By Ava Bustos
The Cheshyre Cheese Club will sponsor its first Coffee Night and Open Mic of the semester from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. today in the Fiesta Room of Loftin Student Center.
The event, coordinated with the office of student life, will give students a chance to perform original or published poetry, drink coffee and socialize, Jane Focht-Hansen, English instructor and club adviser, said Monday.
There will be free coffee for everyone and a microphone available for those reading poetry.
Tyler Archer, assistant coordinator of student leadership and activities in student life, said the club held three coffee nights in the fall, and they attracted students.
Students who want to read poetry must sign up the night of the event, Focht-Hansen said. The sign up is to organize the evening’s performances and let poets know when they will have the mic.
Coffee night is about letting the students speak on their own behalf, in their own words, expressing their own feelings, Focht-Hansen said.
Letting the students “confront what is going on in our culture” is what the Cheshyre Cheese Club is about, she said.
The club has three advisers in addition to Focht-Hansen. They are English Professors Amy C. Murphy and Carol Reposa and Instructor Garry Partridge.
Focht-Hansen stressed the club is meant to have lots of discussions on any topic similar to the discussions hosted by Samuel Johnson, who
founded the Cheshyre Cheese Club in the 1800s.
His group started meeting in the pub of the local Cheshyre Cheese Club, which is where the college club got its name. The club is based on socializing, building “comradeship” and letting the students be expressive in their writing, Focht-Hansen said.
The club is open to all majors and to anyone who just wants to belong and have a personal connection to the college, Vice President Randy Brown, English sophomore, said. Most people “really don’t know how many organizations there are on campus.”
The club will continue to hold a Coffee Night the first Friday of March and April.
For information, call Archer at 733-2680.