The first phoenix is the PPSC Authors Collection, a sparkly brainchild that came to me seven years ago in the stellar nursery of the Nearby Universe, the employee writers’ group I had just created at Pikes Peak State College. The collection would feature not only faculty writers, like other universities, but also staff, making it uniquely inclusive, like our group. We could even include student authors in the collection. We’d brainstorm famous writers from PPSC’s past, like Ron Stallworth, the author of Black Klansman. It would offer our students a different way to connect with each other and their instructors–nothing makes psychology class more engaging than reading Professor Dias’s sci-fi novel first, right? Student success. Community. Engagement and connection. Another reason to go to the real, physical library. Incentive for faculty and staff to write and publish and share ideas and creations- all the reasons similar library collections exist on college campuses across the country. We’d have a plaque (or a sculpture or something), a grand opening, a reading, fancy bookmarks, and cake! Everyone would follow us on Instagram and buy our books. The idea felt obvious and easy, and it wouldn’t take much to bring it to life. Then, life happened.
We needed approval, of course, and another approval, and a form. A budget, a committee, another form, and meetings. A revised form. More research. More meetings. Many, many emails. A new form. As the months and emails rolled by, the once shiny, creative idea felt more like a pain in the Universe.
These could be considered normal bureaucratic hurdles, to be expected, when you start something new in a large public institution. Besides, we were succeeding, technically, getting enough droplets of yes to keep at it after all the time we’d already invested. Then, the hurdles got larger: Vacancies in the committee. Then, vacancies at the library, freezing acquisitions. Finally, the real, physical library’s greatest nemesis we never could have predicted: a global pandemic.
Nobody came back from Spring Break in 2020, and the PPSC Authors Collection project screeched off the rails. Submissions wound up in a pile in my office, rubber-banded to various iterations of The Form. Some Nearby Universe members worked from home for years. Some books were returned to authors; others seemed to have disappeared.
Then, in Fall 2024, something extraordinary happened. A small dot in the sky, which at first was thought to be a bird, was found to be an umbrella, or to be exact, a woman holding an umbrella. She drifted down through the clouds, landing gently at the checkout desk with a smile and all the ways to make the medicine go down. The legends were true: it was her. New Lead Reference and Research Librarian Larissa Powers.
Larissa salvaged the remnants of our neglected collection, which was still clinging to life. She ordered more books, and more books, and more books! She ordered special furniture to display the books. We would have our grand opening reading, she promised. We would eat cake in the library. I ordered the fancy bookmarks.
If this weren’t enough, a second phoenix graces the skies: Colorado Poet Laureate Emeritus Bobby LeFebre. LeFebre is an award-winning poet, writer and performer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Huffington Post, The Guardian, American Theater Magazine, and NPR. He has performed at hundreds of cultural events, social actions, detention centers, conferences, and colleges and universities across the United States and abroad. He co-founded the award-winning nonprofit organization Café Cultura and was named Colorado’s 8th Poet Laureate, making him the youngest and first person of color to be appointed to the prestigious position in the program’s 100-year history.
I first heard him read and speak at PPLD’s first Poetry Summit in 2022, where I had been invited to speak on a panel. I got goosebumps and wished I could bring his voice and vision to my students at PPSC. After several Visiting Writers Series cycles and more than a few forms, the state Poet Laureate was coming to the Spring Reading in 2025! He was, that is, until the phone rang the night before. Bobby had the flu.
Again, what seemed to be the end of the road was not. Bobby got another poet of national acclaim, the talented Jose “Jozer” Guerrero, to step in on a moment’s notice, and the Spring Reading was an incredible swirl of synergy and solidarity. As a bonus, Bobby insisted on coming back to perform once he recovered!
Please join us Friday, April 25th at 3:30 pm in the Centennial Campus Learning Commons for the Grand Opening Celebration of the PPSC Authors Collection. The reading will feature PPSC authors–myself included–very fancy bookmarks, a plaque (or a sculpture or something), and Colorado Poet Laureate Emeritus Bobby LeFebre. Needless to say, there will be cake.
PPSC welcomes all members of the community; please contact Larissa.Powers@PikesPeak.edu for accommodations or with any questions about the event. Just don’t touch her umbrella.
Brook Bhagat 