from iLL-Literacy.com:

Whoaoaoaooaoa amidst everything we’ve been pulling together for iLL-Lit, I’ve been part of the planning crew for the 5th Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, a gargantuous event going on in the Bay from Thursday through Sunday.  It was at the 2003 installment of this summit where I for the first time tapped into the APIA spoken word community as a young college kid with nothing more than a few poems and the seeding idea of a poetry group I’d name iLL-Literacy, and the rest is history.

The Summit happens every two years, and it’s always been so important to me because it was the entry point into the world that would ultimately lead me to my passions for art and people.  Among the curators for the 2003 Summit in Chicago were the members of I Was Born With Two Tongues, a four-person collective of Asian American spoken word heavyweights Anida Yoeu, Denizen Kane, Marlon Esguerra, and Emily Chang.  In 1999 they dropped their only LP, Broken Speak.

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The album featured spoken word and music that reflected on the APIA experience in a new, grittier light than the Amy Tan stories that, up until that point, had pretty much made up my entire scope of what Asian American writing could be.  Still fresh into my bourgeoning as a young angry Asian kid, finding a talented, intelligent, and raw collective like this was the best possible discovery I could’ve ever made.  My freshman year in college, I got a speeding ticket for going 90 mph, not knowing I was going that fast because I was so juiced and hyped off of Anida’s “Excuse Me, ameriKa.” Yep, sped for poetry.  Geeeeeeeeeeeeek.

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The Summit was so vital to me because it gave me the opportunity to spark personal relationships with artists who, up until that point, seemed like distant celebrities.  And rightfully so — ten years after Broken Speak, I’ve yet to find an APIA spoken word record that rings as relevant, thorough, and dope.  The Tongues disbanded in ’03, and actually played their last show at that Summit.  It was a bittersweet experience for me, to finally find a collective of artists whom I felt spoke directly to me in such a way and for my first live experience with them to be my only.  At the same time, some of the members have become my closest friends, and their impact continues to inspire the direction I drive iLL-Literacy, and the type of influence that I aspire for as an artist.

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Find out more about the Summit at www.apiasummit.com