About 15 people gathered Thursday, April 26 to hear Asia, Association for Promotion of Campus Activities Performer of the Year, perform a spoken-word collage of poems that detailed various encounters from his life.
Asia has been performing for five years, and one year professionally. He said his diagnosis with testicular cancer last year inspired him to pursue poetry at the professional level.
“The minute you’re staring death in the face is when you realize, ‘OK. Give me one more chance; I won’t mess up this time,'” he said.
Members of Campus Activity Board attended the event where he was named performer of the year and were so impressed they made sure to book him.
“I saw him at the regional and national conference, and he had some words that really inspired us, like him dealing with cancer,” Carlos Ramirez, bilingual education sophomore, said
Stan Pearson, associate director of Student Activities, spoke of the level of intimacy he brought to the stage.
“He connected, and he was real. I think with poetry there are people that do what they do and there are people that love what they do. You could tell that he loved what he did, and he was connecting [with the audience],” said Pearson.
While the small audience may have disappointed those who coordinated the event, Asia actually embraced that few people attended as he feels it provides a warmer environment.
“You can’t pull poetry with a mass audience expecting people to listen. It needs to really be in a confined environment where people are engaged. It’s not like a stand-up comic where you can hear parts of it and still laugh. You do that with a poem and you don’t know what the poem is about,” Asia said.
The audience’s reaction shifted from uproarious laughter to jaw-dropping speechlessness; the response was resoundingly positive.
“I think he was very interesting. I liked the emotion behind the poetry, and it’s a good way to spend a Thursday night,” Jose De La Cruz, English sophomore, said.
For one member of CAB, Asia’s powerful delivery contributed to his appeal.
“I thought it was inspirational, and (I liked) how he mixed all these emotions together with little words. This is the third time I’ve been to a poetry gathering, but he’s the one that I related to most,” said Laura Rodriguez, CAB historian.
Asia was encouraging in his advice to aspiring poets and warned them not to fear that someone has covered the subject they want to write about.
“You have to be keen of your surroundings. My friend once told me, ‘Every subject that can ever be written about has already been written about.’ It’s all been there; it’s the way you translate that message.”
His topics ranged from ethnic and racial prejudices to the irony of MTV’s “Sweet Sixteen.” He related his struggles with cancer to, of course, his experiences with love.
Asia’s profound words emanate from the profoundly dire situations he faces in his daily life.
“For the last couple of weeks I’ve been waking up feeling the pains (from cancer) again, and I’m like ‘Please, don’t let it come back.’ I have to live with that fear everyday for about five years until I’m completely clear,” he said.