ROL hosts events one Sunday night per month and features both Ball State and Muncie poets. Students can like Reacting Out Loud on Facebook for updates on when the next event is or if they are interested in reading.
Editor's note: Levi Todd is a former employee of the Daily News.
Reacting Out Loud, a monthly poetry open mic event open to the Muncie community and Ball State students, hosted its first event of 2016 at Two Cats Cafe on Jan. 10.
Although Two Cats is not officially open yet, Levi Todd, a sophomore English major and founder of ROL, works at Damask Cafe, which is owned by the same person as Two Cats. ROL has been hosted one Sunday per month at The Cup since April 2015, but the number of attendees began to exceed The Cup’s capacity.
“I started ROL because I didn't think Muncie had enough places for poets to build a community," Todd said. "We intentionally utilize venues in the Village so that students without cars can get there easily and Muncie folks don't have to feel like they're unwelcome on campus. [My boss] mentioned that he wanted to host readings and music performances at the new location, and I jumped at the opportunity.”
Todd said while Ball State hosts several one-time events focused around writing, they weren’t open to the public or specifically for poetry. Todd said his goal is to “bring the community together to support the poetic talent that's in Muncie and to build a welcoming space for people to share their work and meet other poets.”
Taylor Davis, a senior zoology major, performed her poem “Before and After” as a first-time reader for ROL. Davis said she has always been a performer, and after she wrote the piece, she contacted Todd, who works at the climbing wall in the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center with Davis.
“I love performing and being on stage," Davis said. "[The poem] just came to me and I needed to share it."
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