Moving stories brought to smith chapel

Students gathered for moving readings by Mecca Sullivan at the Smith Chapel this past week. Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D., is the author of the short story collection, Blue Talk and Love (2015). She has other works on sexuality, identity, and poetics in contemporary African diaspora culture, and they appear in many publications from Zora Magazine, TheRoot.com, Ms. Magazine online, and the Feminist Wire. Sullivan especially has a passion for the lives of young black women and puts her voice about this material through intellectual writings and short stories. Around fifty students took the seats to listen in on a few of Sullivan’s insightful stories this past Thursday. These students had different backgrounds with majors ranging from english to political science.

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Sullivan read her stories and writings with strong language and a powerful voice to grab listeners attention. As students gathered in the chapel, the interest of these stories were more than intriguing. Sullivan spoke for about an hour and was able to capture her listeners attention the entire time. With her intense dialogue and down to earth tone, she was able to give the students the feeling that they were actually there in the story. One story being about two lesbian african american girls who walk the streets of Brooklyn and get disrespected by a homeless man. This story was an attention-getter because of the dialogue.

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Penn State Behrend student, Abby Klemm, described this story.

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“It felt raw and she really gave you a visual of what the scenario was,” said Klemm.

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Sullivan provided words that took listeners to a place where every detail gave a profound visual of her stories. Not only did the stories really portray a visual for the audience, but the lesson of the story was just as powerful as the words used.

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Penn State Behrend Student, Nicol Ciotii, described the readings in whole.

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“A reality and clear vision of what inspires her most, “ Ciotti stated.

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Mecca Sullivan brings soul and integrity to vocalize her language and beliefs on young black women. Students and professors were left eager to hear more. While feeling her emotions through words, listeners were taught from a woman who has been through this herself.

The next reading event at the Smith Chapel will be a poetry reading from Mary Biddinger this Thursday at 6:00 pm.