The gap between the Waltham community and our University is not an easy one to bridge.Though there is no purposeful ill will, our nation's rapidly expanding socioeconomic rifts breed resentment from those at the bottom and indifference from those at the top. Thus, the process of community outreach has become an awkward, uncomfortable one for many students. However, the last semester has been colored by a renewed effort toward bridging the community-University gap on a large scale with events such as Ologunda's MusicUnitesUs residency, which incorporated a significant portion of the Hispanic community in Waltham.

The latest in this series of events is VOCAL 2008, a charitable spoken word and slam poetry concert. The event, organized by Justin Kang '09 and Jason Simon Bierenbaum '11, is intended to give back to the Waltham community as well as to raise campus awareness of local issues. The proceeds from the event will go toward the renovation and conversion of an old day care center in the Prospect Hill Terrace into a new community center, as well as toward funding after-school programs in the Waltham area.

Appearing at the event will be a bevy of talent in the fields of slam poetry, spoken word and digital music. The most highly anticipated artist is without a doubt Saul Williams, a high-profile hip-hop/poetry artist who gained a great deal of fame when he won the 1996 Nuyorican Poet's Café Grand Slam Championship. This led to his induction into popular hip-hop circles, where he performed with artists such as De La Soul, The Fugees and Erykah Badu. He was also featured in the 1998 documentary Slam and was credited with production duties on the latest Nine Inch Nails album.

Other notable artists to appear include Buddy Wakefield, a Texas native who twice took the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship, in 2005 and 2006-a record that has yet to be broken. Though he released his first album, A Stretch of Presence, in 1999, it

wasn't until 2001 that he quit his job as an executive assistant at a biomedical firm in Washington state to tour the country as a full-time slam poet. Currently, Wakefield manages a talent agency called The Bullhorn Collective. Also appearing will be a number of youth poets from groups such as the International Youth Poetry Slam Finalist Team of Providence and the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Champion Team from Philadelphia (of which Brandeis' own Simon-Bierenbaum is a member).

Not to be outshone, Brandeis faculty will be making contributions of their own to the event. Harlym 125 (otherwise known as Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams) will be performing and hosting the event, while Prof. Wayne Marshall (MUS), who teaches the popular course "Digital Pop: From Hip-Hop to Mash-up," will function as the evening's emcee. Don't miss it.