“Isn’t everybody a 5-foot-2 tattooed Asian female?” asked spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai to an audience of about 120 Northwestern and Chicago community members Thursday night in the McCormick Auditorium.

Tsai spoke about race, identity and culture for the performance, which was jointly hosted by The Slam Society, Kaibigan, Taiwanese American Students Club and other student groups.

“There is poem meant for the page and poem meant for the stage,” said Zack Moy, co-president of The Slam Society, a new poetry group on campus.

Spoken word is an art form meant for the stage that should capture the audience’s attention and inspire them, the Weinberg junior said.

Organizers started planning in October, said AJ Aguado, co-president of Kaibigan.

“We want people to see how influential spoken word can be,” the Communication senior said.

The audience responded enthusiastically to Tsai’s poems, which included lines like: “I’m supposed to have a color in America” and “I know there is no you without me; I know there is no me without you.”

“Her work is really important on campus because it’s a different way of tackling diversity issues beyond race,” said 30-year-old Vanessa DeGuia, a teacher from Chicago.

Tsai held a question-and-answer session with audience members following her performance.

She said she developed a passion for spoken word at the Uptown Poetry Slam in Chicago, the birthplace of the international poetry slam. Her experience growing up as a minority in the Midwest inspired her poetry, she said.

“In this culture, people expect Asian American females to be quiet and not have much to say,” Tsai told The Daily. “I do a lot not just for myself but for breaking a stereotype about what people think an Asian American female looks, talks and behaves like.”

After getting involved with poetry slam groups in college, she auditioned for the HBO show Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry in 2006. She has been featured in three seasons of the show and has performed at more than 375 venues worldwide.

“It was really interesting to see someone who I see on YouTube and TV shows right in front of me,” said Stanley Gutiontov, a Weinberg junior and co-president of The Slam Society.

Tsai said she hoped audience members would be inspired by her performance and ask questions about the world.

She did just that, said Weinberg junior Andrew Loveridge.

“It gave me a new perspective on life,” he said.

Many audience members said they could relate to Tsai’s words.

“She really connected with the audience with her experiences as an Asian American,” McCormick freshman Teresa Chen said.

Tsai will hold a spoken word workshop 3:30 p.m. Friday in the Norris Lake Room.[email protected]