Art as an Agent for Change waxes poetic, hosts events on campus

College is a “major in sex and a minor in money.” Or at least it is in a poem read by sophomore business major Antonio Davis at a poetry slam event coordinated by Art as an Agent for Change.

AAC presented “Majors and Minors: The Ups and Downs of College” on Sept. 21. Eight performers slammed for an intimate gathering in the Pine Lounge, creating a noncompetitive, expressive environment.

“We love when we have a small audience. We can feel the audience,” Paul Ayo, founder of AAC, said.

The small audience found shelter from the stormy weather on the night at the event. People watched as the performers, such as Jerome German, a sophomore biology major, brought their talent to the stage. German performed two poems, “Poetic Perfection” and “War Torn.”

“(Poetic Perfection) is more of a poem about myself and my poetry,” German said.

German’s performance segued into the passionate poetry of Joshua Braswell, whose two pieces, “Smile and Dance” and “Sacrifice” drove him to raise his voice. He incorporated dances into his first piece and tied in some commentary about social issues. “Sacrifice,” which was written just the night before the show, spoke of his mother’s sacrifices for him to be the first in his family to attend college.

“I refuse to be average,” Braswell said in his poem.

Davis debuted with the AAC performance. He is a fast writer, composing his first poem of the night, “Change,” in less than an hour, writing whenever he had the time at work, he said.

“(Change) is talking about how people try to talk down to you . and the negative things we do in life. There’s always a possibility for change,” Davis said.

Not all the performers were from GCSU. Emmanuel Little performed pieces from his album, “The Public Speaker.” He spoke of life beyond college and his work toward a master’s degree. Chris “K.P.” Brown is a Mercer University alumnus who has released a book and a CD and is currently touring Georgia.

Tanesha Douglas hailed from the University of Georgia and drew some inspiration from her activism in HIV/AIDS awareness. In her poem “Sexuality Cannot Define Me,” she spoke of rejecting labels and standing up for personal beliefs.

A popular poem of the night came from Ayo, who summed up a lesson from his college experience: “In college, we produce more drama than scholars, got to work harder on knowledge, in college.”

“My favorite was Paul’s poem about producing more drama than scholars. It’s relevant to some of the things I’ve seen,” Karla White, a senior economics major, said.

AAC has a big year planned. While the Sept. 21 event was the first geared toward GCSU students this school year, the group recently performed at the Early College.

“All the teachers and students loved it, and we loved working with them,” Ayo said.

Some other plans include bringing slam poetry to the residence halls, participating in the Kwanzaa celebration in December and diversity programs in February. AAC is also working toward gaining status as a nonprofit organization.

So it’s time to “drop out of drama, and enroll in college” with AAC.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 2 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry