How it started

Why it started:

Everywhere we’ve given a reading or a workshop, someone always asks: “Will you ever do a renshi again?” “Never.” Has been our usual answer. Until now.

How it started:

After our reading at Punahou summer session on June 23rd a variation of the question came up, “What renshi are you working on now?” In the beginning when asked, “Would you ever do it again?” Juliet usually gave an emphatic no! But this time, there was a hesitation. Ann agreed to do it and acknowledged that it could be a challenging. Christy and I were always game. But it was Juliet who came up with the idea. “I’d do it again, if . . . ,” she says. “If what?” we ask. “If I had two weeks to write my link.”

“Is that all?” I think. “Is that all it takes?” We all agree that with two weeks between links we could do it. Do what? That was the real question. What could we do which would not be a repeat of No Choice but to Follow? Not another BR anniversary. We didn’t even know what questions to ask each other: what subject? Juliet mentions the “Massie Affair.” Ah huh? In a renshi? What approach? What parameters? Whose voice? Chronological? We didn’t know. Then we had lunch.