Her back to the ocean, face toward a semi-circle of students, Anahi Duarte, a member of the poetry club, spoke at the Overlook on West Campus last Wednesday.

“Every forty seconds someone in the world commits suicide,” Duarte said. “You want to count it down with me? Forty, thirty-nine, thirty-eight…”

The crowd started to count in a ghostly unison. “…one.” All was silent.

“It’s a short amount of time to consider if you want to live for the rest of your life,” Duarte said.

Duarte’s “Sepulveda Suicides” speech was one of the many pieces read at the Poetry Club’s open mic, the first National Spirit day. Spirit Day was created in response to a recent increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teen suicides, triggered by peer harassment.

“I wanted to remember those young people, [the] students, who took their lives and face that kind of harassment,” said Chella Courington, City College assistant English professor and Poetry Club advisor.

Courington believes that such events as the open mic are a good way of supporting City College’s gay community, but in general she said, “students can be more outspoken.”

“We need to be more sensitive,” Courington said. “A phrase like ‘that’s so gay’ working itself into culture, can be unsettling to someone who is gay.”

Although the open mic was originally dedicated to Spirit Day, Poetry Club President Martin Salter expanded it to also honor “those who are suffering, period.”

In his poem “Direct and Observe” Salter said: “We build our walls one misconception at a time. Isolating ourselves in the cage of our mind.” This impassioned cry for understanding was echoed through all the poems read.

Daniel Rodriguez read “First Writing Since” by Suheir Hammad. Hammad, a Palestinian woman, wrote this poem a week after 9/11, but Rodriguez said he “felt very connected” with the piece.

“One more person assumes they know me, or that I represent a people. Or that a people represent an evil. Or that evil is as simple as a flag and words on a page,” Rodriguez read.

“I thought maybe it would open peoples eyes,” he said.

Salter said it’s important for students “to have an outlet for them to express themselves.”

Although his poems were not inspired by the suicides, Salter said “it has indirectly inspired me to work a lot harder” on the upcoming book of poems and art projects.

Duarte makes the issue of harassment very simple. She said obey the “golden rule” – treat others how you would like to be treated. “The type of thing that could cause people to commit suicide is ignorance – just that.”