[Music]
[Applause]
born and raised in West Los Angeles
in the neighborhood 75% african-american
was told that I am a mixture of Chinese
and Spanish been made filipino from an
island in asia but was told that i am
not Asian
I was babysat by Hispanics who spoke
Spanish to all the kids including me now
tell me about your identity crisis tell
me about your identity crisis this made
me question my own challenges of Who I
am now and who I want to become for a
speech team competition I performed an
interpretation piece that weave the
poetic voices of others around one theme
the identity struggle of being
multi-ethnic in the process of
practicing this montage of poems I
realize how much I keep struggling with
the same questions at a performance an
audience member asked me to perform my
piece in front of a new audience and at
that event
more people came up to tell me about
their identity crisis one artist sharing
his honest struggle inspired me to
search for more poems that harmonized
into a bigger conversation about
identity now most of us would hide from
it or ignore it
most of us wouldn’t even give a name to
the messy parts embracing the identity
struggle leads to more authenticity we
can unplug from the voices of everyone
else the social construct and start to
hear the hum of the truth it’s the voice
inside that says man when I do this I
feel alive I feel free and then that
voice asks well why don’t I do this more
often or why don’t I do this for a
living
I’ve been described as exotic which is a
polite way of saying your unknown origin
is interesting or a romanticized way of
saying that I’m foreign I’ve also been
described as very brave to walk out in
public without a wig over my bald head
as I started to learn to stand in my own
truth I realized that I was an identity
crisis waiting to happen the hardest
part with practicing this this whole
speech and talk was not the content or
rehearsing the delivery the hardest part
was my first assignment the bio who are
you who are you do you know how hard it
is to explain who you are when you’re
still trying to figure it out yourself I
had to call ten of my friends hey hey
how would you describe me I felt the
pressure of having that to have all the
right answers instead I started focusing
on asking the right questions
the poetic voices that I will be
referencing come from two poems identity
crisis by Brian Oliva and buffet
etiquette by Hugh when hearing the
description of someone else’s identity
struggle helped me gain clarity on my
own
if you’ve ever been asked what are you
it’s a very funny question
what are you Brian Oliva talks about the
impact of when people don’t know how to
understand the ethnic other for example
in college we’re asked to pick and
choose a major so that they can
categorize us according to our academic
goal meanwhile we fill out these generic
surveys asking us to pick and choose one
box that best describes you the boxes
read black white Latino Hispanic Asian
Pacific Islander then we pack to move to
the suburbs new hood no good now at 40%
essays is 40% brothers 15% hockey and 5%
other and it got to the point where
everyone just started to ask me what are
you what are you I used to come up with
a smart remark like oh I’m human but if
you’re asking me about my ethnic
background I’m african-american Irish
German and Filipino to which they would
respond oh so you’re like a mud as I
grew older I decided to revamp that
question instead I would ask what are
you in this world my multi ethnic
ambiguity prompted my identity struggle
and then it led me to find my voice in
music so when I transfer to a four-year
university I wanted to explore my ethnic
backgrounds through my interest in music
so I joined a gospel choir a Pacific
Islander music Club and theatre but I
couldn’t quite figure out where I
belonged
I was confronted with more obstacles I
wasn’t enough I didn’t speak Tagalog so
I wasn’t Filipino enough I wasn’t dark
enough to be considered black I
certainly didn’t look white so if we’re
not enough of one thing then where do we
belong my voice is bleach my voice has
no history
it’s the ringing of an empty picture
frame the frequency of a TV turned off
I’m forgetting how to say the simple
things to my mother they’re the words in
my periphery dangling from its wires and
I am only fluent in apologies I’ve
accepted the fact that I am no longer
Vietnamese I am just Asian if I didn’t
speak the native languages of my people
then what was my voice
I was sitting on campus one day humming
a pop tune when a student sat next to me
and he says hey do you sing are you a
singer well I sing but I wouldn’t
consider myself a singer I didn’t speak
music I didn’t read music well enough I
