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Friday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, audience members were privileged to experience "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens" in its Bloomington debut. Melanie Castillo-Cullathe, director of the Asian American Culture Center, which sponsored and organized the event, said IU officials in the audience were so impressed they are already in talks to have the troupe perform yearly as a part of orientation. "We had over 350 people in the audience this time, but the majority of students at IU would benefit from the show, which is why people are wanting it to become a part of orientation," Castillo-Cullather said." The performance consisted of the three actors, Dan Kwong, Paulina Sahagun and Chic Street Man, showcasting their diverse talents in their self-written solo acts. uKwong performed two shorter acts and had the audience doubled over with laughter early in the evening. His satire of news reporting, "Birth Interview," which featured his head, a painted baby body, puppet arms, physical comedy and sarcastic wit, was a crowd-pleaser. "I really took a liking to Dan's performance," sophomore Ericka Ligon said. "He had an excellent and funny depiction of minorities and their day-to-day struggles." Sahagun's "Nahuat' -- Now What?" explored issues of cultural identity and conflict as the performer took her audience through several scenes from her life as a "high-tech Aztec in Gringolandia," from sexism to bad-hair days to cultural confusion were covered in this monologue. "I am the schizophrenic of the group," Sahagun said. "I use anything and everything I can to put forth what I feel needs to be up there on stage." Lastly, Chic Street Man, whose music has been labeled as "urban acoustic folk blues" took the mike and got the audience singing along in no time. His performance mixed happy-go lucky and love your neighbor tunes with hard-core emotion-stirring ballads about oppression and injustice. "They really liked our audience, Castillo-Cullather said. "They loved that it was such a mix of students and faculty and community members, young and old, and such a mix of race." It was easy to be pleased with the mix of materials that were performed during "A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens." I think they really showed us how it felt - how they experienced the stereotypes," senior Dietrich Willke said. "They made it really funny, but at the same time it showed that we could all stand to get better at accepting diversity."
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