The reading I attended today had many CUNY MFA candidates doing their readings from their own works and others. I thought it wasn’t going to be too great going into it, however, the first reading changed my mind completely. It was much more enjoyable than I would have thought straight from the beginning. The first reader was this CUNY student who spoke about her Dominican roots in her poem, I believe was called “Recipe for Sancocho.” I found it rather amusing because, since I am Dominican, I saw some relatable aspects to my own life. She discussed how her mother recreated Sancocho, which is a Stew known for having a plethora of vegetables and meat in it, but her mother kept changing it and no matter what the daughter said, the mother would keep doing it her way. I felt this was directly relatable with a lot of my aunts and my mother who are Dominican and the most amusing part was the use of the word “suffice” as her mother’s “new english word.” Its amusing because I see the parallels within my own family and no matter how irritating it can be they end up saying something that just makes the whole event amusing, like Princess Diana eating Sancocho.
There was another reader who was very different, charismatic, and fun. I believe his name was Jonathan and he talked about the “primordial mother.” It was little skit that he created including someone he knew in the audience and it was very funny. It made me think about the underlying message of how we always keep looking for the next big thing, not sure if its coming, instead of doing or focusing on the little things, like using the bathroom. All in all the experience was great, I had to leave early because of the severe thunderstorm that was approaching, but I really enjoyed it and wished I could have listened to the rest of the wonderful readers who were presenting.
