The fourth annual “Pass the Mic” was held virtually via Zoom on Wednesday evening across the University of Michigan’s three campuses. The event, sponsored by the Hopwood Program, a program dedicated to awarding U-M student writers, celebrated original prose and poetry from University students. This year, 14 undergraduate students from all three campuses signed up to read their poetry and prose pieces to the virtual audience.
First held in 2020, Hopwood program manager Rebecca Manery said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that the initial decision to host Pass the Mic stemmed from the desire to bring students across campuses together over their shared appreciation for creative writing.
“We were looking for ways to more deeply engage students from the Flint and Dearborn campuses in the Hopwood Award contests,” Manery said. “We didn’t know of any other forum that brought together undergraduates from all three campuses to share their creative work.”
This year’s event co-hosts, LSA junior Kailey Kuhlman, U-M Dearborn senior Natalie Albrecht and U-M Flint senior Noah Beaumont, were primarily in charge of recruiting student readers and emceeing the event.
Beaumont said recruiting readers for this event was challenging and required an intensive search for interested students across all three campuses. To find students willing to perform original pieces at “Pass the Mic,” co-hosts tried several methods, such as talking to specific students involved in writing-focused organizations, emailing and reaching out to creative writing major and minor advisors to spread the word.“Writers are typically more introverted people, and the idea of performing a piece of writing can be quite daunting,” Beaumont said in an interview with The Daily.
At the event, Beaumont performed one of his pieces. Beaumont said being a reader in addition to co-hosting has allowed him to challenge himself in taking opportunities he would have otherwise passed on.
“I was … able to write a piece for the event that is completely different in genre and style than what I normally do,” Beaumont said. “After getting it reviewed by fellow tutors, I (was) very excited to share it.”
In addition to registered readers, “Pass the Mic” also involved an open mic portion in which audience members could share their work over Zoom.
Kuhlman said she thought this year’s event was a success because it allowed students to bridge a gap between the three campuses over a common interest in writing. As both a co-host and a reader, Kuhlman was able to work alongside her peers in organizing and executing this event.
“It felt really rewarding to know that we all collectively helped to make this happen,” Kuhlman said. “Usually there’s a kind of disconnect between the campuses due to the physical distance, and this felt like a great way to bring everyone together.”
Daily News Contributor Tenzin Menrinetsang can be reached at tenzinm@umich.edu.