When told there was going to be a guest speaker who writes poetry I honestly expected to see a scrawny man with glasses with no interest in anything else but poetry. However, I was a hundred percent wrong. Instead there was a large, punk-rock looking man before me who had a strong passion for a music genre unpopular to most people.
Rich Stremme shared with the class his passion for a genre of music hidden from most people and considered to be “underground.” I enjoyed listening to Rich share his stories from his childhood and how he would sneak into his high school principal’s office to use a specific printer to make his own magazine based off of one published in a different state.
Although I expected to learn about Rich’s poetry and how he developed an interest in it, I enjoyed learning about Rich’s favorite music, graffiti, etc. even more. Rich kept his lecture interesting and engaging. By sharing stories of scandalous things he has done in the past he was able to connect to the younger audience. I feel if it was a lecture just based off his poetry students in the class wouldn’t have been as engaged or zoned out.
At the end of the lecture Rich made things even more interesting by introducing to the class a machine from the 1990’s that makes pins and allowed everyone in the class to make their own. Overall, this was one of my favorite guest speakers.
