ISSUE 16.2 SPRING 2024
C
Silicon Valley’s Innovative and Creative Culture
SIGHT AND SOUND
Cover by
GIRAFA
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BRITT BRADLEY CHOW MANE SHAKA SHAW KID LORDS
12 years
Featuring the Creatives of the South Bay.
C CONTENT ISSUE 16.2
“Sight & Sound” Spring 2024
Cultivator Daniel Garcia Editors Elizabeth Sullivan, Virginia Graham Samantha Hull, David Ngo Esther Young, Katherine Hypes Danae Stahlnecker Design Jesse Garcia Intern Nirvan Vijaykar
Developer David Valdespino, Jr. Writers Michelle Rundowitz, Brandon Roos Esther Young, Nathan Zanon, Priya Das Troy Ewers, Shelly Novo Alyssarhaye Graciano, Kah Mun Chia Daniel Arriaga Photographers Stan Olszewski, Alex Knowbody Cyntia Apps, Arabela Espinoza Jai Tanju, Daniel Valencia Lauren Locquiao, Jay Aguilar
Publisher SVCREATES As I write this, it is still winter—even raining at our headquarters in Downtown San Jose—and it is hard to wrap my head around the fact that spring is coming. It may be the lingering fatigue of the COVID-19 blues or that my Christmas break was not as restful as needed. Yet, amidst these grey, short days, my joy and light are from the excitement over this issue, our 66th edition and the 12th year! I am honored to feature Julie Meridian finally. I have known Julie since the beginning of CONTENT , yet I now sense it is the right fit to feature her. This work has taken a fresh and new direction in her artistic journey and is a collaboration between AI-generated art and traditional painting. Her new work will be on display starting in February at Kaleid Gallery. Another bright point is featuring up-and-coming musicians such as Amara Lin and Kid Lords. Though they have vastly different styles, their arrival on the scene is worth exploring. It is generally my plan not to feature people more than once because there are many creatives to be featured. However, it has happened from time to time for various reasons. For example, three of the five Creative Ambassadors have already been featured in past issues. And it was time to revisit Steven Free (Girafa) and his progress as an artist since our last feature on him in 2013, issue 5.0, “Discover.” This would also provide me with the opportunity to have his work on our cover, which has been a personal dream! Also, many of the people we featured in the early days of CONTENT have had some creative changes, and our readers still need to catch up on these earlier features. In celebration of our 12th year, we have partnered with Needle to the Groove to include a limited exclusive vinyl in the issue. Even though I am not a winter person, and spring seems too far away, I have learned from 12 years of creating CONTENT MAGAZINE that time flies. As spring approaches, we welcome the light and joy of the season as we release Sight and Sound 16.2.
Thank you, Daniel Garcia THE CULTIVATOR IN THIS ISSUE
Steven Free “Girafa” | Britt Bradley | Kid Lords | Josie Lepe To participate in CONTENT MAGAZINE: daniel@content-magazine.com Membership & sponsorship information available by contacting david@content-magazine.com
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CONTENT MAGAZINE is a quarterly publication about the innovative and creative culture of Silicon Valley, published by
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ARTS ADVOCACY FOR 2024 MAKING AN IMPACT AT THE STATE, LOCAL, AND NATIONAL LEVELS An online workshop with SVCREATES, San José Arts Advocates, and Californians for the Arts.
FRIDAY, MARCH 15 FROM 11:00AM - 12:30PM
April is Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month in California so now is the time to join us for a session on activating your community and using advocacy tools to advance policy and funding for the arts. Hear about what’s pending at state and local levels, and learn tips and tools for how you can take action and become an effective advocate for your organization and the arts community at large. For more information, please visit SVCREATES' website: svcreates.org
CONTENT
SIGHT AND SOUND 16.2.
Spring 2024 San Jose, California Est. 2012
SIGHT 8 Dancer, Srividya Eashwar 12 Videographer, Victor Aquino 16 Photographer, Josie Lepe 22 Illustrator, Shaka Shaw 28 Photographer, Britt Bradley 34 Painter/Artist, Julie Meridian 40 2024 San José Creative Ambassadors Dancer, Alice Hur Artist, Pantea Karimi Artist, Deborah Kennedy Artist, Rayos Magos Storyteller, Yosimar Reyes 52 Artist, Steven Free, “Girafa”
Steven Free, “Girafa”, pg. 52
SOUND 60 Discos Resaca Collective, Ivan Flores 64 Musician, Amara Lin 68 Rapper, Chow Mane 72 Rap Crew, Kid Lords 76 Needle to the Groove Records, Allen Johnson, David Ma, Michael Boado, & Jeff Brummett 80 Contributors BACK COVER Limited Exclusive Vinyl, Needle to the Groove
Britt Bradley, pg. 28
All materials in CONTENT MAGAZINE are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published, broadcast, or modified in any way without the prior written consent of Silicon Valley Creates, or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of this content. For further information, or to participate in the production or distribution, please contact us at editor@content-magazine.com.
Chow Mane, pg. 68
CONTENT magazine’s production is powered by
Shaka Shaw, pg. 22
SRIVIDYA Xpressions EASHWAR Dance The first thing you notice about Srividya
That’s how Xpressions Dance came
Eashwar, a Mosaic America fellow and
to be. Srividya never actually had ambi-
artistic director of Xpressions Dance,
tions to start a dance school; it was her
is her smile, followed by her ability to
American journey that made it happen.
include you warmly. Most likely she’ll
She quit a nine-to-five position when
be on the move—dancing, swaying to
her husband accepted a job in Silicon
a tune, trying out a rhythm. The sense
Valley in 1998. Her social isolation as an
of movement even when she is still—
immigrant made it impossible for her to
attuned to her environment—is palpable.
work full-time with a toddler to care for.
