Event Reviews

After, Havidan Rodriguez, the President of the University at Albany, SUNY, gave his opening remarks and thanks to the attending guests, Assembly member Patricia Fahy and John McDonald, were invited to the stage.

Following his certainly less than necessary introduction, Penn sat and detailed his rushed trip east to visit the college campus. He went on to discuss the writing of his novel, his excitement for the art and process of writing itself as evident as his boredom with acting.

Another point Ward noted was the fact that book bans were often targeted at Young Adult—YA books, like Thirteen Reasons Why, with the challenges coming from either parents, or patrons, 32 and 42 percent of all book ban petitioners respectively according to the ALA.

Acevedo credits her “teachers,” rap artists she grew up with like Nas, and J. Cole, who instilled in her the importance of believing in herself. She calls rap her “first writing workshop,” and believes it was hip hop that taught her the mindset necessary to succeed, the idea that “maybe I’m not supposed to be here, but I’m going to act like I am,” Acevedo said.

The first question I heard, was what lead Guggenheim down this path of screen writing. He replied that he started writing as a favor to his brother while in Law School and continued with the hobby over half a decade later. By that point, he grew disillusioned with Law practice and thus went to try and write for television.

It was a fun and entertaining event credited to the amusing videos, the humorous interludes where various professors were thanked by having their faces sloppily photoshopped onto the previous year’s hit movie characters such as those appearing in Wonder Woman and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Dan Wilcox read once more, this time he read his “Birthday Poem”. Celebrating his 72nd year, demonstrating that the fire of youth is still alive with his charismatic and high-spirited performance.

The event was kicked off by a short speech by Mayor Kathy Sheehan introducing us to William Kennedy’s history as an Irishman growing up in Northern Albany and how he came back after a few years of not living here to put the literary culture of Albany on the map.

When the interview proper begins, Witt talked about her first experience with Internet Dating. She was in her 30’s when she made the attempt and spelled out how it was lacking in many ways compared to real life interactions.