In previous posts, I had discussed how the "Brave New Voices" Team Philadelphia had challenged the judges on a technicality of one of the other teams who got into the finals. Apparently the other team went over their allotted time and as a result Team Philadelphia got into the finals.

In the final episode which aired last week, Team Philadelphia decided to take themselves out of scoring points in the contest and that it wasn't as much about "winning" as it was about letting their voices be heard.  They then proceeded to perform brilliantly in the rest of the episode. (Team Hawaii won).

As a tribute to the excellent work seen on the show from  Josh Bennett (C'10), Alysia Harris (C'10), and Aysha El Shamyleh (C'10), I wanted to share some more excellent performances from the Penn group of which they are a part: The Excelano Project. Check out some of these moving on campus performances above!

Recently, Josh Bennett performed at the White House for the Obamas. Read more about it at the DP HERE!

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Have you been watching  Russell Simmons' "Brave New World" on HBO?  If you have, you would have seen great performances from our Team Philadelphia .

Highlighted this week on the show were moving performances from Alysia Harris' (C'10, The Excelano Project) and Josh Bennett (C'10, The Excelano Project, Brave New Voices 2008 slam champion).

• Watch Alysia's "That Girl" piece above ... it's yet another performance of hers that will give you the chills!  
  
• If that's not moving enough, then watch Josh's "Carbon Copy" piece above where he honors his love for his father directly in front of him.
  

On a related note, it turns out that Alysia and Josh met in their high school days at a diversity conference where they were both performing spoken word (and even dated for a bit!).

While the show has only aired 2 episodes, from the site, it looks like we should be expecting another performance from Aysha El Shamayleh (C'10, The Excelano Project) sometime soon.

Good luck Team Philadelphia!  

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Over the years on DT, I posted about The Excelano Project, a captivating group at Penn that performs the Spoken Word.

Apparently, 4 members of this group have caught the attention of Russell Simmons and will be starring in Simmons' new HBO show "Brave New Voices" debuting this Sunday night at 11pm ET/PT.

Per the HBO site, the show is "one part Def Poetry Jam and two-parts documentary" which "features the finest young spoken word artists in the country".

Representing from Penn are Josh Bennett (C'10), Aysha El Shamayleh (C'10), Alysia Harris (C'10), and Chloe Wayne (C'10).

If you recall, last year I named Alysia Harris' performance of "What's in a Soldier", the "#1 Penn Video That Will Give You the Chills".

Best of luck to Team Philadelphia!

Watch out for them on Sundays at 11 pm ET/PT on HBO!

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While my #4 and #3 picks for my "Penn videos that will give you the chills" have been beautifully made films, yesterday I introduced a powerful spoken word video as my #2 pick.

The more I experience these Spoken Word performances from our Penn community, the more I really like this genre.

...Which brings me to #1 pick today from an award winning undergrad with tons of passion and an interesting background story to match.

Click here to check out my #1 pick!

Raw truth and expression is what you will find in Alysia Harris' (C'10, The Excelano Project) April 2007 Spoken Word College Nationals winning performance of "What's in a Soldier".

Before you watch it, note Alysia's story behind her spoken words:

"I wrote that poem because my father was in the army for 22 years and when he was sick he stayed on the amputee floor at Walter Reed Army Hospital. And it was really life changing to see people who were my age 18, 19, who were literally half the people they were before they left for iraq, no legs, no arms, disfigured for life, but all still optimistic and smiling. These men are my age and while I'm off in a classroom pouring over Russian literature these men are out there squaring off with death. And it just made me think. People are so quick to criticize the army and those who serve, but they have no idea about what they are willing to sacrifice."

Check out Alysia's passionate performance of "What's in a Soldier"

Check out all of my Top 4 "Penn videos that will give you the chills"

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