Her personal philosophy drives this:
Then, in 2002, she trained kids to put on
“Being ready to adapt to and embrace
a show at her son’s school during Inter-
change is very important, both for a per-
national Night celebrations. This first
former and teacher.”
group of students is what kicked off her
Dance is breath itself to Srividya,
8
“Xpressive” journey.
who started learning at the age of four
In the initial years, the informa-
when her singer mom aspired for her
tion and music for Indian folk dance
daughter to be a dancer. “Being in a
were not readily available. Srividya
dance class was as natural to me as
found herself reaching out to practi-
having a playdate with a best friend.
tioners in different regions of India to
I do not remember a part of my life
learn from them by purchasing archived
Written by
that didn’t have dance in it,” she says.
videos and even traveling to watch their
Priya Das
“I didn’t mind spending hours learn-
classes. Today, thanks to her efforts,
Photography by
ing, practicing, and perfecting. In
the Xpressions repertoire includes 30
Cyntia Apps
the process, I always felt that dance
regional styles. To stay authentic, Sriv-
was a natural part of how and what I
idya personally designs the costumes,
wanted to express.”
including jewelry, and sources them
xpressions.sanjose
Sight and Sound 16.2
Srividya Eashwar 9
“My art is rooted in tradition and authenticity in identity and presentation.”
-Srividya Eashwar
10 Sight and Sound 16.2
from traditional artisans in India. She
ers to cultural ambassadors.” Srividya
feels honored to know that she is doing
believes that her students, as Americans,
her part in keeping ancient traditions
must develop curiosity and interest
alive. She says, “I create an immersive
in the many wonderful cultures that
journey in Indian culture…[I] want to
surround them.
inculcate in my students discipline and
Despite her success, Srividya still
a sense of pride in our ethnic perform-
has concerns. “I despair that people
ing arts. My art is rooted in tradition and
still balk at paying artists,” she says. “I
authenticity, in identity and presenta-
have to still tell them, ‘It’s not just about
tion.” A testament to that dedication is
the one hour I spend with you. It’s the
the fact that Xpressions has performed
lifetime of training that has gone into
three times—in 2010, 2013, and 2016—
making that one hour possible.’ So many
at the prestigious San Francisco Ethnic
producers believe that artists don’t need
Dance Festival, and to date has trained
to be paid since they are getting a plat-
over one thousand dancers in 20 full-
form to distribute their flyers.” She
length productions.
laments, “Unfortunately, landlords do
Srividya loves when different people
not accept their rent in arts.” This is a
come together, which is what drew her
statement born of pain—pain of giving
to Mosaic America. In 2016, Mosaic
up her studio during the COVID-19 crisis,
America invited her to collaborate with
after building it from scratch and trans-
Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí on creating
forming it from a longunused space to a
a multicultural performance experi-
flourishing cultural station.
ence—one of the first projects Mosaic
But even through the worst of it, Sri-
ever commissioned. Since then, Xpres-
vidya has held on to her favorite saying
sions and Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí
by Vivian Greene: “Life isn’t about wait-
have co-created many times, and Sriv-
ing for the storm to pass...It’s about
idya has become a proud Mosaic fellow.
learning to dance in the rain.” Srividya
She hopes to provide her students with
herself says, “Both in life and in dance,
a model for collaborating and cele-
I believe in giving 100 percent of what
brating across cultures while staying
I can with a pure heart and letting the
true to one’s own tradition. She says,
universe give me back what I deserve.
“Mosaic creates a place for choreogra-
No matter the obstacles in the journey,
phers to experiment and come together
I like to carry on with a smile and forget
as one. When you work together, you
my troubles when I am dancing. I always
cannot judge, you cannot hate but only
share this with my students: don’t forget
be joyful and whole. My hope is that it
the three S’s—Sing, Shake, Smile!” C
will help students grow from perform11
V I C T OR AQU I NO A Voice for the Creative Written by Troy Ewers Photography by Lauren Locquiao realitymaniacs.com Instagram realitymaniacs 12 Sight and Sound 16.2
Victor Aquino 13
N
“I am using my to help them beca their creative skills to
ot every artist or creator has the ability to tell their story, and fewer still can put a story in front of the masses. Filmmaker, writer, photographer, and creator from East San Jose, Victor Aquino amplifies a group of artists’ stories with his documentary, The Muralists’ Beautiful Pain. Victor didn’t start out as the voice of the creatives, and while his story didn’t start with filmmaking, he certainly developed into it. Victor wanted to do music and played bass, but circumstances detoured him into leaving a crowded San Jose music scene into a suit and tie situation. He started out working for corporations, and around the same time, helping his brother-in-law’s web-based ad agency. This reignited his passion for creation that he had at 17 years old. “I was coming up with tag lines like hooks,” Victor says, explaining his role at the agency. The pandemic opened him up to more than just corporate action, but to a swivel-type lifestyle, jumping between work and creativity. Victor started doing more photography and video work and cold-calling people to get gigs. Working for the 49ers and other teams, he did content that wasn’t just on-field photography, but also content for the fans. By getting into sports photography, Victor also got into sports writing for San José State University a place he’s had an affinity for since the ’70s when he was five years old. Victor has an energetic personality that he says he gets from younger generations. “It’s all about human connection,” Victor says. “I’m talking for a bigger purpose, and I learn from these people every day.” Victor has had this energy since he was young and at San José State University. In those days, he would do things he wanted to do until someone told him he wasn’t good enough to do it. Victor’s documentary, The Muralists’ Beautiful Pain, is a film about muralists from various backgrounds who are against the
14 Sight and Sound 16.2
creative skills use they are using do something bigger.” -Victor Aquino
gentrification of their neighborhoods. Introduced through a friend, Victor got to know these artists painting murals throughout Silicon Valley. “I am using my creative skills to help them because they are using their creative skills to do something bigger,” Victor explains. Victor describes the documentary as “a living mural.” He elaborates: “I tried to make it as artistic as I can for the artists involved.” The documentary is a true voice for the creatives and for the people who have the skills but no way to showcase them. Victor says he had to compromise while making this film, but was able to incorporate his creative signature throughout. “It’s artsy, but not too artsy. It’s a documentary, but not too documentary-like,” Victor explains. The documentary is a love letter to art and the neighborhoods where the art is at. A living mural isn’t just a good tagline, it’s a feeling you get when you watch the film. Despite Victor being engaged and busy documenting the creators trying to make a difference, he still found a way to maintain work-life balance and not bury himself in his work. Victor balances his work with exercise and spending time with his wife. These things make him smile with the same energy he has when he describes his work and how he got where he is today. Victor has a way of being selfless with his platform. He’s told his own story to news outlets and magazines in the past, and now he’s using his resources as an outlet to tell the stories of a seemingly voiceless community. Victor exposes audiences, who maybe would never visit the neighborhoods in which the artists are defying gentrification to powerful art. Victor has given these creatives this exposure by utilizing his connections and network. Victor is a testament to being selfless and working for a greater purpose with his beautiful journey from being in corporate America to this life of art and creativity. C 15
“If someone gives me ‘no’ as an answer, I find a different way.” -Josie Lepe
16 Sight and Sound 16.2
I S E O J EPE L Representation through photos: sharing immigrants’ varied stories and expanding perspectives through photography.
