A Celebration of Asian American Soul

Asia Pacific Arts presents a fundraiser with soulful music and live entertainment, featuring Judith Hill, Dawen and DJ O-Dub.

Asia Pacific Arts Presents

A Celebration of
Asian American Soul

featuring

Special Guest
Singer Judith Hill (from Michael Jackson's This Is It)
Judith Hill has been immersed in music since the time she could stand in her crib and see Sly Stone, Billy Preston and other funk/soul icons hanging out with her musician parents. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a musical family, Judith began singing and playing piano at age four and has excelled ever since. Forging a new trail previously laid down by Billie Holiday, Curtis Mayfield, Chaka Khan and Lauryn Hill, Judith oozes originality with her smoky vocals and exceptional piano playing. Combining electro, soul, pop and hits of ambient funk into her take on love, heartache avant-garde and pop-radio with big beats, bass, synths, word instruments and a range of emotions. In early 2009, Judith shared the stage with Michael Jackson, the only female lead vocalist for his This is It tour before he tragically passed away during the rehearsal period. Judith has recorded and performed with legendary superstars such as Elton John, Smokey Robinson, Usher, Babyface, Rod Stewart, Josh Groban and many more. Her singing has also been heard in several high profile movies including Sex and the City II, Dream Girls and Happy-Feet 2. Judith is currently writing and recording her debut solo album.

Singer-songwriter Dawen
Dawen is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. With what MTV Iggy calls, "an eclectically soulful style," soul/r&b singer Dawen explores the gamut of American life. Fusing soul/r&b with funk and jazz, Dawen offers up a lyrical style that appeals to both the emotions and intellect. In his debut album American Me, Dawen covers everything from identity and social issues, to love, loss and redemption. American Me is available now on iTunes and Amazon. The music video for his single "Wake Up" is on YouTube. A recent Grand Prize Winner of Kollaboration Acoustic 4, Dawen has performed for Grammy Award-winning artist Macy Gray and has shared the stage with artists such as Marié Digby, slam poets Beau Sia and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, and actor James Kyson-Lee from TV's Heroes. Dawen continues to perform throughout the US and Asia. Click here to check out APA's 2008 interview with Dawen.

with
DJ O-Dub spinning sets
DJ O-Dub (Oliver Wang) has been a DJ since 2003. He was at KALX FM in Berkeley for 10 years and still DJ in bars and clubs. Thanks to his audioblog, Soul-Sides.com, he was able to produce his first official CD compilation in 2006, Soul Sides Vol. 1. The second volume followed in the spring of 2007. Oliver Wang has written on pop music, culture, and politics for a variety of publications and outlets including: NPR, Vibe, Wax Poetics, LA Times, Oakland Tribune, Village Voice, SF Bay Guardian, URB, LA Weekly, Scratch, SJ Metro and Minneapolis City Pages, amongst others.

Asia Pacific Arts is an online magazine that covers the dynamic worlds of Asian and Asian American arts and entertainment. With hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide, Asia Pacific Arts takes a long hard look at just what it means for Asian high and pop cultures to enter the global consciousness and multinational marketplace. Asia Pacific Arts is published by the USC US-China Institute in cooperation with the USC East Asian Studies Center.

Suggested donation: $10 with RSVP/$15 at the door
(To RSVP, click here or respond YES to our Facebook event page.)

All proceeds will support Asia Pacific Arts, a non-profit online Asian/Asian American arts and entertainment magazine, published by the USC US-China Institute with support from the USC East Asian Studies Center.

Can't attend but want to support APA? Go to the secure USC server. Please be sure to make your donation to the USC US-China Institute for support of Asia Pacific Arts.

co-hosted by InVenture
InVenture unleashes the potential of developing entrepreneurs to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty by connecting individuals directly with these entrepreneurs, thus enabling the opportunity to create long-term substantial impact. An example of one of InVenture's entrepreneurs is Ananthi, who runs a pottery business in which she produces various pottery products which are sold to local customers in and around Kancheepuram. InVenture envisions a world where business owners, regardless of their location or background, will have access to the financial, social and intellectual capital necessary to expand their businesses and drive local growth.

co-sponsored by YesStyle