Same Sun

If I drink, I wake up early, that's the rule. Sunday morning I found myself awake around nine, even though we hadn't gotten back and settled into bed until past four. There was an Asian American literary festival going on and a friend was reading at eleven. I had been pretty certain I wasn't going to make it that early but seeing as I was up, I decided to trek over to Brooklyn and be a supportive person.

For the first week, I'm staying with Kyle, whose apartment is located in Southstreet Seaport, only one stop away from Dumbo, right across the river. I arrived at the literary event on time -- a trend I hope to sustain as part of the new me -- and went upstairs to settle in the stage area. There were a lot of big Asian American writer types slated to be at the festival but I'm not facially familiar with many of them so didn't expect to recognize anyone. Five minutes after I arrived however, I saw Jeff Yang sitting in the alcove. He was technically my boss ten years ago at a.Magazine, although I doubt he'd remember a marketing intern from a decade ago. Another friend of mine worked there too, right before they closed down, a fact I'd totally forgotten about until right then.

Among many other projects, Yang now writes a column for SF Gate. I had actually spent some of my time on the flight coming up with a story arc and character idea for the planned sequel to Secret Identities, an Asian superhero graphic novel, which Jeff edits. If I were a braver man, I'd have stepped up and tried to sell him on my idea before I submitted it. Lately I've been bookmarking sites and blogs that have open submissions, as I need to make more pieces for public consumption. Being able to contribute to an Asian American superhero anthology would be a combination of dreams.

Sam, who was my workshop teacher back in SF, now lives a much coveted bicoastal lifestyle, swinging between SF and NY. She's getting her MFA in playwriting out here but still performs and travels back to the Bay quite often. During our class, she had mentioned a prose piece she'd been working on about lap dances, strippers, and boyfriends. We'd heard a snippet from back then, and that almost finished piece was the one she read today. It's always interesting to see your instructor in action, watching them execute things they've taught you, albeit at a much higher level. Aha, I think, that's what she meant by that lesson.

Immediately following Sam's reading was a scheduled panel that included Das Racist. A friend is family friends with one of them, and said that they were wicked smart. I wanted to hear it in action. Plus I was hoping to get a picture of them to surprise her. Half an hour past the scheduled start time, Das was still nowhere to be found. My first thought was: typical rappers. But then I looked up their recent tweets and it said the New York Marathon, being run that Sunday, had made them indefinitely delayed. True story? You are what you tweet...

As it was a beautiful day, Sam and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, past the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, and back into lower Manhattan.