boston progress radio

with the exception of one month, for three years, every second friday has transformed a tiny bookstore into a magical haven of shared energy—stanzas, lyrics, melodies, rhymes, dances, visuals, fragmented thoughts, reciprocation and appreciation, have been transferred between bodies and spirits.

so i thought it would be fun to take a short look back, in order to look forward.

the bookstore, east meets west, opened october of 2004, with just a small table full of independent apia CD’s and chapbooks. only open on saturdays, the store served as a clubhouse of sorts for boston progress members to catch up, crack jokes, and build together. having an actual physical space available and seeing the potential of our space, it was only natural to program an open mic… but what shape it would take or how it would be actualized, no one really could tell. up to that point, only a few people have actually passed through the threshold of the store and wandered into our world.

in a boba tea spot in the back bay, at a monthly boston progress meeting, the open mic began to form an identity. after several suggestions (ginger-bred, mic-a-saurus rex), vinh the kid said after only a second of thought, east meets words, and the open mic had a name.

first open mic, we had the synchronous fortune of having not just one, but two members of 2 tongues, anida yoeu ali and marlon esguerra, in the northeast. it seems only fitting to have them be the first to bless the open mic as our first co-features. flash forward a year, we had regie cabico telling stories of mini-wooden-penises from men in barrels while humping a stool as a make-shift lover. in between and following, beautiful features from nyc, philly, the bay, LA, minnesota, toronto, chicago, jersee, and locals—all have graced the space.the list of open mic-er seem to be just as illustrious with local poets, musicians, freestylers, youth, passer-byers—all have come thru the space and shared…

to now. we don’t even have to worry about having folks come through… without fail, open mic nights become packed. and the unheated bookstore warms with body heat, which is the only thing that can keep you warm during the cold cold cold boston winters.

on a personal tip, the open mic has opened gates internally, like nothing has before. it’s not just learning the audience banter as a host, or getting over awkward insecurities as an open mic-er, or being brave enough to read from dusty journals as a feature, but i’ve learned that the more i can let go of… speak my mind and heart about, the more room i have to grow… i’ve learned to be open, unguarded—even if just for a few minutes—shed walls and free little pieces of my thoughts with the people. i’ve learned in a deep way the power of words… the unlocking of held breathes i usually choke back, releasing spiritual self into the physical world. even now, three years later, once a month, i still get nervous as i open my black book of secrets and with a shaky voice read out. but i’ve started to see many others, other unidentified poets and writers looking forward, raising their voice at the open mic. in the most obvious way, the open mic was a monthly session to meditate on the state of your union. where would i be if i didn’t have that space… i can’t even begin to assume.

looking back, we realize the open mics really wouldn’t be anything without everyone who supports–reads out on the list, listens in the metal chairs, claps their hands to the beat, yells words to rhyme about, and who shouts—ohhhhhh yeah. so it seems only right to have our three year anniversary feature be east meets words—a super mic of sorts. each and every participant—open mic-ers and audience alike—are the feature.

oh, the only month we did not hold the open mic at east meets west, was august 2005—when boston hosted the 3rd apia spoken word summit. but i guess even then, one can see the community and family showcase as open mics, so yeah, then for three years, boston progress has hosted an open mic, each month… and we’re still holding it down. solid.

Tags: Boston Progress, Commentary, Open Mic.

I thought I had it in the bag after my Omar Telan interview online. It went smoothly and prepared me for my next interview with Cynthia Lin, actress, musician, dancer, and a free-spirit currently living in New York City. But of course something had to go wrong. Even though I was not speaking with Cynthia my mouth got parched. I reached for my glass of water. The room temperature liquid replenished me and I was ready to move on with my conversation. All of sudden the glass slipped out of my hand before I could set it down onto the table, some water jumped out of the glass to splash onto the right side of my COMPUTER, near the control, shift, and “z” buttons! What do I do? I am interviewing a musician, my computer is going to die on me, all these questions are flowing through my head, and what do I do… I just stare at the water as it seeps deep within the keys of my laptop system. I was in disbelief. Cynthia was patient as I tried to reconnect several times to try to salvage our talk. The interview had to be cut short, but I still got some good material to share with you.

Cynthia: I like this, I can be in my pajamas.

JM: Was it a big transition to move from Chicago to New York City?

Cynthia: Not really, I was born in Chicago and I lived there till I was 11 and then I moved to New Jersey. So, I went to middle school and high school in jersey,and then went to Princeton, so I was always close to New York City. My family would visit the city often, especially to see musicals. Broadway was one of my dreams.

