Reading at Otherland's

I went to hear DiAnne Malone and Torie Sanford-Finch tonight at Otherland's. I walked in and saw Sarah and Jenn sitting against the far wall, so I went to sit by them. I was a few minutes late but luckily they hadn't started yet, so I didn't interrupt anything. DiAnne went first. She sat down at the table and proceeded to read from her laptop. She read a non-fiction piece about the day her mother died. After she had been reading for a few minutes, it became clear that her story was not about her mother's funeral, in fact, it was about her father and his presence in her life. She told the story of how her father taught her how to ride a bike on the day her mother died and then left her to stay with her grandmother. She continued to talk about the gifts that her father sent her over the years and how she resented him for leaving her. She also told how her father was always at the events she needed him at; graduation, her wedding. Her writing was very straightforward. It was really easy to understand. Even when she switched back in forth to different stories in different times, she seemed to have a way to make it known what she was talking about. I really enjoyed her reading. It seemed easy to realte to her and understand how she realyl felt.

Next, Torie read a handful of poems she had written. The poems, keeping with the upcoming holiday, were about love and relationships. The poetry was harder for me to follow. She didn't have much of a pause between poems, so I found myself confused as to what poem she was reading. The words seemed to run together and nothing really stuck in my head. I just couldn't grasp anything because once I got the idea of the poem, it was over and she was aready half way into something else. Her words were eloquent but it might have been more effective to read just a few or mayeb a longer one. I enjoyed listening to the two women read though.