The Salon Syracuse opens a mic for SU poets
The Salon Syracuse opens a mic for SU poets
Senior Audrey Weisburd launches a new poetry event, creating a space for students to share their voices through readings.
It’s a snowy Saturday night in Syracuse, New York. In a dimly lit room, fairy lights drape from the walls, colorful blankets spread across the floor, and a room full of laughter and chatter warms up Comstock Avenue.
This is The Salon Syracuse: a new space created by SU senior Audrey Weisburd where students can share their poetry.
Weisburd, a senior studying television, radio and film, started The Salon Syracuse as a monthly pop-up that gives SU students a platform for poetic expression.
“So essentially, it’s a community space to share and recite original and appreciated poetry to bring people together and give a space for emotional vulnerability and highlight people’s beautiful prose,” Weisburd said. “I haven’t seen any space for that in Syracuse yet.”
According to Weisburd, each monthly event will feature 8 to 10 SU students, who will read original poetry, along with selected works. The first event was held on Feb. 8, and around 45 people attended.
“I’m very happy,” Weisburd said at the event. “I was a little more nervous than I expected, just because there’s so much vulnerability going on. And I haven’t really been at something that felt like this before, but the people are amazing. And I love the conversations everyone is having right now, and the kind of conversation this is opening up.”
Weisburd’s love for writing began in high school, when she first became inspired by poetry in her freshman year. As someone who has always wanted to be a writer, Weisburd wrote songs in high school, and quickly discovered her appreciation for lyricism, which was prevalent in both poetry and music.
“I’ve found so much kind of solace and relief through language, and I think it’s such a beautiful way to kind of cut directly to the center of someone’s humanity,” Weisburd said. “And people in different kinds of situations can be articulated in a way that you can’t articulate without the medium of poetry.”
SU junior and creative writing major Hannah Schenk was among the students who performed on Saturday. For Schenk, this was her favorite experience to recite her poetry.
“This is such a sweet environment,” Schenk said. “I’m so used to reading works in auditoriums with harsh lighting, and I was so drawn to this just being like a community, and I thought it was really beautiful.”
Schenk’s favorite poem that she performed at The Salon was an original piece of work titled “Moviegoer.” According to Schenk, the poem acted as her own personal “manifesto.”
“I think it’s a good introduction to who I am as a writer,” Schenk said. “ So I like to read that one first, and it’s old. It’s so old, and I feel like it’s one of my poems that’s really stood the test of time.”
Throughout the evening, several SU students performed a mixture of their own personal work, as well as work that has inspired them in one way or another. SU junior and television, radio and film major Hailey Daitch has always loved writing and says that she writes everything in her journal.
“I thought it was so cool that people can come together and just read things that are actually true to themselves, rather than the facade that they put out for other people to see and something that really connects them to other people around them,” Daitch said.
Daitch chose to perform “Life after you” by Hayley Grace in addition to her original poem, “Evergreen,” and said that she would love to continue performing poetry at The Salon in the future.
“It [Life after you] was just talking about love and people’s experiences with love, and it’s not even that it’s a taboo thing to talk about,” Daitch said. “But so many people aren’t necessarily inclined to talk about things that are painful and really deep and honest.”
Weisburd intends to organize several more events like this one throughout this semester, and hopes that they will continue even after she graduates this upcoming May.
“I just want it to be like a joyful event,” Weisburd said. “And I also don’t want it to be very formal, I want it to be very intimate and cozy, and I feel like spacing them out will be like a good way to maintain that kind of low stress, but like a high reward feeling.”