Before our class met Penny Arcade at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, I watched the short video from her internationally renowned show, the Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! My first thought was that the show was full of sexual and deteriorative elements with all the trippers dacing around, and I wondered what kind of artist is Penny Arcade? What is her intention behind this show and why do people enjoy this kind of show?

With these questions and curiosity about Penny Arcade, I entered the small studio where my class and I met her. I was a little surprise at my first sight to see her since she did not look like a performing artist that I expected. However, as the workshop went on, I found her to be a quite interesting person. The first unusual characteristic that I found about Penny Arcade is her life of becoming a performing artist, a dramatic story which she told as if it was a story of others. She told us that she ran away from her house at the age of thirteen and were sent to a reform school. She was released at the age of sixteen and this was when she left connecticut for New York City, where she meet Jamie Andrews of MainMan management company who rescued her from the street and gradually led her to the career of being an artist.

The unique background gave Penny Arcade a distinctive character that one could easily tell her apart from others in her age. During the meeting, she brought up the key word “gentrification”, which she used to characterize New York City today. As she explained that the whole city is conforming to middle-class, products in downtown are graduatedly sold as the same price in midtown, many ethical habitations are disappearing, New York City is becoming less diverse as time processes. Despite I understand that she stands with a reason to give such a comment as she holds the first-hand experience of the changes that took place in New York City over these years, I don’t fully agree with her negative mentality regarding the process of gentrification. Not only because it is an inevitable process with economic growth, which serves as a sign of improvement, but also because it does not necessarily lead to less diversity. In fact, gentrification can promote diversity in school as white parents start consider public schools instead of sending their kids away to schools outside of their neighborhood or enrolling them in private institutions.

There are more lessons I gained from the meeting with Penny Arcade, she is an interesting lady with colorful life experience. The conversation with her inspired me in many different ways beyond my thought, it is a valuable experience that I will always remember.