Poetry reading in honor of women's worth

"Crescendo," the poetry reading presented by Matrix and the Bloomington Area Arts Council, took place 7 p.m. Thursday in the John Waldron Arts Center's Firebay Theatre. People finishing up with midterms and wanting to relax had an opportunity to go to the Poetry Series celebrating of National Women's Month and International Women's Day.\nPoets including Jada Barbry, Lora Wagers, Breshaun-B. Joyner and Carrie Spadter performed. The event was a way to enjoy the essence of modern poetry.\n"It is a way to showcase emerging poets alongside more established performers on one of the most visible and popular stages in the Bloomington community," said Tony Brewer, senior editor of the poetry group Matrix. \nMatrix was founded in December 1998 to give poets the opportunity to express their work through open mics, contests and poetry slams. Since then, it has developed into a diverse range of poetry with music and art as an accessory to the reading. It started the Matrix Poetry Series last year.\nThe Bloomington Area Arts Council (BAAC) is a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes the arts of Monroe, Owen, Brown, Greene and Lawrence counties.\n"(The) BAAC likes to have a diverse offering and felt that the poetries presented met that diversity," said Allison Batty, the Performing Arts Director of BAAC.\nOther performances feature musicals and theater by local, regional and national artists.\nBarbry is one of the poets who performed last night. She has done other poetry readings with Matrix and won the Midwestern Writing Conference award at Western University. Her inspiration to become a poet was stimulated by writers such as Ani DiFranco, Anne Sexton and Charles Bukowski.\nWagers also performed last night. She is a member of Matrix as well as a poetry reader for Crescendo. She is the co-host of the monthly open mics and was in charge of the Words on Wheels poetry contest for Matrix last year, which she hopes to run again this summer.\n"I like to shape language, to work with it like numbers -- adding here, subtracting there, multiplying adjectives until I realize I've gone overboard," Wagers said.\nBoth poets said they have a great love for what they do.