Asian American Poet - Alvin Lau

So I was browsing for Asian American Poets on youtube because I knew that there would be some def jam poetry that would spark my interest. And just as I expected, this man Alvin Lau popped up. I decided to check out his video and this is what I saw. It's called

"Asia-America, Where have you gone?"

Check it outtttt!



Alright, so while im listening to this man speak, I realize he's talking about everything our entire class is based on. He speaks about how Asia America has so many different aspects to it, but somehow the true "Asia-America" is gone. Alvin speaks about how these different views of Asia America are tainting the true Asian America. For instance, he makes references to americanized asian food and honda civics drag racing in china town. He also speaks about how day to day he tries to find the true Asia America but somehow he falls short and ends losing parts of his culture. I found all these things interesting because we talked about the same themes during class, specficially about losing your culture and becoming more American than Asian. Personally, i've never been a big fan of poetry, but recently def jam poetry has definitely sparked my interest. And this poet specficially was capable of providing some real, deep, truth and portraying it in a few lines. I was amazed when I heard his poem because he is speaking for all Asian Americans when he talks about the stereotypes and the struggle that we all face to find who we are.

-Vincent Santiago