A Suffolk Storyteller

On Friday, April 22nd Suffolk University will partner with GrubStreet to hold a Story Slam. The Slam will begin at 7 pm in the Modern Theater on Washington St. and will feature 5 storytellers from the GrubStreet writers and 5 students from Suffolk as storytellers.

I sat down with one of the Suffolk storytellers to talk about the upcoming slam.

Janaye Kerr is a Freshman from Suffolk University from Jamaica.

She told me that she “has always been interested in people that go up and do spoken word and has always wanted to try but she has been too quiet and shy to try.” Since this event is being put on by our class Janaye thought that it would be the perfect opportunity “to get acquainted with the mic.”

Even though she is looking forward to it, Janaye is extremely nervous to get up on stage on April 22nd. “But at the end of the day I know it is going to be a really welcoming environment and I am excited to do it,” Janaye said after exclaiming how scared she was. We have learned that the literary world is very supportive of one another, so I know that Janaye will be received with incredible support when she goes up on stage.

I asked Janaye if she knew what story she was going to tell or where she would take it. Since the theme of the slam is “Where Am I From” Janaye will be starting in Jamaica, her birthplace, however, “it’s not exactly [going to be] about the place.” It’ll be about her family and how all of that was the beginning of who she is now.

Janaye told me that Nora Dooley is the one who really made it possible for her to do this. Ms. Dooley is an author, storyteller, and Cofounder of Massmouth, a company that puts on story slams. Talking to Nora and hearing about her experience storytelling, Janaye knew that she wanted to participate in this slam.

Since the slam will be a competition between Suffolk and GrubStreet I asked Janaye how she thought our students were going to do against the “professionals.” Since Suffolk has such a diverse student body with many talents, our students should hold their own. I believe that the Suffolk stories will be rawer than the pros, making them more emotional and definitely easier to connect with for our classmates.

Janaye is ready and exciting to be performing at her first ever story slam on April 22nd. Come to the Modern Theater at 7 pm to hear her  story. Personally, I am so excited to hear Janaye speak and to learn about where she is from and how she got to where she is today!

 

-Morgan Robb

Boston’s Literary District

Cultural districts are essential to building communities for people who share similar passions. According to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a cultural district is “a compact, walkable area of a community with a concentration of cultural facilities, activities, and assets.” Literature is just one of such cultures. For example, The Boston Literary District states that Boston is the first city in the country to dedicate an entire district to literature. The website further explains that the location of the Boston Literary District is from Copley Square to Downtown Boston. Suffolk University is proud to be part of this district with the Rosalie Stahl Center at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library. It would behoove any Suffolk student to familiarize themselves with the Rosalie Stahl Center, because getting to know University/Local libraries is one aspect of being a literary citizen. In addition to the Salamander literary journal, the Rosalie Stahl Center is home to the Clark Collection of African American Literature, according to the Boston Literary District.

The Boston Literary District hosts a number of wonderful events. One event that Suffolk is particularly excited about is the “Where I am From” Story Slam happening on Friday, April 22nd. Suffolk will be alongside GrubStreet writers sharing their origins. Admission is free for The Grub Street and Suffolk community. For readers who aren’t associated those two organizations, tickets are $10 for regular admissions and $5 for students. This event is highly recommended. These stories are from true and personal experiences, and for anyone to do so in front of an audience is nothing short of valiant and amazing.

 

Even though that event is over a week and a half away, there are other events to attend in the meantime for those eager to be a literary citizen. There will be two events as early as tomorrow, April 13th. From 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. the Records Manager for the Boston Police Department, Margaret R. Sullivan, will “draw on documents available online to review specific cases and discuss her efforts to use city employment records to flesh out the later lives of the 1,170 Boston police officers who went out on strike in 1919,” says the Boston Literary District.

The other event is a Tribute to C.D. Wright, which will take place from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. During this time attendees will listen to live readings of Wright’s work. An award winning poet, Wright received the National Book Critics Circle Award for One With Others, says the Poetry Foundation. The Boston Literary District also adds that Wright was chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and received the MacArthur Fellowship Award.   

Besides immersing yourself in literary events, the best part of the two aforementioned activities is that they are free. You read that right, folks. Becoming a literary citizen in your community is a rewarding experience that is completely affordable. Aside from the story slam, the Boston Literary District has a number of other events that are completely free.

In addition to attending these events there are a number of other’s way to get involved in Boston’s Literary District. Aspiring authors, or anyone who is passionate about literature, are all potential candidates . Remember that reading and writing are both important parts of being a literary citizen, but becoming actively involved in literary events is also extremely important. Finding other people who are passionate about literature will expose literary citizens to new authors, presses, and literary journals. Reading from a variety of genres and cultures will also help literary citizens broaden their horizons, but most importantly, it will build friendships and communities.

 

Jackie Strom

Class of 2018

Support Your Local Poet

My creative writing teacher from high school always said poetry was written to be read aloud. I never really understood what she meant until I attended Melissa Green and Meg Tyler’s poetry reading this past Wednesday night for my Literary Citizenship class.

I’ve always had an interest in poetry since I was a child and my mother would read me Shel Silverstein before bed. This interest soon developed into a love for writing and numerous afternoons spent writing pages of pose both good and bad. Since I already liked the subject, and didn’t want to stress about finding the time to attend a literary event at the end of the semester, this seemed like the perfect time for me to buck up and write a blog post for the class blog. Prior to attending this event I had little to no idea what to expect. I’d never heard of either of these poets and a google search procured few helpful results. I had also never been to a poetry reading before. I had a multitude of questions: What do I wear? Should I snap once they finish reading or was that just a gross cliché? Would I know anyone there? Should I prepare questions to ask? Where even is the poetry center?

