Poetry Night

Poetry Night occurs at CTY Carlisle on the first Thursday, (occasionally second Monday,) second Thursday, (occasionally third Monday,) and last Wednesday of every session. Fundamentally, it consists of CTY students performing poetry in varying forms from the wall near Quad 7, that is, "the stage." The stage is usually dark, although an RA is usually willing help with their flashlights.

Performances may consist of traditional poetry (written by the CTYer, other CTYers, famous authors, etc.), songs, raps, and almost anything else that involves words being vocalized. The event is presided over by the Poetry Goddess (always officially "Goddess," whether female or male) who has the duty to lay out rules and guidelines, as well as opening and closing the Night with Her own performances. Unlike most other traditions, there is no physical symbol of Goddess-ship, although a pink fuzzy Walmart tiara has been introduced as of 10.1. It is passed along to each goddess along with a matching silver wand with fuzzy pink material and a star at the end. In 10.2, Ross began a second session tradition of duct tape laurels, much like the crowns of Passionfruit monarchs, where the old goddess makes the new goddess laurels.

At the end of the last night, the Poetry Goddess passes on the role to the person (usually onemore, except in the case of the 09.2 and 10.1 poetry goddess) Whoever she considers to be most embodying of the spirit of Poetry Night becomes Goddess for the same session of the next year. In the event that the new Goddess fails to come to their session, or the line is not continued for whatever reason, a new Goddess must be manually chosen, most likely through election. In 10.1, the Poetry Goddess was chosen by the Emperor, Empress and Jesus (Carlisle) because the chosen Goddess had not returned. In 14.2 the chosen goddess was unable to return so she choose someone to return in her place.

Baltimore Session 1's first poetry goddess was crowned in 18.1 and will begin their work in 19.1.

General Rules

• No disclaimers (downing one's own poetry because "I'm not a very good poet," or "I wrote this really fast," or "This is probably really bad," etc. etc. etc.)
• Nothing CTY-inappropriate, though certain RAs will allow a degree of artistic license... but not SRA Lauren.
• Humorous poetry is allowed, but blatantly spam-like performances (such as recitations of "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall") are not permitted.
• No extremely long poems (put in place after Fish Stark's ten-minute poem "How Cheney Stole Christmas" was critically acclaimed but left many would-be readers still in line by the time Meet Market was over).
• Any person wishing to read should be allowed to read at least once before those who have already read return for seconds.
• On the last poetry night of the session, nevermores and nomores have priority.

Poetry Goddesses

2003:

• Session 1: Jenna S-O.

2004:

• Session 2: Audrey H.

2005:

• Session 1: Ali G.
• Session 2: Shannon S.

2006:

• Session 1: Alex K.
• Session 2: Schuyler "Crunk/Big bird" S.

2007:

• Session 1: Jake D. (Alex K. and Matt C.) Ryan H.
• Session 2: Philip C.

2008:

• Session 1: Chrispy
• Session 2: Freddie/Natalie

2009:

• Session 1: Stephanie O.
• Session 2: Kelsey S.

2010:

• Session 1: Claire Tang
• Session 2: Ross R. (silver laurels)

2011:

• Session 1: Matt M.// Jordan Raitses
• Session 2: Amalia B. (green laurels)

2012:

• Session 1: Cliff Pinky Tang
• Session 2: Ben Y.// Emily Li (red laurels)

2013:

• Session 1: Rachel Cooper
• Session 2: Emily Evenden // Emma Johnson (Hello Kitty laurels)

2014:

• Session 1: Ben Robertson
• Session 2: Christiane Swenson

2015:

• Session 1: Reece Guziewicz
• Session 2: Aidan Yrizarry

2016:

• Session 1: Giddings
• Session 2: Adrianna Layne

2017:

• Session 1: Reese Liebmann
• Session 2: Tess Buchanan

2018:

• Session 1: Naomi Carpenter
• Session 2: Caroline Reed

2019:

• Session 1: Faythe Daly
• Session 2: Alex Kaplan

History

"Poetry Readings were originally held behind Quad 9, by the garbage cans, but Dickinson College decided to "improve" the amenities and join Quads 9 and 10 together during the summer of 2005, hence obliterating our Poetry Spot. Thus, the summer of 2005, we held poetry readings in the circle by the Library, mostly because the entire Meet Market was moved away from the Quad areas... This served as a severe hindrance to the attendance at Poetry Readings."

--Roughly quoted from Shannon S., Poetry Goddess of Session II 2005.

The poetry circle of the library was actually a rather pleasant spot, with a little brick circle and benches. There was some vegetation around, and it was secluded enough to be fairly quiet, and rather peaceful. On the other hand, there really weren't enough benches for everyone, so many sat on the brick/ground, and a few even left entirely, causing the attendance to drop.

--Philip C.

In 2006, Poetry Night was done on the Quad 7 wall, as the Library area was off limits, and we were to stick to the quads area and the road, and KW lawn. You would read off of the lower part of the wall. If you were lucky, and fast, you would get a seat on the upper part. This continues into 2010.

In 2010.1, the last poetry night was held during the last meet market for the nevermore class of 2010; highlights included the nevermore class congregating on the upper part of the wall to sing The General by Dispatch. Among the highlights of 2010 poetry nights included an ode to HUB Potatoes, "You Want My Taters" by Colin, the future 11.1 emperor, Asher's poem entailing almost every band name possible, an interpretative dance with a hairdryer, a bro-em and the CTY version of Asher Roth's "I Love College".

You Want My Taters, a parody of the original Chicken Song Remix by Mike Felix and Mervin Liriano of the Dreamteam

Crispy, french fried, hash browned just for you
You want my taters; I know you want my taters
Singin' Crispy, french fried, hash browned just for you
You want my taters; I know you want my taters

Looked out my window and what did I see?
I saw a potato looking at me
I said, "Hey, Tater! Come ride with me!
But guess where we're going? TO THE H-U-B!"

Throw them in the deep frier, get 'em crispy
Make some taters mashed, in case you're thirsty
And my CTY-ers want some more over here
I don't mind coming down
Take them taters, and toss 'em around

If I don't get potatoes, I'll start to frown
I'm not joking, I'm not a clown
Look at me, man; I'm a tater hound
Get in a cab and go to Carlisle town.

As of 17.1, Poetry Night has been held in the compost area across from the main office, by the end of Uber Quad. Poetry Night was previously held on the wall next to the office, but Dickinson built an enormous roofed bike rack in this spot which prevented this. Emperor Leah Branstetter read various Wikipedia articles during every Poetry Night, amusing many, but read a touching poem about Carlisle during the last Poetry Night.