The Student Union ballroom was packed Wednesday night with many students, both current and former, excited to hear California native Rudy Francisco speak about and share some of his work.
Francisco, a spoken word poet, started to write poetry his senior year of high school after receiving an assignment where he chose to write about his crush. The poem showcased his talents, but he didn’t start to get into it writing poetry until his freshman year of his undergraduate studies.
He found out later from his father that his middle name came from one of his father’s favorite poets, Omar Khayyam. Francisco’s father had read one of Khayyam’s poems while attending college and decided to name one of his sons after him.
Before starting, Francisco made the point that his reading was meant to be fun and enjoyable for not only him, but those in attendance. He wanted involvement from the audience and encouraged them to join in by snapping, clapping or even just shouting.
He spoke about his life and how some of the events in his life inspired his work. He also spoke about love, family, gender, race and emotions, as well as life.
“I’m often loud in places where I should be quiet. I’m often quiet in places where I should be loud,” Francisco said during his performance, speaking about the experience of interconnected nature of human existence.
Francisco’s work, according to his website, seeks to create a narrative through his work that promotes healthy dialogue, discourse and social change.
Francisco spoke a lot about life and how it was important not to complain about the little things that are in your way. He mentioned how some people have been through so much. One example he used was a woman went bungee jumping and her cord broke resulting in her falling into a river and breaking her collar bone, yet she still managed to swim back to shore.
“I came across so many people that had to deal with so much tragedy and who were like, still dealing with so much tragedy in their lives,” Francisco said.
Alumnus Adam Weatherell, who majored in political science and Africana studies, said that he attended the event because spoken word has always interested him.
“I watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch show and in one of the episodes someone dies, and they’re like do you think anyone really can understand the true power of life,” Weatherell said.
Weatherell added that since spoken word is so fast, once you have fully processed one part you have already missed the next, but that it is still very powerful and lets you see certain understandings of life with a clearer image.
Francisco has four books out now: “Getting Stitches,” “Scratch,” “No Gravity,” and “Helium.” He is also touring and was featured on Jimmy Fallon.