W
hether it’s capturing the drama of a touchdown at a football game or the intimacy of a family at their dinner table, Josie Lepe is on a mission to tell stories through photos. An award-winning independent photojournalist, Lepe has worked in the newspaper industry for the past 22 years, with experiences that range from taking digital pictures with the latest high-tech cameras to developing traditional film in labs and dark rooms. While Lepe has deep roots in the Bay Area, her journey was not an easy one. She crossed the border from Mexico as an undocumented immigrant twice: first as an infant and then later at nine years old. The second time, she was with her cousin and sister and was later reunited with her mother in San Jose. Although she’s moved a few times, Lepe has always found her way back to San Jose. “I identify [San Jose] as my home, even though I’m from somewhere else. I feel like I’m a native of San Jose. It’s kind of like it’s my city. I’m proud of it,” she said. Initially, as an English learner with dyslexia, she struggled in school. Yet that’s where her career path started. “I was able to take an elective for photography, and there I found my passion through photography and the dark room,” said Lepe. “It opened my eyes to a different way to communicate, and it was also my escape.” In those early days, she went to Coyote Creek in San Jose to practice taking photos. She shared, “I would create images that were beautiful in black and white, and even though we were like, ‘It’s the creek, it’s the ghetto,’ it was a way to escape to this fantasy with creating images.” While Lepe was told she could never go to college due to her dyslexia, she ended up graduating from San Jose State University with a BFA in photography. “I didn’t want to be a waitress, and I knew education was a path to change that,” said Lepe. “Being an immigrant, being poor, I knew that education was going to open the doors to something new.”
Written by Michelle Rundowitz Photography by Daniel Garcia josielepe.com Instagram josielepe
17
TOP: La Familia Baeza-Ortiz, Mexican, Filipino American ancestry, digital archival luster fine art museum canvas and archival inks, 30”x45”, 2022. BOTTOM: La Familia Ricardo, Mexican, Portuguese American ancestry, digital archival luster fine art museum canvas and archival inks, 24”x36”, 2022.
18 Sight and Sound 16.2
“I’ve always focused on women’s empowerment and the story of the immigrant in a positive way.” -Josie Lepe
19
Self-portrait: La Mexicana, digital archival luster fine art museum canvas and archival inks, 16”x20”, 2022. 20 Sight and Sound 16.2
La Familia Rodriquez, Mexican, Vietnamese American, digital archival luster fine art museum canvas and archival inks, 30”x40”, 2022.
More recently, Lepe went back to school for her MFA and graduated in December 2022. “No matter what, I always try to keep moving. Even if there was something where they said ‘No, the door is shut,’ then I’ll try again. If someone gives me ‘no’ as an answer, I find a different way,” said Lepe. Over the years, Lepe worked odd jobs to help contribute to the family income. At one point, she worked full-time at The Mercury News. Now she splits her time between freelance work— often for The Associated Press and covering sports pieces—and her own projects. She had work featured at the de Young Museum’s 2023 de Young Open and at the San Jose gallery Chopsticks Alley Art (through January 2024). For her personal projects, La Cena (Supper) is one that is a series of portraits that capture the diversity within the modern-day “Latine” community’s families. “There’s that whole image of the brown people being in a dump, or your house is falling apart, or whatever it is, but not all of us are in that. There are different variations of us. It’s a spectrum,” described Lepe. “Also, we all come from different countries. There are Latin Americans, there are Afro Latinos, there’s indigenous people— everybody is part of that ‘Latines’ group.” Lepe
uses the term “Latines” for her work instead of “Latinx,” as “Latinx” always sounded more like a label for an experiment rather than an inclusive term. “ ‘Es’ is basically ‘we.’ It makes us, us. So to me, ‘Latines’ became more of a proper use of the term,” explained Lepe. Lepe has always found herself documenting subcultures that she sees have not historically been fairly represented. She specifically focuses on women’s empowerment and the story of the immigrant in a positive way. “We always see visual images like the famous images of the drunken guy in Mexico or the prostitute at a bar. But there’s two sides of the story there. There are positive people that are working that are part of society, and we should show that more. I’m more about the positive visual representation,” Lepe said. She previously did a story on women passionate about their cars. “It wasn’t about being the trophy wife or the trophy in the car. It was more about them and their passion about [car] culture,” explained Lepe. Today, Lepe works with graduate students at Stanford with photography lab work. She hopes that this job will give her more flexibility to spend less time freelancing and more time on her own series and projects. C
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Shaka Shaw 22 Sight and Sound 16.2
SS haka
haw
Escaping Self-Imposed Limits
Written by Shelly Novo Photography by Arabela Espinoza fakebusy.com Instagram freshhellcomic fakebusy.art
Shaka Shaw has been an artist his whole life, but only recently has he accepted the title. As a child, he was immersed in the world of comics. He would use his dad’s legal pads to make sketches of his favorite comic book characters. But when he imagined his future, art didn’t seem like a realistic career choice. “From the beginning I was bothered by the starving artist stereotype.” There were not many examples of independent artists in Shaw’s life to make art seem like a career possibility. “I convinced myself to take the conventional path.” So, he set out in pursuit of a degree in business management from Howard University, which led him to a position as a quality assurance engineer at Apple. All the while, his artistic propensity followed him. During the pandemic, Shaw would work on doodles and sketches during video calls. This hobby became something he wanted to share with others, so he created Fake Busy, an Instagram account for his art. In his free time, he was active on Twitter, joking and sharing memes. There came a point when he felt like he was giving away his creative ideas for free. “Why am I using my platform like this and giving these ideas away for free—without actually having a brand.” This gave way to his comic strip account, Fresh Hell, based on the Dorothy Parker quote. The account became a place for him to marry humor and art. Shaw doesn’t work around a specific drawing schedule, but offers himself the opportunity to step away from projects to look at them with fresh eyes. He finds inspiration everywhere: pop culture, Black culture, childhood memories, and, of course, comic books. It’s all throughout his work—hatching style, bright 23