Basically I was clueless, but I’ve found that when I have no expectations I usually end up having the best time. With all these thoughts running through my head I donned my best turtleneck, grabbed my notebook and glasses, and made my way up to the poetry center on the second floor of the Sawyer library (located in 73 Tremont).

I found the room easily enough, following another student who looked like the type that would be attending a poetry reading, and settled for a seat in the back. The room was filled with teachers from the English department but a few students were scattered amongst the crowd. There was free coffee in the back which I was endlessly thankful for, having a large amount of homework waiting for me back in my dorm.

The night kicked off with Meg Tyler who read from her collection of poems titled Poor Earth. Each piece was breathtaking in its own right with clear, concise imagery. Her poems had a lot of movement to them and an immense amount of power behind them despite their simplicity. I’m always in awe of the way poets can pull at your heart with the simplest lines. One of her poems, I regretfully forget the name, was about picking up her daughter from school. There was a part where her daughter exits the school and looks around fearfully like she expected her mother to be missing from the crowd but Tyler exclaimed, “I am always there”. A simple line in itself but it reminded me of a story my mom tells about when I was in preschool. I, allegedly, would beg her to wait in the parking lot so she be there on time when I was done. That kind of innocent fear that a mother might not come back is heartbreaking but still resonated heavily with my own life. Tyler in herself was incredibly charming with a soft voice and a slight accent. Her pieces had a melancholy sense to them, even the happy ones.

Up next was Melissa Green who read from her collection Magpiety. Her poems pulled me in from the get go. They were heavy with imagery, language, and embedded meaning but didn’t feel sluggish. The pacing was impeccable and I never lost interest, which I tend to do when pieces get too wordy. Her piece “Phi” was my favorite poem of the whole night specifically due to the lines, “I wish I’d known about the Golden Mean, / that my over brimming heart was a nautilus, / and not alone, and had poured out love everywhere, / for Fibonacci so long ago had made me his, / and I was part of the world, and known, and loved / to the smallest coral moon on my smallest fingernail”. I connected a lot with this piece also, having recently starting school at Suffolk. This year especially I feel like I’ve had to learn a lot of lessons about self-love. One lesson in particular is about how to be alone but not feel lonely which is easier said than done at times. This piece seems to me to focus deeply on self-acceptance and realizing that just because you don’t have the ideal life does not mean you do not lead an important life. Green’s work was so amazing that I ended up buying a copy of her book once the reading had finished.

In addition to the wonderful poetry the one thing that struck me was the amount of love in the room that night. There was an outpouring of support for each other that rivals anything I’ve ever seen. It takes a great deal of bravery to publish pieces, specifically poetry, and an even greater deal to read your work aloud to others you know well. It’s easy to talk about literary citizenship, what it means and how to do your share but I without a doubt witnessed literary citizenship in action that night. There was, as I said before, an immense amount of support produced from the crowd and it was powerful to see.

Attending this reading reminded me why I originally fell in love with poetry. It wasn’t because of the authors’ masterful use of language. It was because poems can do in a few short lines what some authors take a whole book to accomplish. Poets grab your attention from the first words and simple lines like “I am always there” can pull you back to stories that took place years in the past. They’re easy to identify with and can quickly put into words feelings you may not have known you were currently feeling. I’m incredibly happy I ended up attending this literary event and I’m definitely looking forward to attend several more!

_____________

Check out Meg Tyler’s collection here!

Check out Melissa Green’s collection here!

………………

Kayla O’Regan

Suffolk 2019

Mark Harris and Nick Ut: Raw Perspectives

March 1st. 10 a.m. C.Walsh Theatre, Suffolk University.

Two men, 60+ students, professors. Photographs. Furthermore, memories stored in grainy film, portraits captured in vivid light, full moons casting a shadow on passing airplanes.

Two men, hundreds of pictures, hundreds of thousands of words.

Two men, millions of memories.

Mark Harris and Nick Ut, both professionally equipped and wonderfully talented photographers, made guest appearances at Suffolk University on Tuesday morning. As an amateur photographer myself, this immediately caught my eye. However, attending this lecture and listening to the stories beyond these photographs set a fire within me… I was touched.

Photography is a world of its own, and is often overlooked. Photography is a culture and an occupation that is beginning to hold less credibility because everyone and their brother has an iPhone. The social media world and the accessibility of the common phone camera creates a falsehood about photography that is, quite honestly, insulting and disappointing. One can capture various foods, various outfits, various moments in time with the click of a button. Yet, I ask you, is the quality the same? Is the work put into it the same as one of Harris or Ut?

My honest answer is absolutely freaking not. It’s easy and enjoyable to take pictures, and some iPhone pictures are beautiful– I will give credit where it is due. It does, however, take a special eye and a certain dedication to capture the moments and photographs that Harris and Ut do. Their photographs are raw, they’re honest, they tell a million stories in one, they are beautiful and disturbing and nightmarish and daydreamy and wonderful but horrible ALL AT ONCE. Their photography matters, it means something to people. They take risks and often prove that those risks were worth taking.

The lecture was for anyone that was remotely interested in photography or either Harris’ or Ut’s work. Harris asked, of the room’s occupancy, how many people were photography majors– and only one or two people raised their hands. The crowd was diverse in majors, interests, and perspectives. Yet we all came together with a common goal: to take a piece of these men’s seemingly never-ending wisdom.

