Over 100 students, faculty, and staff members gathered in the gallery of Founders on Wednesday night, Feb. 7, overflowing onto the floor and even onto window sills. The occasion was a poetry reading, titled “Toward a Cartography of Love: A Celebration of Eleanor Branch,” and was an evening filled with love, poetry, and applause.

Eighteen speakers read poems concerning love, loss and injustice in a gathering that lasted just over an hour.

A poetry reading focusing on love is held each year around Valentine’s Day.

“The idea in this case was, since it is always a poetry reading about love, this time we should celebrate someone we love,” said David Bowen, visiting instructor of English.

“In dedicating a reading of love poems and prose to Eleanor,” said Jenn Brown, visiting instructor of English, “we were saying that despite everything, we recognize and appreciate the six years of her life that Eleanor has given to Guilford College and we believe that this community is the richer for her presence.”

“Eleanor loves words,” said Douglas Smith, professional tutor. “This is a reading not only about our love for Eleanor but also our love for the grace of language.”

Though love was the prominent theme of the poetry reading, other issues were discussed, especially concerning loss and injustice.

“Love of course was the topic, but love connected with loss seemed to be the running theme,” said Becky Gibson, lecturer and professional tutor. “That is a theme we are used to, of course, but it gained particular poignancy last night in view of Eleanor’s probable leaving of Guilford College.”

“What struck me about the reading was the link between love and loss,” said Eleanor Branch, assistant professor of English. “I suppose those two themes reflect the fact that unless the board rules otherwise, I am in my last months at Guilford, and that loss is painful for many people including me.”

“For my part,” Gibson continued, “the whole evening renewed the anger I feel over the injustice done to Eleanor Branch. The power of the words spoken last night left me shaking with fury and sorrow and yes, shame! Shame that I am connected with an institution that could do this to one of their most prized, talented faculty members!”

One of Guilford’s primary core values, community, was also at the forefront of the night’s reading.

Brown, before reading the poem “What He Said,” by Heather McHugh, said, “I admire Eleanor for her honesty. Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us that the scholar, in order to trust herself and speak truly, must be free and brave. It is always difficult to confront the world with the truth, but it seems to me that the degree to which we can speak our truth openly and without fear of persecution is the measure of how free we are.”

“If we believe in the core values we espouse,” Branch said, “and if we feel that the institution is not living up to those promises – for whatever reason – then as Martin Arnold pointed out in the statement he made before his poem, ‘Silence is collaboration.’ If we believe in the possibility of change, then it is our obligation to see that those changes are made.