With Halloween right around the corner, what better way to spend an evening than by munching on baked goods and telling scary stories?
According to members of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honors society, one of the darkest poets out there – Edgar Allan Poe – fits the Halloween criteria quite well.
The organization is hosting this year’s first Sigma Tau Delta coffee house at 7 p.m. Thursday at the One Green World Café. The event will feature an open mic session, where students and faculty are encouraged to share their original work, and an award-winning guest poet – George Looney – from Penn State Behrend.
The coffee house is acting as a fundraiser for the Poe House in Baltimore, which lost its funding this year and will need to close if it can’t get enough financial support.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the house – which is used as a museum – is going to lose all of its $85,000 in city funding this year.
Though the event is free, Sigma Tau Delta will be collecting monetary donations to support the house. Together with many other chapters in the U.S., the organization hopes to save the Poe House from its fatal future.
Berwyn Moore, associate professor in Gannon’s English department, said she thinks the Poe benefit is both a worthy cause and fitting for the upcoming holiday.
“Poe is one of the most familiar writers to Americans,” she said, though she admitted that he is not necessarily one of her favorite poets.
Junior English major and member of Sigma Tau Delta, Niklaus Kirschner, said he is looking forward to the coffee house.
“It’s a good opportunity for peope to hear their classmates’ and teachers’ work, “and to also share some of their own in an accepting environment,” he said.
In addition to the open mic session, Moore said a good reason to attend is to see Looney — an award-winning poet with national credentials.
Both Moore and Kirschner encouraged all students and faculty to consider attending the coffee house, reading their work and donating to save the Poe House.
