Arts and Lifestyle — The St. Marker

——By Clara Hua ‘21 and Suha Choi ‘22

In the midst of busy days at St. Mark’s, the appearance of green leaves and fresh breezes signal the arrival of spring. While some may choose to take pictures or tell friends about the nice weather, these actions are sometimes insufficient to appreciate the beauty we see around us. Poetry is a great way to capture moments we find meaningful and to express feelings we have towards them.

Celebrating National Poetry Month, St. Mark’s held a Poetry Week from April 22 through 27. Short poems were hung up throughout the hallways and classrooms. As the innumerable all-school emails from Ms. McCann show, various events successfully engaged the entire school in the spirit of poetry. One of the most popular events was the Haiku-for-a-Sundae activity that took place during co-curricular on Monday. Students could make their own sundae as long as they bring entry tickets, which they exchanged with haikus they composed. With food and House Cup points as incentives, no wonder the Hinkle room was buzzing with excitement on Monday! While haiku may have previously seemed unfamiliar to many students, the ice cream event was as a great opportunity for the students to experience haikus excitement. Furthermore, all students and faculty had the chance to wake up to something fun to read each morning thanks to poems Ms. McCann sent out daily.

Following these activities that encouraged students to dive into poetry, the bake sale was an event that influenced more than just the St. Mark’s community. Filled with cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, the bake sales on Wednesday evening was a delight for students going through the week with immense workload and stress. All of the profits from the bake sale were donated to PEN America (pen.org) to help support the freedom to express creativity. There were many more activities including magnetic poetry contest and poetry reading. The evening chapel on April 30th is dedicated to poetry, specifically presenting poetry works of St. Mark’s students. During the chapel, there were recitations of beautiful poems, setting it apart from traditional evening chapels. As the concluding event of poetry week, this evening chapel gathered St. Markers together one more time to appreciate the art of poetry.

While there exist celebration days for almost all kinds of things, not all events provide ways for people to truly connect with topics of celebration. Poetry week at St. Mark’s is an excellent example of celebration events which everyone is able to enjoy and get more out of.

——By Suha Choi ‘22 and Thomas Li ‘22

On the Sunday night of April 7th, lively sounds of the jazz bands filled the Class of ‘45 Hall. Tthe Cutler Jazz Festival presented successful performances once again this year. The festival was named in honor of Tim Cutler ’89, an avid musician whose passion for music began during his time at St. Mark’s. Followed by his death in 1996 due to an unfortunate car accident, a fund was established in the memory of Tim to create the Cutler Jazz Festival at St. Mark’s.

In the past few years, students have collaborated with numerous talented musicians and bands for Cutler. The school is especially fortunate to have invited the BT ALC band this year. BT ALC is a professional jazz big band from Boston, dedicated to creating original jazz music.

The Cutler festival started with the lively and funky performance of SM Jazz Ensemble I. A group of talented musicians including Kareem Chambers’19 on drums, Jocelyn Cote '22 on trombon,; Ewan Leslie '22 on trumpet, Logan Matthews '22 on tenor saxophone and Arden Williams '22 on flute. They stirred up the atmosphere in the class of 1945 hall by playing Pass the Peas by James Brown and interacting with the audiences. Following is the SM Jazz Ensemble II, featuring Matthew Walsh '19 and Henry Sansone '21 on trumpet, Rick Sarkar '19 on trombone, Alan Zhu '19 on guitar, Leo Xie '19 on bass, Nick Bechard '19 and Julian Yang '20 on tenor saxophone, Truman Chamberlin '20 and Nolan Willoughby '21 on alto saxophone, Laura Drepanos '19 on clarinet, Holden LeBlanc '21 on drums and guest faculty artist David Lubick on baritone saxophone. Their skillful performance and dynamic expressions captivated the audiences. The performance pieces from Jazz Ensemble I included Kenny Dorham's 1963 "Blue Bossa," the 1972 composition "Pass the Peas," and Ben Tucker's 1962 "Come Home Baby." Jazz Ensemble II performed three showstoppers of their own: Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder" (1964), the Miles Davis 1954 classic "Solar," and Josef Zawinul's "Birdland" (1977). The festival concluded with the performance from BT ALC Band. Their splendid performance inspires SM musicians to persist in their practice of jazz in the future. Our very own trumpet player, Matt Walsh, also performed with the professional band and impressed the audiences. A big thanks to all the performers, directors, and audience for taking a part in this wonderful event!