Celebrity Guests, Surprise Performers, and a Marriage Proposal

Anderson Paak
Fourty4B Judges

On Thursday, June 26, Kollaboration Los Angeles celebrated its 15th anniversary in Hollywood at The Troubadour—previously named NBC’s “Best Venue in LA” and Rolling Stone’s second best American rock club of 2013. Celebrities Harry Shum Jr., Joe Hahn (of Linkin Park), Parker (aka Dumbfoundead), Clara C, and Mike Song were among the hundreds of guests who came to support Kollaboration.
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Artists for APAture

Kearney Street Workshop is now looking for artist submissions from the San Francisco Bay Area for its 13th annual multidisciplinary arts festival, APAture. The festival—slated to run from September 26 to October 5 in the San Francisco-Oakland region—is designed to “produce, present, and promote art that empowers” the Asian-Pacific American (APA) community.

Kearney Street Workshop prides itself as being “the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country.” Since its founding in 1972, it has offered classes and workshops while also producing exhibitions, readings, screenings, and performances in the hopes of creating a “more just society that fully incorporates [APA] historical roots, cultural values, and contemporary issues.”

The committee is looking for submissions to its book (comics, illustrations), literary (poems, spoken word), musical, performing, visual, and film arts categories until July 7. For more information, visit APAture ’14 or kearnystreet.org.

 

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(Photo source: www.kearnystreet.org)

Clara C’s newest song inspired by Girl Rising

Inspired by the Girl Rising documentary, singer-song writer and 2010’s Kollaboration alumna, Clara C wrote “Wildflower” and debuted the music video last March.

Girl Rising, a global campaign founded by New York independent film company Ten Times Ten, advocates girl’s rights to an education around the world through screenings of their 2013 documentary, donations through their website, and offering fundraising ideas. In the light of the recent kidnapping in Nigeria, Girl Rising also helps people who want to get involved in rallies, spread the word #BringBackOurGirls, and they provide a timeline of events for people to follow and understand the whole story of the situation. The campaign calls everyone who believes in the universal right of education to rise to take a stand.

Girl Rising’s cause inspired Clara to compose “Wildflower.” The music video features Clara walking in the woods interposed with different photos of people around the world advocating Girl Rising. The chill, low-key song encourages staying strong against challenges, and flourishing despite the odds. Her music video already has over 35,000 views since its on March 5.

At the end of the video, Clara sends out a personal call to action, backing the Girl Rising movie and promoting the hashtag #IAmCourage to trend ideas and awareness of girls education in the world. Girl Rising’s other partners like CARE, UN Women, the Girl Effect, Intel, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and World Vision tweeted out their support of #IAmCourage, along with countless other users.

Girl Rising continues its fight for girl’s education, especially given the crisis in Nigeria. Accepting donations, hosting rallies, and helping #bringBackOurGirls become more prolific, Girl Rising won’t cease until all girls receive the education they deserve.

 Check out the video:

For more information on Girl Rising, click here.

Interview with Ruby Ibarra

Despite the growing number of Asian Americans in the rap and hip-hop landscape today, it’s still difficult to come by a female API artist in the industry. But if you do, you’ll undoubtedly come across the name Ruby Ibarra.

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Teen Top Flies into the City of Angels

Teen Top kicked off their first world tour in the US on March 23rd, 2014 in New York City. Next, they performed in Los Angeles on March 25th, continued onto San Jose on March 28th, and ended in Toronto on March 30th. Unlike other K-pop shows, this concert went through a crowd funding process, called Krowdpop, by fans from all over. Krowdpop is a new system brought to the public by Kpop United that allows fans to vote which city gets to host a concert by their favorite K-pop artist. Teen Top almost wasn’t able to perform in the US or Canada, but fans came together to fund the concert before the deadline. Continue reading “Teen Top Flies into the City of Angels”

Kina Grannis Starts Prepping Fans for Sophomore Album

If you’re like me, you may find waiting for May 6th to be an agonizing task. That’s how long I, along with the rest of the Kinetics (the nickname for Kina Grannis fans), have to wait until her sophomore album “Elements” drops.

The Mondays of the past several months have been graced as Kina Mondays, when the 2009 Kollaboration LA competitor would upload a new video onto her YouTube channel covering a song of her choice. It wasn’t until Valentine’s Day when, after a week of dropping hints on her Instagram account, she announced the title of her new album and the release date.

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Hana Kim Releases “Caravan” LIVE Music Video

Hana Kim, singer-songwriter and Kollaboration L.A. 2013 alumna, released an enchanting live performance music video of her song “Caravan.”  The video was shot by KCM Media and is set in a whimsical clearing in the woods with sunlight glimmering through the treetops.  Hana’s soulful voice echoes as she sings the haunting melody while playing on her keyboard, accompanied by her guitarist Eugene Choi. 

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5 Asian-American DJs Making Waves in EDM

Jetset LA’s Party and EDM guru Bryan Gosling shares his FAVE FIVE Asian-American DJs making waves in the EDM/House music scene: 

1. Steve Aoki

The Crazy Japanese Jesus known for his insane live sets where he sprays champagne, throws cakes, and crowd surfs on a river raft.  This elctro-house musician is also Grammy-nominated and produced under his own record label Dim Mak Studios.

(Singles to check out: “No Beef”, “Boneless”, “Light That Never Comes”)

 

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SHINee, 2PM, Girls Day and more at FREE LA Kpop Festival Next Month

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You’ve been hiding under a rock if you haven’t heard about the extremely grand and extremely free Kpop concert that KBS is putting on next month. But just in case you really haven’t: KBS America is hosting a free Kpop concert featuring some of the hottest names in K-pop on April 12 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena! Yes, that’s right. F-R-E-E—a bold word that rarely hits the Kpop scene! But even though it’s free, attending the concert will still require a ticket. This information has not been announced yet, but you can stay informed by following LA Kpop Festival on Facebook.

Now, you must be thinking: sure, it’s free, but who’s even showing up?  Continue reading “SHINee, 2PM, Girls Day and more at FREE LA Kpop Festival Next Month”