Spoken Word Artist NAV comes to Volunteer State Community College

By Kailyn Fournier
As a part of International Education week, Volunteer State Community College has invited spoken word artist Navpreet Sachdev, otherwise known as NAV, to perform on Wednesday, Nov. 16. His performance will take place in the carpeted dining room from 12:45 – 1:45p.m.
Like most of the artists who perform at Vol State for various events, NAV was invited here after he performed at the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) in March. “NAV’s performances are raw and authentic, driven by his passion to inspire the best of humanity,” according to their website, www.apca.com.
The APCA conference in March was NAV’s debut as a performer; however, he had attended the conference as a student, prior to that. The performances he saw inspired him and were a large influence in, “His decision to follow his dreams of being a poet came from,” according to the website.
“APCA was able to let him perform live,” said Tabitha Sherrell, Coordinator of Student Activities. She was one of the Vol State members to attend the APCA concert in March and was also one of the decision makers in NAV performing at Vol State.
The handful of students that attended the conference with her were SGA members. At the conference, they all had a booklet on the events, which they used to grade the performers on their act.
This score was on a letter scale, with A being the best and f being the worst. After the APCA, the SGA members would watch the best performer’s videos and make a group judgment call on whether or not they want to invite the performer to attend any events at Vol State.
NAV must have been impressive because in his 10-minute time to perform, he managed to get that A rank from Sherrell and some of the SGA members to perform here for International Education week.
According to Sherrell, his poems addressed issues such as discrimination and the need to improve society. This was a contributing factor in his invitation to perform during international education week as well.
“His performance at the conference was awesome,” said Brittany Davis SGA’s CAB chair and attended the APCA conference alongside Sherrell.
She says her favorite poem of his is “Thank You and Come Again” which is about his father’s immigration and the discrimination he experienced at the various businesses he worked at.
“It’s really powerful,” said Davis.
His other poems include “I Apologize,” about not being able to flirt and being attracted to someone on more than just appearances; “Politics of Facebook,” about the superficiality and ignorance displayed on social media despite it’s potential to change the world; and “Scars” about the damage that is done by the negative words of other people, but also about accepting the scars and moving on.
Sherrell has invited faculty members to bring their students to his performance. Those who are interested can find his YouTube channel NAVNAVNAV, or on his SoundCloud, NAV the Poet.