By Benajmin To
I worked on a spoken word video with Asian American hip-hop artist, Jason Chu, to address the situation in Baltimore and the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.
THEY WON’T SHOOT ME (I am not #FreddieGray) // Spoken Word
Privilege means getting to choose whether or not we speak out. So, let’s choose. #APIs4BlackLives #BlackLivesMatter Words // jason chu (@jasonchumusic)
Witnessing the violence and turmoil transpiring in Baltimore and within many other predominately Black communities, Jason and I couldn’t just turn our backs without saying what we had to say. We want our art to not only reflect our society, but to represent it responsibly, especially in raising awareness of the injustices in the world. We got together and figured out a way to address this complex issue in a spoken word poem. Jason is already an established hip-hop artist in the Asian American art community and he has done a number of fantastic spoken words that have touched upon important issues such as racism, politics, and religion. It’s already natural for us to want to stand up and speak out against the systemic racism and oppression and we wanted to let the world know that the Asian American community will not tolerate it. Through the power of filmmaking, poetry, and social media, we feel that we have the power to make a difference. At the very least, initiate the dialogue to spark the change.
