'Java Jives' celebrates spoken word

Students were welcomed to the smell of coffee in the Pegasus Ballroom Wednesday night, where CAB hosted their annual event, Java Jives.

The event is a mock poetry slam filled with a night of student performances, an all-male a cappella group, and a guest performance by the spoken word group Asia Project. With free coffee and pastries beckoning students through the door, Java Jives promised two hours of poetry, music, and most importantly, the spoken word.

For those unfamiliar with poetry slams, the spoken word is a monologue performed to an audience in a poetry-based format. The performances are done as if the person were talking naturally to the audience, unlike the more formal layouts poetry has to offer such as sonnets or haikus.

However, the "poem" that is exhibited can still retain the use of figurative language, such as a rhyme scheme, the use of alliteration or onomatopoeia, or stanza-like formats.

For CAB's fine arts director Katarina Dos Santos, Java Jives was yet another event that reiterated her love for the arts.

"I definitely want to emphasize attention to the arts," Dos Santos said. "I hold the arts very dear to my heart, and this event, in a way, touches home for me. It's something I've always been involved in, and I think it's something people sometimes overlook."

With Java Jives not only promising six student performances, music entertainment, and free food, it was also a chance for UCF to bring Asia Project to perform. The well-renowned group consists of two artists, spoken word performer Asia and guitarist Jollan, who combine music with poetry to perform to the audience.

For friends Aaron Antonio and Cambo Reath, Asia Project was the reason for their own start within the field of spoken word and poetry slams.

"I love to have this opportunity to even be on the same stage as them," Reath, a digital media major, said. "It's amazing, and it scares me."

"I got into poetry when I saw Asia for the first time in high school," Antonio, also majoring in digital media, said. "[Performing] is a great experience, and I love doing it."

The two agreed -- with the combination of free food and coffee, a guest performance, and above all, the chance for them to share their own pieces to a very open-minded college audience, Java Jives was a great chance for students to get involved on campus.

Artist Asia explained how the event, for him, was a chance to inspire people.

"For me personally, I want them to fall in love with poetry in a way that takes away the stigmata that poetry might be for some people," Asia said. "I hate to use this analogy, but it's like sex. If you can get [the audience] to that point, they're going to laugh, they're going to cry, or they might cheer. It's very dynamic."

UCF is number five on Asia Project's 130th Show Tour, where they plan to travel throughout the college circuit with their next stop in Baltimore, Md.

Though Asia commented on his love for performing to a college atmosphere, in the future, he hopes,this will lead to more theater-based performances with less emphasis on the poetry than acting and storytelling.

Students can check them out at their website theasiaproject.com, where links to their Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages, as well as their tour schedule and biography, can be found.

For those still unsure about attending a poetry slam like Java Jives in the near future, junior Alice Spicer describes the influence a slam can hold on people's lives.

"It's very creative," the English major said. "It's a nice combination of different backgrounds and interests. [For me personally,] it's a chance to share creative ways for people to realize the different ways they can make a difference in the world and just being a part of the human experience, celebrating creativity."