Beau Sia is a poet/ performer who fits nicely into the term "up and coming". He has his first published collection of poetry out, a night without armor II; the revenge and a CD Attack, Attack, Go! (Both out on the Mouth Almighty label). He has also recently had a small role in the movie Slam and was featured in the movie SlamNation. He's also known to have the juice as a dancin' B-boy.

"Well, I think there is a trend toward anti-assimilation. Meaning that Asian American writers do not have to lose their Asian culture and background to be American. As Asian Americans we are the products of a capitalist consumer society as well as being products of our Asian American culture. We can be American without having to give anything away, like our Asian heritage."

"I think a lot of Asian Americans are really fed up with the continuing amount of stereotypes that they have to deal with here. I was born here. I grew up in a predominately white suburb. I got tired of hearing from whites there this; "you're not as American as me" crap when I was born here just like them. I mean Mel Gibson was born in Australia but no one constantly refers to his Australianess in his films."

"Hollywood doesn't recognize Asians as film consumers. Although the Asian American communities are avid filmgoers. What few Asian actors there are, are generally stereotyped. Asians are depicted in TV and film as either martial artists, bad guys, or cooks. Asian American female actors have more opportunities than Asian male actors. But female actors are still primarily offered roles that require them to portray sexiness , exoticness, and little else. Have you seen that film with Wil Smith, Enemy of the State? They use an Asian couple as comic relief. That's all. The couple starts getting all excited and pulling out money , and speaking in rough accents as Wil Smith's character undresses quickly in front of them. And that's it. They're gone. No more Asian actors appear in the film. I was sitting in a theater in Long Island watching the film. Everyone in the audience was cracking up during that scene. I wasn't cracking up. Would it have been as humorous minus the Asian couple? I mean, someone had to make the decision to use an Asian couple for that scene. Look at the latest Lethal Weapon movie. Jet Lei plays a bad-guy martial artist---

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It bugs me! Why is he dressed in 18^th century clothes when everyone else is dressed contemporarily? To focus more on his Asianness? I do not really like what Margaret Cho has done. She sets it back a bit with her use of her mothers accent and difficulty with understanding American culture as a focus of her humor. I know she has other material that is better and not in such a stereotypical vein. But I don't want to say it is her duty to enlighten the public about contemporary Asian American culture. But I know she has more challenging stuff that I wish she would do. As a high profile performer she gets more publicity. But I think there are only like, three Asian American comedians who are in profile at all."

I sent in my poetry as application for the Dramatic Writing department of New York University. I wasn't even sure what that was about. I really, really wanted to get out of Iowa. I was accepted and came here to study. I took a class with Donald Bogle, author of Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks . That kinda did it for me.

What are you looking to do with your poetry and screenplay writing? What are your future thoughts about your work?

You can buy Beau Sia's book>a night without armor II; the revenge and his CD Attack, Attack, Go! at amazon.com.

We have put together a short list of other titles by Asian American writers available at amazon.com.