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MARIE G. LEE
Forest Hills Community
House
Queens, New York
December 6 - 8, 2004
Author Marie Lee visited the Jackson Heights Community
Center, a part of Forest Hills Community House in Queens,
New York, from December 6 through December 8, 2004.
Her residency included meeting adult students learning
English and members of SAGE/Queens (Senior Action in
a Gay Environment).
Ms. Lee opened up the class by introducing herself
and offering some background information. Like Bob Dylan,
Ms. Lee was born in Hibbing, Minnesota. She asked if
anyone in the class knew where Minnesota was, and then
pointed it out on the map. For many years she wanted
to be a cowgirl, and wore her cowboy boots every day.
At age nine, after her brother gave her a typewriter,
she decided to become a writer and sold her first story
to her mom for a nickel.
Students in the class appeared at ease with Ms. Lee
as she asked them to tell her about themselves before
beginning the workshop. She explained that her parents
were Korean, and while she always wanted to learn the
language, her parents didn't want her to have an accent.
A Korean woman in the class immediately responded to
this remark. Fluent in Korean, her Korean-American grandchildren
hardly speak the language. This opened up a discussion
amongst the students, most of whom were Colombian, about
preserving their native language while assimilating
into American culture. The majority of the students
are raising bilingual children, speaking Spanish at
home while their children learn English at school and
they speak it at work.
The book that Ms. Lee read from, F is for Fabuloso,
deals with a young Korean girl in America who is learning
English along with her parents. The girl, Jin Ha, tricks
her parents into thinking that her grade of "F"
on a math test stands for "Fabuloso." Before
she began reading, Ms. Lee encouraged students to ask
questions about the story or its vocabulary. After each
paragraph, she stopped to make sure they knew the meaning
of more difficult words. Ms. Lee read a passage about
Jin Ha's first day of school in America, when her teacher
spoke English so fast that Jin Ha could not understand
her. Tim, a teacher at Forest Hills, asked the students
to recall situations in which they were frustrated or
confused by not being able to speak English very well.
Everyone had a story to tell.
After reading from F is for Fabuloso, Ms. Lee
spoke a little about some of her other books. One of
them, Night of the Chupacabras, inspired a lively
discussion over the definition of chupacabra (a vampire
that preys on goats) as opposed to regular vampires.
Ms. Lee explained that her idea for the story came out
of a trip to Mexico in which she heard the legend of
the chupacabra. Whether the creatures actually exist
was left up for debate.
At the end of the class, students asked Ms. Lee about
where she lived and whether she liked New York. She
graciously answered their questions, and they seemed
excited to read more of her work.
For about ninety minutes, Ms. Lee met with a group
of seven adults with intermediate English skills. In
order to prepare for her visit, the group was given
a chapter from Night of the Chupacabras to read
in advance. Marie read excerpts from Chupacabras
to the group and explained what prompted her to include
certain story lines and scenaries in the book. When
difficult words or text were encountered, Ms. Lee and
the instructor would explain their meaning to the group
through examples and simple illustrations drawn on the
blackboard. After a difficult word was explained, the
students immediately wrote in their notebooks. At the
end of the visit, students thanked Marie. When asked
if they wanted a picture with the author, everyone participated
in the group picture with Marie without hesitation.
The members of SAGE were excited by Marie's visit and
had started preparing many weeks in advance by familiarizing
themselves with her work. Because of their interest
in the writing life, this group wanted to talk instead
of write for the full two hours of Marie's visit.
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