Ricardo Cortez Cruz delivered a powerful presentation Thursday at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

As 7 p.m. approached, the auditorium began to fill with students representing every nationality with notebooks in hand. The students were interested in Cruz’s rap style of writing.

“As a writer, you couldn’t ask for a better crowd,” Cruz said.

Cruz is an associate professor at Illinois State University. He won the 1992 Nilon Award for Excellence in Minority Fiction for his first novel “Straight Outta Compton.” He began his presentation by reading excerpts from his books “Compton” and “Five Days of Bleeding.” He also included parts of the novel he is working on that will be titled “Premature Autopsies: Tales As Dark As America.”

The style of his words was similar to rap. He didn’t sugar-coat issues. He delivered a version of the truth far from politically correctness. With a raspy voice that resonated with firm intelligence, he took the audience into a fictional realm diving into topics many try to ignore.

In what Cruz calls his “slangish” style, he addressed issues of ghettos, inner cities, poverty, government aid, family relationships, domestic abuse and breast cancer.

“He explained that his work isn’t based on truth, but on fiction. But if you could only hear his descriptions and narrations on each character, then you would definitely think that he has experienced it,” said Nikole Muhammad, a sophomore undecided major.

Every ear listened, every eye watched, every mind wondered how an associate professor of English could speak on issues while using loaded, provocative language.

The ideas for his writing come from everywhere. He takes ideas from music, television and the people around him. He cursed like a pro within his text, which added flavor to the writing and caught the attention of the audience. Cruz received much chastisement from people who felt his work is too provocative.

“He is a very influential speaker,” said Terrance Tyler, a freshman undeclared business major. “I didn’t like the fact that he didn’t tell us more about what influenced him to write, and why he didn’t speak more of why he used so much profanity and violence to give extra dramatization to his work.”

Cruz challenges the minds of his readers by asking them to look into the issues he addresses.

“I think his writing is different because it’s raw and it’s real,” said Keith Barnes, CHANCE counselor. “If people can get past the ‘profanity’, then they could get the real message.”

During his presentation, Cruz offered advice to the listeners.

“Don’t look for new answers, look for new questions,” he said. “Writers are teachers as well as entertainers.”