Mad as Hell

Prepared and presented properly, it can be transcendental. Done badly, it will not only leave you in bed vomiting for days, but will turn you off from ever going near it again.

Poorly chosen spoken-word events in your past may have left you a little gun-shy, but rest assured that Ladyfest's roster of poets is a carefully curated list of the finest in local talent. With a stunning performer like Ursula Rucker headlining, it's hard to go wrong. And the supa-sista's considerable talents are reinforced by a lineup of performers whose presence and credibility will win over the most hardcore skeptic.

Among the most anticipated performers is Yellow Rage, a Mantua-based Asian-American duo made of 31-year-old Michelle Myers and 22-year-old Catzie Vilayphonh, who met in a writing class at the Asian Arts Initiative in 2000. Their debut performance was at the Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Slam in Philadelphia in December 2000. A poetry slam is not unlike the Miss America contest, or an episode of American Idol -- each poet (or troupe) performs in turn, then the audience or a panel of judges picks the winners.

Simmons' Slam touring competition was also a recruiting tour; a week after Yellow Rage was chosen as a semi-finalist in Philadelphia's Def Poetry Slam, Myers got a call from an HBO exec asking if Yellow Rage would audition for an upcoming HBO special, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry." The pair ended up performing at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Colorado, a performance that HBO taped and aired in December 2001. (To clarify, the HBO show later morphed into the present Broadway show, Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam.) Since then, Yellow Rage has been performing at colleges and conferences from Seattle to Atlanta to Maine.

Myers says the duo's mission is confronting and overturning stereotypes about Asian-American women. A set begins with "Listen, Asshole," a hard-edged rap that recalls the classic Anne Meara comic monologue "Hot Lunch," in which a woman responds to a construction worker's on-street sexual harassment.

"Listen, Asshole" is a reaction piece to ignorant questions we can't take anymore," says Myers, who is the daughter of a Korean mother and a Caucasian father. "People always ask me, "What are you? You don't look Korean." It comes up every time I meet someone. Catzie's thing is, people constantly asking her to translate into her native language -- things like "What's Laotian for I love you?"

That's just the tip of the iceberg. "I've dated a diverse selection of men -- Latino, African-American, Asian-American and white," says Myers. "In my experience of dating, guys believe that Asian women are always sexually submissive, or accommodating. I had to deal with things like guys requesting massages, or making comments like "We'd make pretty babies.' Or, there are the guys who say "I have a thing for Asian women' and don't see a problem with that." Yellow Rage sees a big problem with it, and they are schooling the ignorant bastards of the world through polyrhythmic spoken-word pieces that draw heavily on rap and hip-hop. The duo is talented and articulate, and lines like, "You want to butter me up like you butter your rice, then tie me down to your bed of stereotypes" distill a generation's worth of girl power.

Like many of the Ladyfest spoken-word artists, Myers and Vilayphonh perform in street clothes -- jeans and casually trendy shirts that might've come from H&M. It ties their words more closely to everyday experience. Their look is ordinary, their lives are ordinary, but their lyrics express the rage that even the most ordinary women feel when faced with sexism and ethnic stereotyping. "We're doing more than just grumbling, whining and complaining," says Myers. Yellow Rage makes its points about the sorry state of things with delicious lyrics like, "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery/ so should we take as compliment this appropriated cultural chicanery/ that beats off on our sexuality?/ Well, personally, I feel this way -- let's untie our tongues and say "Fuck you!"

A couple of things about Yellow Rage fit in perfectly with Ladyfest's particular brand of post-punk, DIY she-lectricity. First, the pair has some serious academic underpinning. Myers is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Temple, studying Asian-American literature and language representation; she also teaches at Temple, Rowan and CCP. Vilayphonh is studying for her undergraduate degree, teaching in a theater program for Asian-American teens called Gener-Asian Next and working as an apprentice to a photographer.

Although a Yellow Rage set includes a wee bit of screaming (sometimes a dysfunctional spoken-word technique), their fury is justified. They're fueled by years of Asian-American women being discriminated against, fetishized or just plain overlooked. Oppression makes you wanna holler, and screaming (especially Sex Pistols-style) is one way to get heard.

Social progress has always been facilitated through art. And if we believe Yellow Rage's claim, "I'll knock the taste out of your motherfuckin' mouth if I don't like your behavior," a movement just may be on its way.

Yellow Rage performs Fri., March 21, 6 p.m., $7-$10, with Angela Jones and Marj Hahne, followed by open mic, William Way Community Center, Room 316, 1315 Spruce St., 215-732-2220.

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