Chatter filled the lobby of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as New York-born poet Carmen Giménez took the stage Thursday, starting a weekend of arts for PYGMALION 2025.
Giménez’s performance featured readings from many of her published works, as well as some newer pieces she is still writing.
“It’s really cool hearing a writer read stuff out loud; it’s a completely different experience than reading it on the page,” said Jackson Bedenbaugh, graduate student studying library and information science.
Giménez started her readings with a chapter from an unreleased novel. The story revolves around the main character, an author herself of a Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson fan fiction in the style of Virginia Woolf.
Although the story itself differed from typical poetry and literature readings, the audience expressed their enjoyment through laughing in response to the repetition of the piece.
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Following the light-hearted fan fiction reading, Giménez delved into her more serious works, exploring themes like death and familial relations.
One of Giménez’s more unique poems was “Can We Talk Here,” a work inspired by the jokes of Joan Rivers.
“I really liked the way she was taking those jokes and augmenting them in ways that sometimes retained the humor that I think was apparent in the original joke,” Bedenbaugh said.
Finishing off the night, Giménez read a large portion of “Be Recorder,” a collection of poems that take on the many complex facets of her identity.
She explored what it means to have parents who are immigrants, what it means to be a woman and many more aspects of her personal experience of the United States.
Many audience members read along with personal copies of “Be Recorder” and nodded as Giménez laid her life story bare.
“As a writer, sometimes when you’re up there, you can’t tell that you have the audience in your hand; you have the audience leaning forward on their seats,” said Christopher Kempf, professor in LAS. “You could absolutely tell, especially when that long snippet she read from ‘Be Recorder,’ the audience was wrapt. The work has this energy that pulls people in because it’s, on one hand, very intelligent, very intellectual, but on the other hand, very accessible. I think she strikes that difficult balance.”
Iggy Schuler, a fellow writer in the audience, said they felt that attending this event was “stimulating” and gave them inspiration for things they want to write about next.
Schuler expressed that events like these readings are unique and valuable in creating a community of like-minded artists and art appreciators.
“It brings the artistic community together,” Schuler said. “It’s awesome to just see people hanging out and talking. A lot of people who come to these things, I think, are artists or readers, and it’s awesome to get to connect with people who have those shared interests and kind of be able to build community in that way.”
