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On February 16, 2008, I received an early birthday present. I got to meet the Blue Scholars for the first time. Even though the Scholars were scheduled to perform at Northeastern University the following week, and I was the co-coordinator for that event, it was still awesome to get to meet the Scholars a few days earlier. It was a crazy day to begin with, ECAASU was in full swing and everything was happening that Saturday. First off, big props to the people at Cornell for hosting a great event. Everything was hectic that morning with people registering and rushing into the workshops. I thought my backstage pass to the concert was ready to go when I registered, but when I got there, the staff said there was no such thing. But thankfully, Eugene came through and I gave the Programming Chair a call. The interview was set up at 6:30 pm at the performance venue.

We ate dinner before we made our trip to the venue. I was getting nervous, thinking about what I would ask. Thankfully I had two great people in Jess and Van with me and it was good to see that they were as nervous and excited as I was. As we made our way to the interview, we asked Brian, their tour manager, about what questions we should ask. We didn’t end up asking any of them. When Brian opened the door, I forgot everything—there sat Geo just chilling on the couch and Sabzi sitting opposite him.

Van blushed the whole time, Jess was speechless and I was shaking. I only knew them through their songs, but there they were, the Blue Scholars… just chilling on the couch waiting for us to talk to them. They greeted us and introduced themselves as if we didn’t know who they were. The interview started kind of awkwardly, again we were all nervous. But as the interview continued, I felt a sense of comfort between us and I was amazed at how down-to-earth both Geo and Sabzi were. Sabzi had the humor and Geo had the calm hospitality. The interview went from what it is like to be Asian American role models to how they feel about their video on MTV to tube socks. It was a conversation that I will never forget. Their performance was a performance that I will never forget. That night is a night that I will never forget. I think Van said it the best, “Hey you got your heroes, I have mine.”

Stay tuned tomorrow for the interview itself!

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