ABOVE: Three Stacks Forever OPPOSITE PAGE: (TOP) Always Do the Right Thing (BOTTOM) Sade Dumile 24 Sight and Sound 16.2
“No one can outdo me at my own perspective.” -Shaka Shaw colors, highlighting the history of different characters, and celebrating creatives like Parker, Jackie Ormes, and Spike Lee. One important influence was his mother’s friend, Morrie Turner, the creator of the first integrated cartoon strip, Wee Pals. Shaw remembers meeting him for lunch. “I was not specifically interested in cartooning at the time…[but] Morrie was still an early inspiration in terms of [being] a Black creative, and he was very much open to sharing his work and knowledge.” Shaw explained that his trajectory as an artist was largely influenced by Turner’s legacy. As a Black artist, Shaw desires to offer representation in spaces that Black creatives might not yet imagine themselves in. Shaw draws ideas from Black culture and transforms them into art pieces. This led to a viral character he created as a piece, Lamar Fudge. Lamar was a food critic who reviewed businesses post-segregation simply to find that the food was terrible anyway. This piece was a catapult to greater recognition as an artist. A film company reached out. It was circulating on Facebook and Twitter. This affirmed Shaw in his potential as an artist. Unfortunately, Shaw was laid off from his position at Apple in October, but what could have been a setback launched him into self-employment as an artist. Accepting the title of artist, however, has been slow going. “This is the first year I’ve actually introduced myself as an artist.” He recently purchased business cards which have marked a progression in his artistic career.” 25
“In my experience, as soon as you show up for yourself, good things start to happen.” –Shaka Shaw
26 Sight and Sound 16.2
OPPOSITE PAGE: Buggin Out ABOVE, RIGHT: Who Said We Are Satisfied ABOVE, LEFT: Operator Doomsday
He is working to move away from an idea that he has to reach particular goals before considering his work valid. As he begins to accept the title of artist, Shaw has been able to be an encouraging force in the art community. Recently, he spoke on a panel at The Gathering SJ about his experience as an artist. This experience at the event highlighted for him the value of his art to others. In preparation for the event, he looked for someone to print his art. When he couldn’t find someone, he printed the pieces himself and was stunned when they sold out. He was able to connect with the local art community, and even more meaningfully, connect with his son, showing him his craft and showing him that art is a worthy pursuit. It was an emotional experience to present professionally as an artist and have his son in the room. “My son is my biggest inspiration,” Shaw shares. “My voice is amplified through him.” Shaw answers doubts with a dedication to his craft—committing to not be perfect but share pieces he feels fulfill their purpose, pieces that he likes. “In my experience, as soon as you show up for yourself, good things start to happen.” He’s escaping self-imposed limits and finding support from his son, his wife, and the art community. Safe to say, there is a place for him as an artist, and he is starting to accept it. “No one can outdo me at my own perspective.” C 27
Britt Bradley 28 Sight and Sound 16.2
Empowering the Community through Alternative Process Photography.
Britt Bradley Written by Alyssarhaye Graciano Photography by Daniel Garcia brittanyrosebradley.com Instagram nitrate_fox
“I HAVE TWO RULES when you enter my studio. One: no negative self-talk. Two: we always ask for consent.” Brittany R. Bradley, Britt for short, is an award-winning alternative process photographer. She uses the collodion wet plate process to memorialize her participants on a tin or metal plate, portraying them such that they feel powerful and authentic to themselves. Through her Calumet Cambo 8x10, Britt not only captures moments in time but also sparks a dialogue that resonates deeply with those who encounter her work. As of January 2023, Britt is one of 21 artists in the city of Palo Alto’s Cubberley Artist Studio Program (CASP). The program offers artist residencies at a subsidized rate in exchange for artist-led free public programming. The four-year residency allows artists to dive deeply into their art practice while allowing time to create community with their fellow artists and the public. Upon stepping into Britt’s studio, one feels safe and comfortable. Britt’s collabo-
rative process allows participants to control how they are portrayed. She offers her expertise and skills to guide the collective vision, ultimately empowering the subject with the creative reins. “If there is something you don’t like, we talk about it directly. Accurately representing people and history feels more important than making a good technical photo. Photography focuses far too much on the technical and not enough on the humanity of it.” The community aspect of the CASP program was essential for Britt. “Your identity is such a complex thing. It is a learned behavior to negate our multifaceted selves, to shrink ourselves down to fit into something comfortable for others. I think that just means you’re around the wrong people. When you’re around the right people, they want you to take up space and be louder. Being here at Cubberley, surrounded by incredible women artists, empowers me to do so.” In 2019, Britt and two other photographers were hired to document a two-day event where over 150 members of the Bay Area’s Indigenous community came together for the reclamation of the site where the Early Days monument 29
TOP: Good Boy, Folsom Street Fair, 8”x10” tintype, 2019. BOTTOM: The Unraveling, artist and author Alyssarhaye Graciano, 8”x10” tintype, 2023.