The lecture began with a quick introduction of Mark Harris. Harris mainly shoots in North Korea, a country often burdened with a negative connotation. He shoots daily life in North Korea to show that regardless of its reputation, it also has its beauty and normalcy. Harris has been to eight of the nine provinces in North Korea and has experienced many things the average tourist has not. Harris, a middle aged man dressed in a navy blue scoop-necked sweater with an engaging tone of voice and a pleasant disposition addressed the crowd.

He showed the ins and the outs of tourist attractions and even pictured a photograph of the border of South Korea and North Korea: it was black and white with beautiful contrast in the photo itself; but the true contrast was the back-to-back soldiers from each of the countries. Both looked tense and on-edge. One could literally read their faces just by looking at the picture. He then showed a series of pictures of the border again, but this time from a wider angle. In front of crowds, there was a South Korean soldier, tense and poised to combat at any moment. Next, he showed the bare grounds without any tourists or crowds: the South Korean soldier was gone. The soldier did this strictly for show. In Harris’ powerpoint slide he showed various places and photographs of people that looked like they were consciously enjoying themselves. By this I mean that the people pictured are conscious of the fact that every day, at any moment, something could go wrong. They’re aware of the potential danger around them… Harris described this as “bunker mentality.”

The lesson I learned from Harris’ portion of the lecture was that media is wrong, dramatic, and ridiculous. America paints an awful picture of North Korea and gives them a bad reputation… And although their government is aggressively controlling, to say the least, and although there is conflict among the nation, it is also quite normal. “There are real issues with North Korea just like there are real issues all around the world,” Harris exclaimed, trying to help the audience understand North Korea’s situation. There are families and children and beautiful landscapes and the city of Seoul is amazing. It is a functioning nation and it is not all bad. Anywhere you go in this world truly has its good and bad. Take a look around– we live in a city. There are good people and good objectives, and there are bad people with bad interests. Anywhere you go, you are at risk– but that does not make life worse or give life itself inadequate credibility. It was interesting because Harris took a picture of an Anti-America propaganda postcard and it truly opened my eyes to the prospect that, wow, America isn’t perfect! That sounds silly, but seriously– America is not always 100% right in its actions. People tend to forget about that. Harris’ wonderful pictures capture truth and I admire them deeply.

Many people know of Nick Ut specifically because of his photo “The Napalm Girl” which he captured approximately 43 years ago.

Ut captured this photo as bombs were going off in Vietnam. This girl was naked, running through the streets, severely burned. The terror in all of these children’s faces says enough; they were terrified, they were in pain, they were innocent and unsure how to cope with the incident that had just occurred. However, the public reacted to this like an electric current and this photo alone helped to jumpstart the end of the Vietnam War. Ut was awarded the Pulitzer prize because of the Napalm Girl photograph’s impact on society.

His portion of the lecture began with a short video showing actual footage of the events leading up to his famous photograph. The audience gaped as the recording camera was running behind the children, running close to them and seeing firsthand the massive burns on their sides. The girl in the photograph’s arm was mangled and the terror in all of their faces was enough to give me chills. The children went up to Nick Ut and his photographer companion screaming. Apparently they were saying “too hot, too hot, I’m going to die.” Nick’s companion poured water into Kim Phuc (the girl pictured)’s mouth and then onto her burns. This soothed her for a certain amount of time. They tried to help as much as they could. I can’t imagine being in this position or place in time… Mere seconds before Kim had run up to Nick Ut, he had snapped the photograph that would change people’s lives. He was simply doing his job and suddenly, with the literal click of a button, created an attachment to a girl and a photograph that no other human would ever have– or understand, for that matter. Ut and Phuc’s relationship has remained throughout the years, especially directly following the photo’s incessant publicity. Kim needed support and the way I interpreted it was that Ut was one of the only people who could understand what she had been through. He  captured what she had been through, and though it was scary and disheartening to look at, it was an honest moment in time that Kim had experienced. It was real.

Ut’s history as a renowned photographer does not end there– he has been working for the Associated Press (known as AP) for 50+ years. He has worked in Hanoi, Los Angeles, Tokyo. He became famous because of the Napalm Girl, but in the discussion, he showed a 21 minute&50 second video showcasing other work of his. The video went through hundreds of his photographs, some from that awful day captured in Napalm, some from LA, some from random excursions in random places. His work is so incredible. I tried to capture it above, but I was one slide off– however, previous to the slide of the girl tanning in her bikini was another picture of a girl tanning in a bikini– right in the middle of a graveyard. The perspective was amazing because there were dozens of crosses and gravestones around her and there she was, soaking up the sun in her plum-colored bikini looking pleasant as ever. It was slightly disturbing to see and made me respect Ut so much for being able to capture so many feelings in a single photograph.

Something I noticed in Ut’s work is that a lot of it, though Hollywood-y and starstruck in his later years working in LA, is still eerie. I don’t know if I feel this way because my brain had the bombing photos engrained in it, or if they truly were slighty disturbing. There were photographs of stars like Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson and others of whom I do not remember their names. These people looked sad and lost and confused. There was one grainy photograph of a man crying and simultaneously smoking a cigarette, though he was well-dressed and looked very kept up in his wealth. Ut captures such deep and imminent emotion in his photography and I was thoroughly impressed with his ability to capture the deep sadness and irony of Hollywood– money and fame does not always bring happiness. I think that Ut can capture this because of his past experiences with photography and life– he has photographed children that died in their mother’s arms seconds after the photo was taken. He’s witnessed pain and grieved for people he did not know. He empathizes with all and captures raw emotions because he feels them, too, as his photographs are being taken. To be able to feel something so strongly and at the same time capture those emotions in a single photograph is something that I strive to do one day.

