Kyle Tran Myhre, often known by his stage name Guante, offered hope and understanding through poetry during his visit to UW last week.
Myhre served as the guest speaker for Denim Day on Wednesday, performed at Pokes Pub Wednesday night, and hosted a meet and greet Thursday morning in the union Skylight Lounge. He was also the featured speaker for UW Shepard Symposium on Social Justice’s Thursday evening event.
“Poetry is an amazing avenue for storytelling and we wanted to make sure we had an event that gave joy and hope in these uncertain times,” said Michelle Schomp, Shepard Symposium co-chair. Myhre’s performance for the Shepard Symposium took place in conjunction with Denim Day through UW’s Violence Prevention Center.
Myhre spoke about community, activism, and gratitude as he performed his poetry to many enthusiastic audience members.
“We are not alone in our weariness and in our grief and also in our unshakable commitment to each other,” Myhre said as he began his performance.
“I think different venues for Kyle to share about different topics has been really useful,” said Hannah Downey, Shepard Symposium co-chair. “ Kyle talks a lot about creativity and how we can express our ideology through creativity, and I think that’s a super valuable thing to talk about right now.”
The UW Shepard Symposium was founded in 1997 and engages participants in discussion and analyses of strategies and actions that can eliminate social inequality, as stated by their website.
“Shepard Symposium is really all about inquiry,” Allison Gernant, co-chair and UW faculty member said. “We love to inquire into societal issues, and a societal issue that really concerns us is violence, and the prevention of violence, and I think that concerns a lot of us.”
Downey offered further explanation.
“Our role is to bring attention and awareness to important topics of injustice that affect all of us,” Downey said. “It affects everyone on campus and in the wider community and how different people can show up and express their different areas of expertise in terms of those kinds of social topics.”
This week’s Denim Day and Shepard Symposium event worked to foster community, support and understanding through turbulent times here at UW.
“Through a lot of uncertain times on campus I feel like this event is really a good example of how community can still be found and people can come together to experience joy in that,” Downey said.
Myhre performed numerous poems, discussing the significance of art and the space it provides to explore ideas and issues. Gernant explained the importance of the power these sentiments hold here on campus at UW, and in the world beyond.
“Hate really has no place on our campus, hate doesn’t have any place in the world, and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that,” Gernant said.
