Creative writing visiting assistant professor Marcus Wicker is new to MSU this year and is integrating new ideas with students.

“Oftentimes folks engage art, but not in a written format and not in a written format for other folks to see, and so I thought it would be sort of unique to engage passersby with visual art and then writing about art,” Wicker said.

Wicker said the purpose of the project was to creatively install art on campus. Some of the poems and artwork included work about Donald Trump and social justice issues.

“It takes a sort of level of bravery to put yourself out there,” Wicker said. “From a teaching perspective, I find that students often revise their poems harder when they know that other people will be looking at them.”

Wicker said he hopes to spread the word about poetry through this project.

“I think this nation has this idea about poetry sort of being in the Ivory Towers when that is not the case,” Wicker said. “Poetry is for the every man and the every woman and the more we can get language objects in front of people, the more people will not be so disillusioned about their ideas to poetry and art.”

Wicker spent time at the University of Southern Indiana before coming to MSU. He said the students at MSU seem to be very involved with the arts.

“I find the students at Michigan State seem more receptive to poetry and art, and I don’t know if that is a function of the high schools that they went to or their parents but it has been pretty phenomenal,” Wicker said. “They are very open-minded and willing to engage whatever text I throw at them and whatever ideas I put out.”

English sophomore Anntaninna Biondo is in Wicker’s introduction to poetry class. She said she has been in love with writing since the second grade.

“My poem is up outside of the MSU Union where the women’s lounge used to be, which is now where the general lounge is,” Biondo said.

Her poem is a social justice piece inspired by the women’s lounge change, focused on feminism.

“It was inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem (‘And Still I Rise'),” Biondo said. “After the election I was feeling sad and I watched her read that poem and it made me smile. It is kind of like an ode to Maya Angelou.”

Biondo said she hopes people walk away feeling hopeful after reading her poem.

“It is kind of a sad poem, but I still hope they feel a little bit of hope realizing that if they are carrying the same weight that they are not alone,” Biondo said. “It feels like everybody else as a country didn’t want the same things that they wanted, but there are still a lot of us who are with them.”

Mechanical engineering sophomore Demetria Webster said her piece is on display at the MSU Union.

“I like that in poetry there is no right or wrong answer for it,” Webster said. “We can write about anything, you can write about your own experiences.”