Voices of the World

Here at Ohrstrom, we are very lucky to have a great group of proctors who come in the evenings to help the librarians with various tasks, from shelving books to working the main desk. In celebration of National Poetry Month, our two head proctors – Julia Koeman and Jenny Qu – created a display of international poets. Here is what they had to say about it:

“This April, join us in celebrating National Poetry Month with a display of poetry books from across many cultures and continents. 

In our display, we feature a range of poems, from Margaret Atwood’s Dearly to Pablo Neruda’s All the Odes, and we highlight how poetry has a transformative utilitarian purpose in breaking boundaries and spanning humanity. We invite you to engage with the poetry books on display from China, Germany, India, Iraq, and more, all while recognizing the blend of voices and celebrating the themes, emotions, and narratives that tie us together despite our differences. 

Poetry functions as more than just words on a page; poetry reforms cultures, builds empathy, and intersects histories. When we think of promoting global poets such as Neruda and Atwood alongside lesser-known poets, we want to inspire curious minds to appreciate the art of poetry in revealing our differences and our shared humanity. We invite you to experience the beauty of the poems, the production of poetry itself, and how poetry creates identity and understanding of self and others, one stanza at a time!”  🌍✨