boston progress radio

Watch for Shuffled! every Thursday. Also check out the Shuffled! archive.

Today’s Shuffler: Christina Seid

Christina Seid is co-owner of the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in New York City, one of Chinatown’s oldest and most well-known businesses. She has recently released her first children’s book Saturdays In Chinatown. The book is about a Chinese American boy that comes to Chinatown to run his weekly errands with his family. “The Chinatown Kid” comes from the suburbs, wears jeans and T shirts and speaks English. He comes to Chinatown to learn Chinese, play in the park with his friends and to eat with family. “The Chinatown Kid” is really the “American Kid”. Chinatown is a place in America after all, isn’t it? Christina wanted to write a book to break down negative Asian stereotypes and what better way than at a child’s age?

Christina is an Asian American advocate, and is well-known in the Chinatown community for her volunteer work. Despite her youth, Christina has also been noted for her business acumen both in local and international press.

For more information about the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, you can visit www.chinatownicecreamfactory.com. She also has a blog on the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory which also covers events in NYC’s Chinatown at www.chinatownicecreamfactory.blogspot.com

On to the ice cream shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

No comments

If you’re like me, you’re excited about spring, but not excited about the fact that you’ve been hibernating all winter. Under layers and layers of sweaters and poofy jackets. Yes, I am self-conscious about my body. But not in a bad way. After all the cold weather has kept me inside all winter, I want to be able to go out – to go for walks, to play in the park, to run around. I feel out of shape.

So, on Monday I went for the gym for the first time… in a long long time. And then I realized. What was I going to listen to? I scanned my ipod, but couldn’t find the right combination of songs to keep me going through my workout. Et voila, here is my work-it-out playlist, featuring mostly Asian American artists. It is just about 30 minutes, and hopefully will take you through a 30 minute stint on the treadmill, or the elliptical machine, or whatever suits your fancy.

Comrades & Friends, From Monuments to Masses
I picture listening to this song as I start off on a run on a sunny spring afternoon in Boston. But, I’m not really in to running right now, and it’s not springy and warm out. But, I feel like if you were inclined to go for a run on a sunny Boston spring afternoon, this song would get you pumped for the run, building up your energy, and probably get you a little pumped about creating political change as well. The audio snippets will give you food for thought, a reason to run, something to work towards. This song is from an album appropriately entitled “The Impossible Leap in a Hundred Simple Steps.”

Lovers Who Uncover, The Little Ones
Hopefully, this cheery song will help keep your energy up. It has a peppy happy beat and I picture this song carrying you through the initial burst of energy when you start your run. It’s like your own indie rocker cheer squad. I first started listening to The Little Ones after I read about them in a 2007 wrap-up in UCLA’s Asian Pacific Arts online magazine. I like their more indie sound – I was tempted to make a whole mix of hip-hop, but that just didn’t seem right. Read more

No comments

Hello, Folks! March 14, 2008 marked the third anniversary of the East Meets Words Open Mic. The Open Mic in retrospect changed a lot of people’s lives and since everyone was taking a look back at the Open Mic, I thought I would take my turn to look back at my experience with the event. My first Open Mic was May 2007, so my first anniversary is coming up. The feature was the prophet himself, Bao Phi. Around the time, I was just introduced to the Spoken Word genre and ever since then I have been amazed at the true talent that the performers have and I have fallen in love with the Bookstore.

For the first time since I have been attending East Meets Words, there was no single feature. Since it was the anniversary of the Open Mic, it was time to feature all of the people that make the Open Mic possible… and that includes EVERYONE that attends East Meets Words. Read more

Tags: Open Mic, Recap.

3 comments

I love radio, especially public radio. When I was in college, I’d listen to the local public radio stations (KUOW, KPLU, KEXP, and when KEXP was KCMU) religiously. These days, I’m fond of Radio Boston on WBUR. Unfortunately, I can’t simultaneously listen to shows like This American Life, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me while I work. I do have a day “job” that allows me to listen to the radio, but I don’t listen at work because I can’t focus on my work—I become enthralled with the stories and interviews. Life is full of interesting people with interesting stories.

Recently, a team of people at the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass-Boston teamed up with WUMB Public Radio to produce a pilot for a radio program about Asian Americans called As I Am. After seeing cancellations of American radio and TV shows focusing on Asian Americans (Pacific Time and AZN TV), I am delighted that a new Asian American radio program is being produced and hopefully will hit the airwaves on a public radio station near you. It will also appear on Public Radio Exchange. The pilot contains fascinating stories about diverse Asian Americans from around the United States.

Hosted by journalist/activist Helen Zia, the pilot program can be downloaded from the show’s website and you can download an MP3 from there. You can read more about the pilot at the Transracial Korean Adoptee Nexus.

Boston Progress Radio had a small part in the production of the show. I had the privilege of being asked to provide As I Am with music to play between stories. That’s right, even the music in the show is composed or performed by Asian Americans. See if you can figure out the names of the songs! If you’ve been listening to our online radio station, you should have no problem figuring them out.

Also, it might be good to add that the producers of the show just won the 2008 Outstanding Special Program Award from the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Allen awards.

Tags: Community, radio.

No comments

Watch for Shuffled! every Thursday. Also check out the Shuffled! archive.

Today’s Shuffler: Katie Vang

Katie Ka Vang is a Hmong American interdisciplinary artist who has been a performer, actor, poet, playwright, director and activist. She has performed for different theaters around the twin cities, is part of the Pangea World Theater ensemble and co-wrote & directed the youth play Myth of Xee. She performed with Pangea World Theater in From The Ashes in New York City at the National Asian American Theater Festival and was also a recipient of a Jerome grant through Naked Stages where she created her first solo performance art piece 5:1 Meaning of Freedom; 6:2 Use of Sharpening, produced by Intermediate Arts. She’s currently working on a few performance collaborations and has been awarded an Artist Initiative grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board where she will produce her first chapbook.