Ut ended his presentation with six or seven beautiful photographs of a full moon with airplanes flying overhead. I was wracking my brains, trying to figure out “why” he had put these in at such a specific time, what the significance of the airplanes are, what his intentions were. After reflecting for a long time, I believe that he implemented those photographs as a way of closing up his slideshow with hope and grace: full moons are in cycles. The moon waxes, it wanes, its phases change and yet it’s always there. The full moon is at its brightest and most evident, yet when it’s a sliver of a crescent moon it is still present. Memories captured in Ut’s photographs are forever present– the photograph of Kim Phuc will be a memory in everyone’s lives forever. The moments captured in Ut’s photos are memories that are permanent.

People change and times change and life keeps going, life keeps waxing and waning and sometimes we’re at our brightest and other times we feel as if we’re barely a sliver. Photographers like Mark Harris and Nick Ut prove to us, and remind us, that memories matter. That moments in time should be captured, that we are all in existence for something. The world of photography needs to be maintained; rising photographers need to implement emotion into their work, they need to take risks and follow in Harris and Ut’s footsteps.

I hope to make a difference one day in my own creative pathway, much like the differences that these two men with hundreds of pictures, thousands of words,and millions of memories.

Meagan Dreher

Thankful

I had never been to a Literary Event before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. Actually, to be completely honest, I didn’t even know that was a term–or even worse–that the events were so frequent and popular before this semester.   (For my Creativity & Innovation class focusing on Literary Citizenship, one of our assignments was to choose and attend a Literary Event).

I started to look through the then-upcoming events on campus, at a variety of bookstores, and at the Boston Public Library.  I was simply scrolling through hoping that something would catch my eye.

I have always been a fan of little and local bookstores–I find them super extraordinary and unique and get a little bit of relaxation just walking around in silence, admiring the work so many people have put into the millions of works of literature, and digging through little trinkets that you can only find at little hole-in-the-wall places (which is always my fav part, but certainly not my wallet’s).  Therefore, I was specifically looking through events at Brookline Booksmith and Paper Cuts Bookstore in Jamaica Plain.

One of the events at Brookline Booksmith was a featuring of Mona Awad reading from and discussing her new book, “13 Ways of Looking at A Fat Girl”, which seemed like something I could be interested in.  Therefore, I planned on attending this event on Tuesday March 1, 2016 and purchasing the book to read beforehand, which didn’t happen until 5 days ago, since the book just recently came out on February 23.  There was something about the way the book initially felt in my hands before I even opened the cover that told me I was going to enjoy it.

I got on the T, the Green Line, C Train to be specific, and headed for Coolidge Corner with my book in hand and mind ready to be refreshed.  I had never been on the C Line, and therefore had never been to Harvard Square before, never been to a literary event, and never met an author, but I was definitely ready to explore!

Right across the street from my stop was Brookline Booksmith, and right next to the bookstore was a Starbucks–yes!  I stopped in Starbucks, grabbed a hot-chocolate, my go-to to relax and enjoy time by myself, and headed in ready to have a night to myself.  I instantly felt like I walked into a magical world of my own–mostly because of the christmas lights strung along the ceiling, such a cute idea.

In a little corner of the basement, about 10 of us gathered around a small podium to hear Mona Awad discuss one of my new favorite books.  I’m the type of person who enjoys easy-read, light-hearted, realistic-fiction novels about little love stories and real-life happenings, therefore this book was perfect for me.

Her novel consists of 13 stories, all focusing on certain aspects of life that may be difficult for a “fat girl”.  The book is told over about 30 years, and each story, although sequential in manner, describes a different struggle with relationships, self-esteem, society, etc. that women, (and men) in society may face with their weight. It is such a great novel captivating the emotions of many of us in today’s society, with a very humorous and light tone.  One of my favorite themes throughout the book is that she doesn’t ever specify the weight of the “fat girl”, she leaves it to the reader to decide, and I think that’s really important.  Because of this, the reader, no matter their size, can personally relate to each story, and there are no judgments made about what “fat” consists of.  The book is so great, I don’t want to ruin it for you, so I will stop here!

For me, part of reading more and more is to find the perfect book for the genre you like, but Mona Awad hit the nail right on the head.  I might need to pick a new genre, because I finally found the perfect book for what I love to read, all because of a completely random choice for a class assignment!

Awad is beautiful, let me just begin with that. Along with her skill, her voice in her novel and her ideas, she is absolutely stunning and admirable. She has many published writings, and has a masters degree in English Literature that she received while studying in Scotland.

She began by reading a chapter of the book, one specifically about an oversized girl trying on a tight-fitting dress in a fitting room, and the judgements made by the store clerk.

She then opened a discussion and left the floor open to any questions we may have had. Most of the questions hovered over the topic of inspiration. Awad described how her inspiration was her own internal struggles with the image of herself, and along with that, those among the female’s in her family.  She wrote this book over a course of 6 years to relate to others who have struggled with this obstacle and to essentially get some answers as to why so many are concerned and unhappy with how they look.

One of the things I found most inspiring within her answers was when she said, “The stories weren’t working for me until I became emotionally invested”, meaning that when she put heart and experience into the stories, they became relatable, easier to write, and real, and that’s when the books started coming together.  This is a piece of advice I will carry with me throughout all of my writing from now on.

An author deserves the same credibility for talent as a musician, or an actor for example, but meeting a celebrity almost always seems like so much more of a big deal.  While listening to Mona Awad read tonight, I decided that meeting an author is just as special–to me at least.  Music artists are always given thanks for altering lives and creating relaxation outlets with their music, but I think author’s do the same.

