A diverse audience packed Fisk Auditorium Friday night to cheer, applaud and laugh as iLL-Literacy, a Bay Area spoken word group, mused on the sometimes taboo issues of race, sexism and self-hate.
Before its performance, the group hosted a spoken word workshop for around 25 people. The group asked audience members to write their feelings about power and used their answers to stress the close relationship between empowerment and self-expression. iLL-Literacy, a black and Asian performance group, then opened its show with a rap written by Weinberg freshman Jack Zhang about the impossibilities of the American dream.
After Zhang’s opening, iLL-Literacy took to the stage and performed a unique blend of rhythmic prose and poetry. The group’s message emphasizes socioeconomic inequalities within the United States, as well the injustice of censorship and the pressure on women to conform to a media-driven image of beauty.
“Spoken word is a self-testament,” said Ruby Veridiano-Ching, a member of the group. “It’s poetry but it’s also a sense of empowerment. … It’s about real emotional personal narrative but also social commentary. It’s one of the genres that touches on race, class and gender issues.”
iLL-Literacy began as a student group at the University of California, Davis. Its four current members, Veridiano-Ching, Adriel Luis, Dahlak Brathwaite and Nico Cary, tour with the company and perform at poetry slams and other events.
“From our performance, I think as much as possible we hope to introduce the notion of ‘intersectionality’ – for instance, I think in our show and workshop we try to deconstruct this notion that race is a fixed category and that it is non-negotiable,” Cary said.
Friday’s event was hosted by several Northwestern groups that represent a wide range of student backgrounds and interests, including the Filipino student group Kaibigan, the Department of African American Studies and the English Department. The group’s members said their performances tend to bring together individuals with different opinions.
“What we try to do with our show is really unite people,” Veridiano-Ching said.
Former Kaibigan Publicity Chairman AJ Aguado originally contacted iLL-Literacy after working at Asian Youth with Power, an Asian group that has connections with members of iLL-Literacy. The Communication sophomore said the biggest reason he wanted a spoken word group to come was because the presence of the performance art has been lacking at NU.
“I’ve been trying to get this kind of stuff on campus because we don’t have anything like this,” Aguado said.
The audience laughed as Cary recited an “F- You List,” whose targets included artists such as Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse. He chided the artists for “doing black music better than most black people.” He also called out Lunchables “because everyone else had them and I never had any.”
Attendees said the group’s messages spoke to them because they dealt with current events and topical issues.
“It’s really relevant to what we’re dealing with right now and it’s in-your-face radical,” said Weinberg freshman Erica Garnett.
Others said they were touched by the group’s honest portrayals of social problems.
“I thought it was amazing – it was very inspirational,” said Emily Rogoff, a prospective student from Ohio. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so personal.”
iLL-Literacy has won multiple poetry slam championships, has been featured on Def Poetry Jam and won an Emmy for a TV adaptation of Luis’ poem. NU was their last stop on their tour before their return to the Bay Area.
