A poetry collective called Batey Urbano excitedly warmed up in a back room of the Erickson Kiva before several Latino and Chicano urban poets hit the stage to perform poetry with a purpose.
"Is-La Mind," or "Ease The Mind," showcased the Batey Urbano poets as part of Puerto Rican Culture Week, put on by the Puerto Rican Student Alliance this week.
"Our performances are a collaboration of our culture and hip-hop," Chicagoan group member Jiovani Vargas said.
Batey Urbano is an outlet for people to express themselves, Vargas said. The word "batey" means a communal space that provides residents with the ability to celebrate cultural awareness together.
With titles including "Collective Struggle" and "Lets Take It Back," the poets' material was detailed and diverse in context. Poets discussed the struggles behind slavery, relationships, political corruption, community action and cultural identity.
The collective touched on many issues people try to ignore in society, said Erika Huerta, a medical technology junior.
"This was deep poetry," she said. "I was shocked the poets were so open and expressive with so many issues that affect everyone."
The week celebrating Puerto Rican culture will also include spoken poetry performances by Latinos Artists Society and La Bruja, a poet from New York who has previously participated in HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry."
The week will include community service opportunities to help strengthen Latino retention, a film showing Puerto Rican history and food and a celebration at the rock on Farm Lane.
David Torres, the historian and secretary for the Puerto Rican Student Alliance, also helped kick off the cultural events this weekend by teaching salsa, merengue and bachata dancing to about 200 people at the Union on Saturday.
Torres, an interdisciplinary humanities junior, said it's important for people of other ethnicities to learn about different cultures, and the morals, customs and family values that come with them, to observe what life is like "outside of the box."
"That way, they can know what it's like through someone else's eyes," he said.
Torres, who was born in New York, said it's important to him to keep Puerto Rican culture alive in the face of assimilation in the United States.
"You come here and you automatically start adjusting to American life," he said. "I was born here, but my heart is still in Puerto Rico."