30 Sight and Sound 16.2
TOP: The Mourning Cloak, self-portrait, 8”x10” tintype, 2023. BOTTOM: The Bond, Folsom Street Fair, 8”x10” tintype, 2019.
Boom Imani, writer and artist Imani Mixon, Creekside Residency, Eureka, California, 5“x7” Tintype, 2022.
“The truth exists somewhere between your experience and someone else’s.” -Britt Bradley
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Between Fog and Forever, Mississauga Youth Poet Laurette Lisa Shen, Creekside Residency, Eureka, California, 8”x10” tintype, 2022.
32 Sight and Sound 16.2
once stood. The project emboldened the local Indigenous community to redefine their public perception. Britt feels it is important for her to use her seat at the table to demand there be one for the Indigenous community, allowing for a more accurate representation of our collective histories. “Photography has a history of not accurately representing communities of color, the queer community, women. I want to do my part in changing that narrative, giving those communities the power to represent themselves.” Since the collodion process requires several steps to capture a single shot, access to a permanent studio allows Britt to have a round-the-clock space to shoot and develop photos in her darkroom at her own pace. When out in the field, Britt utilizes her custom-built mobile darkroom, Ruby. This allows her to transport all the necessary materials needed to process wet plate photographs on the go. Britt typically uses Ruby at protests and rallies but also to provide interactive public demonstrations and collaborative group sessions. Britt grew up in Groveland, located in Gold Rush Country near Yosemite. Both of her parents were educators and encouraged Britt and her three brothers to spend time outdoors. “When I was eight, my father taught me to develop film.” Today, both Britt’s day job and art practice focus on photography and its related practices. “While my mom never discouraged me from pursuing the arts, she was worried I wouldn’t be able to make a living. But she isn’t as conventional as she thinks. She is strong, outspoken, does everything her own way, and has an unwavering moral compass.” One might describe Britt similarly, noting her alternative photography process and fight for uncovering historical and modern-day truths. When not capturing people on a metal plate or tin, Britt is the collections care specialist at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This work allows Britt to use her technical skills in a different way. She currently lives in San Jose and is part of Silicon Valley Roller Derby. In an upcoming project, Britt will use the alternative photography process to document the eightwheeled sport, noting how it challenges athleticism and how it is presented in society. Britt’s work goes beyond the visual, becoming a captivating narrative delving into history’s obscured corners. With a discerning eye and a genuine commitment to authenticity, Britt’s lens captures more than just images but also the essence of forgotten stories, inviting viewers to explore the complexities of our shared human journey. “None of it is easy; it’s all slow,” Britt shares, referencing not only her art practice but life itself. “It’s a challenge to love and be in love in this day and age. All we can do is try. Try to be good to ourselves, and to our communities. In little ways, every day, we undermine ourselves. I think what is so important about being an artist is surrounding yourself with enough people who give you permission to stop doing that. Being able to be in a community that speaks your name in a room when you’re not in it—that’s the only way we get to push forward.” Britt’s intentionality and care allow her to view problems not as problems but as indicators for deeper issues. “The truth exists somewhere between your experience and someone else’s. Perspective is a form of truth, but it doesn’t mean your perspective is the only truth.” C
TOP: Moonstone Beach, Creekside Residency, Eureka, California, 8”x10” tintype, 2022. BOTTOM: Oread, self-portrait, Creekside Residency, Eureka, California, 8”x10” black glass ambrotype, 2022.
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Julie Meridian Promise and Peril: Art and Technology
As a designer with a background in computer science and an analog artist versed in digital tools, she sees the promise and peril of the futuristic technologies that are here to stay.
Paintings by Julie Meridian in collaboration with Lucidbeaming. 34 Sight and Sound 16.2
“Art, I decide when it’s done. Design, someone else is the judge of whether it’s successful or not.” –Julie Meridian
Written by Esther Young Photography by Daniel Garcia juliemeridian.com | makeitlegit.com Instagram
Julie Meridian
juliemeridian 35
T
he wide array of Julie Meridian’s art projects reflects her inquisitive nature; they explore the tools we create and the comforts we cling to. In 2016, she published Prior Art: Vintage Virtual Reality and Analog Media Manipulation. In 2018, she spent 50 consecutive days painting a series of hands posed in 50 unique gestures. That same year, she opened her inbox for commissions of pet portraits—starting off with three beloved chickens. In 2022, she wrote three editions of zines titled Nineteen Fundamental Truths: Observations about NFTs, a humorously apt print series defining the seduction and cautionary tale of NFTs. Between gallery exhibitions and blogs on the tools in question, she paints murals that harmonize their surroundings and political cartoons that challenge them. As a child, observation-based creativity was her constant in an otherwise changing landscape. Her father worked for oil companies that moved the family all over the country. Throughout seasons spent in New York, Texas, Colorado, Florida, and California, Julie lived in states of constant readjustment and learned that keen observation was her best tool. From a neutral standpoint, she could use it to assimilate to a group of peers. But more so, she depended on it for drawing. No matter where her family moved, shows like Garfield, The Simpsons, and Inspector Gadget could be found on TV and recorded on VHS. From there, Julie would pause the frames and copy what she saw onto paper. Her artistic skills were key in guiding other kids to seeing her, the newbie, in a positive light. Though Julie considered becoming a cartoonist for a little while, exposure to other forms of art in junior high decentralized that ambition. For a while, she was known in her class for
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The Darkened Clearing, acrylic on Museum Series Claybord, 18” x 24”, 2023.
The Eroded Shore, acrylic on Museum Series Claybord, 18” x 24”, 2023.
