boston progress radio

You know how at the end of every year, news magazines, newspapers, TV shows, bloggers, and radio personalities make a list of the Best _________ of the Year ______. I thought it would be cool to write my own version of that. Unlike some Year In Reviews though, I won’t be talking about books you should read or CDs you should buy. (I do have some in mind. We are a radio station after all.) Instead, I’m going to tell you all a little bit about my first year of volunteering for Boston Progress Arts Collective. Actually, this article is the first of two about me and the year 2007.

Starting in December 2006, I became, not just a consumer of Boston Progress events, but also a volunteer for the cause. I attended my first Boston Progress meeting (actually, it was a East Meets West Bookstore meeting, but I did not fully understood the difference at the time). I had low expectations for the meeting. It would be an understatement to say that the whole thing was an awakening for me. For perhaps the first time in my life, I felt that I had found folks of Asian heritage that didn’t get together simply to have dim sum or to talk about gadgets or to have bible study or to talk about pop culture (though most of those things can be enjoyable or community-building in different contexts). Instead, we got together to make a space for Asian Americans, to talk about community activism and to talk about art and music. I think I volunteered to put some ads in some local free newspapers to advertise the open mic.

The year 2007 rolled around and I started volunteering at the bookstore. I learned very quickly that I was a very bad cashier. I had a lot of trouble operating the register. Actually, I still have trouble with the cash register. The January open mic features were Janet Kim and Marie Avetria, two spoken word performers from NYC. I remember that day not being very cold, unusual for a winter day in New England. Maybe it was the hot Chai and good company that I had prior to the open mic that warmed me. Or maybe it was the words of the performers that stimulated my mind.

I also went to my first art gallery opening, “Transitions,” featuring oil paintings by Sophea Khem. I still really like the big painting that he’s selling for a bajillion dollars. He told me that the painting costs so much because a) it so large and b) it has special meaning to him. No wonder I dig that big one so much. You can see that painting and some others by Khem in a number of photos here in this post.

I think I also played my first game of Boggle that weekend of the open mic. A bunch of Boston Progress folks were gathered at Theresa’s home to watch a bit of football and to play a little Boggle. I remember meeting Giles there. Can you imagine playing Boggle with a bunch of poets? Talk about unfair advantage. Good thing we weren’t playing for money, because I would have had to bring out the wordsmith in me. (No, not really.)

February was a big month for me. I think it was around that time that I found myself sitting in my office thinking about Asian American music. All this Progress exposure was getting to my head. Unfortunately, at that time, all I could do was think about it because I didn’t really know of any prominent Asian American musicians and there wasn’t a place for me to listen to their music. When I searched the Internet for such a radio station and found none, I thought to myself, “Hmm… I wonder what it would take to build my own online radio station? I have some technical know-how.” Essentially, I wondered if it would be possible to build a grassroots radio station by connecting directly with artists. I figured that through Boston Progress I would be able to find some people who would be willing to let us play their music.

February was also a fantastic month for Boston Progress. We hosted some nationally known acts like iLL-Literacy and now defunct Native Guns, who were in town to perform at Northeastern University. February was also the first time I hosted an open mic. The feature was Zawadi as I recall. I think I did alright, but I’ll admit, I was pretty nervous. It is reassuring to know, however, that even great performers like Bao Phi and Kiwi, still get nervous before every show.

In March, after recruiting Delia, blogger par excellence, to my harebrained idea of starting a radio station, we launched this blog. Now, some of you folks will recall that originally, we wanted to call the blog Yellow Powered Radio. It was an attempt to reclaim the word yellow and turn it into a word of Asian American pride. Alas, the downside was that it could exclude Asian Americans who do not identify as yellow. Eventually, YPR became BPR and we have what we have today, Boston Progress Radio.

March was also the second anniversary of the open mic. The feature was Michael Liu, a longtime Boston-area Asian American community leader. He read from his forthcoming book on Asian American activist history; it was informative. It is good to know where you come from and who came before you. It is good to know about Asian American activist history to help guide activism work in the future.

March was also a time when Boston Progress had a “vision” meeting where we dreamed about what BPAC could become. We talked about how we would become a non-profit with lots of funding and our own four-story community center complete with art studios, a music recording studio, meeting rooms, classrooms, performance space and yes, a bookstore. And also, a place to DJ shows for BPR. That was an empowering meeting for me because I saw how Progress could grow into something awesome, something bigger. That’s not to say that Progress isn’t amazing already, but you know, we never stop dreaming.

We got things kicking in April with our first interviewee Jay Legaspi, the April open mic feature. We took pictures, recorded some music—it was exciting. I saw Jin perform at MIT’s Grains of Rice.

The online streaming radio didn’t actually go up until May. With lots of work by Giles, we amassed a group of wonderfully supportive artists and went live with our stream on May 15. We haven’t stopped adding new artists since then. I’m looking forward to adding plenty of new artists in the next year.

Bao featured at East Meets Words in May and he put on a rousing performance. He also did an interview, which, if you haven’t listened to yet, is really good. Check it out. I especially like the part when Bao talks about interracial dating.

I missed the June 2007 open mic and I feel sad about that. Ishle Yi Park, one of the original Feedback poets, featured at East Meets Words. ISHLE YI PARK! I heard she didn’t do as much spoken word that day, but instead played some music. Also, apparently Theresa Vu showed up and did a little amazing freestyle with D. Kong on the beatbox. Of all the open mics to miss, I had to miss that one! I derive solace in the fact that TVu interviewed Ishle for us. That’s two inspiring and talented Asian American women in the music scene.

Well, that’s the first half of 2007. Wah! Stay tuned for my take on the second half of 2007 in a couple days. Happy New Year!

[If you're wondering about the photo at the top of this post, let me say that it is a photo I took during the Vision meeting. The little miniature drawings were made by each of the participants of the meeting. Each drawing was supposed to represent yourself in some way. Guess which one is mine. The second half of this post might give you some hints.]

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Tags: Boston Progress, Commentary, Community, Love, Online Radio, Open Mic, Reviews, Year In Review.