Chen Chen’s Poetry Reading of “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”

I attended the literary lecture on 10/30 in the Jacobus Lounge. Walking in, I had no idea what to expect. I actually had the idea that I would be quite bored; I expected the lecture to be an hour long. I was surprised at how interesting the talk was. Chen Chen read some of his poems out of his book called “When I Grow Up I want to Be a List of Further Possibilities.” His writing was very playful, sassy, and emotional all wrapped in one. One of his poems called First Light explains his memories of his home, China, and his journey to the USA. He used a lot of imagery in this poem. His mother explains to him their family’s departure from their home was a “chance at first light.” He leads us to imply that “first light” in this reference is a miracle. A chance. A chance to leave the life they had for a chance at a better one. Then later in the poem, he illustrates the experiences of hearing his grandmother had a stroke. His mother feeling sad, scared, and guilty feels bad about “not leaving here at once..” The poem ends with a deeper interpretation of the usage of here. How the imagined tone of his mother is the voice of someone who views their actions as unforgettable.  Not only did he write poems with a mood of sadness and despair, but he wrote more playful poems.

In another piece, Chen Chen writes about an experience in Starbucks. There have been some political issues regarding services provided by workers, mostly racial. A common mistake workers also make is the mispronunciation of customers names. He was called many wrong names including Chung and Chang. He was once called Che and the workers assumed it was short for Sharon.  This section of the poem is playful and easy to laugh at. Then he switches the tone and concludes with the expression, why do I feel the need to have someone like you acknowledge someone like me. This adds a twist to how the piece begins into how it ends. He separates races and makes us dive into the view Chen experienced the situation. This lecture was very interesting to listen too. Hearing Chen read his work with the tone he wished the reader would read it in, allowed me to interpret it in a different way. This was a great overall experience.