Catherine Wang Hsu and Li Mo Feature Tuesday September 29, 2009 • 7:30 pm

CAMBRIDGE COHOUSING PRESENTS
THE FIRESIDE READING SERIES
MOLLY LYNN WATT, CURATOR

CATHERINE WANG HSU has been a professional businesswoman, an entrepreneur, and an educator. She has been a daughter, a wife, and a mother. She is Chinese and American and has traveled the world both physically and spiritually. Her recent collection of poetry, Shadows and Light was published by lulu.com. Her poems have appeared in Lyric Somerville (The Somerville News) and the Goose River Anthology. She has been a featured reader for Outloud at the Beebee Estate, sponsored by the Melrose Cultural Council, and the Osher Life Long Learning Institute at UMass Boston. Her work has been presented on Digital Storytelling for Malden Community Access TV and won an award from Mystic Valley Elder Services.
LI MO, (also known as LI MIN MO), was born in Shanghai, escaped from China with her family in 1952 and eventually made her way to the U.S., coming of age in New York City during the 1960s. She holds an M.A. from Goddard and an M.F.A. from Emerson. For over 30 years she has lived in Cambridge where she raised three children and developed an outstanding reputation as a professional storyteller, award-winning educator and artist. Her work has been supported by many awards and grants. Since 1982 she's been on the roster of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is a long-time active member of Streetfeet Women, a performers and writers collective, and taught Storytelling at Lesley University for 17 years. Her storytelling has taken her across United States, as well as to Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing. Her just-published memoir, Spirit Bridges, tells an intimate story of a young Chinese American woman facing political persecution, sexual assault, racism, poverty, disabilities and the immigrant experience. It is also a tribute to her mother, one of China's first female journalists in the 1940s. Mo’s storytelling and poetry leads the reader through her life, as she gains self-knowledge, joy and a profound commitment to optimism even in her darkest moments.

The reading begins with a short open mike. Come at 7 PM to help set up, sign up for open mike and nosh and schmooze. Following the reading you are invited to a wine and cheese reception. (A donation of $3 is requested to help with the cost.)

The Fireside Reading Committee is Molly Lynn Watt, curator, Richard Curran, webmagician, plus Jenise Aminoff, Vinnie D’Orio, Jim Foritano, Lolita Paiewonsky, Ruby Poltorak, Elizabeth Quinlan, Julie Rochlin, Barbara Thomas and Dan Lynn Watt. Thanks to many others for help on logistics, and the writers who come month after month. The reading is held at Cambridge Co-Housing, 175 Richdale Ave. in Cambridge, 3 blocks from the Red Line stop at Porter Square. A request to the City of Cambridge allows out-of-town visitors to park on Richdale Avenue from 6:30-10:30 PM. Contact Molly Lynn Watt, 617-354-8242, mollywatt@comcast.net or Jenise Aminoff, 617-576-2004, jenise@alum.mit.edu, or www.cambridgecohousing.org/Fireside/index.html