Just like (almost) every other college freshman in the world, this has been a very stressful few semesters for a number of reasons.  Being able to put my infinite amount of thoughts aside for a few hours each day and read Awad’s book made me feel so relaxed (for at least a little while). Not only did she write such a magnificent book, but she was able to give me a new technique to relax within my incredibly hectic schedule that sometimes seems like a never-ending black hole.

Before I left the store, I of course had to wander around, silently relaying positive affirmations to myself with the voice inside my head like I always do, reading titles of colorful books that popped out to my eye on various shelves, fiddling with almost every trinket within the store, and this time, looking for a book that I could use to escape reality for a few hours again.

I left the store with a new book (and more specifically, a new outlet to relax), a warm heart, a cleared mind (which doesn’t happen very often) and a new hobby.  I’m so thankful for my professor who required this amazing experience, and for Mona Awad for opening my heart and re-sparking my interest in reading and I’m so excited to return!!

Brookline Booksmith not only features an overwhelming assortment of books, but it also carries jewelry, note cards, accessories, household trinkets, and much more.  If you have a chance, please check it out! **279 Harvard St, Brookline, MA 02446

By Mia Mancini

Becoming a Disney princess in “Havahd Yahd”

The beautiful thing about Boston is that it’s a city with 20th century innovations, circulated by urban veins, filled with the latest trends, fueled by technological advancements, and yet has somehow held on to it’s old soul. Boston is very unique from other cities around the United States, and a majority of the reason comes from the fact that Boston holds the key to American roots.

“Pahk the Cah in Havahd Yahd.” Arguably one of the more popular phrases that gets tossed around with us Bostonians. It’s our stereotypical calling. Technically, Harvard is in the city of Cambridge, but nevertheless, tourists and locals claim it as our own.

This week, I went to explore Harvard Square as part of a project for my personal blog, ” A Cup of T”. Around the evening, fueled with a sugar high from Zinneken’s  Belgian waffles, my friends and I decided to get lost in Harvard’s book store.

 

 

The first thing I noticed while walking into the book store, was the amount of ladders the store had on several shelves. (Yes, tall, wooden ladders, that were in absolute perfect condition.) In my lifetime, I hadn’t ever come across a bookstore that included traditional ladders, like the ones you’d see in movies like Beauty and the Beast. I couldn’t resist the urge to climb one for no apparent reason, and ran my fingers across the spines of the books that were touched far less than all the others. The store was buzzing with people from all over the world. There was a couple flipping through cuisine books and a hunched over old man grumbling his way through clusters of people, and a man reading a children’s book to his son in French. It made me feel like a 20th century Belle, up there on the ladder. Harvard’s book store is such a small space with so much room for the diverse population of tourists, locals, authors and one particular resident, Paige.

 

 

Paige is Harvard’s espresso book machine. If something could look like it belonged in both history and the future, it would be Paige. After interviewing some of the employees at the information center, I discovered that Paige can produce an acid-free paperback books in nearly four minutes. Customers could print existing pieces from the internet, or even create their very own books!

 

 

Paige presents many benefits to authors who choose to custom print at the Harvard Book Store. Books are “library-quality, perfect bound, acid-free paperbacks, indistinguishable from books produced by major publishing houses.” Authors can avoid the expensive investments that are sometimes required by self publishing programs. Authors also experience the benefit of owning total rights to their printed work, including the layout, design, the price of the book, and even the option to display it at the Harvard Book Store. For information regarding book pricing and the simple submission guidelines, go to http://www.harvard.com/bookmachine. Paige can also print books that are out of print, such as Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript of Alice and Wonderland, or books that are online accessible.

The Harvard Book store also sells misprinted books for $2.00, just behind their espresso book machine. I thought this was very interesting, knowingly buying a book that is indeed one of a kind, special, and of course, cheap!

 

Right next to Paige, is a staircase that leads to Harvard’s Used Book Department. There are thousands of used books, comics and magazines all placed at a lower price. The Used Book Department is plastered with antique stickers, news clippings, baseball cards and book covers on the poles and shelves. I spent a good 20 minutes looking through all of the in-store collages.

 

 

Tourists, locals, authors, non-authors, students and beautifully curious people should come and take advantage at what the Harvard Book Store has to offer. It’s an inexpensive way to explore unique works of literature, pick up a misprinted book, or learn something new. It’s a new an exciting way to get up close and personal with the literature we love.

 

By Jade Cruz

 

Breakwater Reading Series

The excitement was obvious in the small basement of Brookline Booksmith. In several small rows of two or three or five chairs, the people were talking intently before the readings began. The Breakwater Reading Series features works of MFA candidates at universities and colleges all around Boston. Students hail from Boston University, Emerson College, and University of Massachusetts- Boston, although the audience ranges from children to the elderly. Readings are held at 7pm every third Friday of the month at Brookline Booksmith.

The first reader of the night was A.J. Odasso from Boston University. She has been featured in a number of publications as well as several nominations for awards such as the 2010 London New Poetry Award and the 2011 Forward Prize to name some. Odasso read two older poems as well as four new ones, two of which had three parts. With a more serious tone, this young poet set the expectations high for those to come next.

Fulfilling these expectations was the next author, Juliana Kruis as she read from her memoir Good Pity. The Emerson student told part of the story of her childhood, her mothers gambling addiction and her fathers abuse and forced absence as he was in the air force, from the perspective of her as a child. Kruis captured the room by allowing her work to speak for itself with striking lines like when her mother told her “I just want to lay here and die”, and the nostalgia seemed filled with anger over the lost childhood.

