I swear this semester is going by way faster than all the other ones. Every Thursday when I sit down to write these posts I am shocked that it’s already been a week since the last one.
Like I wrote about last week, we just celebrated Girls Day in Japan. My Japanese friends and I on campus got together and had our annual ~Hinamatsuri Lunch~!!
We got together at around 11am and cooked for two hours or so. but LOOK AT THE FOOD!!! I promise it tasted as great as it looks.
So that was great. And today, I went to the Asian Awareness Month Artist Showcase called “Beats, Graffiti and the Universal Self” (spam below). This was one of the best performances/panels that I’ve been to Wellesley. All three of the featured artists were incredible and shared beautiful insight into their journeys with art and identity.
Here are the three artists – I took their bio’s from the event page, but check out some of their work if you have time!
Gene Shinozaki, Professional Beatboxer/ Vocalist & Sound Engineer, Beatbox Television
Gene Shinozaki is a professional beatboxer, vocalist, and performing artist from Boston, Massachusetts. He has toured all over the United States with his beatbox, appeared and performed on Fox’s hit television show, “So You Think You Can Dance.” He is a current sound engineer for Beatbox Television. He was recently champion of the international 2015 Grand Beatbox Battle competition in Switzerland.
Sneha Shrestha, Graffiti Artist & Founder of Nepal Children’s Art Museum
Sneha Shrestha is a Nepalese graffiti artist who is wellknown for using her native Nepali script in her art. She has worked on funded painting projects with innercity youth at the Bostonbased nonprofit Artists for Humanity. She helped compile an alphabet book of Nepali letters to be used in primary school curriculums in rural schools around Nepal, where 40% of the population is illiterate. She was awarded the Advanced Leadership Fellowship to advance her art and museum in Nepal. Sneha has recently returned to her hometown Kathmandu, Nepal to open the Nepal Children’s Art Museum, the first institution of its kind in the country.
Kilusan Bautista, Independent Performance Artist & Director, Kilusan Productions
Kilusan Bautista is a Filipino independent performance artist and director of Kilusan Productions. He is currently on tour with his solo multimedia performance show, Universal Self. He has appeared on Showtime as the opening act for Top Rank Boxing Light Weight Champion Donaire. He was awarded the Congressional Community Service Award by California Senator Tom Lantos. In addition to performing His current performance piece, Universal Self, explores the struggle of urban American youth through the lens of identity and builds cross cultural unity and personal healing through the performing arts. It is a play that offers a creative and unique presentation of the contemporary struggles for working class Filipino Americans.