The University of New Haven’s College of Arts and Sciences, along with the English Department and NAACP, hosted Creative Arts for Social Change on Thursday, February 2, where performance and poetry took the stage leaving the audience speechless.

The night began with Sierrah Smalls, W.R.I.T.E Poetry Club’s President and senior at the University, performing an original poem, which led to playwright and OBIE award winning, Robbie McCauley’s, monologue from her play Sugar. McCauley began her piece with a woman recounting moments from her childhood during the 1960s in the South with compelling lines such as, “Change for us meant better for us.”

The piece flowed effortlessly into an account of battling diabetes early in life, which she referred to as The Sugar. The Sugar, which had affected the woman’s college career, and later her work, proved to be a difficult battle to combat, as insulin was hard to acquire as a Black woman during this time. As McCauley took to the stage, using only her body and a black chair as a prop, the monologue revealed that McCauley herself is the woman to which she’s referring to in Sugar.

McCauley revealed that Sugar is a personal story that delves into how diabetes made her work in the theatre challenging, yet she allowed nothing to stand in her way.

Following McCauley, poet, mother, and daughter of a civil rights activist, Jacqueline Trimble, ignited the room with her fiery poetry and profound accounts of her encounters with injustice.

Trimble states, “Writing is always an act of a resistance,” and resist she did with the poems recited from her book, “American Happiness.” Pieces such as, “Another Thing To Worry About,” and “No Child Left Behind,” touched upon police brutality, white privilege, memories of the Ku Klux Klan and the discrimination Trimble faced as a child growing up in Montgomery, Alabama.

Trimble’s poetry collection “American Happiness” was on sale at the event, courtesy of the University’s Bookstore, to which the audience formed a line out the door to have signed by Trimble herself after the event.

James Brandon Lewis Trio, also known as JBL Trio, with the addition of guitarist, Anthony Pirong, filled the lounge with R&B, Experimental Jazz and 90’s Hip Hop as they performed songs from their 2015 album, No Filter. The audience danced along as the saxophonist, and lead performer, James Lewis, glided his fingers across the saxophone and led the event to a hearty close.

Brian Guski, a sophomore student at the University, found the Creative Arts for Social Change to be, “ a completely different experience” that left him surprised. Rebecca Morano, also a sophomore at the University, said she was “speechless” after the performances.

Dr. Randall Horton, Associate Professor in the English Department, with the assistance of Meg Savilonis, also an Associate Professor in the English and Theatre Department, organized this event after personally inviting all three performers to the University. Dr. Randall’s goal for the evening was to create a night with a focus on art and how art can represent social change. Between a profound monologue, riveting poetry and vigorous tunes, Dr. Randall’s goal was achieved.

The College of Art’s and Sciences seeks to continue with their events throughout the semester with talks such as, “What Can We Expect From a Trump Presidency” and Black History Month Screenings: “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.”

To find out more about the College of Arts and Sciences events, head over to www.newhaven.edu to discover more engaging and thought-provoking events.