Lightening the mood of the room, Dean Shaban delivered an opening poem by Shel Silverstein and quotes from Mitch Hedberg. Shaban read seven of his own poems, one of which was a found poem, a poem that is created by combining the words of others into something new. Shaban also discussed his love for children’s poetry and books but reading two chapters from the children’s book he is writing. Shaban was able to keep the room laughing and thoroughly enjoying work meant for children, a task not everyone is able to accomplish.

Following Shaban was Ryan Kim, a MFA candidate from UMass Boston. Kim was able to create an environment in which the audience laughed, related, pitied, and hung onto his words as he read his story Unsticking. The story told his adventures with his girlfriend, Mary, and how it becomes more and more difficult to leave someone the longer you are together, despite any betrayals. Kim was able to make us burst out laughing with lines like “that is so middle class”, a direct quote from a girl he was trying to seduce. In the next paragraph Kim was able to make the audience audibly call out “aw” as he discussed the struggles of long term relationships.

The final reader of the night was Lori Zimmerman also an MFA candidate at UMass Boston. Zimmerman read two series of poems. The first consisted of four pomes describing bad homes, the most relatable of which was when she described the bed. Her second series of two poems was apart of her thesis. Zimmerman was able to continue the humor and the seriousness of the previous authors.

As the readings finished, all those present were invited to drinks down the street, however not being 21 quite yet, I opted to explore the independent bookstore. I must admit I have fallen in love with Brookline Booksmith. The twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling, the wide collection of books, and the sliding ladders on the walls, created an amazing environment. The wide range of books and merchandise offered, and the amazing pieces of poetry and prose read ensured my return for the next Breakwater event on March 25^th.

Find out more about Breakwater’s upcoming evens by liking their Facebook page or visiting their website.

By Heather Marshall

Hi Peter

“Hi, I’m Peter and I’m an addict.” Doctor Peter Grinspoon, Harvard Grad, physician, and author of “Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction” introduced himself to his audience at Thursday, February 18, 2016’s book reading hosted by the Boston Public Library.

Walking into the library I approached an older, English librarian and asked about the whereabouts of the book reading. She gave me instructions and I was on my way. I walked through a small corridor and past the open atrium area and proceeded into the next building. Entering the first door to my right, per the instructions of the librarian, I entered a warm and inviting room. Sky-high ceilings with large, simple chandeliers lighting the length of the room created an open and comfortable setting. I chose a seat and waited for the event to begin. People were filing in and easily filled a majority of the room. I heard murmurs and discussion throughout the room and observed as Dr. Grinspoon and members of his family spoke with friends and fans alike until 6:00 when the event was to begin.

At 6:00 all attendees were seated. Grinspoon’s family, wife and children included, were front and center showing immense support for their accomplished and beloved family member. Dr. Grinspoon introduced himself as an addict, a still admittedly difficult statement to make after 9 years clean, although he has been struggling with his opiate addiction for 15 years.

The readings came in three parts and began with the introduction to how Grinspoon had to face his addiction head on. He was not given much choice to get clean, one day having been surprisingly greeted by a Boston Police officer and a DEA agent in his office. Grinspoon was facing three felony counts of writing fraudulent prescriptions. After reading and giving the audience a taste of his gripping narrative chronicling the events that occurred once being caught, Grinspoon started discussing the opiate epidemic.

The opiate epidemic has lead to the heroin epidemic that is sweeping the nation. What was once thought to be an inner city problem has made its way into middle class and upper middle class areas and regions. Doctors nationwide are encouraged by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe opiates to patients. The euphoric effects of these drugs is a feeling that many people end up attempting to chase. Opiates change to the cheaper drug heroin and has evolved these addictions to an epidemic of drug use and overdosing. Overdosing causes an average of 100 deaths per day in America and kills more people than car crashes. Shocking statistics such as the fact that 9% of the general population have serious addictions to drugs and alcohol is unfortunate to think about, however an astonishing fact is that 15% of physicians suffer from addictions with drugs and alcohol. The ease of access and unlimited refills that physicians can grant themselves to opiates combined with the stress of a job like this greatly increases their susceptibility to addiction. Grinspoon provides a call to action and asks how we can fix this epidemic. He noted three main components that worked to create this epidemic.

• The way pharmaceutical companies advertise their products. Pharmaceutical companies work for profits and often minimize the addictive components to opiate use.
• Doctors mindlessly went along with this. They acted as sheep and were complacent in prescribing these drugs to patients.
• The “War on Drugs” treats addicts as criminals rather than as people who have developed legitimate problems.
  • There is no other disease in the world where they punish you instead of treating you.

In the second passage that Grinspoon read from, he details his struggle with denial. Even in his Q&A session as part of one of his responses, Grinspoon made the age old, however classic “dad joke” that “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” At the beginning of his addiction, he believed he had nothing in common with the addict patients that he was treating who came in due to drug and alcohol related issues. Dissociating from these people made it that much more difficult to eventually get the help that he needed.

The discussion following the reading of this passage touched upon the pitfalls of helping physicians who develop addictions such as the one that Dr. Grinspoon lives with. Doctors work tirelessly for years and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their educations. The fear of losing their licenses is a massive deterrent for those with addictions to reach out for help. Grinspoon makes several good points regarding this, stating that there should be less punitive responses in the future to help get these doctors into the recovery programs that they so desperately need. These doctors have a lot to lose and once they are in the recovery process their is an astonishing 75-80% recovery rate. The issue here is getting them to the help that they need.

