A local poet shared her experience as a second-generation Lebanese woman Thursday night.

NIU Students and community members alike gathered at Barnes and Noble, 2439 Sycamore Road, for an intimate reading by Susan Azar Porterfield.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Porterfield read from her new book, “In the Garden of Our Spines.”

Porterfield is a DeKalb resident with a doctorate degree in English from NIU. She teaches poetry writing at Rockford College.

Before each poem, Porterfield provided an explanation of her inspiration for the poem.

Much of her poetry was focused on the feminine experience.

“Young women look at old women’s bodies not quite believing they’ll ever look the same way,” Porterfield said before reading. “In the Showers at the Y.”

She read a poem about folk singer Joni Mitchell titled “Joni Wisens Us Up” about how Mitchell’s music empowered women.

Midwestern girls from Iowa and Illinois did not understand they could live for their art or go off to Paris if they wanted to until Mitchell told them to “wish for a river you can skate away on,” Porterfield said.

Porterfield also shared several poems about Lebanon. Her father is Lebanese, and she recently had the opportunity to teach there on a Fulbright grant.

One of the last poems Porterfield read was “Bird”after an experience with her grandmother and sister.

A bird flew into the window and her grandmother said it was the devil trying to get into the house.

“She lived in that wonderful world where mystical things could still happen,” Porterfield said fondly of her grandmother.