Coming to Hamline all the way from sunny Florida, Kyla Lacey shares her influential stories through poetry. She has traveled the college circuit across over 20 different states, and has been nominated for and won several awards, including the APCA’s Poet of the Year. A lot of the topics that she focuses on involve issues of domestic violence, relationship struggles and much more. When asked what first got her into performing her poetry, Lacey set the truth free.

“I did it for a boy. I just wanted to get him back and impress him with my work. It didn’t work.”

According to Lacey, there isn’t a huge difference between spoken and written poetry, though she joked during her show that she was the best at both styles. She did explain that she believes her written work is even better than the products she performs, but it all starts out the same way.

“When you first start out, you just can’t get enough. You don’t want to eat or sleep. It’s kind of like being in a new relationship. Eventually you get kinda tired of it. The better you get, the less you want to write,” Lacey explained. “The passion the poet has for writing lessens as time goes on and the less they feel the need to prove themselves to people. It’s when someone cries from the power of the poem or a personal connection they feel to the piece that is the most satisfying to me.”

Though she has a lot of favorite poems, the one that has had the biggest effect on her is called “Unfairtility” in which Mother Nature has two daughters, the younger of whom is fertile but doesn’t want children, and the older daughter is infertile and wants nothing more than a child. At the time, Lacey had a close middle-aged friend who had been trying fertility treatments for a long time, but had been having no success.

“I was having a really hard time writing the ending to the piece. One day I went to visit my friend and ended up reading it to her, at which point she started bawling; it had affected her that much. It was on my way home that the perfect ending finally hit me. Now it’s my favorite piece to read and perform.”

Though she did not perform the piece at Friday’s event, she wanted to invite readers to go view her poems online to see for themselves what she’s all about. After Hamline, she is traveling around the state of Minnesota for a couple of more weeks before moving on to a different area of the country. Overall, the night ended up being a huge success for both Lacey and the university Programming Board, who put on the recurring Coffeehouse Series on the 20th.

This is the second time this year that HUPB has brought a spoken word poet to campus after the huge success of the first time. As the event came to a close, Anna Benker, a sophomore at Hamline and the Late Night Programmer for HUPB, explained her role in bringing Lacey to campus.

“I first saw Kyla last year at a convention for college campus events in St. Paul. Kyla stood out among the other performers because she has very personal and passionate connection with her poems. She brings a unique perspective to issues like domestic violence, relationship trials and much more. My coworkers and I all agreed that she would be a great fit for Hamline. We also hope to bring more artists and performers like Kyla in the future, as there seems to be a growing want for it among the students.”

If you didn’t get the chance to see Lacey in action, her information (including upcoming tour dates) can be found at www.bass-schuler.com/kyla-lacey. Information on other performers coming to Hamline can be found by following HU-Programming Board’s Facebook page, or by contacting entertainment.hupb@gmail.com .