Grinspoon’s third passage introduced his 90 days in rehab. Although putting up a strong fight against it, his only other option was to face his charges. So, a disheveled Dr. Grinspoon arrived at a rehab facility in Virginia, scruffy in appearance and an inside-out shirt seemed to sum up his state upon arrival.  He first noted seeing fellow patients outside smoking and described them as resembling a “gang of naughty teenagers.” This, a seemingly stark difference to the fellow patients he described as “inmates” that he encountered at the first rehabilitation facility he went to. Grinspoon was searched upon arrival, starting with a search of himself, then his bag, then his car which was parked outside. After a thorough search, a stash of over-the-counter medications were found in his trunk. The nurse who found them gave him a look I’m sure she has doled out thousands of times. Grinspoon was put through facing the stigma that addicts and physicians that fell off of their pedestals face.

Concluding his discussions, Dr. Grinspoon made a few statements that he has learned. He left the audience with these takeaways:

• Doctors in recovery tend to be excellent doctors.
• Opiate addiction is not a death sentence. With a good support system recovery can be made possible.
• We have to make treatment less punitive so people can get the help they actually need to recover.
• In order to work on resolving this epidemic, an important step will be de-stigmatizing the disease of addiction.

This book reading was a pleasure to attend and was informational. Having the fist hand perspective of a physician who is a recovering addict, this novel effectively tells a story that is all too often hidden or shoved into a corner as the taboo and stigma casts a shadow over the issue. This novel instills insight into its readers and acts as a vehicle in which change may be affected and works to tear down the stigmas associated with addiction through the telling of one doctor’s story.

By Alexis Maltes

Lava

On Wednesday, February 3rd, I had the opportunity to listen to and meet an incredible individual – Nick Flynn. Nick is a memoirist and poet of the highly popular and award winning memoirs Another Bullshit Night In Suck City (2004), Being Flynn (2005), The Ticking is the Bomb (2010), and The Reenactments (2013), alongside books such as Some Ether (2000), My Feelings (2015) and more.

Nick was raised in the nearby town of Scituate, Massachusetts. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. After this, Nick pursued his masters degree in Fine Arts from New York University. Apart from Nick’s impressive educational background, he is also the winner of multiple awards and fellowships including the The Guggenheim Foundation, PEN, Columbia University’s Writing Project, and The Library of Congress.

I will be the first to admit that I have not yet read a single one of Nick’s memoirs or books in full, nor did I know who he was before learning of him in Literary Citizenship from our guest speaker, Fred Marchant. However, through Fred Marchant’s words describing Nick as a person, and his story, I was intrigued beyond measures in learning more about Nick and his experiences.

From my research, I gathered that he is not only a successful memoirist and poet from Massachusetts’ South Shore, but he is an outstanding and inspiring individual who has overcome an immense amount of hardship in his lifetime. In short, Nick’s father was mostly absent from his life. In his early twenties, while working in a homeless shelter in Boston, he encountered his father for the first time in over a decade, when his father came in for a bed – homeless. His mother, who raised Nick, committed suicide shortly after finding and reading what was an unfinished piece of Nick’s writing. Nick has overcome adversities associated with alcoholism, addiction, depression and more. But yet, he still manages to create beautiful and captivating pieces of writing – and he still manages to be an incredibly humble and down to earth individual. I know this because I met Nick, and I had a short but powerful conversation that led him to ask me to email him, and I’m waiting for my reply.

 

               

[Another Bullshit Night In Suck City – signed, “-Jennifer- (Guaranteed) Nick Flynn 2016. Feb. Boston!”]

Nick Flynn Visits Suffolk:

At 3pm on Wednesday the 3rd, I walked into an empty room in the Sawyer library of Suffolk University that I had never been in. It was a lovely little room; chairs aligned, beautifully carpeted floors, wooden doors, and colorful books straightened along a series of bookshelves in the back.

Familiar face, Fred Marchant took to the front of the room, his Poetry Center, to introduce Nick Flynn to the eager and diverse audience present. He introduced Nick as an old friend – a humorous, and talented individual who he had the pleasure of knowing for many years. After a few jokes and laughs, Marchant delved deeper into his introduction when he expressed that Nick has endured, in Marchant’s own words, “Unequivocal human catastrophes; alcoholism, addiction, homelessness, his mother’s suicide.” while going on to quote the great Roman aphorism and relating it back to Nick’s experiences, “Nothing human is alien to me,” This phrase now echoes in the back of my mind, as I’m sure it does for others present as well. He concluded his introduction of Nick with, “But Nick is not alone, we’re with him, he’s with us … So, welcome Nick.”

Nick brought with him a presence that was nothing short of casual, but captivating. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but what I received was different than I had imagined. He was a tall caucasian man, with five o’clock shadow (or three o’clock, rather), wearing a dark grey t-shirt and jeans. His hair was not well-kept but lose and natural. What I remember the most vividly about Nick’s appearance however, was his eyes. He had glossy blue eyes that seemed to reflect his experiences with nothing more than the way he looked at you, if that makes any sense. It’s as if, you were communicating emotion with nothing more than that eye contact, in that moment, when Nick was through reading a piece of his work. When individuals across the room would ask questions of Nick after he was through reading a piece, he seemed to have two responses – both of which filled with dry humor, I must add. If the question was on the simpler side, he would not break eye contact until the individual concluded their question, only to briefly look up, as if calculating his response, and then look back to that individual to answer. If the question, however, was deeper and required (in my own opinion), a more elaborate answer – I found that he would not look away for the entire interaction, almost as if he was responding not only through language, but with his whole self.

