Video Premiere for "I Got My" by Magnetic North and Taiyo Na featuring Jin

In celebration of APIA Heritage Month, our friends Magnetic North (Derek and Theresa) and Taiyo Na premiered the video for their song "I Got My" featuring Jin (as in Jin tha MC).  If you havent already heard,  it's a really inspiring upbeat song that makes you appreciate the support and community you have. Derek describes the song as "basically about embracing who you are what you got... fam, music,  arts,  community,  love.  It's for anyone and everyone who respects themselves and are doing something positive with their life."

Since the theme of the "I Got My" revolves around having love and support, the video includes appearances from many of our artist friends, as well as other prominent Asian Americans doing things in media and Hollywood, as well as regular community folks - and Yellow Rage was invited to be in it! To extend the love to our own community, Michelle and I asked Gary San Angel (one of our mentors and the reason we met to form Yellow Rage) to film our portion of the clip at the Asian Arts Initiative and included participants from last month's Family Style to be in it too!  Also in the video, look out for hip hop artists Blue Scholars, Denizen Kane, Far East Movement, America's Best Dance Crew winners Poreotics, spoken word artists Bao Phi, Beau Sia, Adriel from Ill-literacy, bloggers Phil Yu from Angry Asian Man and Diana Nguyen from Disgrasian, writer Ed Lin with his wife actor Cindy Cheung, and the list goes on. It was great to be in good company of such amazing talent, but the most exciting cameo came from 1960's activist Yuri Kochiyama who is lip-rapping in the video! What I love too is that everyone's name is underneath, so there's always an opportunity to learn and check out what else is doing.

So proud of you guys, and so humbled to be part of this community that continues to grow and inspire us. Thank you for letting us be a part!

-Catzie

Looky what I found...

So I am going through my camera looking at pictures I took this weekend, and as I keep going back on the playback screen I stumble upon these photos I took when I crashed ECAASU at Penn because our friends Ill Literacy, Magnetic North, Taiyo Na, and Kelly Tsai were all either performing or facilitating a workshop. This was like back in early March... Oh well better late than never right?

The adventure begins with picking up my friend and former Ill Literacy Tour Manager Jon De Castro. Taking a break from booking artists, he and I scheme together to crash ECAASU because if there's anything we've learned in the spoken word business it's that there's power in numbers.
And you can't deny a baby... although Jon thinks all I have to say is "Don't you know who I am"?

Of course Jon requests that we fill up on cheesesteaks before heading out to the show, so I take him to Dalessandro's, which is technically in Roxborough, but my fave Philly spot for cheesesteaks, Jon's Pork Sandwiches, was already closed.

After having our fill we managed to sneak into the artist's Green Room where we meet up with Derek from Magnetic North and Taiyo getting ready for their set. Derek's other half Theresa was running late so we didn't get to take a picture with her, but be on the lookout as they are dropping a new album soon.

If you have a guitar my child will find you. Good thing Taiyo is welcoming of babies!

This could be an album cover! Taiyo and Aditi's greatest hits, haha...

This is Hari Kondabolu. Even though he was quiet and very isolated from the rest of the room, we found out later he was just really trying to get his comedy routine down, and killed it onstage. Originally from Queens, Hari is making a name for himself as a comedian, and I am all about supporting comedians of color who do not sell out to get a laugh. Click here to see a clip of Hari at work.

Spoken word artists are normally not that excited about keynote speeches but when the special invited gust is none other than Helen Zia, aka the Godmother of Asian American consciousness and identity (okay I made that up, that's not her real title but if you study Asian American culture her writings will definitely be a part of your reading). Of course EVERYONE ELSE showed up so the artist groupies friends got stuck with these high ass far ass balcony seats and I could not get a clear picture of Helen. But it all ended up being worth seeing her speak as she mentioned Laos and I got to shout out "Laos in the House" in response. Ha!

The next day I visited Ill Literacy in their workshop on how to be a better activist on your campus.
And then to Kelly's workshop on writing spoken word poetry, which was also very physically interactive.
Aditi got to play too, which was fun for her but stressful for me as I was worried about her being accidentally stepped on and eating random skittles on the floor. Afterwards what was left of the Spoken Word forces joined together and ate a nice dinner at Bubble House.


And my child ate sweet potato fries for the first time. Yay. Anyway be sure to catch me and Kelly at this week's and next week's Home: Far and Near shows at the Asian Arts Initiative.