Lauren Dolgen ’97, Amy Kaufman ’01 and Marjorie Light ’06 share their thoughts on thinking outside the box at Pitzer and beyond.

Marjorie Light ’06 | Poet

Marjorie Light is making noise all over town with her stunning poetry.

Most recently, Light participated in the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC) Poetry Slam in San Pedro, California. Having begun in Chicago during the ’80s, the Poetry Slam is designed to combine performance poetry with the atmosphere of sports competition. Each performer goes through a series of rounds, going head to head with another poet, in hopes of avoiding elimination and remaining the “last one standing.”

This poetry style is based on Balagtasan, a traditional Philippine art form in which Filipino artists stood before an audience and debated various topics ranging from political to philosophical. Light has been writing and using poetry to express herself for many years. In her zine, Some Misplaced Joan of Arc, she writes, “I started this zine . . . at the tender age of fifteen when I was just starting to discover that writing and art were powerful tools in the transformation and empowerment of self and community.”

In the zine, Light expresses more than just a talent for poetry; she utilizes collage, list-making, story telling, photography and drawing. She also gives her audience an insight into who she is as a person and as a minority in her essay, “What Does it Mean to be Filipino?”

While at Pitzer, Light studied abroad in Darjeeling, India, and created two of her own majors; Women of Color Art and Activism, and World Performance Traditions.

“I felt that I was always headed in a creative direction, and I used my time at Pitzer as an opportunity to delve deeper into my existing
interests,” Light explained. “Learning about all these issues in an academic setting further validated me and reinforced the importance of
continuing on my path.”

—Jaime Swarthout ’09