Anybody who’s had the chance to see UNC-Chapel Hill junior, Herrison Chicas perform spoken word knows that it’s truly an experience. Chicas will quickly make you realize the influence of words. His poetry is especially noteworthy because of its ability to stay with you long after you’ve heard it. So don’t be surprised if you can’t get his words out of your head.
The passion and heart he draws upon to convey his poetry gives his performance a real lasting presence. His poem, “My Mother’s Illegal Music” is performed with such sincerity that it really hits home for a lot of children of immigrant parents and immigrants who’ve been disenfranchised by the American political system. Like Chicas said, “it needs to be heard.” He is quickly on his way to becoming a powerful voice for his generation and especially for the Latino people. But probably the most endearing quality about Chicas is his humility and commitment to helping marginalized people break through their struggle. Even with all the promise of success, it’s clear that Chicas will never forget who he is and where he comes from.
HC: How do you feel about the attention and praise you’ve been receiving for your poetry?
Chicas: I appreciate all the support people give me. Their support helps me and inspires me to keep doing what I do. At the end of the day, though, I try to remain humble because at the same time I’m still Chicas [laughs].
HC: What other extracurricular activities are you involved in?
Chicas: I’m a member of CHispA; I run UNC Wordsmiths with another co-director; I’m in UNC club soccer and I’m in my fraternity, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Incorporated. Those are the major ones aside from my poetry.
HC: How did you start doing spoken word?
Chicas: I always tell people I’m new to it. I just started last year but I guess if you go back to my early years I was always intrigued by reggaeton and hip hop so I was always freestyling in school here and there with little stupid freestyles. Eventually those little freestyles helped enhance my vocabulary and my creativity. But it wasn’t until I heard EROT perform, a spoken word group on campus, that I fell in love with spoken word and I decided to try out for the team. I made it and then I tried out for Sacrificial Poets and that’s where I am now.
HC: Can you briefly talk about Sacrificial Poets?
Chicas: We’re basically a group in the Triangle area and what we do is hold open mics every month and try to get poetry out there in the community and try to help the youth out. Every year we take a group of young poets to California to compete in the nation’s biggest youth poetry competition and last year I was privileged enough to participate.
HC: How would you define what you do? Would you say you’re a spoken word artist, a poet or a rapper?
Chicas: It’s hard. It just depends how I wake up [laughs]. Some days I feel like calling myself a rapper, other days I’m a poet and other days I’m a spoken word artist. But at the end of the day I feel like I’m just an artist.
HC: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Chicas: People. I’m always inspired by people, the way they act and the way they don’t act. What do they do in extreme circumstances? What do they do in average daily life? It’s just interesting. But definitely different people inspire me. I don’t know, I just believe in humanity.
HC: What type of impact do you want your poetry to have?
Chicas: So a little bit of my background–I was born in Uniondale, a suburb in New York and growing up I was in one of the bad communities in my county so when I got to high school there was a lot of bad stuff going on. My cousins were all in gangs. There was just all this bad stuff and all this failure. All of my friends were dropping out or doing stupid things. This failure made me succeed in a sense because I really tried to avoid it and tried to do the opposite and that really made me successful. I wanted to find a way to change these young guys and girls that were on the verge of dropping out or just wasting their lives. I wanted to go back and save them, and so this past year, I found that through my poetry I could do that. And so that’s been one of my biggest goals, just to touch people, especially Latinos. We’re definitely frowned upon in this country and I definitely feel like we have a lot more potential than we’re made out to have.
HC: A lot of your poetry seems to be politically and socially charged, so do you have any poets or political activists that you admire? Who are your heroes?
Chicas: I definitely have a lot of heroes and idols everywhere. But I would say that my lifetime heroes of all time are my parents. My dad and my mom have done a lot and that goes really under the radar as I feel it does for a lot of immigrant parents. They’re not as appreciated by the public as they should be, so they’ve always been my heroes. In terms of poetry, I’ve always looked up to all the Sacrificial Poets, all the veterans like G, CJ, Kane, Will, Jake, all of them. They’ve done it longer than I have and they’ve pretty much taught me everything I know.
HC: What’s your favorite piece to perform?
Chicas: My favorite piece and I feel like it will always be my favorite because I feel like it needs to be heard is my mom’s piece. It really touches home and it’s really personal, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of people need to hear it just to be exposed and be aware of what’s really going on underneath the surface and what’s the life of an average immigrant.
HC: Who are your favorite rappers or who do you listen to a lot?
Chicas: There are so many. It just depends on the mood I’m in but I’m always for the lyrical genius so I would say Lupe, J.Cole, Fabulous, Nas; rappers coming up like Big Sean and then there are those that have been around for a while like Kanye and Jay-Z. All of these rappers are really smart with their words.
HC: What do you love most about your culture or Hispanic culture in general?
Chicas: What do I like the most? I don’t know. I can’t say that I love one thing in particular. I just love the whole thing; the dancing, bachata, the food, pupusas and all the culture. There’s so much that some times I just want to be like, “Yo this is crazy, this is my culture, you need to hear about it,” but I’m glad people are catching on to it more. There’s a whole different world from the American culture that people aren’t aware of but we’re eventually getting there. There’s not just one thing that I like about my culture. I just like the whole heritage–what we do, what we don’t do. I just love it.
HC: In your poem, “I Want to Take You Out,” you describe your emotions when you like a girl and you want to ask her out. Do you really go through that whole process?
Chicas: Yeah, I feel like every guy goes through that emotional feeling when talking to that special someone. So yeah, I can say that at least for me some of the emotions in the poem are true.
HC: Can you describe your ideal girl?
Chicas: To be honest, I feel like an ideal girl for me would be someone who is just comfortable in her own skin. I call it swag, swag in the sense that you know she walks with personality; she’s really comfortable; she knows what she’s doing in life; and she’s really smart. I guess a lot of people go for looks but if you have that swag, you’d be my ideal girl.
HC: What do you do for fun or in your spare time?
Chicas: Well, I mean like any average college student, I just like to chill and grab something to eat with a couple of friends and just hang with my fraternity brothers. But I guess one of the big ones is soccer. I grew up around soccer. I’ve always played and so I either play soccer or play FIFA.
Chicas is currently traveling the country performing his poetry. Be sure to like his Facebook page, “Chicas” and check out his youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/ChicasHerrison.
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All photos provided by Herrison Chicas’ Facebook