VIG: Very Important Gadflies

I first saw spoken word maestro Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai on Russel Simmons Def Jam Poetry, and remained a fan.  Her video for "Black, White Whatever..." is cached on my computer, and I'm lucky enough to share the Kelly goof/goodness with my youth, who appreciate her honest and wry approach on how she identifies herself.  How could I not admire this obvious BrownGirl Gadfly when out of her mouth flew the words:

“Sometimes, I wish [my spoken word persona] was an outlet or a character since it gets me into trouble,” says Tsai. “I think I took that stereotype of Asian females as being silent and passive and just imploded it in reverse.”

So when perusing Audrey Magazine this month, I was stoked to see a little piece on one of my favorite spoken word YouTube sensations (as the article points out, her videos have gone viral) as well as some excerpts from Kelly's poems. It's hard talking about the so called "hard issues" of racism, class, love, sex and discrimination with both humor AND alliteration, no less...