“I like the consequence of needing to do things you can’t undo in quite the same way.” –Julie Meridian
detailed charcoal portraits of celebrities. By the time she arrived at California Polytechnic State University, she knew that studio art would be her minor while she focused on computer science as her major. She loved video games and figuring out how to convert code into useful programs. While in college, she took classes for drawing and painting but expressed herself vividly in cartoons. She had much more to say than before and churned out new messages every week as the editorial cartoonist for the school’s newspaper. Topics varied from life in San Luis Obispo to the issues in her apartment complex, but “I was cautious to present without sensationalizing,” she says. Perhaps cultivated from her younger days of leveraging neutrality as the new kid in school, the journalistic integrity of a well-researched, balanced perspective stayed central in her work. Following internships at Adobe and Microsoft, and through the dot-com crash, Julie landed and kept her dream job as a user-experience designer at Adobe. She joined the company in 2000 and was tasked with understanding creative professionals as users of Illustrator and Photoshop. Julie saw firsthand how analog artists responded to digital art and technology—how illustrators skilled with paint brushes learned to make similar marks with a stylus on a tablet. Yet in order to produce originals they could sell, those illustrators often had to paint on prints of their digital works. When generative AI came into public awareness, Julie understood it as both a tool and a medium, so she was unsurprised to see many artists crossing over in similar ways as they did with digital art. But she was concerned by the breaches of copyright. “I fell down the rabbit hole right around the time that Stable Diffusion came out,” she shares. “This was around ChatGPT-3… the tools were finally getting to the point of creating things that— to any person’s eye—were like final form magic machine results.” Julie quickly learned about the datasets that scraped anything on the Internet, especially concept art sites like DeviantArt. “There have been research datasets that included copyright work 37
meant to only be used for research purposes. They turned into commercial purposes,” she sums up. “Open AI uses a research dataset. They should have never commercialized it.” In mid 2021, already dedicated to her investigation of AI’s possibilities and pitfalls, Julie agreed to a collaborative series with digital artist and technologist Joshua Curry (also known as Lucidbeaming, featured in issue 11.2, “Device”). Their experimental project resulted in her series of paintings, inspired by a subset of generated images reflecting his overall aesthetic and created through his own GAN (a machine learning image generator). “He did a lot of tweaking of settings to come up with a set that he thought was interesting,” Julie explains, “and he thought they would make good paintings.” Joshua approached her, knowing her work and her style. Immediately piqued, Julie agreed to the collaboration even as she foresaw the risk. At this time, there had not yet been any court cases to clarify how these tools could be used legally. But the project was too exciting to pass up. Her first few paintings inspired new techniques: “I usually paint in a much more layered fashion and work through tones first. It’s almost grayscale, and then I bring the colors in,” she says. But with these images, “I treated it a little more like plein-air painting”—as if she simply went outside and painted directly what she saw in front of her. “The light’s changing, so you’ve got to go straight for the color and get it down.” While painting, Julie noticed details in the output that weren’t quite right. Lighting was odd, or certain colors were unexplainable. These “oddities” inspired a process of developing mini narratives to reconcile these quirks. For example, in one painting
BOTTOM: The Crystalline Lake, acrylic on Museum Series Claybord, 12” x 36”, 2023. 38 Sight and Sound 16.2
reminiscent of a misty dystopian landscape from a sci-fi world, “the top of the painting is a little green, which isn’t quite right for a sky, but we think that the source image was picking up a bit of sky and a bit of water. The green might have been sampling something else.” Julie’s painting from this collaboration with Lucidbeaming, which is on display at Kaleid Gallery in February 2024, raises insightful points about attribution and licensing. “The way I’m using his photos is kind of like how I might license a stock photo,” she muses, “so maybe I’d license them from him.” Ultimately, she hopes their collaboration becomes one example of how artists can work with AI ethically and safely. Personally, Julie largely prefers her analog methods of acrylic using paints, charcoal, or ink. “I started noticing that I can always recognize the marks of my own art that I’ve made at any point in my life,” she remarks. Even more than she can identify her own voice in writing, or (as an introvert) the faces in a crowd, “I can see something that I’ve drawn and immediately know it’s mine. The marks could come through digitally too, but I like the consequence of needing to do things you can’t undo in quite the same way.” These she calls the happy accidents, which tickle the problem-solving part of her designer’s brain. In 2014, Julie became a full-time design consultant. Her company, Make It Legit, serves businesses by designing in ways that can be implemented by the engineer and future designers. “It’s not just coming up with the idea but making sure it’s built in a way that anybody can use,” she distinguishes. “Art, I decide when it’s done. Design, someone else is the judge of whether it’s successful or not.” C TOP: The Silent Plains, acrylic on Museum Series Claybord, 12” x 36”, 2023. 39
2024
SAN JOSE CREATIVE
AMBASSADORS Written by Nathan Zanon
Photography by Daniel Garcia sanjoseca.gov Instagram sjculture
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Each year since 2018, the City of San José’s Office of Cultural Affairs has selected a number of artists in a variety of disciplines to be named creative ambassadors. These artists all have deep roots in the city and have shown creative inspiration in their fields as well as a passion for connecting with the local community through their art. The role of the creative ambassadors is “to champion the power of creative expression and engage members of the public in finding their creative voice.” They serve for one year and are given the opportunity to create public projects whose aim is to bring together members of the community as active participants in art. They also serve as a voice of the cultural vibrance of the city by engaging on social media and by participating in person in a variety of city events through media interviews and elsewhere.
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“Dance should be for everyone. Creating partnerships and highlighting waacking through these channels can help broaden the audience for this art form.” -Alice Hur
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HUR
ALICE
Dancer Alice Hur is the creator of the grassroots event series
Waack, Crackle, Lock!, which takes place in Oakland and San Jose and features waacking, a dance style that evolved from punking and incorporates dramatic poses, storytelling, and rapid arm movements synchronized to disco beats. Highly active
@wondhurland
in the street dance community, Hur has participated in battles throughout North America.
