Recapping Wright’s Hispanic Heritage Month Poetry Reading

Students and adults gathered on Oct. 6 in the auditorium and via zoom to listen to Rodrigo Toscano recite his poetry as part of Wilbur Wright’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Comprised of Wright students and staff, nearly 40 people attended Toscano’s poetry reading event. After an introduction by Professor Marcy Rae Henry, Toscano recited and offered insight into a few poems and sonnets he has written. While he typically avoids commentary between pieces at his readings, Toscano said he decided to do so at this event after seeing some of the student life at Wright.

“I’m certain students will come away with a deeper appreciation for poetry and, hopefully, a desire to compose it,” said Henry about what she anticipated from the event. She said she could go home and “write for hours” after Toscano’s reading.

Toscano is known for combining the geo-political genre into his writing. Some pieces he chose to read related to the summer of 2020 – the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic and one with nationwide protests. Toscano said there was so much chaos during the phenomenon that was the summer of 2020, and his syllabic poems intended to create a condensed “snapshot” of his experience.

In the following Q&A session, students and professors in attendance were inquisitive about Toscano’s sources of inspiration and his stream of consciousness as he wrote the poems he read. One student, Gretta Komperda, noted Toscano’s “Insurrectionary” piece. She found his questioning on the efficiency of the George Floyd-attributed riots interesting. Toscano’s voice inflections in “The Land” also stuck with her after the reading.