Kellogg Writers Series kicks off with musical poetry
Jan Flexon and the Dancin’ Nancys performed poetry set to music, with sounds of everything from folk music to hip-hop, on Sept. 23 as part of the University of Indianapolis Kellogg Writers Series.
By Ashley Kein | Staff Writer
The Kellogg Writers Series began the year by making its audience want to move with lyrical poetry set to music.
Jan Flexon and the Dancin’ Nancys performed poetry set to music with the sounds of everything from folk music to hip-hop on Sept. 23.
The five-member group played various poems written by Jan Flexon including “Berlin Wall,” “Illumination” and “Power Equals Control.”
In the poem “Words,” Flexon proclaimed, “It’s all about the creativity.” She also said that words are everywhere and used for everything.
Flexon—whose influences are E.E. Cummings, Ann Sexton and Jim Morrison—not only shared her poems but also talked about writing and what she wants to accomplish with her style of poetry.
“I want you to have felt something from my poetry, and the music just picks it up and carries it,” she said.
Elizabeth Weber, associate professor of English and one of three professors in charge of the writers series, chose Jan Flexon and the Dancin’ Nancys after seeing them at a book reading.
“She took her poems and set them to music. That was very interesting to me, and I thought the students would love this,” Weber said. “I thought it would also expand their thinking of poetry.”
Other writers scheduled for this semester—Allison Joseph and David Shumate—are also poets. Next semester, fiction writers Kathy Day, John Green and Doug Crandall will visit the campus to share their stories. All of the writers chosen this year have some connection to Indiana.
Weber said that she not only brings writers here for the students to think more creatively but also for herself, and for the community to grow as well.
“By having professional writers here, the creative writing classes take a quantum leap [and] the students are inspired to start writing,” she said. “Having the authors here is like a blood transfusion. I get ideas from these writers for my own personal development. I also bring them because it brings people in from the community and makes UIndy more visible to Indianapolis.”
