More Than Words: Booking Reading at K College

More Than ore Than frdsWords

The Monkey Version of My Father, My Non-sexual Affair. With titles like these one is sure to be intrigued and will want to hear more. Wednesday night in the Olmsted Room of Kalamazoo College the English Department held a book reading with a plethora of diverse readings performed by more than creditable professors. The readings varied from excerpts from non-fictions, memoirs of a tragedy, poetry, and autobiographies. Each professor’s compositions brought something new and different to the audience be it curiosity as well as laughter and happiness or teary eyes and dark saddening thoughts of death.

A hot fudge sundae had never before been more of a guilty pleasure than when it was the rich and sticky symbol of a forbidden romance. Andy Mozina began the night with an excerpt called My Nonsexual Affair using gripping imagery and personification to bring the hot fudge stain to life and stain our thoughts with guilt.

Although Mozina’s opening reading was sure to leave a mark, Beth Marzonie’s vivid perception of Rothco’s Room in The Tate Modern of London was clearly heard and seen in her descriptive imagery and her use of strong diction and alliteration. Amy Rodgers’ piece was filled with just the right amount of “sass” to fill a room of tired college students with sniggers, she didn’t hold back in her expressive stream-of-consciousness reading focusing on Carol Frost, the son of Robert Frost. One gets a taste of life in India for an ambitious woman in India when listening to Babli Sinha’s piece. Amelia Katanski’s reading, Noble Truth, is a story that is sure to leave a “salty” taste in your mouth. The Monkey Version of my Father read by Glenn Deutch was filled with comedy that would make anyone feel less embarrassed about, or perhaps proud of his or her own family. Marin Heinritz’s excerpt from an autobiographical piece, Cracked Wide Open by Proximity, showed the struggles a daughter and her mother had to prevail, be it health, romantic or family issues. It makes one think about what is really important in life just as her mother finding that being a mother to her was her purpose.

Bruce Mills’ excerpt from An Archeology of Yearning expressed the many struggles he had to deal with in raising a son who suffers from autism. Hearing the line, “What is happening”, uttered by his son numerous times is sure to load your heart with empathy. His story captured hearts and minds filled with sympathy and hope that there is a solution Mills and his family finds to get through such adversity.

Diane Seuss hits the audience hard with her response to I Dreamed William Beross called It Wasn’t a Dream, I Knew William Beross delivered with confidence and bluntness. With each one of her words having a tinge of sexuality and pleasure Di Seuss had the audience laughing and eating out of the palm of her hands and wanting to hear more of her thoughts.

The murder-suicide that occurred at Kalamazoo College in October of 1999 resulting in the loss of two young lives left a dark whole in many hearts. Gail Griffin’s memoir on this tragedy holds defined imagery that brings the piece to life. It is deep and dark yet spiritual and may cause more than a few tearstains on ones cheek, proof that you have been “marked” by her words, words that silence an audience and pierces their hearts with sorrow.

Although there were some people who presented their pieces better than others, all the staff members performed wonderfully. With so much variety in these readings it sends one on a roller coaster ride of thoughts and feelings of sex, art, family and death. All the pieces displayed passion and thoughts of these writers and their love and need to express them, and they do so magnificently.