Apature

Yo, this is leslie and i am about to write about Apature. Apature is a good place to expierience asian american culture in a perspesctive of others.I decided to go on the last day w/ my fellow group mates Abigail and Angelie. At the first glimpse, it seems that we had gotten lost.We saw another group also going to Apature i think from the Awesomeness. We pressed on the doorbell somebody opened the door for us. As we walked up the stairs to the 3rd floor, it reminded me of the old chinatown buildings that my family use to live in. While we were walking up the stairs, we saw unique artwork. As we walk down the hallway, we saw more art and paintings hanging on the wall. Originally, we were planning to go to the Comics and Zine exhbition, but we were pulled into a workshop about Asian American Hip-Hop. They were already started when we came but we were able to catch up on what they were talking about. They were trying to define what is Asian, America, and Hip-Hop. The point was to make us realize that we as Asians are apart of the Hip-Hop community too, through MC, producers, and artists. It was a fun expierience being at the workshop because it taught us some history of Hip-hop and how some music are consider hip-hop instead of another genre. Overall i think it was pretty unique how a bunch of people can create an experience in a tiny place in the middle of the mission district.

Yo, this is Abby, my turn to write about APAture-
So Leslie picked Angelie and I up and we headed over to the place. At first we were just gunna go to the comic session, but we went to the music session on accident. When we were heading over, we were confused by the place it was located at. It didn't seem like a session would be held there, but we didn't know what to expect. The place was very small, and it was hot! As we were going up, we saw some art work hung on the wall. When we finally arrived at the room, they had already started their session but welcomed us in. So they started by asking us what was hip-hop, and what did it mean to be an Asian American, they they finally asked us how those two correlated with each other. They said that both terms were hard to define, quoting them "fuzzy, blurry". They asked us if we knew of some Asian American hip-hop artists. And i honestly didn't know much. But as they were listing and saying out many, it seriously surprised me. I remember they included MIA- singer of Paper Planes, as an Asian American Hip Hop artist. And though her style is different from typical hip-hop artists, she is still included as one. Another fact that I learned that day was that Lupe Fiasco's Kick Push song was produced by a Filipino. That just amazed me. I know not everyone knows that but if people were really trying to make it big, that factor should inspire Asian American's out there that WE CAN DO IT ALSO. DJ Phatrick also said that the mainstream has no control over hip-hop, it is up to the artists, and the creators. I strongly believe in that. YOU have to make it happen.

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APAture is an annual arts festival where different Asian Pacific Americans can present their work. APAture is an event where people of different ethnic backgrounds can experience the artistic views of APAs in our community. This year, APAture was held from September 18-27 and showcased many artists including our teacher, Irene Duller. As an assignment, we were to attend an APAture event and write about our experience. Although our group wanted to go together, our schedules didn't fit in so we had to go on different days. I went with fellow groupmates, Abigail and Leslie, on the last day of APAture events, September 27. When we arrived at the location, we thought we had the wrong address because it didn't seem like there was an event there. But we were welcomed at the door by a lady who told us to go right on up to the 3rd floor. When we reached the 3rd floor, we were greeted by a hallway full of unique artwork. Although the workshop had already begun when we got there, they were happy to see more people join in. DJ Phatrick and Adriel Luis led a discussion about hip-hop and Asian Americans in hip-hop. They asked everyone to define each word individually and then together as a whole term. Everyone had different opinions about hip-hop and compared the kind of music we hear now to the music in the old days. The hosts also let us hear some sample music from Asian American hip-hop artists and were talking about how the hip-hop community or the music industry in general, has many APAs that aren't well known but have contributed a lot of their ideas and talents to produce good music. Since I've never been to an APAture event before, the experience was great, being able to get out and discover what's in our community.

- Angelie