ve come across over the years. Some of them are friends, and some of them are my enemies.”

Hoahwah has roots in Indiahoma and Cache as well as Little Rock, Ark.

“A lot of my poetry reflects wearing two hats,” he said.

Hoahwah said he has family that lives in the Lawton and Fort Sill communities.

“Madischie, some of y’all might know, is a little community of housing by the Comanche Complex, and I have relatives that live out there.”

Hoahwah then read several poems from his latest collection “Night Cradle.” In each poem, he experimented with imagery and minimal language.

“This collection is of very short poems. I was in a phase trying to write poems with the smallest, minute idea possible,” Hoahwah said. “It was like trying to pack as much gun powder into the shell as possible.”

It was important for Hoahwah to speak at Cameron University in particular.

“I wanted to come back here because this is home to me, and I wanted to remember because it was very important to me. My mom went here. I wanted a response to my work from the people I wrote about. So why not come back to the place you wrote about?”

Hoahwah said he also enjoyed the opportunity to interact with Cameron’s diverse student population.

“I did get a response from some of the native students here who humbled me,” he said. “They told me that they liked my work, but more importantly there was an example of someone from the same background as them who is successful as opposed to [hearing] the negativity of the stereotypes.”

Assistant Professor Bayard Godsave is responsible for organizing this year’s series. He heard about Hoahwah from a colleague who attended the same M.F.A. program as the poet. Godsave said he is involved with the series because he believes it is important to support the arts community.

“I think it’s good to have our students see and meet professional writers,” Godsave said. “We try and bring writers who are going to have some sort of connection with the students here. So someone like Sy who grew up here, who is a native poet.”

CU students and community members benefit from the Visiting Writer Series.

“Students benefit from it by interacting with professional writers. They see that they are people too. The writers can be shy, funny and all that. They aren’t Tom Cruise, most of them,” Godsave said. “I think access and exposure to the arts is a good thing. Cameron can fill that need.”

Hoahwah encourages students to write continually as a way to find their own voices.

“If you keep writing every day, you will discover your craft and, in turn, you will discover your voice,” Hoahwah said. “You know, telling people ‘I’m here,’ that you’re here on this planet.”

The next event in the series will be a reading from Michael Nye at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8 in CETES. The event—as with all the Visiting Writer Series events—is free and open to the public.

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