Students and Eastern community members applauded the creative works of a spoken-word poet Wednesday.

Brandon Thornton, a spoken-word poet whose stage name is “Xplicit,” introduced the University Board’s open mic night called “Poetry After Dark,” which gave students the opportunity to express themselves on stage and listen to Thornton.

The evening began with the open mic section, where five students got up in front of the audience and performed in various ways including hip hop, rap, spoken word, poetry and song.

Students shared original works and recited poems by other poets.

One of the participants in the open mic section, Calin Bruett, a sophomore art major, said he has been rapping since he was 11.

“I’ve been doing these (open mic nights) since last year when I was a freshman,” he said. “It’s really fun, and I enjoy it a lot.”

Bruett said students have recognized him from his performances since he began doing them.

“I think people have really gotten to know me personally so I’ve always gotten a pretty good response,” he said.

After the students performed, Thornton took the stage to perform his spoken word.

His messages covered all topics and were largely positive messages toward students.

“Knowledge is priceless; ignorance is expensive,” he said in one part of his first set of poems.

Thornton asked for audience participation and encouraged attendees to snap their fingers if they liked what he was saying and told them to yell “rewind” if they wanted him to go back to what was just said.

Thornton rewound several times when students requested and was met with enthusiastic responses.

He also talked in between his poems about his life, explaining to students how he had graduated from Illinois State University and completed his master’s degree at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

He explained how he was pursuing teaching but decided to stop and travel around the country to colleges to pursue his love of spoken word and poetry.

Thornton rapped about college life and also performed what he called “Twitter poems” where he made poems out of tweets off of his phone.

Esraa Odeh, the UB mainstage coordinator, organized the open mic.

Odeh said she was pleased with the reception of the Thornton and the other performers.

“We’ve had a really good night with a great turnout as well,” she said.

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812or redexter@eiu.edu.