Beau Sia

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Beau Sia (Born 1976) is a Chinese-American slam poet and actor. He was raised in Oklahoma City and discovered spoken word poetry on MTV as a teenager. When not participating in his high school's swim team, Sia went to Oklahoma City's only open mike night.

From there, Sia went to New York University, where he attended the Tisch School of the Arts dramatic writing program. He has said that moving to New York made him conscious of his identity as an Asian-American, something that he denied often in Oklahoma City. His cultural identity became a common theme in his poems.

Sia performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where he frequently won. He became a member of the 1996 Nuyorican national poetry slam team, which came in third that year. He eventually reached second place in the individual slam competition in 2001.

He wrote a parody of Jewel's work, A Night Without Armor, over four hours and published it as A Night Without Armor II: the Revenge in 1998. He wrote different poems with Jewel's original titles, lampooning her earnest lines. It is painfully detailed in its satire, changing the delicate paintings printed in Jewel's book to rough, humorous pencil drawings by Sia. The front and back cover were also painstakingly mirrored.

Sia then began touring around Europe and the United States. He also appeared in films and published a wide range of his works in book and compact disc form.

1 Style and examples
2 Works
- 2.1 Inclusion in anthologies
- 2.2 Film and television
3 References
- 3.1 Print
- 3.2 Online
4 External links

[edit] Style and examples

Sia's style is humorous and satirical. His word choice is often deceptively simple. A good example of his work is the poem "love," which was first performed at Marymount Manhattan College in 1996. It is featured on his CD Attack! Attack! Go!, as well as being included in the book Slam.

It begins

I think love is the most beautiful thing

in the world,

and I don't give a fuck,

because I have no original ideas.

Sia tells readers/listeners that the goal of his poem about love is to get women to fall in love with him, but that he is unsure how to discuss the topic because he doesn't know what love is:

if only we could open our Encyclopedia Britannica

and look up love and know,

but love isn't that easy.

Sia then reminisces about past relationships, wondering about his ability to connect with women. He says perhaps he should be sensitive, but

the sensitive side sucks....

you can only imagine the kinds of sweaters

they make you wear

it's not fair

From here, Sia says that love and life are not fair; he deserves to be loved; he is merely misunderstood. He then rages that "you don't want to/ understand me!"; instead, he surmises that the readers/listeners would rather shoehorn him into the stereotype of the Asian man with the small penis

until he is brave enough to fling it out

and say,

"HA! WE ARE GIGANTIC!"

Sia then realizes that he has become disconnected from the poem's original thesis, love. He tries again, but falls into another tangent about Woody Allen's girlfriend, suggesting that she could be his "long-lost sister" that his mother gave away when they lived in China — "wait," Sia says, "I never lived in China./ I think I've begun lying in this poem."

He restates that what he wanted was to talk about love "for 3.4 minutes" and come to a conclusion, but that he doesn't know what love is. He closes the poem with:

you see, all I'm saying

someone love me.

[edit] Works

Sia, Beau. A Night Without Armor II: the Revenge. New York: Mouth Almighty Books, 1998.
Sia, Beau. Attack! Attack! Go! Compact disc released in 1998 by Mouth Almighty Records.

[edit] Inclusion in anthologies

Cabico, Regie and Todd Swift, eds. Poetry Nation: The North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry. Vehicule Press, 1998.
Colby, Todd, ed. Heights of the Marvelous : A New York Anthology'. St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. (On the Amazon.com listing for this book, "Seau Bia" posts a review that is nothing but a plea for attention to Beau Sia.ISBN 0-312-26335-X)
Glazner, Gary Mex, ed. Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2000.
von Ziegesar, Cecily, ed. Slam. New York: Alloy Books, 2000. (This book also includes quotes by Sia on what poetry is, the writing process, etc.)
Sanchez, Sonia; Medina, Tony; and Rivera, Lois Reyes, eds. Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam. Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Katz, Daniel R., ed. Why Freedom Matters: The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence in Prose, Poetry, and Song from 1776 to the Present . Workman Publishing Company, 2003.
Glazner, Gary Mex. How to Make a Living as a Poet. (Interview) Soft Skull Press, 2005.

[edit] Film and television

Sia's appearances on television were on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry; he later appeared in the Broadway version, Def Poetry Jam.

He appeared in Slam in 1998 as Jimmy Huang. The same year, he participated in the documentary SlamNation as himself. Later appearances include The Manchurian Candidate (2004) as a late-night comedian on television and Hitch (2005) as Duane Reade Clerk.

[edit] References

[edit] Print

Glazner, Gary Mex, ed. Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2000.
Sia, Beau. A Night Without Armor II: the Revenge. New York: Mouth Almighty Books, 1998.
von Ziegesar, Cecily, ed. Slam. New York: Alloy Books, 2000.