Hey there,

This last week’s Speakeasy was so fun.  We had it next to the fireplace, though with no fire, and it was fabulous.  There was only 2 other people there besides me and M, so I nixed the idea of having it in the impersonal Arts Café.  Samuel came in a little later, and two new people came by to join us.  They seemed to like the intimate atmosphere and promised me that they’d come back, though I can tell it wasn’t what they expected so I assured them that we usually hold our Speakeasies in a much more traditional format.  In any case, we all had a fun time sitting in a little circle and reading our poetry and sharing our thoughts.  One of the guys that came in was a freshman coming here from an international school, and he noted how he felt really odd in Penn’s “don’t speak, don’t tell” atmosphere of racial/cultural segregation, where everyone sticks within their own groups and don’t really wander outside the circle.  Then we got onto the discussion of how that was really a Philadelphia thing as well, and somehow that moved to the differences between different regions of the US.

Anyway, Speakeasy was very interesting this week and reminded me of the other time when we had it around the fireplace, which remind me of you.  So I thought I’d write an email. ^_^  See you Tuesday for drinks!

Alexis Nguyen