The revolution has begun! Or at least it did, for two hours, a couple Tuesdays ago, on the top floor of the Humanities building.

“It’s a collective movement,” said revolution organizer and poetry MFA Chad Sweeney.

“It’s a cross-pollination of different kinds of minds.”

It also involved some plates of sliced cheese and a case of red wine. The choice of red being appropriately Bohemian.

The revolution, for the time being, took the form of poetry and appropriately took place in the Poetry Center. From 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 7 the first session of the new weekly Velvet Revolution began. The event, which was initiated by four SF State students, aims to showcase the recent work of student
poets, authors and playwrights.

At first the wine bottles sat full, and the open-mic sign-up sheet sat empty, along with many of the chairs. But after several poems, including one involving random shouts from numerous audience members, the list quickly began to fill, the wine just as quickly began to spill, and the newcomers who were reluctantly clustered around the door, burst in and snatched the seats.

One of the purposes of the Velvet Revolution is to feature weekly the work of one undergraduate and one graduate student. After a reading from each, the microphone is opened to the floor for anyone anxiously awaiting their 15 minutes of fame – or 15 seconds depending on the length of the work. With experimental poetry nothing is ever really certain.

The idea for the Velvet Revolution began, Sweeney explained, with a personal revolution of his own. At the launch party of a literary publication he produced, Sweeney watched as numbers of people from varying backgrounds gathered to discuss literature, art and life. So moved and empowered by the gathering, Sweeney wished to extend the possibility elsewhere.

The inception of such a gathering is perhaps revolutionary in itself at the university. According to Maxine Chernoff, chair of the creative writing department, although somewhat similar events have been held in the past, what is unique about the Velvet Revolution is its regular reoccurrence and its effort to bring undergraduate and graduate students together.

“A lot of times the two groups see themselves as very separate,” she said. “It’s nice to have the cooperation, it provides more of a possible audience and people turn out to see their peers.”

Creative writing undergraduate Rose Haynes, who also founded the Velvet Revolution along with Aaron Green La Fleur and Susanna Kittredge, saw the event unique for another reason.

“Most reading series, if they exist at all, focus only on well known writers,” she said. “The focus here is on students at SF State.”

“What’s wrong with the Poetry Center is that there’s not enough honor given to the students,” said Sweeney. “The honor is given to famous poets who are invited in. They’re paid to come in, they’re filmed, they’re archived, the students are merely consumers, they come and watch, that’s it.”

“The undergraduates especially are not active in this process,” he said. “They don’t even know what the Poetry Center is. And it’s a marvelous resource. The largest poetry archive in North America is right here in this building, and who knows about it, who knows where it is - hardly anyone. The idea of the Velvet Revolution was to activate it,” just like the actual revolution did to the Czech Republic.

In 1989 the historic Velvet Revolution, a non-violent movement led by many artists and authors such as Vaclav Havel, took down the country’s Communist government.

“It’s the idea of the possibility of writers and artists in general helping to bring about that change in consciousness,” said Haynes. “The act of doing something artistic is to a certain extent a political act.”

Sweeney has currently applied for $2300 to support approximately 40 programs he is working on for the department, 26 of which will be these weekly student showcases. Chernoff said that regular money donated by alumni might also be provided to support the programs.