Five student clubs came together last Thursday night to prove that sharing the gifts of poetry, music and dialogue could not be confined to the campus.

After not being able to get an available space on campus in time, the Students for Social Justice Club, who sponsored the Spoken Word event, relocated to Cafe Kashmir in South Gate, where many of those in the capacity crowd of more than 70 were Cerritos students.

Although the event was a last minute idea, Adriana Cervantes, journalism major and SSJ member, said that when SSJ adviser Veronica Castro contacted the Student Activities office that she along with Castro had been unaware of the procedure of how to reserve a room.

The five clubs that were involved were:

• The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance
• Writer’s Anonymous
• Sociology Club
• Puente Club
• MEChA Club

The date was originally scheduled for Nov. 9 but was rescheduled for last Thursday.

“As soon as there was a day that was confirmed I contacted everyone within the clubs who wanted to be involved and in the end all of them came through with positive messages,” Cervantes said.

The Spoken Word event gave students the opportunity to express issues they deemed of importance through music, poetry and dialogue. Some of the content did contain explicit words.

Among the topics that were discussed were:

• Feminism and Sexism
• Homophobia
• Love and Relationships

Among the 15 performers was Mau Tuiali’i, cultural anthropology major, who commented before his solo act, “My hope is that this event will contribute to peace, love, unity and respect to all those in this word.”

The group L.I. Crew was also excited about the event beforehand and as group member and Cerritos student Andre Khatami, marketing major said, “I would hope people would be interested because these are people who are expressing themselves.”

He also explained that he was looking forward to a preview of the Vagina Monologues that was going to be performed by five members of the FMLA that is scheduled to premiere in March.

However, Cervantes did explain that there was a thought of holding off on the Spoken Word event until the spring semester, but it wasn’t until she contacted a mutual friend who worked at Café Kashmir that the event could be held and Cervantes said that those who performed came through.

Afterward, Cerritos students who attended said that despite the event not being held on campus and the explicit content of some of the acts, the entire night itself was not only enlightening but inspiring. Ricky Garcia, health science major, said, “Those who performed were honest. To me, the entire show was great.”

Rio Medina, English major and Puente and MEChA club member, recited original poems about love and her life experiences.

She said that she hoped that her poetry inspired people and was able to get them to think about things from a different perspective.

Juan McLean, music and audio engineering major, said that Medina’s performance stood out the most because she was honest in spite of explicit words.

To that, Medina said that she was flattered to hear that someone appreciated the message of trying to bring humanity together.

She added that it was the second time she had performed at a Spoken Word event and to have five clubs come together for this collaboration was great.

At first, the explicit language was something that worried English major Mario San Juan because he felt it was the first time he was able to be honest about himself.

However, he became more confident once the audience embraced him.

“That was something that crossed my mind,” he said, “but all the clubs are trying to do is send a positive message no matter who you are.”

Khatami, whose group performed the song “Change the World,” said that he thought it was great that people showed up.

For Garcia it was more than just having people show up, “it was about hoping for people to have an open mind.”