On November 21, 2009, I attended a event in one of the auditoriums of Columbia University. Firstly, the campus was very grand and beautifully made. It’s a realm of nature with large green fields within the concrete urban surrounding it. 
   

    The event was called Culture Shock, hosted by the Asian American Association. They invited many notable  Asian American performers from areas of dance, music, poetry, and public speaking as comedians. The night started out with two professional beat boxing men. For those who don’t know, beat boxing is a form of vocal percussion involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue and voice. The beats coming from their mouths were like that of a song with heavy bass. Seemingly, they appeared to have infinite breathes, while making the audience move their heads to their rhythm. One of my favorite performances during the event was done by Magnetic North, made up of two singers. They mainly sang R&B and Hip Hop. What I loved most about them was that they got the crowd moving and singing along to their songs. Not only is the rhythm of their songs good, the lyrics are very deep in meaning, in my perspective. In one of their verses they sing, "...life goes on..," which is a very line. However, the meaning goes beyond to each individual differently. Also, they’re not mainstream artists in that they are still unknown to many people, however, once you listen to one of their songs you most likely will become a fan.
    My other favorite performance was done by Fr3sh crew. You might have heard of them from the M.T.V. series, America’s Best Dance Crew. They incorporated many dance styles such as hand tutting, crunking, breakdancing and voguing. Their bodies flowed and reacted to each beat precisely. The dances were very sexual as well as the girl and even guy performers move their hips and behinds as you could see in the video link below. It was truly a great modern dance performance with the incorporation of hip hop, reggae, pop, R&B, and even rock music. Their choreography was intricate and innovative. In part of the dance, the crew spread into three separate inner-groups and danced, while incorporating all of it together into one movement, so to speak. 
   

    The spoken word poetry performance was spectacular and an eye-opener. It was presented by Yellow Rage, consisting of two women. First off, their poems were extremely long and had many lines that intersected between the two poets. Aside from the deep meaning of the poem, their memorization of their poem was just simply incredible. They never made any mistakes in performing their poems; they flowed continuously throughout their poem like a song. They really showed passion and strong feelings for their poems, which can be seen in the way they presented. Although their poems are controversial in some parts, the way they spoke was absolutely appealing. They spoke with great articulation and a convincing tone. Their poem “I’m A Women Not A Flavor” was my favorite. They included many curses in their poems, however, it was beneficial in that it made it more serious and catchy. They spoke really fast and with each line they picked up momentum.
 

Fr3sh Crew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvbZ_uFqtMQ