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“Empathy is crucial in understanding different viewpoints and building strong relationships within t he community.”
-Pantea Karimi
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PANTEA K A R IMI @karimipantea
Iran ia n Amer ic
work ex plores
the hi stor y of m
using vi rt ua l re
pr int, draw ing,
an multid isc iplin
intern at iona lly , and she ha s re
residencies th ro
ed ic in al bota ny
al ity, perfor m at
and inst al lation;
ug hout her ca re
ar y ar tist Pa ntea
at ion, sound,
been ex hibited
ceived nu merou
er.
and geomet ry
ive vide o, an im
her work s have
Ka ri m i’s
s aw ards and
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DEBORAH @deborahkennedyart
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KENNEDY
“Art is a way for us to process and advance our emotions and understanding of ourselves and our increasingly complex and challenging times. Our community can use all the poetry and art we can make available!”
-Deborah Kennedy
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in galleries, museums, and public spaces.
She brings visual drama and compelling experiences to viewers
crafted, conceptually based installations, books, and performances.
complex social and environmental themes with her intricately
Deborah Kennedy is an artist and author who communicates
RAYOS @rayos_magos
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MAGOS
“I believe that in those moments of cultural exchange, art becomes a powerful vehicle for connection and communication. I feel that art acts as a bridge to connect us with each other, especially when we don’t speak the same language.” -Rayos Magos
Mixed-media artist Rayos Magos uses symbolism in his work as
a way of exploring the personal, spiritual, and communal elements of the human experience, tackling topics of mental health, social justice, and self-representation through collage, printmaking, painting, sculpture, and storytelling.
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YOSIM A R RE YES @yosirey
Yosim ar Reyes is an acc
independent art ist whose
sex ual ity wh ile celebratin
work looks at themes of mig
g and honori ng elders and
to fur ther intergenerational
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laimed po et, public spe
aker, and
rat ion and
attempting
connec tions wit hin our com
munities.
“I [hope] to align my vision for a w orld where immigrant labor, immigrant voice s, immigrant lives, and immigrant contribution s are recognized as integral parts of th e city.” -Yosimar Reyes
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Written by David Valdespino, Jr. Photography by Daniel Garcia longneck4life.com Instagram longneck4life 52 Sight and Sound 16.2
Steven Free, Girafa
Girafa Steven Free S
teven Free spends a lot of time with animals, whether it be the dogs he walks to pay the bills, the kittens he and his wife live with, or the giraffe that lives in his heart. A radio plays to the hum of an overhead projector in a suburban backyard studio. A shelf stuffed with toy giraffes looks down on a tidy workspace. There are sketch boxes, a sink surrounded by binders filled with paint swatches, and a table topped with replica shipping containers that exhibit pieces by an (in)famous Bay Area graffiti artist. Hunched over the desk, standing in the spotlight of the projector’s halogen bulb, or tagging paint mixture instructions on index cards is Steven Free, better known as “Girafa,” a painter with a past that keeps his hands hard at work and his head in the clouds. Steven’s artwork centers on a character that he developed as a teen. He was adopted as a toddler after his birth mother left him in a Bay Area motel room. That experience, subconscious in specificity, set him on a path of self-actualization. Stimulated by the response he got from recreating comic panels as a child, he gravitated toward creativity. Always doodling and looking for ways to express himself, Steven enrolled in capoeira, a martial art and dance form originating among enslaved
Brazilians. He practiced capoeira for 18 years but gained an identity that would last a lifetime. As a rule, the Mestre, or instructor, would give his students nicknames. He landed on “Girafa,” the Brazilian Portuguese word for giraffe, for Steven, in reference to his lean and towering frame. “Since I have always been interested in comics, superheroes, and their alternate identity, I ran with the nickname and developed a character,” he says. By the early 2000s, the character most commonly associated with Girafa was painted on over a thousand walls, trucks, and pieces of property that did not belong to Steven. That version of radical self-expression resulted in arrest and restitution but began a new life for the giraffe that was once Steven Free. While not initially inspired by his inherited alter ego, giraffes have grown on him over the years. “When my Mestre gave me the nickname,” he explains, “I thought it was dumb, but I started to realize its potential. The long neck. The pattern. The environments I could include.” The versatility of the giraffe, combined with his appreciation for animals, stemming from his mother’s passion for bringing home pets, fostered themes of interspecies communication. “Animals can’t tell you what they need,” he says, “but if you pay attention, 53
“People will always want to talk about [my past] because it’s exciting. They focus on who you were, not who you are, or who you’re trying to become.” -Steven Free
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“That’s the artist’s journey; even when things aren’t working out, you still have this drive. It’s who you are. It would be like telling somebody they can’t breathe anymore. You can’t help yourself.” -Steven Free
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you know. It is a weird dialogue we have with our pets. I don’t draw people; I’m not interested.” Transposing elements of pop culture and human expression on the characters he illustrates has drawn audiences to his work. “I like giving animals human qualities when expressing sorrow, anger, or excitement.” When asked how he feels when stumbling across pieces of his past life in the wild, Steven shares, “It’s the paint; it’s the sun that has eaten it away. It’s trippy because I know that was me, but I’m not carrying that same feeling.” His time creating graffiti will always trail him, “People will always want to talk about it because it’s exciting,” he claims. “They focus on who you were, not who you are, or who you’re trying to become.” Today, Steven splits his time between walking dogs and creating art under his Girafa moniker. He shifted his focus from producing art to designing products after his 2019 solo exhibition at the late Arsenal SJ. Having difficulty selling artwork, Steven wanted to make his brand more accessible to those who followed his graffiti. He produced T-shirts, totes, keychains, and air fresheners, his latest push being a collection of replica trucks and shipping containers bearing iconic Girafa pieces. “After wrapping that show, I was burnt out with painting. I jumped into product design, but that took on a life of its own. That’s pretty par for the course,” he claims. “Every artist lives in the process of gradually evolving their work. I am excited
to jump back into art and see if I can make a living being a full-time artist.” Searching for greener pastures can be challenging, especially for a giraffe accustomed to the city streets. Steven’s shift to studio practice has been a change of pace. “Projects can take a long time. I didn’t have weeks to complete work in the street. I had to learn to be okay with not finishing a piece within an hour.” That extra time allows Steven to mix paint colors and meticulously document the shade and mixing process on index cards he catalogs in binders. While working fast is no longer a requirement, he always looks for ways to optimize his processes. “How can I work smarter, not harder? Sometimes, my process is very rigid, and I do things until they burn me out,” Steven says. Steven’s contemporary work is still inspired by and attributed to the Girafa character he imagined as a teen, but he now distinguishes between foreign and familiar imagery. “I have a bad habit of trying to reinvent the wheel. I try things and start to lose the core of my work. It is a balance. I want to maintain what I am known for.” Pieces displayed in his studio depict a classic Girafa spot pattern composed in multi-color abstractions, a process formed by creating templates, masking lines, and inverting colors; his interests in color theory and intricate detail are on full display. “I can get into these pattern paintings with multiple color overlays until the process takes it out of me, and I need to scale back.
