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President Benjamin Fisher presided over the in person/Zoom meeting at Hillel UCLA. Benjamin began the meeting by recognizing the 5 online attendees PP Ron Lyster, PP Marsha Hunt, PP Steve Scherer, PP Chris Bradford, Carol Rosenstein, and John O’Keefe. He reminded us that the 2024/2025 Rotary theme this year is “Magic of Rotary”.
President Benjamin thanked Nanci Cohen for greeting. As Phil Gabriel was not onsite, President Benjamin led the pledge, and Christine Clayburg shared her thought for the day. She told us everyone was a musician and in quoting the singer Adele, she said “Keep your hearts safe and your music dangerous.” That led to introducing PP Ed Gauld for the song of the day and in honor of President’ s Day and wearing a civil war hat, he led a trio in singing the, "Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Past President Ed Gauld led the singing of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with the help Benjamin and Past President Gordon Fell.
Guests included Harry Jerrod from the Westwood Village business community, Zachary Foster of the UCLA Rotaract club, and Barbara Schneeweiss, PP Mark Rogo’s assistant at Compass.
January Rotarian Birthdays included PP Ron Lyster 8th, Dave Stover 27th and Moshen Babaeian 27th.
January Rotarian Wedding Anniversaries included Diane Good and Frank Smith 35 years, Sunda Croonquist and Mark Zafrin 29 years, Philip Gabriel and Lisa Chapman 28 years, Bob Simon and Amy Smith 22 Years, and Samuel Botbol and Valeria Espinoza 2 years.
Today’s speaker Gubnit ni Dhuiun (Denise for short) speaking on “Why Poetry Matters” was introduced by Past President Tom Barron. Denise holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in literature and languages from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and Oxford University in England. She has led the 826LA Program at the Hammer Museum: Poetry to Save the Planet, which teaches 8–14-year-olds the process of creating poetry. She has over a decade of lecturing at Ivy League institutions. She currently teaches a course entitled “Comprehending Life through the Medium of Poetry” in the creative aging program at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
Why does poetry matter? It matters because as a form of creative writing, it allows us to express ourselves, process our feelings, and understand the world better. It is a form of communication that can be comforting and boost our spirits. It can help build empathy as it helps us understand the thoughts of others and gain new perspectives. It also helps build literacy skills with reading comprehension and storytelling skills. It helps to channel the imagination, especially in small children's writing to express their feelings.
During her speech Denise shared a couple examples of poetry and used examples of how we say thing in English versus how we say the same things in poetry. Poetry is important in our lives and should be read daily in the morning.
It was a beautiful presentation on Valentine’s Day.
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