Monday: I really enjoyed Julie Halpern’s talk. She came across as very personable and was easy to listen to. She made me laugh out loud with her commentary and her stories from her life. I especially liked the story of going over to her high school crush’s house and seeing matzah and thinking, “Oh, I didn’t know he was Jewish.” That struck me as exactly the sort of weirdly irrelevant, inane thought I would have. I found her descriptions of time in the mental hospital so interesting, especially the apparent contradictory-ness there. Another thing she said that I found inspiring was that she didn’t always want to be a writer and she didn’t write full-length novels by age thirteen like a lot of other authors—things that slightly intimidate me--but she kept writing throughout her life, with letters, journals, and zines, because she liked it so much.
Tuesday: I thought Jonathan’s piece about meeting the bird lady was hilarious. I liked the way he structured the story—at times, it seemed a bit stream of consciousness and in the moment and other times he seemed to be reflecting back on how bizarre the whole encounter was. I completely believe that the strangers you meet can be colorful, mad characters that seem straight out of fiction. I also really liked Tamar’s piece—her approach was so honest. I can see the idea written a lot of different, more complicated ways--but sometimes simple is clearly better.
Wednesday: I loved Sierra Demulder! The topics of her poems are gruesome, yes, but they really made me think. My favorites were the one from the perspective of the serial killer’s mother and the one about Matthew Shepherd, but all of her poetry was brilliant.
Thursday: Being a pretty unmusical person myself, I was impressed by all the singers’ talent. However, I wasn’t blown away by most of the lyrics. I guess it’s the cynic coming out of me when I say the majority of love songs I hear are forgettable and have clichéd lyrics? Not to say that I found the lyrics steryotypical—I mean, having heard straight writing read all week, I’d gotten used to really appreciating and paying attention when people were completely original in their ideas and words, which is harder and different when translated to music. I did like Maggie Dever’s second song quite a lot because of her perspective as “the friend” as well as her pretty voice. Hannah Lee was terrific. I liked the guitar especially, and I wish we could’ve seen the rest of her OC routine. She has great stage presence. Like Anna said earlier, to have the bell ring and no one leave takes talent--you have to engage the audience incredibly well, and that she did.
Friday: I don’t know whether I liked Billy Lombardo’s performance. He seemed a bit dazed. Also, I don’t like baseball at all, which is nearly all he talked about. But I suppose I wasn’t having a very good day on Friday, and I was too distracted to pay much attention. I did like his poem about the town he grew up in and almost rediscovering it through showing it to his son.
This was such a lovely week. Writer’s Week is my favorite week in the school year. Everyone has something to say and I think it gives students, especially, such a great platform to do so eloquently and wonderfully...this outright gushing has rendered me incoherent, I apologize. As much as I enjoy the professional talks, I do think the students are the highlight—there were admittedly some not-so-stellar performances but they were outweighed by brilliant ones of people like Iulia G, Dawne Wright (“Just ‘case I use metaphors don’t mean it ain’t literal” made me shiver—so good!), Lizzy and Katherine from our class, and so many more. I was in a ridiculously good mood nearly all week as a result, which doesn't happen very often.
