The Chicano Writers and Artists Association, a collection of writers from Fresno State, hosted a reading as a part of the Fresno Rogue Festival on Friday night. The pieces in the show included poetry, short works of fiction and essays.

The event took place at the Spectrum Gallery. It started at 8:45 p.m. and ran for less than an hour. The small gallery held about 25 people comfortably.

The organization is made up of Fresno State students and professors. President Erin Alvarez said the organization’s aim is to “get the faces of students out and have the community meet them.”

The event began with a quick introduction by Alvarez and was followed by a short reading by local poet Gabriel Ibarra.

Ibarra set the tone for the evening as he read three deeply personal poems about the connections between baseball and his own life. The first dealt with him as a young man watching baseball, the second was a strong, dark piece connected to an aluminum baseball bat and the last piece was about his first baseball glove.

Cody Hoover, a Fresno State student, was the second reader of the night and followed the tone set by the Ibarra. Hoover read a highly personal piece about his grandmother’s final days as she suffered from cancer. The piece had a balance of humor and heartache to keep the listeners hanging on every word.

Melanie Kachadoorian followed and read a piece about a young woman dealing with her desire to “infiltrate a catholic church.”

Sally Vogl, a member of the master’s program of creative writing at Fresno State, followed Kachadoorian and read a short set of poems that dealt with a wide range of topics including childhood toys, a cheating husband and middle-age dating.

Fresno State professor John Hales closed the event with a short piece about his early experiences as a teacher and a humorous run-in with Hell’s Angels.

The event served as a way to showcase local artists to let their work be known.

This was the fourth time the group held an event at the Rogue Festival, and it plans to continue next year.