With his loafers to the side of the podium, poet, writer, dancer and performance artist Ronaldo Wilson addressed an intimate audience gathered in the LSU Digital Media Center Theater on Thursday night.
While visiting Louisiana, Wilson spent time speaking with not only undergraduate and graduate students, but also middle school students, giving craft talks.
Winner of the Asian American Literary Award of Poetry, Wilson also authored a cross-genre selection of books and poems. His book of poems, “Poems of the Black Object,” won the Tim Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.
An associate professor of creative writing, the California native spends his time in both Santa Cruz and Long Beach teaching and working while also taking time for his art.
“It is difficult to get comfortable in front of an audience,” Wilson said.
After removing his black loafers, black blazer and black trousers, Wilson sat on the floor and began putting on metallic gold stilettos. He then dressed himself in a black, oversized tunic and strutted back to the table, saying his attire felt “much better.”
As funky beats filled the room with recorded voices singing, Wilson danced, teasing his audience while voguing. He read some of his poems with his eyes covered by a matching gold veil.
With explicit and vulgar words, the poems explored topics such as sexuality, race, violence, individuality and contemporary social issues.
Wilson removed the gold veil.
“Sometimes, I can’t understand my own gibberish,” Wilson said.
Grabbing a mask out of a black bag and putting it over his head, Wilson revealed a new face to the audience, which appeared to be a woman’s, though all the audience could see was a short black bob and a white face with openings for the mouth, nose and eyes.
Wilson said he doesn’t like to read poems from his book because it is a “bother.”
After asking audience members if they would like to see a film he created, images projected on the screen as he put on a bird mask complete with feathers.
“Another One Bites the Dust” played as Wilson danced both on stage and in the film, without a mask.
He stopped the image on the screen as he spoke words of an elderly woman violently raped.
He continued the film of clips and images he compiled, including home videos of himself, selfies, videos of him masked dancing to various contemporary songs, clips of Smurfs and some unidentifiable images.
Wilson brought the experience to a close by asking audience members to chant the word “blood” while he sang over the faint chant.
The experience caught many audience members off guard. When asked to describe their experiences, the lack of words and shocked looks said plenty.
“Give me a second. I can’t even gather my thoughts after that,” said history sophomore Dominique Shingles. “I don’t know what to call that.”
“It was very entertaining. It was very sporadic though — hard to follow what the message was,” said chemistry sophomore Kayla Richardson.

Gallery • 12 Photos

Jake Bonin

Award-winning poet Ronaldo Wilson recites a poem during the 'From Lucy to Land, Mirinkai and Then' performance on Sept. 15, 2016, at the LSU Digital Media Center Theater.