She also teaches creative drama to Hmong youth through Center for Hmong Arts and Talent’s ART SAVES US program, assisted with the production of The H Project, a compilation CD raising awareness about the Hmong genocide in Laos, is an organizer of I.C.E. Open Mic, and has read her work at The Loft Literary Center, in Twin Cities’ school system, and various open mics.

“Katie Vang is a dynamic performer and relentless writer of truth. She makes senses jitter like raw caffiene with her high energy and causes half smiles and shivering giggles with her silliness. Her performances are so wild, dark, serious and wickedly hilarious. Her emotional words from profound subject matter and unpredictable wide movements really give audiences a loco coaster ride.”

– Tou SaiKo Lee Spoken Word Poet, Hip Hop Artist, and Community Activist.

Visit www.myspace.com/emptyyks for more info OR email at katievang6 (AT) yahoo.com.

Now to the shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

5 comments

This entry is a part of the Youth Media Blog-a-thon hosted by WireTap and Youth Outlook.

The photo you see here is pretty well-known: it’s of an anti-busing demonstration in Boston in 1977. Essentially, a white dude is using an American flag to attack a Black dude. It’s so deliciously perfectly ironic that it seems like a scene from a play.

Boston has a long history of violence, specifically as it relates to youth. The busing demonstration was made by people who didn’t want to see young Black children – we’re talking school-age children – going to school in white neighborhoods. Boston – both the city and the mindstate – are known to be racially and ethnically segregated. There is a lot of, I guess you could call them misunderstandings between youth from different neighborhoods.

I came of age in what is considered by a lot of folks as the Golden Era for Boston youth: the late 1990s. The dip in the youth homicide rate was so profound that it received national attention: the media dubbed it “The Boston Miracle” and President Clinton even swooped through the city’s roughest spots and congratulated community after community for keeping kids alive.

But as most folks in this region surely know by now, the miracle didn’t last. Youth violence has been – and continues to be – on the rise. The people who are in charge of discouraging this kind of thing have made references to how much it’s starting to feel like the early 90s again.

And there’s more than enough hard data to back up those claims, but I already knew we had problems just from paying attention to life.

Read more

Tags: Youth Media Blog-A-Thon.

4 comments

Brenda is originally from Harbin, China which is close to Russia’s southern border. She came to the United States to live with her grandmother when she was five until her mother arrived five years later. It was then that her mother began teaching Brenda how to play the piano and it was not a positive musical experience at first. She wanted to quit after four or five lessons and did not rekindle her love for music until she was inspired by the radio to learn the guitar instead. Brenda is an alumna of UC San Diego and currently resides in San Diego. For a few months after she started performing at local venues, music was all she focused on and found the time to record her EP “It’s True.” The need for food and shelter eventually forced her to take on a day job again but she hopes to make music her full-time gig someday.

“Count to Ten,” that’s the number of seconds it took for me to like Brenda’s voice. Powerful, yet gentle enough to sooth the ears. I can already picture myself sitting at a café performance, listening to acoustic versions of her songs, mesmerized by the simple beauty. I didn’t have to think too hard to make sense of her lyrics and it was just enough for me to relate. There are only six tracks on the EP and my favorite is, “She Knows.” Although I like the simplicity of her style, after awhile, the music became a little continuous for me. At some points I was expecting or maybe hoping for an out breaking cry, a scream, of some sort. Maybe that is an angry component I crave and need to work out on my own. Nevertheless, it’s all worth it in the end and I would definitely keep on the lookout for any new material. It’s only the very beginning for Brenda, she is just creepin’ up on the music scene.

Here she is performing “Count to Ten:”

Tags: featured artist, Video.

No comments

Watch for Shuffled! every Thursday. Also check out the Shuffled! archive.

Today’s Shuffler: The Slants

It’s been said that everything that could be done in music has been done already; new artists are inherently boring, with nothing that is original or creative to offer. But those people hadn’t heard The Slants (yet), a band who has everyone screaming for some “Chinatown Dance Rock.”

It was early 2006, when Simon Young decided to leave his group, The Stivs, to start a synth-pop outfit. In essence, he wanted to create synthesizer-driven rock n’ roll but with an Asian twist. Enter Gaijin, who answered one of Young’s numerous calls for Asian musicians. Though he wasn’t Asian himself, the two found a common love for The Faint, Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, and of course, sushi. After some shuffling with the line up, The Slants were formed and began playing in mid-2007.

Within three months of their first show, The Slants have already found themselves with international press. Also, within this time, they released their first record: Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts.

On the album, Aron’s voice powers through songs reflecting of love and loss, as well as thoughtful prose about struggling with an Asian identity in American Society. Jen Cho leads the way with danceable synth leads, as well as adds sultry back-up vocals in tracks like “Kokoro (I Fall to Pieces)” and “I Want Everything.” Throughout the album, AC’s drums keep the dance flavor alive.PDX-Pole calls The Slants “controversial but well loved.” It’s true, the name has stirred some controversy, bringing the band even more attention. Bassist and founder Simon Young explains, “Most of the people that find our name racist aren’t even Asian! We’re saying to the world ‘We’re proud of who we are, we aren’t going to hide it.’ In fact, our biggest support has been from the Asian community itself!”

The culmination of all of the band members’ experience totals to over 2,500 live performances, cross-country tours, hundreds of hours in the studio, and working with some of the biggest names in the business. The Slants are now poised to take on the world with their own music and presence, their own name.

Now on to the shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

No comments