The Multicultural Center will hold its final Another Type of Groove (ATOG) event of the school year on Wednesday at the Performing Arts Pavilion. For the 10th year anniversary show, ATOG founder Mark Fabionar will be the featured guest of the spoken-word poetry event.
Fabionar said he started the event as a way to interchange ideas, inspire and share through spoken-word poetry.
“We were creating a space or container where voices can be heard and expressed. So that was the intention — it wasn’t just to put on a show,” Fabionar said.
In his time at Cal Poly as the Multicultural Center director and ethnic studies lecturer 10 years ago, Sacramento-native Fabionar was already familiar with the poetry community, mainly through performances around Sacramento and in his time as an undergraduate and graduate student at University of California, Santa Cruz. Fabionar said he came up with ATOG because he wanted to ignite a live poetry scene at Cal Poly.
“This school is amazing in terms of its focus on external things, like ag, architecture and engineering,” Fabionar said. “But there needed to be something in the internal world. So I thought it would be a good idea to start a leadership program that was driven by poetry.”
With the help of student assistants and resources at the Multicultural Center and Student Life and Leadership program, he started the monthly event that featured one guest poet, and also had an open mic session where students could share their work.
“We’d bring in a featured poet, one of the top slam poets in the country — poets who have been on HBO or poets who do it as a living,” Fabionar said. “The format was to have open mic — let it be run by students, and we’d bring in a featured poet that could serve as something to inspire.”
In its 10-year run, ATOG has garnered a following of over 200 students attending the event held on the first Wednesday of each month. Environmental engineering sophomore Kando Ogunrinola, who is a volunteer at the Multicultural Center, said she enjoys the open mic segment of the night.
“It’s just really interesting. There’s so many people on campus that have talent that you would never guess, like, it’s that excessive. You’re like, ‘Oh whoa, where did that come from?’” Ogunrinola said.
The event aims to celebrate and expose diversity on campus. Architectural engineering senior Josue Urrutia, who has been the coordinator for ATOG for the past two years, said he enjoys bringing big names in slam poetry to Cal Poly.
“It’s cool, just because you see these poets and you hear about them, and to see them live — to see them here, it’s completely different. A lot of poets only do certain pieces live. You’re not going to be able to see that off YouTube videos or anything else,” Urrutia said.
Urrutia said he is also impressed with the hidden talent among students.
“There’s a few college kids who write like they were pros,” Urrutia said. “Then you have regulars who are there pretty often, then you have people that are new and kind of scared for the first time. It’s a good mix.”
Another Type of Groove encourages all students and faculty to share their poetry during open mic. Fabionar said the openness in expression is the best part of live poetry.
“When you do that publicly, it’s kind of like a right of passage in how students understand who they are. I think we all feel something deeper, impulses that need to be given a voice,” Fabionar said.
Fabionar wants to encourage the mix of students to not only read their poetry, but to also use their bodies and emotions to get their point across.
“My favorite poets are really in their bodies. Even if they’re reading the poems for the first time, when they feel connected to the work and they’re showing it, you can tell that they’re really feeling emotion. That’s what I like to see,” Fabionar said.
Students also like to see poets put attitude into their readings. Biomedical engineering freshman Brittany Usher said one of her favorite shows was with featured poet Thea Monyee, who made use of the audience’s feedback, and was a friend of her godmother’s.
“She was the March poet, and February is Black History Month and she was black, and March is Woman’s History Month and she’s a woman. She had a lot of funny points that any woman, no matter what color you are, could relate to. And she fed a lot off the audience,” Usher said.
Race and humor are just some of the themes that the performers utilize in their poetry. Fabionar said he’s inspired by everyday topics in his poetry, such as love, family and spirituality.
“I think I’m inspired by the main themes of the main kind of human conditions. The things I like to hit on are things that have to do with love, things having to do with loss, things that have to do with triumph and struggle, a span of relationships, work relationships, you know, a variety of different things,” Fabionar said. “Those are the main themes we touch on because those are universal.”
Currently, Fabionar is using poetry and spoken word as a tool for human growth in “The Inflection Point Project,” an organization he founded to deliver human potential workshops and performances in California and Guatemala.
“It uses poetry and spoken word as a vehicle for engagement,” Fabionar said. “That’s been in the works for a bit now because of what’s going on in Iran and some of the challenges we’ve been putting up with, so we’re still working on it.”
Yet Fabionar still practices poetry in his free time as an outlet to both share his feelings and inspire listeners.
“There are a number of people who feels things deeply, but don’t express it. When a poet does that, it can resonate with the people who are bearing witness to the poem. It can be a type of healing,” Fabionar said.
For the final event of the year, Urrutia is anticipating a packed show and said he is looking forward to hearing Fabionar’s deep style.
“I know his poetry is pretty deep in thought. You kinda have to sit back and think about it. It’s pretty well thought-out,” Urrutia said.
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and is in the Performing Arts Pavilion, room 128. It is free and open to the public.