Claire Oliver
Managing editor
Gearing up for the release of its annual publication, CAMAS has joined forces with the Linfield Literary Arts Club and the Writing Center to sponsor a weeklong celebration of words May 18-22.
Word Week, which began May 18 with a trip to Powell’s Used Books in Portland, invited students to participate in a variety of activities involving language and literature.
Organizers also collected donations of children’s books for the Start Making a Reader Today program throughout the week.
Planners hosted a narrative open-mic night May 19 called “Storytime,” where participants could listen to and share stories by their favorite authors or of their own creation.
Those who attended Word Olympics on May 20 tested their skills at word games, such as Balderdash, Taboo and Scrabble.
Word Week’s organizers said they wanted to have the chance to bring their members together collectively.
Senior Thomas Ross, co-editor of CAMAS and the creator of the LLAC, said events were also planned with the goal of raising awareness on campus for the student groups.
Faculty also provided inspiration in reaching this goal.
The idea for May 21’s theater presentations of “Leaving,” by Vaclav Havel, for
example, emerged after Ross and sophomore Lauren Funtanilla, fellow CAMAS co-editor and Word Week organizer, read work in their Diverse Voices course, taught by Josef Jařab, Renshaw’s distinguised scholar in the humanties.
Havel himself was a dissenter in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, and, after the Velvet Revolution, he became president both of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic.
After Jařab’s hospitalization Apil 26, Ross said the professor’s son helped prepare the performance.
Providing additional publicity for the magazine’s release, Funtanilla said the group used some unconventional advertising to further spread the word.
The group “poetry bombed” campus May 21, decorating Linfield’s sidewalks with chalk-written quotes from student works.
Word Week caps off May 22 with a Literary Costume Ball, to be held in Melrose 210 and 215 following the CAMAS reading at 5 p.m. in the Austen Reading Room.
The ball is back by popular demand after its success last fall. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite authors or characters.
Funtanilla said she and a friend won the costume competition last semester by
coming as Anna Karenina and the train that killed her.
Organizers said they hope to see similar creativity this time around.
Though this is Word Week’s inaugural year, those involved said they hope to make it an annual event. Ross said the CAMAS staff was particularly proud of this year’s issue and that last week’s preview reading was well-received.
“We wanted to spread the joy of language,” he said. “Especially English.”