By: Cathy Chen <[email protected]>

Emma Glover, chairperson of the W.R.A.P. coffeehouse committee and senior, said this is the eighth year W.R.A.P. has organized Poetry W.R.A.P.-Up, the club’s fanciest coffeehouse of the year.

Hope Baugh, young adult services manager of the Carmel Clay Public Library, said, “We decorate the program room with twinkle lights, we get round tables from the coffee shop, we put snacks out and people can blow bubbles.

“We try to make it a fun atmosphere with a microphone up at the front so people can read their own poems that they brought.”

Poetry W.R.A.P.-Up is free and open to the public and will take place in the CCPL’s program room on April 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., which is after the library’s hours.

“It’s kind of neat to be there in the building when you aren’t supposed to,” Glover said.

Although W.R.A.P. hosts coffeehouses throughout the year, Glover said Poetry W.R.A.P.-Up will end up having more structure, mainly because of additional planned activities and games, and more food.

“We order pizza, we have lots of drinks and chips and we actually have coffee. I know our (regular) meetings are called coffeehouses, but we never have coffee at them.

“But at the W.R.A.P.-Up we do have coffee, hot tea and cocoa. It’s just a really nice, fancier meeting,” Glover said.

According to Baugh, the focus of this open-mic event is basically poetry, but those who attend can also read short stories if they are under five minutes.

However, “you don’t have to read something if you don’t want to,” Baugh said. “If people just want to come and listen and write poems but not read them, that’s fine.”