The Asia Project at VUJC

I have never been to a poetry reading. I mean I’ve seen those movies in which a poetry reading is some melancholy leather-jacketed tattooed guy brooding in the shadows. You know the one that strikes a single chord on a broken mandolin before staring at the audience uncomfortably. Yeah, count me in.

I take that back, I was invited to read poetry at the Dale Library a long time ago. It was good. People recited their favorite poems. I read a letter written by a Union Soldier to his wife before he went to his final battle. He didn’t write a poem for his wife, but what he wrote was poetic. I was moved. Isn’t that poetry?

Between the movies and the reading at the library I felt I had punched the poetry reading ticket and wouldn’t have to take that trip again; it wasn’t bad, just not my style, but I believe a lot of things happen for a reason and for some reason today I ended up at a poetry reading.

I went to VUJC to take a picture of the wildlife habitat that the campus was recognized by the National Wildlife Federation for developing. I was interested in seeing what they had done and would probably drop in on Dean Johnson or the staff to see if anything interesting was going on at the same time.

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When I entered the building a poster confronted me with a cheesy-looking Asian guy in a suit. He wasn’t personally cheesy looking, the poster just seemed cheesy, but it said something about The Asia Project and HBO, BET, and other accolades. It also said something about funny, so I figured I could waste an hour checking him out.

I went in and Allie Baer from student activities was excited to see me (she’s involved in the Jasper Hometown Competitiveness Program as the Youth Pillar leader; get involved-it’s a big deal for Jasper and Dubois County). She gave me Asia’s bio which I read with some skepticism; I mean really a Philippine poet that goes by the single name of Asia.

The room was full of women and, including me, four guys. Then these two guys came in and one was wearing a leather jacket and had a lot of tattoos; the other had a guitar and looked moody. . . It didn’t look promising but they took the stage, grabbed the microphone, and then their words and music grabbed me.

How can I describe it? I don’t know, I’m no poet. No amount of alliteration or metaphor could describe the emotional ride we went on. We were stunned by his hard violent p’s and t’s and then swooned with his smooth s’s and v’s. The consonants were the soundtrack to the story of his life, his love, and his passion.

Check out this poem about his battle with testicular cancer.

Asia told me that his battle with cancer is what brought him onto the stage. After having the surgery to remove the enemy, he found he never wanted to go back into the drudgery that was his life. He re-found his faith and stepped out of the normal to follow a passion in poetry and today he was in Jasper reaffirming in me that passion with purpose is powerful. Thanks Asia and Jollan.

Asia and Jollan’s website is www.theasiaproject.com and they are also involved in a Christian Ministry to the Philippines called http://www.gk1mb.org/what-is-gk1mb/.