Pace students gathered in Miller Lecture Hall on Tues. night to discuss the power of words, an event hosted by Sigma Lambda Upsilon (SLU).

Students were given a copy of Langston Hughes’ Poem “As I Grew Older” at the beginning of the evening allowing them to follow along while, SLU Executive board member Alyssa Jimenez read it aloud three times.

The poem discussed the struggle of growing older and the changes that are faced as one reaches for their dreams.

Participants were asked to mark lines or words within the poem that stood out during the second reading. Participants joined in by reading those lines that were marked during the final reading of the poem.

The room grew louder and softer through the reading as lines that impacted the entire room brought voices together.

“I was expecting to hear similar parts of the poem relate to different people, but I was not expecting the overpowering reaction from one line,“ Jimenez said. “It was powerful to have the entire room coming together and understanding that those words could mean something different to everyone.”

SLU member Elizabeth Acevedo’s spoken word was then presented which questioned the words that are used in daily life.

Acevedo described the powerful change that occurred following her education and assimilation back into her home neighborhood. If she spoke in the vernacular tongue she was seen as “pompous and exclusive,” but she is not unaware of the difficulties of her home neighborhood due to her education. She is still a “hustler,” able to see the struggle of those that did not receive the same education.

Many participants in the event were greatly moved by the representation of the power that words have on each other.

“We feel it is important to understand that words affect every person differently because each individual creates their own meaning of what the word means in a context,” SLU members said. “By learning an individual’s ideas and interpretations of a word, we learn about the way they think. It is important to have multimedia art in order to express feelings because every individual identifies with a different type of art.”

The event concluded with the addition of each participant’s words placed as if they were leaves on a tree mural. The words still attached to the tree represented the things that bring a person up, and those that were written below, as fallen leaves, were words that tear one down.

“Raising awareness is so important. I am grateful that I attend a university like Pace that can host forums and programs where people can express their feelings in a safe environment,” Jimenez said. “It allows people to grow and share together.”