TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Talk to Carol Kimbrough's students at Cal State Fullerton "Asian American Creative Expressions"

Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough invited me and writer Noel Alumit to talk to her students at Cal State Fullerton. Carol is teaching "Asian American Creative Expressions there.

Noel talked about his Filipino American experience, tying this in with his novels. Carol asked me to talk about creative writing and the dugtungan (connecting story) process. The students had read the dugtungan or connecting novel, Angelica's Daughters, which I co-authored.

Carol's 44 students were very attentive. Carol is a very nurturing teacher who provides a lot of opportunities to her students, as in asking writers and performers to come talk to them.

There was a lovely lunch reception, and outside the campus there was a shaman -- Damien is his name -- next to the Day of the Dead display. Damien very generously did a cleansing ritual on each of us: he used the smoke of sage to pass over us, and he said prayers. Thank you, Damien. It felt very relaxing, very freeing.

The picture above shows l-r: Carol Kimbrough, Noel Alumit, and Cecilia Brainard
Below, there's Dom Kawili, with Carol and staff;
Followed by more pictures of staff and the students, and you can figure out which one is Damien.

Here's a joke from Carol as she looked at the lunch spread on the table. She said when the Chinese Americans prepare lunch (or dinner), they want to make sure there is enough food; the Japanese Americans want to make sure the presentation is good; and the Filipino Americans want to make sure there is aluminum foil (to allow people to bring food home after the event - a very Filipino custom). In fact, they prepared a plate of food for me, because I couldn't eat before the event. I promptly forgot the plate when we had to sign some office forms.

Thank you Carol for inviting me, and thanks to the students for your undivided attention.

Click on the pictures to make them big.