didn’t have enough experience performing
so I wasn’t enough of a singer to being
a band so No so then he asked me to sing
something familiar singing an Alicia
Keys song so I took a deep breath and I
sang some people wanna but I don’t wanna
be little if it aint you baby if I ain’t
got you baby
so then he asked me to join his band now
his band was a mixture of R&B jazz
hip-hop and soul if that band was told
to pick and choose a box that best fits
you in a generic survey they would pick
other my multi-ethnic struggle of being
the other made me realize that where I
belong is to music but there was more to
explore so I had to ask myself what kind
of singer do I choose to be I am finding
my voice as a songwriter now I have the
ability to sing other people’s songs and
lyrics in Spanish Portuguese Swedish and
Tagalog these songs help me connect to
different parts of the world then of
course I sing these songs in my own
style but finding my voice as a
songwriter is another identity struggle
on its own this struggle is going to
continue to pull at me until I perform
my own original music the words that I
choose define who I am as a vocalist
music is universal I want my lyrics to
be – I want to sing my own words I would
rather be lost in this world with a
dream than have to keep my head down and
I would rather say I surrendered my
heart and I gained
I lost for true poets helped me find
clarity around a theme of ethnic
confusion the pursuit of knowing who I
truly am made me realize that where I
belong is to music music led me to
create a future of who I want to become
as a songwriter embracing the identity
struggle leads to more authenticity my
multi-ethnic struggle with being the
other made me feel alone
one voice stripped down to share an
honest struggle can inspire others to
share their own story so tell me about
your identity struggle by embracing the
identity struggle we can find more of
our own selves we can create a future
without having all the right answers we
can unplug from the noise the social
construct and start to hear the hum of
our own truth we can keep growing keep
embracing your identity struggle and
keep showing up in the messy parts of
authenticity many voices can come
together around one theme and harmonize
into a larger identity conversation
there is power in finding out who we
truly are
you
[Applause]
born and raised in West Los Angeles
in the neighborhood 75% african-american
was told that I am a mixture of Chinese
and Spanish been made filipino from an
island in asia but was told that i am
not Asian
I was babysat by Hispanics who spoke
Spanish to all the kids including me now
tell me about your identity crisis tell
me about your identity crisis this made
me question my own challenges of Who I
am now and who I want to become for a
speech team competition I performed an
interpretation piece that weave the
poetic voices of others around one theme
the identity struggle of being
multi-ethnic in the process of
practicing this montage of poems I
realize how much I keep struggling with
the same questions at a performance an
audience member asked me to perform my
piece in front of a new audience and at
that event
more people came up to tell me about
their identity crisis one artist sharing
his honest struggle inspired me to
search for more poems that harmonized
into a bigger conversation about
identity now most of us would hide from
it or ignore it
most of us wouldn’t even give a name to
the messy parts embracing the identity
struggle leads to more authenticity we
can unplug from the voices of everyone
else the social construct and start to
hear the hum of the truth it’s the voice
inside that says man when I do this I
feel alive I feel free and then that
voice asks well why don’t I do this more
often or why don’t I do this for a
living
I’ve been described as exotic which is a
polite way of saying your unknown origin
is interesting or a romanticized way of
saying that I’m foreign I’ve also been
described as very brave to walk out in
public without a wig over my bald head
as I started to learn to stand in my own
truth I realized that I was an identity
crisis waiting to happen the hardest
part with practicing this this whole
speech and talk was not the content or
rehearsing the delivery the hardest part
was my first assignment the bio who are
you who are you do you know how hard it
is to explain who you are when you’re
still trying to figure it out yourself I
had to call ten of my friends hey hey
how would you describe me I felt the
pressure of having that to have all the
right answers instead I started focusing
on asking the right questions
the poetic voices that I will be
referencing come from two poems identity
