Thursday, June 28, 2012 By Natalie Soler
The stage in White Lecture Hall was home to the Flying Monkey Coffee House. - Brooke Smith
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On the second Wednesday of camp, White Lecture Hall transforms into the Flying Monkey Coffee House for Reader's Forum. When asked about the Flying Monkey, Mitch Cox recalls the sessions of DYWC five or six years ago in which going overtime was a dilemma. “Chip Moore, who was the academic director before me, instituted a two minute reading limit at readers forum because we had a problem with campers wanting to read on and on and not sharing time with other people.” Cox reminisces the humorous punishment Moore came up with to these readers as the Flying Monkey from Paris. “Chip brought in the flying monkey. You shoot him so he will fly, and so people who went over the two minute limit got hit by the flying monkey.”
Ironically, the penalty backfired and students enjoyed it, “The problem was that pretty soon everybody was reading over because they wanted to be hit by the flying monkey.”
The monkey’s arms, hackneyed by campers and counselors over years, are no longer usable. “We had to tape up his arm because a counselor pulled too hard years ago.” Although no longer usable, the flying monkey has inspired Cox. “In honor of the flying monkey, we have turned one of the readers forums, usually the second Wednesday of camp, into the flying monkey coffee house. So, we transformed white lecture into a coffee house and we set up tables with candlelight, and we have a menu, and we have readers just like at a coffee house instead of clapping our hands, we snap our fingers.” the coffee house is an excellent way for campers to share their work with an audience that supports them. “It’s nice because every reader knows that we value what they have to say.”
Hosted by the Poetry Fox, the coffeehouse took place on Wednesday, June 27. Campers read poems in a candlelit room as a slideshow of the menu played in the background. Alexa Blasnek, 14, read a poem entitled “Today and Tomorrow”, a poem in which she could relate to herself. “It’s true. All true. I wanted it to make people think.” As each camper read, snaps were given in appraisal. Readers sat on stage waiting to go up one after another, and the flying monkey even gave an appearance at the end. Though actual food and coffee was not served, the coffeehouse is a fun way for campers to share their poetry in a supportive environment. And, it’s exclusively held ONLY at Duke Young Writer’s Camp.