JM: So your love of music started young through your parents?

Cynthia: My parents supported my artistic activities and my whole family loves music and singing, but my parents didn’t really push the music thing. We all took piano lessons, but none of us liked to practice. Actually from a young age I had decided that I wanted to be a doctor. Of course my parents were fine with that.

JM: Do you still have aspirations in medicine?

Cynthia: I gave up on that freshman year of college. It was too competitive, pre-med that is.

JM: What was it like going to school there?

Cynthia: I think it’s the best school in the world for undergraduate education. Socially, it’s very Ivy League and it has its upper crusty side. But there are a lot of well-rounded ambitious students, people who have the ability to achieve almost anything. It is an interesting spectrum. There are crazy party kids who happen to be smart.

JM: Were you one of them? Read more

Tags: Interview, music.

Welcome to the first East Meets Words Open Mic of the new year! Hope everyone had a great New Years and go through with your resolutions. This month’s open mic list was short but was interesting nonetheless. Eric opened the show and the year with a freestyle about a form of meditation. Vinh the Kid returned from New York and performed “Second Hand Roses.” The members of L.I.F.E. each performed their own piece, Joey B performed “Wake Up, Wake Up,” Febo mentioned the name of his piece “This is a poem” raising awareness to current issues and Masada Jones blew us away once again with “My X-Men Piece” bringing us back to the days when villians were cartoons on television. Then L.I.F.E performed together with “Roots,” impressing the audience of East Meets Words Open Mic.

The feature Cynthia Lin, a singer/songwriter from New York via New Jersey by way of Chicago, performed 9 songs with the help with her guitar. Her first song was “Blue and Borderline,” a beautiful song from her first album. Her next song was about falling in love in New York City named “Skipping in New York City.” Going from the East coast to the West coast, her next song was fittingly called “California.” Cynthia kept up with the singer/songwriters tradition of performing a song named “Home.” Ms. Lin then performed two songs with interesting names: “Water Torture” and “Doppelgänger.” Cynthia followed it with “Microscope” and her first single/video “I’m Shy.” But Ms. Lin blew everyone away with her rendition of “Time After Time” which I think most people who heard her version would say is better than the original. Well this conclude this month’s Open Mic, see all of you next month.

[Editor's Note: We have music from both of Cynthia's albums playing on our stream. Tune in to listen. Also, check out this video clip of Cynthia performing in the bookstore.]

Tags: Love, Open Mic, Video.

Cynthia Lin, a singer-songwriter from New York City, is coming to Boston. Her new CD, “Doppelgänger”, has been recorded and printed and is ready to be heard by all the world. We recently added her music into our play list. She will be featuring at the East Meets Words Open Mic on January 11, 2008 at the East Meets West Bookstore at 934 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA. Cover is $3 and she tells me she’s going to have CDs for sale.

Tags: Open Mic.

I walked in to the office this morning, and I heard a familiar song playing on one of the computers downstairs. When I got up to my office, as usual, I opened up my email, facebook, and itunes. Of course I’m always listening to BPR at work.

The next time I went downstairs, I did a little double take - because the music followed me downstairs. I don’t know why, but it just caught me off guard. So much so that I had to check the recently played list to make sure that my friend (hi Miriam!) downstairs wasn’t just listening to Cynthia Lin by coincidence.

I’m totally digging Cynthia Lin’s cover of time after time. I don’t know why, but I really like that song, especially acoustic-y covers of it.

What are you digging on BPR today?

Today, I’m going to add a few more artists to our play list. It has been awhile since I did an update. I suppose life in the real world has taken over life in the cyberworld.

The radio station has been up and running for about 6 months now and I’m pleased at what we have achieved so far. I still have bigger dreams for the station. I’d like to see our random and totally eclectic playlist morph into well-contained programs. We’d have a hip hop show. A singer/songwriter folk show. And maybe even a spoken word show. As of now, I do not think we have enough artists to do such a thing. And we don’t have enough resources to obtain software to allow us to use such a format, but I can dream right? What would be very exciting is if we were able to have live DJs take requests and play your favorite music. It might take awhile before we get there, but I’m never going to stop dreaming. We should always try to dream big.

New on BPR this week are Cynthia Lin, Dawen Wang, Koba, and Melissa Li.

Read more

Tags: Commentary, Online Radio.