Joe Hernandez-Kolski remembered the names of all 31 attendees at his performance Tuesday night in Teacher College 101. Hernandez-Kolski performed as part of Latino Student Union's Diversity week.
"[Remembering people's names] completely changes the vibe of the room," he said, "They always say ‘you need to know your audience.' But what they mean is ‘you need to know where people who like your stuff shop.' I like to know my audience."
Hernandez-Kolski used these connections to expose his material, which included Facebook, feminism, his upbringing in Chicago and South Bend, Ind., connections with Latino and African-American cultures and dating.
Music, beat poetry, rapping, comedy and dancing were all part of his performance. In all of his subjects and methods of expression, his strongest attribute was his connection to the audience.
"I just like the idea of people going home and saying ‘I really connected with that,'" he said, "Life to me is about connections. That to me is success."
The over-arching concept of the performance was "Cultural Collisions." The most obvious demonstration of this concept was his hip-hop piece. Hernandez-Kolski rapped through all the conflicting aspects of his background.
"I am a cultural collision, I'm complex, like Mother Teresa rocking a Rolex. Chicano who looks Polish, Pole who looks Mexican, add both names and I redefine American," he rapped while audience members danced discreetly in their seats.
Directly after his hip-hop piece, Hernandez-Kolski transitioned into a poem about feminism. He spoke from two perspectives, even stepping out into the audience and criticizing the pro-feminism stance he had just taken.
LSU president Graciela Roman, who organized the event, said she was glad LSU branched out to a speaker outside of Ball State.
"I had seen little snippets of his pieces, but never anything like that," Roman said, "We usually have advisers, but this time it was really cool to have someone who was on HBO Def Poetry, of all things."
Though laughs abounded throughout the performance, Hernandez-Kolski stopped the audience on a dime when he talked about the death of his mother. Hernandez-Kolski lost his mother within the past year, and his poem described the hardship of deleting her from Facebook.
"I don't care if it was hard to click confirm when I deactivated your account, Mom... Just press the button, you can do this, Joe. How did this website become such a major step in letting go?" Hernandez-Kolski asked.
Michael Rivera, LSU vice president, said he wasn't sure what the audience was getting into.
"I didn't know what to expect, but I liked it a lot. It was really funny. I was glad we decided to bring him back this year," Rivera said.
Hernandez-Kolski came to Ball State in 2005, and reached out to LSU to perform this year. He said he looks forward to coming back again.
"Ball State gives a good vibe. I look forward to coming back. I have a whole other show I want to spit for you guys. I'm here under the guise of cultural collisions, which is a specific set of material. I have a whole other set of material that's about love and relationships."
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