crisis by Brian Oliva and buffet
etiquette by Hugh when hearing the
description of someone else’s identity
struggle helped me gain clarity on my
own
if you’ve ever been asked what are you
it’s a very funny question
what are you Brian Oliva talks about the
impact of when people don’t know how to
understand the ethnic other for example
in college we’re asked to pick and
choose a major so that they can
categorize us according to our academic
goal meanwhile we fill out these generic
surveys asking us to pick and choose one
box that best describes you the boxes
read black white Latino Hispanic Asian
Pacific Islander then we pack to move to
the suburbs new hood no good now at 40%
essays is 40% brothers 15% hockey and 5%
other and it got to the point where
everyone just started to ask me what are
you what are you I used to come up with
a smart remark like oh I’m human but if
you’re asking me about my ethnic
background I’m african-american Irish
German and Filipino to which they would
respond oh so you’re like a mud as I
grew older I decided to revamp that
question instead I would ask what are
you in this world my multi ethnic
ambiguity prompted my identity struggle
and then it led me to find my voice in
music so when I transfer to a four-year
university I wanted to explore my ethnic
backgrounds through my interest in music
so I joined a gospel choir a Pacific
Islander music Club and theatre but I
couldn’t quite figure out where I
belonged
I was confronted with more obstacles I
wasn’t enough I didn’t speak Tagalog so
I wasn’t Filipino enough I wasn’t dark
enough to be considered black I
certainly didn’t look white so if we’re
not enough of one thing then where do we
belong my voice is bleach my voice has
no history
it’s the ringing of an empty picture
frame the frequency of a TV turned off
I’m forgetting how to say the simple
things to my mother they’re the words in
my periphery dangling from its wires and
I am only fluent in apologies I’ve
accepted the fact that I am no longer
Vietnamese I am just Asian if I didn’t
speak the native languages of my people
then what was my voice
I was sitting on campus one day humming
a pop tune when a student sat next to me
and he says hey do you sing are you a
singer well I sing but I wouldn’t
consider myself a singer I didn’t speak
music I didn’t read music well enough I
didn’t have enough experience performing
so I wasn’t enough of a singer to being
a band so No so then he asked me to sing
something familiar singing an Alicia
Keys song so I took a deep breath and I
sang some people wanna but I don’t wanna
be little if it aint you baby if I ain’t
got you baby
so then he asked me to join his band now
his band was a mixture of R&B jazz
hip-hop and soul if that band was told
to pick and choose a box that best fits
you in a generic survey they would pick
other my multi-ethnic struggle of being
the other made me realize that where I
belong is to music but there was more to
explore so I had to ask myself what kind
of singer do I choose to be I am finding
my voice as a songwriter now I have the
ability to sing other people’s songs and
lyrics in Spanish Portuguese Swedish and
Tagalog these songs help me connect to
different parts of the world then of
course I sing these songs in my own
style but finding my voice as a
songwriter is another identity struggle
on its own this struggle is going to
continue to pull at me until I perform
my own original music the words that I
choose define who I am as a vocalist
music is universal I want my lyrics to
be – I want to sing my own words I would
rather be lost in this world with a
dream than have to keep my head down and
I would rather say I surrendered my
heart and I gained
I lost for true poets helped me find
clarity around a theme of ethnic
confusion the pursuit of knowing who I
truly am made me realize that where I
belong is to music music led me to
create a future of who I want to become
as a songwriter embracing the identity
struggle leads to more authenticity my
multi-ethnic struggle with being the
other made me feel alone
one voice stripped down to share an
honest struggle can inspire others to
share their own story so tell me about
your identity struggle by embracing the
identity struggle we can find more of
our own selves we can create a future
without having all the right answers we
can unplug from the noise the social
construct and start to hear the hum of
our own truth we can keep growing keep
embracing your identity struggle and
keep showing up in the messy parts of
authenticity many voices can come
together around one theme and harmonize
into a larger identity conversation
there is power in finding out who we
truly are
you
Please follow and like us: