Some old friends and some new friends
Back in the early days of Boston Progress Radio, Delia noted the gender imbalance of the artists on our station. (Yeah, I know that was only a few months ago, but sometimes it seems like we’ve been doing this forever.) It seems as though there are far more male artists than female artists. That is kind of a shame. Also shameful is the fact that we have only a single female blogger contributing to Boston Progress Radio. Maybe, Asian boys are just more opinionated? I don’t think so. Right here, I’m reaching out to all those female-identified heads out there who have some opinions about AA or PI arts, music, or spoken word. At Boston Progress, sharing your stories in your own words is more important than writing a Peabody-award winning piece.
Today, to help balance the imbalance, I’m adding music from four female artists.
Heather Park is a Korean American R&B/hip-hop artist out of New York. While BPR has known about Heather for awhile, we only recently got a hold of her latest album, “Dream in Pictures” released by Stush Music. For a change, the folks at Stush Music contacted me about putting her music on our station! That was a nice surprise. From her Myspace, we find that “Park worked in an NYC deli frequented by the program director of Hot 97 who eventually got her demo into the hands of producer Steve Francis of Stush Music. Influenced equally by hip-hop beats and neo-soul sirens, Parks debut album is an intimate affair as her understated cool comes across in every syllable she sings.” I think we’re playing all of the tracks from her album here on our station.
Justine Ok is a talented Berklee-trained Korean American R&B artist currently living in Beantown, USA. She is an old friend of Boston Progress and recently featured at the October 2007 East Meets Words Open Mic. When not belting out Alicia Keys covers and songs about snowflakes, Justine co-hosts a radio program on the Berklee Internet Radio Network featuring Asian and Asian American artists. I think she recently interviewed our very own Giles Li. Justine recently slipped me a copy of her new single “Snowflakes” which we’re playing all night and all day here on BPR.
Karla Margallo is an old friend of the Boston Progress Arts Collective. The songs from her self-released demo CD, “Honest” has been on sale at the East Meets West Bookstore for a few years now. She also featured at an open mic. Born in the Philippines, Karla currently resides in New Jersey. I checked out her Myspace, where there is a description of her music, past, present and future. It seems as though she’s not really actively performing as a singer-songwriter, but I would say that she’s still working on her music. I can’t wait to see what her new album is going to be like.
Our last artist for this round is Sahanghee, a Korean American R&B singer from Pennsylvania. (Yes, that’s three Korean American R&B singers). I had not heard about Sahanghee until she just sent me her new CD, “Broke Heart Solutions” unsolicited! She’s the first artist to do that. Her music has a heavy dose of Christian influence, but she does speak about the difficulties of being an Asian American musician in the song “Is This Your World.” I’ve put a few of her tracks online for your listening pleasure. If you like wholesome Christian R&B and hip-hop, then this might be your cup of tea.
We’re pushing 40 hr of music. Stay tuned.
Last 5 posts by eugene
- Yet another post on the supratarsal fold - May 12th, 2008
- Famous Asian Americans I Want to Meet - May 6th, 2008
- As I Am: Asians In America Goes National - May 4th, 2008
- East Meets Words Welcomes Conchita Campos - April 27th, 2008
- Boston Independent Film Festival 2008 - April 21st, 2008
Tags: News, Online Radio.
hey! what’s up with the hyphen between Korean and American. now we have to fight. or nuz.
My bad. I had the Asian American part right though. And to think I was thinking about hyphen vs. no hyphen on Tuesday. All fixed now.