GAMBIER — Amidst the treasury of events over the weekend held as part of the Kenyon Review Literary Festival, two aimed to help area residents struggling to make ends meet. The Empty Bowls and Writers’ Harvest both raised money for Knox County Food For the Hungry.
The heavy-hitter of the two was the relative newcomer, Empty Bowls, which made its debut last year.
“This is much bigger than last year,” volunteer Chris Aust said of the fundraiser’s new venue this fall, in the renovated Peirce Hall.
The added space and greater number of participants, combined with the familiarity of a second outing, allowed the event to more than double the number of attendees, the number of items for bidding and total money raised.
Community volunteers and students from Kenyon College and Mount Vernon Nazarene University made a plethora of pots earlier this fall, which were fired and decorated by pottery instructors at the two institutions.
Kenyon instructor Robin Nordmoe couldn’t help but feel caught up in the moment.
“I feel like I have a hand in a lot of these,” Nordmoe said, gesturing at both the bargain table, where all pots were for sale at $5 each, and the bidding room, where silent auction bids started at $10 and ran over $100 on some items.
The fiercest bidding war erupted over a plate made by MVNU pottery instructor Paul Linhares. The plate was decorated to feature a Minoan-style white octopus in a vivid green sea. Other popular pots included a gray, Chinese-style vase/bowl, a bowl with the cartoon character Stormy Chicken, a bowl with fish painted in glaze on the inside, and a set of black bowls with an almost graphite-like glaze. Despite bidding wars on a few items, many of the art-quality bowls went for bargain rates.
Last year’s Empty Bowls drew about 80 people and raised over $1,000 for Food For the Hungry. This year’s event drew about 160 people and raised roughly $3,500, according to Nordmoe.
Kenyon student Margaret Sappey was astonished to arrive at the event and find that her bowl had been put into the silent bidding instead of being sold on the $5 table.
“I’ve never even made pottery before,” Sappey said.
Etched into the side of the bowl were the words, “Love will win.”
The second, and more low-key, fundraiser of the evening was the Writers’ Harvest reading, held in the Peirce Pub, just around the corner and immediately following Empty Bowls. Featured reader was poet Lynne Thompson from Los Angeles, who was reading from her first book of poetry, “Beg No Pardon.”
Thompson’s vivid style became more animated as she continued to read, sharing poems evoking her parents’ Caribbean roots. Community and student readers followed, including Miles Purinton, who read his very funny abridged short story called “There Goes the Bride” about the stresses of a bride and groom betrayed by the weather. Other readers included Lily Barrett, Zac Katz-Stein, Victor Rodriguez-Nunez, Sarah Kemp, Nina Clements, James Flaherty, Royal Rhodes and Hazel Crowley.
No specific figures were available at press time about how much money was raised by Writers Harvest, but there were approximately 75 people in attendance, each making a donation at the door. Writers’ Harvest has taken place annually in Gambier for many years, and is organized by The Kenyon Review, which also organized the literary festival. The festival made its second appearance this year.
