The Daily Illini - buzz 4.1.99 "Slices of stories" By Nick Baer		Left: Dan Kwong took on the role of himself as a baby to demonstrate the expectations Asian Americans endure. Right: Paulina Sahagun drew the audience with her vibrant energy.

The three performers that comprised the show, "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles, and Greens" at the Courtyard Cafe last Saturday night, reminded their audience just how powerful storytelling can be. Billed as a performance promoting Asian, African and Latino awareness, it accomplished much more than that, for its scope, message and appeal was nothing if not universal.

Using a unique mixture of music, theater and dance, the show featured two performance artists, Dan Kwong and Paulina Sahagun, and a musician, Chic Street Man, who each took on the experiences and issues of their own culture in contemporary America. All three wrote and performed their own segment of the show, allowing them to present their distinct talents and styles individually.

The trio were brought together by Great Leap, a California-based organization that works to spread multi-cultural awareness and acceptance through the performing arts. Originally an Asian-American dominated group, Great Leap has expanded in the last four years or so to include a wide range of ethnicities, hoping to broaden their message of harmony through diversity. The process involves sending out random groupings of performers hailing from different ethnic backgrounds to universitites, high schools, hospitals and other institutions in search of thoughtful entertainment. The University of Illinois is one of many stops on their tour through the country.

Following a brief introduction, the show began with a striking opening designed to immediately grab the audience's attention. As the lights went down, a grey-wigged Kwong appeared on a giant television screen giving a news update from a fictional station. Going to an "on-the-scene reporter" at the hospital, the news report shifted to a "live" account of the birth of Kwong. The lights then came up on Kwong's head protruding from a behind a black screen and attached to a moveable cloth body of a baby. From there the report conducted by a voice-over took on the nature of a sports' interview with the baby producing such slightly skewed clichés as "I just want to help the family" and "I've been training hard for the past nine months."

What came out was a tremendously funny and thought-provoking overview of the expectations and presumptions placed on Asian-American males from the moment of their births. Kwong touched on the future of his own life, particularly his role within his nuclear family, which he would continue with later in the evening.

Paulina Sahagun came on next and instantly brought a more personal sense of storytelling to the stage. Dressed in an almost stereotypical Mexican blouse and skirt and a pair of bright red high heels, Sahagun drew the audience into her story with a comforting smile and a vibrant energy. Deftly portraying a handful of characters, she focused on the contradictions inherent in being half-Mexican and half-Indian while growing up in white America. With a strong blend of smart humor and understated compassion, Sahagun was able to capture the anger and awkwardness of having a mixed lineage in a society that demands a conrete identity. Peppered with one-liners like, "If you want to know my story, log on the internet and enter 'Conquest Mexico'," the performance both downplayed and dramatized cultural issues.

After Sahagun, Kwong performed a longer piece about his Asian-American upbringing that drew from many of the themes that surfaced in his opening. This one revolved mainly around his relationship with his grandfather, an Asian immigrant who came to live with him at a young age. Confused and angered by his grandfather's seemingly complete willingness to adhere to the worst of Asian stereotypes, Kwong confronts his legacy in an attempt to come to terms with it. In doing so, he discovers a world of other questions and contradictions addressing everything from Asian masculinity to the identity one attaches to music. Turning in a fine acting performance, Kwong relayed the story of his life, showing each age with a tender and poignant accuracy.

			Chic Street Man was the final performer of the night, strolling on stage with an acoustic guitar and yelling for the technical crew to bring up the house lights. Turning the show into an interactive affair, Street Man immediately called for clapping and singing in response to his blues and funk influenced music. Singing original songs such as "I've Been Livin' with the Blues" and "Beautiful," Street Man focused on the roots of prejudice and racism as seen in his impoverished upbringing. Street Man preached the joys of diversity in his lyrics, which were set against music that was paradoxically feel-good blues with a hint of Chuck Berry. He brought two volunteers on stage to sing with him, one a young girl around nine who turned in an
	Chic Street Man entertains a lively crowd with his blues.

inspiring version of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" which rivaled Lennon's, and the other a college student who matched Street Man's sly sense of humor with some one-lines of her own. Revealing a bright charisma and an infectious energy, Street Man soon had the entire crowd holding hands and telling one another that they were beautiful - no small feat on this campus. (By the way, thank you to the girl on my left who held my hand when the McDonald's eating guy on my right wanted no part in it. You are a good person.)

More than anything, after it was all said and done, there seemed to be an inescapable feeling in the air, as if something special had just taken place. A story had been shared between a hundred different people, and together they had created another one.

As Street Man declared, "Every single person in this room has a story." After Saturday night, they all had one more. buzz