The event will feature performances by poets Beau Sia and Black Ice. Beau Sia, a Chinese American, grew up in Oklahoma City where he spent most of his childhood facing identity issues. His work appears in many poetry anthologies, including Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam. His film credits include Hitch and The Manchurian Candidate.
Black Ice was discovered by hip-hop music entrepreneur Russell Simmons and became the first spoken-word artist signed to Def Jam Records. His poems frequently involve racial and social issues. He has performed before audiences at the Hip-Hop Summit and Congressional Black Caucus meetings.
Beau Sia and Black Ice have been featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and will judge an open mic contest for the first 10 students who sign up. For contest details, e-mail [faythek@udel.edu].
The film Divided We Fall: In a World Divided Into Us and Them, Who Counts as One of Us? will be screened at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 1, in 120 Smith Hall. This film weaves expert analysis into a cross-country road trip that confronts the forces dividing Americans after 9/11. The film will be followed by a discussion with the producers.
Blind Shaft, a foreign language film, will be shown with subtitles at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, May 6, in the Trabant University Center Theatre. Banned in its home country, this critique of the new economic conditions in China tells a richly layered tale of miners and murder.
A talk on “Confucianism and A-Theistic Religiousness” by philosopher Roger Ames is set for 4:30-6 p.m., Monday, May 7, in 005 Kirkbride Hall. Ames, a professor of philosophy in the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii, is a world-renowned scholar who has received the highest recognition for his scholarly works on Daoism, Confucianism, Sunzi and many aspects of Chinese thought.
Asian Heritage Month is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Programs, Asian Heritage Council, Chinese Cultural Student Association, East Asian Studies Program, International Film Series, Stimulating Prose Ideas and Theories, US Department of Education Title VI Grant and Women's Affairs. For more information, call the Center for Black Culture at (302) 831-2991.
Article by Lauren Steinhorn, AS '07
