Inside WWU’s Poets and Lyricists Society

On bi-weekly Monday evenings, students at Western Washington University gather in the Underground Coffeehouse on campus. They gradually fill up the couches and tables and take seats on the floor in front of the stage. The coffeehouse is usually filled to capacity. Cacophonous chatter and the clinking of coffee cups come to a pause when the co-president of WWU’s Poets and Lyricists Society (PALS) steps on stage. Anna Marie Yanny welcomes everybody to the open mic, presents simple guidelines for the evening and mentions that PALS meets on Thursday evenings and any student is welcome to attend. She then invites performers from the sign-up sheet to the stage, one by one, to present their poetry.