Ellington

“This is not a heart / it’s a volume knob,” UW senior Jillian Skeen read into a microphone yesterday afternoon in Red Square as she led a group of students in a flash mob inspired by this year’s Common Book.

Everyone’s volume knobs were turned up as they read together from Ken Arkind’s poem “An Experiment in Noise, in A Sharp Major” during an afternoon passing period. About 100 people gathered around Skeen to speak, standing still amid the regular bustle between classes in Red Square.

Students passing through Red Square stopped to watch and hear the reading.

“It’s nice hearing it aloud when everything around is moving so quickly,” said Sarah Hu, a senior who attended the event, after the poem ended.

Skeen’s mother, Pam, agreed.

“[The performance] evoked a lot more emotion than reading it,” she said.

Skeen created the flash mob for her independent study class within the English department and used Facebook and word of mouth to get people involved. The Facebook event page describes a flash mob as “an event where a large group of people … ‘spontaneously’ perform a preplanned action at the same time, to the confusion of everyone around.”

Even though this was a class assignment, Skeen said she was “definitely getting into it” as the event drew near.

“It’s a lot of fun. I love the poem; I love everything about it,” she said. “I want people to take ownership; I don’t want this to be me reading the poem out loud. I want people to feel empowered by it.”

The author of the poem, Arkind, feels the same way: The poem is meant to be read out loud.

“I think the poem says the most important thing about itself — to stand up for yourself,” he said before the event. He thought the flash mob event was a great idea, too.

“It’s really exciting,” he said. “I’m really interested to hear what it sounds like.”

Both Skeen and Arkind would agree the poem’s message is self-empowerment. Four lines near the end capture the main idea: “So shatter the silence and proclaim yourself, / turn up your melody so loudly that they never forget, / and hand the world your name, / like it was a gift.”

Arkind sums up the message of the poem in a more lighthearted way: “Be loud as often as possible,” he said. “If someone tells you to stop playing with your food, don’t.”

Skeen’s alternative approach to the poem was an effort to reach out to the campus community.

“Nobody reads the Common Book, which is why [the selection committee] did something totally different [by choosing] the poetry anthology,” she said.

Junior Emily Vandervort had not heard very much about the Common Book, but she said the flash mob definitely piqued her interest.

“It was really powerful,” she said. “I thought it was cool that [Skeen] was getting a big group of people to do something unusual.”

Other ideas Skeen developed for the class’ Common Book project include showing a video of the flash mob to Freshmen Interest Groups and hosting more Common Book events throughout the year. For the same assignment, another student in her class presented “An Experiment in Noise, in A Sharp Major” through a video of the softball team reciting the poem.

Skeen said that through the flash mob, she wanted “to get people asking about the Common Book.”

“It’s for the community,” she said. “The UW administration is aware of what is going on, and they’re excited, too.”

While inclement weather kept some would-be participants from attending, Skeen still saw the event as a success.

“It went pretty well, given the rain,” Skeen said. “I’m just glad people came and spoke.”

This may not be the last time the flash mob is seen on campus, Skeen said.

“Afterwards, I was talking to one of the student ambassadors, and we might plan a similar event and stage it somewhere else.”

Reach contributing writer Anna Chatilo at development@dailyuw.com.