The second-place winner of the 2019 Individual World Poetry Slam read poetry about death and racism to the audience of the last Amaranth Coffeehouse on Thursday.

Baltimore slam poet Mecca Verdell, also known as  Meccamorphosis, read poems about the death of a friend, racism in modern society and negative treatment from various people in her life.

“I thought [the event] was really nice.” Verdell said. “Everyone really enjoyed it [and] people felt very into it and that’s all I could really ask for.”

Fanta Nickerson, a third-year secondary English education student, said it was “really moving. I know she said she wanted everyone to clap during it, but I kind of felt like frozen whenever she was talking,”

Verdell said that the reactions of audiences members like Fanta did not surprise her.

“I think some people don’t know what to expect, especially when it comes to poetry, because not a lot of people do a lot of different types of performance poetry,” she said

The AACC literary magazine Amaranth and the Campus Activities Board, co-hosted the event.

Jennifer Arnold, the Publicity Manager for Amaranth said, “I think we need to have more [performances] like Meccamorphosis.”

She added, “The conversation on this campus is a little one-sided sometimes and we need to hear other voices even when they don’t have the most comfortable things to say. Change doesn’t happen when you’re cozy. Change happens when something pushes you and I think this campus needs to be pushed more.”

Second-year creative writing student Mitchell Santos, Editor-in-Chief of Amaranth, said the club may do more events with Verdell and a possible poetry workshop in the near future.

After the poetry reading, students performed in the open mic typically held during Coffeehouse.