By Angelina Tang
On Thursday, April 18th, during 6th and 7th period, the annual East Poetry, Music, Art, and Dance (PMAD) Festival (albeit without any dance acts) was held in the auditorium for an audience of primarily artists, poets, musicians, and a number of English classes. Students came up to the podium to read their poems while artwork based off their verses was projected on the screen. Any poems with a musical composition accompanying them would be followed by a performance of that piece. The event was hosted by Mr. Huber, Mrs. Lumb, and the East Literary Digest editors Pen Fang, Isabella Gu, and Angelina Tang.
Students of all grade levels, including both accomplished and emerging writers or composers, shared their work with the crowd. Nineteen poets were featured, including Grace Zheng, who read her work “Return to Equilibrium.” She originally wrote the poem in English class for an assignment to write poetry based on a scientific term. When she happened upon the word equilibrium, she says, “I decided I could make a poem about how difficult times eventually become better, kind of like a comfort for myself since I know how it feels when things get overwhelming.” On the day of the event, she says that she felt a little nervous, but once she started reading, she started to get into the work more. “I hope people recognized the metaphor of life in the poem, because yes, it is about an ecosystem, but I want people to get the larger picture of how life has a mix of good and bad.” She is also honored that people were inspired by her work and drew artwork based on it!
What’s unique about the PMAD festival is that it is one of the few times throughout the year in which multiple mediums are explored in conjunction with one another–the other is Winterfest, in which art is put up for appreciation in the Commons for the concert intermission, and even that hardly counts as interdisciplinary. Music composition based on poetry is vastly different from standard composition; the imagery of the poem has to come alive in the notes. For example, for Eli Feldstein’s piano composition based on “Desert and Taiga” by Grace Li, the many runs felt akin to a tiger running through the woods, as the poem illustrated.
In addition, the Literary Digest editors took a moment to celebrate and advertise their own club and some out-of-school opportunities, including the Albright Knox Gallery for artists and the Just Buffalo Literary Center for writers. This year’s festival was fantastic overall, with an amazing amount of musical, artistic, and literary talent. Next year, we hope to see a dance act or two, in addition to all the amazing work we heard and saw on April 18th. We are also hoping to start advertising the event sooner, so that everybody has more time to create and prepare.
