Author: Ivy Mei

This is my first time seeing a play on Broadway. In the beginning I thought the play was going to be boring, but I ended up enjoying everything about it. I liked the plot of the play, how the characters were so engaged in their roles, and the scenery. The play reflects on issues in the current United States such as racism, recession, and economic inequality. This is shown in the play when Jessie and Tracy were locked out of the factories making them economically unstable, while their friend Cynthia became the supervisor. Racism arises in the play afterwards, when Tracy mentioned that the only reason Cynthia got the job was because she was “black” and how immigrants are coming into the country and taking away their jobs.

The discussions in the round table was appealing. I find it interesting the reasons why Sarah Schulman wrote the book was because she wanted to mention the thing that has been lost in New York and she wrote the book in the date of her birth without doing any research. A surprising fact was when she mentioned that the meat packaging place she mentioned in her book is now where the Whitney museum is located. I thought she was very convincing  when mentioning that diversity in New York makes us smarter and about how we should all act up and have a clear view of what we want for our future and to act against it physically instead of just saying no.

Questions for Sarah Schulman

1. Why are most of your work focused on minorities such as heterosexual people?
2. How do you come up with ideas to write your stories?

I was given the name Ivy because my parents thought the name was simple, easy to pronounce and easy to spell. My name does not mean poisonous. The first thing that comes to mind when people hear my name is poison ivy. Ivy is actually an evergreen climbing ornamental plant which represents fidelity and eternity. People with this name tend to be quiet, cooperative, considerate, sympathetic to others, adaptable, balanced and sometimes shy. These definitions relates to who I am because I’m more of a quiet and shy person. I feel that my name unique because although it’s very simple, I haven’t encountered anyone with the same name.