On April 16, 2009, Fresno City College welcomed poet and performing artist, Ruby Veridiano-Ching in the FCC theatre.

It was hard to not be moved by her words; the raw expression of a poet’s emotion can stir even the hardest of hearts. Veridiano-Ching’s heartfelt confessions of love, pride, sadness, joy and loss made students roar, relish their heritage, and revisit lost friendships.

Born in Manila and raised in Sacramento, Ruby Veridiano-Ching is a poet, a VJ/television host, performing artist, arts educator, and former member of spoken word collective ill-Literacy. She has performed on MTV, toured the US and Europe, worked with Jive Records in New York City, and has been featured in numerous festivals.

It is an ability of the best artists to show their audience something that each listener had forgotten about them, or something they cherished that they wished they could experience again. That Thursday, as the audience listened, each one seemed to reflect upon something from their own lives, and not surprisingly. Veridiano-Ching’s rhythmic stirring of the soul reaches out to every demographic. It’s hard for one to not find themselves immersed in her world.

“It’s something I’ve been doing for years,” Veridiano-Ching said after the performance. “There’s just something about the heart that needs to be heard.”

After the performance, she held a signing event for her book, Miss Universe, which is now on sale. The event was organized and sponsored by the Asian American Studies Department and the Humanities Division Foundation.

Veridiano-Ching graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology of World Development and Communications. She has also studied at the Universita per Stranieri in Siena, Italy. Her blog is available at www.rubyisill.com and Miss Universe can be found in stores.