Slammin’ Poet: Asia Project

Monday night at the Reeves Theatre, the Asia Project gave a stunning performance. Lauren White, head coordinator of student productions said “We [Student Productions] want to bring different shows to the University of Tampa that appeal to a variety of people.”
As the lights grew dimmer and the spotlight gained intensity, Daytime, Asia’s opening act, stepped on stage. He helped set the mood for Asia’s presentation and gave the audience members hints on how we should react during the performance. Like any other form of art, poetry has its own set of conventions that should be followed in order to let the performer know we understand and enjoy the act.
“I believe everything happens for a reason. I am going to tell you the story of my life and hopefully in that time frame you’ll be able to discover something about your life. That said, let’s make some noise!” Asia opened. With a mixture of humor, realism and sincerity, he presented us his story and transformed it to art.
His first works were titled “Breathe” and “Sunscreen.” He followed it with a poem titled “For Jessica,” which was inspired by his wife.
He continued with subjects about living in the nineties. Humorous references to the clothes we wore and the way we communicated cause laughter amongst the crowd members. Other times, he would relate with the audience by narrating events from his childhood.Being diagnosed with cancer at an early age, his poems present daily situations and make us think and come to terms with the way we live our lives.
Before he was diagnosed, he lost a close friend after a long battle with breast cancer. She made him promise he would quit the job he hated and pursuit his dream.
Poems such as “As I am” project his and the audiences’ insecurities and in the end, it portrayed how Cancer made him stronger. In the words of Asia himself “Sometimes you have to lose a part of you to find your whole self.”
Emotions overflowed in the theatre, as he presented his story and his insights.
Once his show ended, he stayed and mingled with the audience members. Even though he is constantly traveling, I had the opportunity to get to know him better by asking him a few questions.

The Minaret (M): How was your experience at UT?
Asia (A): Oh, I loved it. The venue was great, the sound was awesome. Any place we perform doesn’t have to be packed; it just has to be quiet, to make people feel it.
The other day at noon, a school placed us at a Starbucks, next to the door. There were no chairs and people went right by me to order their coffee and it was not cool. A venue like this is a good spot where you can get emotions into it.

M: How do you prepare before a show? Do you do anything special to calm your nerves?
A: I do Capoiera, just kidding. Actually, I don’t. I’ve been doing this for so long I just know it.

M: How do you handle your demanding tour schedule?
A: You have to remind yourself that you love this. I prefer to do this than work from 9-5. For me one or two hours a day is good. Sure, there is a lot of traveling but it’s been good.

M: Would you ever go back to working for corporate America?
A: Never. I’m going to do what I have to do in order to thrive. The next step includes doing a one man show and incorporating audio visuals.
We are trying to incorporate a symphony so that people really feel the power. It’s less poetry, it’s more of telling a story that will make the people laugh and take them on a ride.

M: What is in store for Asia Project in the next five years?
A: Oh, I already know this; I think about this all the time. Hopefully, continuing to visit colleges, presenting on Broadway and launching a DVD”, hopefully we will get into acting. Then when I get to old to perform, write a book. Those are the plans for now. I know it’s high hopes and high dreams but that is how we should live life.

M: Why the name “Asia Project?”
A: Oh, that’s easy. Check out how deep this is. My name is Asia but I called it “The Asia Project” because we are our own project. If you think about it, our whole lives we are constantly adjusting who we are. Constantly making ourselves better, sometimes worse but we are never the same person. It’s us that we are working on. It’s my personal stuff I’m still working on.

M: Who or what inspires you to create poetry and perform?
A: Music inspires me. I get a lot from this guy [Joel]. We listen a lot to “Explosions in the Sky” and types of music similar to that. I get inspired by movies a lot. Drama movies, things like that, that move you.

M: Do you consider yourself an inspiration to others?
A: I like to think so! That’s kind of the goal. Every person chooses what moves them but I hope I’m one of them.

M: Out of all the awards you’ve won, which one is the most important?
A: The one… What’s the most important award I’ve ever won? Let’s see, a kid gave me a gold star once. That was the best award I’ve ever gotten. It’s true, I did a workshop in junior high and he gave me a golden star. I mean, if I can reach a thirteen year old kid with my poems, it really counts.
Xelamarie Medina can be reached at xelmymedina@gmail.com.