The sixth annual LitHop event was held Saturday, Oct 14 in the Tower District. The literary festival ran from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and featured readers from all over California.
Co-founded by California Poet Laureate and FCC professor, Lee Herrick, the event was supported by California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CMAC was present to record the main event at Tower Yoga: Lotus Room. Other venues included the Alchemist Coffee Lab, Fresbrew and Hart’s Haven Used Bookstore among others.
All of the events were free. Despite being scheduled to start at 5 p.m. the event started late.
Herrick started the event by reading four poems, one of which was written for and to a Kurdish prisoner. His last poem was a food-themed, funny, light-hearted abecedarian poem meaning it used all of the letters of the alphabet.
The audience was enthusiastic.
Juan Luis Guzman, the vice chairman of the Selma Arts Council and former second director of LitHop from 2017-2019 introduced Juan Felipe Herrera, former California Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017.
Herrera’s first poem, “It’s a Free Poem” called for audience participation during which everyone was encouraged to echo the heartfelt lines he read about the state of the world and of the universe.
That specific poem was written on a piece of cardboard.
After the reading, Herrera gave the poem away to the first person who could guess a number between 1 and thirty-five. What followed was a rapid fire of audience guesses being shouted out at random until he heard the correct number, and the audience member was given the poem.
“Holler” was the next poem that Herrera read. He said the piece was written in honor of Tyree Nichols was beaten for three minutes by Memphis police and eventually died from his injuries in January. The piece focused on police violence.
Herrera appeared emotional during the reading of the poem and the atmosphere in the room briefly felt like a memorial or a wake. As Herrera spoke the names of the victims, he once again asked for audience participation and the names were echoed by the audience.
Herrera’s last poem was called “Pronouns Me” which was a tribute to LGBTQIA+ youth. During this emotionally charged reading, Herrera once again encouraged audience participation. He was once again met with active participants.
Ora Perdia, an English major at Fresno State, said she heard about LitHop from school and got to see one of her professors read at Hart’s Haven Bookstore.
“It was my favorite because it demonstrates why they’re doing this. It was my favorite because I’m learning from these people,” Perdia said.
Samantha Martinez, also an English major at Fresno State said that the event benefits the community in the sense that it provides a creative outlet.
“We’ve run into a lot of classmates,” Martinez said. “It feels like a community. You bump into these people in class or around school, but now you’re getting a chance to hear their work.”
