an end of a series

Budget cuts have killed programming at the Chinese Cultural Center located on the 3rd floor of the Holiday Inn in SF where Kearny Street held joint readings for years. Last Thursday's reading for "Going Home to a Landscape" was the last one.

The reading was quite a reunion for a lot of folks. Several people who had gone through the MFA program at SF State with Catie Cariaga were there. I found out that Virginia Cerenio and I share a family name from the same town in Pangasinan and come from a line of hilots. Apparently, we're a family of writers as well.

The reading was delayed as we anticipated Marianne Villanueva's arrival from Bangkok that very evening. She practically came straight from the plane and had to reimmerse herself into the Bay Area and sitting in the driver's seat of a car, shaking off a bit of that traveler's amnesia. She cut her vacation short to make this reading.

Virginia broke her solitude up way past Napa to come for the reading as well. A reading with KSW I guess falls under "a damn good reason" to drive 3 hours to.

Catie drove in from the east bay and though we work on the same campus and I run into her, I totally forgot we probably should have carpooled. Dawn Mabalon was madly racing from SF State looking fine in her black pinstripe suit.

We started the reading after Marianne came in wheeling her mini-shopping cart of "Going Home to a Landscape" books.

Packed house! After intros, Virginia reads a few pieces from the book, including one about her father as he slowly lost his desire to eat in his last days.

Tsismis quickly spreads as Marianne announces my engagement to the crowd prior to my read. And I'm thinking, "Didn't she just get off the plane?" Catie read a few new pieces from E Pluribus Karaoke, interpersing lines with some soulful singing that caused the audienced to clap in beat. Dawn read a piece that didn't make "Going Home" about all the types of Filipino men, who in the end are all trying to work their "game," but how she loves them nonetheless. A piece from her bitter-20s she says.

The night closed with a few questions from the audience and chit-chat through the crowd. I forgot to ask Manong Oscar Peneranda about his "misdemeanors" in St. Louis. We had to be out of there by 9. Kearny Street will continue its readings elsewhere, perhaps at the new International Hotel next door that is nearing completion.

Before leaving, I made sure to introduce my fiance to Catie. I had run into Catie on campus a few weeks prior and mentioned the engagement. To which she immediately went into "auntie" mode and asked, "who is he? have I met him before? what's he like?" etc. So, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make introductions or reintroductions as it were.

The Holiday Inn Chinese Cultural Center held its niche in a often overheated room across from Portsmouth Square, not the most ideal place, but a place nonetheless. It was a space. Sad to see it go.