Ever hear that saying, “That was so bad that it was actually good?” This was on everybody’s mind after hearing several pieces of “shit lit.”
On Friday, May 6, Dumbledore’s Army of New Paltz hosted a “Shit Lit Reading” at Cafeteria in New Paltz.
Sign-ups began at 6:30 p.m. for anyone who wanted to present their own creative work. However, it was only if they loved what they read enough to poke fun at it.
A lot of people may be wondering, what can be classified as “shit lit”?
“Shit Lit is basically where you take a piece of shitty literature, poetry, song lyrics, etc. and perform a dramatic reading of it,” said Beverly Schreiber, chapter organizer of Dumbledore’s Army at New Paltz.
Dumbledore’s Army of New Paltz began last spring, with just a small group of friends who like “Harry Potter.” It was second-year student Beverly Schreiber who founded the New Paltz Chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance.
“My goal for this club is to provide a place where “Harry Potter” fans can come to discuss their favorite parts of this series who also have an interest in advocacy,” Schreiber said. “We are primarily an advocacy group, just full of “Harry Potter” fans and we try to do as many “Harry Potter” related events as we can.”
A memorable piece from the night was a passage from a Harry Potter fanfiction “My Immortal” read by Dumbledore’s Public Relations Representative, Nicole Brinkley.
Audience members said they were impressed that people could take something as simple as literature and put a creative twist to it.
“It was fun to have people come in who hadn’t known about it, and get a kick out of the people reading,”said Brinkley.
Like all of their previous events, Dumbledore’s Army will donate all the proceeds to a cause. For “Shit Lit,” they decided to donate to an AIDS charity event.
According to Schreiber, Dumbledore’s Army also wanted to host an event that will interest non-members to come and check out their club as an advocacy organization.
“Anytime we choose to focus on a charity or issue, we vote on it as a group,” said Schreiber. “We want the advocacy groups that we support as a club to be the groups and issues that our members feel a connection to.”
Schreiber hopes this event will inspire other students to come join Dumbledore’s Army next semester.
“The point is to appreciate the shitty literature in the world,” Schreiber explained. ‘It’s not meant to be making fun of bad literature, but rather look at it in a humorous way.”
With all the events happening Friday, the turnout was still good.
“I think anybody who attended knows that one person’s shit is another person’s gold,” said Brinkley. “People know that it’s okay to poke fun at your own work and not to take it personally.”
For more information about this organization, visit http://danewpaltz.yolasite.com as well as their Facebook page.