“Hello… I lived here a long time, until I escaped…haha.” Being immediately confronted with Nick’s sense of humor, I found similarities between my own personality and his.

As the reading unfolded, one piece uttered by Nick froze my fingers on my keyboard as I was taking notes. It left me with the following broken dialogue;

“It’s called Lava. A friend tells this perhaps apocryphal story …. while living in Hawaii a volcano erupted… it erupted so slowly that you could walk up to the wall of it, put your hand out and feel its warmth… the town my friend was staying in was spared the initial blast, but the lava kept coming… which house would be first to be swallowed up by the slow motion wave… some argued it was better than a flood or fire… lava gives you time to move out… you hoped it would slow down, hoped it would run out of juice, hope it would simply stop …. ”

I’m going to assume that it left listeners with the same chill as it did for me.

Then casually, without hesitation Nick went on. I emphasis his ability to be casual when discussing and reading his materials, because I think it adds a strong dynamic to Nick’s presence. His ability to use compartmentalization as a psychological tool when writing about his life (a question I asked him in which he humorously responded, he was working on with his therapist), helps to craft the carefully calculated and beautiful selections he shared with us – and all of his writings in general.

Now, keep in mind, I still have not read his books. I am basing my opinion of Nick solely off of my interactions with him on the third of February. But even so, Nick had a presence that was especially influential to me. That’s the magic of Nick Flynn – he influences people without explicitly wanting to, he does not view himself as special or unique – he is humble and full of humor, he is real. Nick is not at all self-absorbed or looking for acceptance – but rather, using writing as a tool to meditate and reflect on his own life.

I purchased Nick’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night In Suck City (2004), at the end of his afternoon reading. I made sure to stand at the back of the line, so I would be the last to introduce myself. Nick signed my book and we had our conversation. I expressed to Nick that I would not be able to attend his poetry reading later that night in Walsh Theatre because I had work, and we concluded our short interaction with a handshake and a smile.

When I got to work that night, I excitedly showed my signed book to my shift manager and explained to her my day. It was much to my surprise when she expressed her love for Nick’s work – and then told me to leave because I was doing a disservice to myself in not going to his Poetry reading in order to pour coffee at Starbucks for four hours.

At the poetry reading, I again asked the final question of the night – and Nick addressed me as Jennifer in front of the entire audience… To tell you the truth I don’t even remember my question. I just remember the way I felt while listening to his words throughout the day. His general audience is often left begging for understanding – and for those who do understand, he leaves us delving into our own minds for a deeper understanding of ourselves.

I’ll leave you with this,

“I didn’t choose this, I didn’t want to choose this … My story is not significant, I think it’s actually very common.” – Nick Flynn, February 3, 2016.

 

Jennifer Morasca

Nick Flynn Does His Thing

This past Wednesday, I anxiously strode (with a half eaten Santa Fe salad and winter coat in hand) into the fancy glass room tucked at the very back of Suffolk University’s multiple-story library. It had only been three o’clock, but eager eared spectators, some in strollers and others in sweater vests and collared shirts, had quickly begun piling into the neatly positioned rows of chairs. As three-thirty drew closer, the giddy whispers grew into enthusiastic chatter. Everyone, including my classmate and I, were curious as to where the man of the hour and fifteen minutes was. I squirmed around in my seat a bit, wondering what he would look like or how he would make his big entrance. Would he stroll in sporting khakis and loafers? An air of superiority? I mean, he’s Nick Flynn. The man’s penned and published pages on pages of praise worthy prose and metaphoric genius in the forms of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and The Reenactments (to name a few). Hollywood’s gobbled up his life story and spit it back out in movie form for crying out loud. Not only that, but he’s also got a wiki page! Who knew what to expect?

My eyes skipped across the room, and then to the large windows toward the front of the room. I pursed my lips in an attempt to avoid a yawn. In an effort to see if I was the only one present who hadn’t slept as much as I should have the night before, I tuned into the enthusiastic chatter a bit more. Suddenly my classmate nudged my right arm, leaned over, and mumbled, “Is that him? I think that’s him.” I spun around in my chair, attempting to act as natural as possible, bumping my knee on the chair to my left in the process. A small semicircle of unfamiliar faces emerged through the tall wooden double doorway. Lagging a bit behind all of the other faces is one that is only familiar because it had popped up on my iPhone’s Google app just an hour before.
I watched as Nick Flynn (clothed in a green t-shirt and jeans), headed to the very front row of seats, opposite the section that my classmate and I are in, and after a quick introduction I watched Flynn approach the front of the room. He sipped from his thermos, preparing to address his audience.

“I was told that this was just going to be some people and a table, so I didn’t really prepare,” Flynn chuckled, ultimately deciding that he would read excerpts from his books and then answer questions. Flynn managed to get a laugh out of his audience with each question answered, especially with the more serious questions asked. When classmate raised her hand and inquired, “Have you always been writing? Did you always use that as a way to get your feelings out?” He paused and joked back, “Uh..I’m trying to think of something funny to say about that!” Flynn shortly after answered, stating that he had taken to writing for as long as he could remember, and that he wrote to “settle the chaos” in his mind. Inspired by my classmate’s bravery I too raised a shaky hand, stuttering a bit I asked Mr. Flynn what he did to prepare himself to lay all of that chaos out on paper. He replied, “Every project has different needs, but mediation I’d say definitely helps to clear out the chaos in the brain.”

As the evening progressed, more hands went up, more laughs were let out, and more excerpts were read. It most definitely became apparent that Suffolk enjoyed Flynn’s company, seeing that many lingered even after his closing remarks.

-Janaye Kerr