Last Thursday I attended Baruch Voices, a spoken word event for the freshman class of Baruch College. Students from each freshman seminar class presented monologues they had composed themselves to their classmates and two people from each class were voted to present at this event. When I arrived, the entire room was packed so I stood with a friend among a crowd of students standing along the sidelines. The monologues presented were lyrical, captivating and some of them were very deep and personal. One of my favorites was by a girl presenting her piece called “God’s Grace”. It was about her the negative feedback she and her parents received from relatives and family friends about her decision to go to college in New York City, rather than in Hong Kong where her family lives. The comments were rude and unsupportive (and some of them quite sexist) but fortunately she had the support of her parents who believed that she could come here and be successful without falling into the fallacy of losing her culture or becoming “too American”. Another monologue that I like was a guy who presented a list of things he didn’t like. His list ranged from his cat who was too lazy and should “get a job” to guys who hold their audiences hostage and rant about things they don’t like. It served as a much needed comedic relief as a lot of the monologues presented were, while poetic and inspiring, quite depressing. The one thing I did regret about going to Baruch Voices was that it everyone was not able to present their pieces, including the two students voted from our freshman seminar class, Kenechi and Ashaki. Overall it was a very pleasant and entertaining experience and I am glad I attended 🙂