The Department of World Languages hosted an International Women’s Day poetry reading on March 23.

The event lasted from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Luke’s Landing in the Student Union.

There were a selection of poems written by women all around the world.

The poems were read by Mercyhurst students as well as faculty and staff. The poetry reading was planned by Alice Edwards, Ph.D.

“Dr. Edwards planned the event and asked students to read poetry at the reading. It was women-inspired, not language-specific,” said Allison Siegmann, a junior intelligence studies and Spanish double major. “She always asks students to do things for extra credit, but it gets us involved.”

Edwards made it a point to have poems written by women of different backgrounds. She had the poems sprawled out on a table in case anyone wanted to read a poem but didn’t bring their own.

“She tried to include poets of different ethnicities from around the world; there were a few Ukrainian poems and Russian poems, Latin American and Spanish, and I think there were poems by U.S. authors, too. Dr. Edwards is the biggest feminist I know. She’s so passionate about equal rights,” Siegmann said.

Having the poetry reading was an enlightening way to ob-serve National Women’s History Month. Not only did it offer differing perspectives, but also gave participants a chance to reflect.

“It kind of brings different perspectives into light, because you don’t always think about how in other countries women aren’t allowed to drive, or they don’t have equal trans rights,” Siegmann said.

“It seems like in the U.S. we are so closed in on our own perspectives that having the poetry reading shows us that we don’t have it too bad, though there is room for change everywhere.”