10-26-07
“Artists express heritage” (Central Florida Future)
Artists express heritage
Lauren Paulauskas, 10/26/2007
From the Central Florida Future
Three talented spoken-word and hip-hop artists filled a packed Cape Florida Ballroom with words and music Wednesday.
The Beats, Rhymes and Rice Tour, starring Giles Li, Bao Phi and Kiwi Illafonte, breezed into UCF.
“They’re traveling from school to school,” said Cuong Le, chair of the Asian Awareness Council of the Multicultural Student Center at UCF. “This is the first school they’re stopping at.”
Members of the Asian Awareness Council, who put on the show, were really excited for their arrival and performances, he said.
“We asked one person, and they told us about this tour,” Le said, “so we jumped right on it.”
The three Asian men, all of different Asian heritages, emphasized their origins through their conversations with the audience and their descriptive pieces. They’ve known each other for a while and said their paths have crossed several times.
“We’re all community artists,” Phi said. “We’ve shared a lot of stages.”
The three men performed in a rotation because they said they didn’t want the audience to get bored. The audience’s response throughout the show proved that their plan worked.
Illafonte kicked off the show and pumped the room full of energy. He rapped a song with hip-hop music in the background and involved the audience.
Li, who performed during Asian-American Heritage Month in April, said he was nervous about coming back because he hasn’t performed since then. He talked about issues relating to his Chinese heritage and his family.
Phi, a Vietnamese-American, performed pieces that addressed issues in Asian-American and, specifically, Vietnamese communities.
The first thing he talked about was the Vietnamese last name “Nguyen,” joking about how many people pronounce it incorrectly or assume that everyone with that last name is related.
His first piece was about Vietnamese people with different occupations. He said it was “to show that it’s fun and interesting that our community is different.”
Illafonte, being Filipino, performed the first part of his next song in the Filipino language and engaged the audience again by telling them to say “unity.”
Phi’s next poems were first-person pieces about two Vietnamese individuals. The first was about a Vietnamese girl pretending to be one of Gwen Stefani’s Japanese Harajuku girls, whom she always has with her in videos and on tour.
The next person was a Vietnamese man who was a Prince impersonator named Quince Nguyen, and the poem highlighted his struggles with acceptance.
Li then performed another new piece that he wrote after his second trip to China with his family, and it centered on his father’s influence on him.
“You taught me not to believe in God, Dad,” he said. “Your life has been a miracle if ever there was one. So how have you made it this far?”
Another piece he performed was called “Mathematics” and focused on the corruption of people in power.
After that, Illafonte brought hip-hop to the room again with an upbeat song for the ladies.
“Sisters in the house this evening,” he said, “[Say] ‘right here, right now.’”
Phi’s next pieces were about two sets of Vietnamese people who can’t talk to each other for different reasons. The first set can’t communicate because they stereotype each other, and the second can’t communicate because a boy can’t tell his friend that he loves her.
Toward the end of the show, Li pointed out their different heritages.
“It’s really not about exclusions,” he said, “it’s about inclusion.”
The same piece he ended with at his spring performance ended the harmonious lyrics the three men delivered and included the audience reciting Lil’ John’s famous phrase, “Yeah, what, OK!”
Illafonte ended the show by expressing his feelings about coming to UCF.
“We really appreciate being invited out here,” he said. “Just sharing each other’s experiences.”
Some students who attended the show said they enjoyed having visitors from different parts of the country.
“It was actually way better than I expected,” said Teresa Chan, a business junior.
“It was astonishing, breathtaking,” said her sister, Tiffany, a high school sophomore. “It was killer.”
Tom Nguyen, a digital media senior and officer of the Vietnamese-American Student Association agreed with them. He said he saw Li at his spring performance, and thought it was better than he expected.
“It was a breath of fresh Asian air,” he said.
The vice president of the Chinese American Student Association, Daniel Mendez, said he enjoyed it but felt differently about it because he is Colombian.
“At one point, I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be here because they talked about Asian heritage,” he said, but when Li referenced different countries in one of his pieces, “it made me feel more welcome.”
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