I want to continue doing Girafa; it is what I am known for and enjoy doing, but I want to see where that can evolve.” The next step for Steven is branching outside of the South Bay. He is working on a catalog that he hopes to display in galleries nationwide. This ambitious next step is one of evolution and self-determination. “Having work shown outside the Bay Area would give me much more confidence. There’s fear, because you don’t have hometown support, but you must be comfortable with things not working out, pieces not selling, or not being invited back. That’s the artist’s journey; even when things aren’t working out, you still have this drive. It’s who you are. It would be like telling somebody they can’t breathe anymore. You can’t help yourself.” In addition to enduring the growing pains that come with forging a new path, Steven is a newlywed and lives a simple life with his wife and cats. When asked why folks should care about Steven Free, he counters, “I don’t think people should care about me. They should care that there are people like me willing to express themselves through art. I am not where I would like to be, but maybe somebody out there looks up to me. If they could see what I went through, the struggle, and how I continued to do work and want to progress as an artist, and that gives them hope? Being an artist is hard. We need people doing that hard work to prove it is possible.” C
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Discos traditional cumbia music
Resaca with hip-hop beats, rock influences
Collective and romantic music
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Written by Kah Mun Chia Photography by Alex Knowbody Instagram discosresaca
Pictured: (L to R) Joaquín Zamudio , Deuce Eclipse, Nathaly Meza-Blanco, Ivan Flores, Fabian Martinez, Pedro Rosales, Marina Meza-Blanco
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D
iscos Resaca Collective is a movement from the San Jose music scene that’s not quite like any other. Their family of artists, including vocalists, percussionists, and guitarists, is fascinating. While some might find it amusing that resaca translates into “hungover” in Spanish, the collective takes inspiration from another meaning of the word, “undertow.” Reflected in their vision, the band makes music that draws people in like a wave in the ocean, just like an undertow. The collective combines an intriguing mix of traditional cumbia music with hip-hop beats, rock influences, and romantic music, bringing a distinct Bay Area vibe that gets you on your feet dancing. And if you’re paying attention while dancing to their music, you might see up to four lead singers performing alongside the rest of the band. “It’s almost like you’re seeing four bands in one night, but it’s really just one band and four different vocalists that are kind of taking the leap,” said Ivan Flores, bandleader and founder of the collective. He explained that it is akin to the Motown days, where there would be one band and a rotating crew of singers performing their songs. In traditional bands, there is one lead singer, one drummer, one bassist, one guitarist, and so on. Session players would usually step in when a band member was not available. It’s that sense of camaraderie, family, and community that sparked Flores to build the collective. “We’re a product of the Bay Area music scene, where everybody knows everybody and we’re all willing to help each other out,” said the San Jose native. “I basically put together a band—which is what I call our collective—and we support each other [through] the music,” he continued. To the collective, music is the soundtrack of life. It is in the background of every family gathering and in every joyful celebration or sad moment. This has shaped the way the collective makes music—utilizing freedom and flexibility to inform their creative process. “Our goal was to [be] that band that could be the whole playlist for a family gathering. We have some romantic songs, [and] we have some songs that are more upbeat, like for dancing. We [also] have songs that are more like, you know, maybe deal with some kind of sadness or songs that deal with joy in other ways,” explains Flores. Officially, the collective came together in 2015, but most of the members have been working together for much longer. A big part
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“We’re a product of the Bay Area music scene, where everybody knows everybody and we’re all willing to help each other out.” -Ivan Flores
of their creative process involves storytelling. Whether it’s stories of happiness, sadness, grief, or tragedy, the collective takes it in stride and processes the experiences through music. Unfortunately, a theme that has come up a lot and continues to influence the collective is loss. Flores recalled an experience he had writing a song for the collective’s first full-length album, Y Te Cuento, released in 2020. He had just attended the funeral of someone who was like a mentor to him, and the song manifested over the course of the following day. The song seemed to materialize out of nowhere, par for the course when it comes to creating music. This was certainly not the first or last time something like this occurred for Flores. Simultaneously, the three sisters from Mariposas del Alma, who would later become the main vocalists for the collective, were also dealing with the loss of a loved one. Soon after this loss, they were introduced to Flores through mutual friends and decided to work together, starting with the song that Flores had written about grief. It seemed like a sort of poignant fate had started to bring the group together. “And it was just like, from there, we just never stopped working together. We’ve been in the band together ever since,” said Flores. Fast forward to their most recent album released in 2022, East Side San Jose. This timepiece was dedicated to the San Jose Flores grew up in. To him, his album was deeply entwined with the experiences that he shared with his older brother, who regularly introduced him to new things. It was natural to bring him into the project as well and put him on the cover art for the album. Unfortunately, Flores’s brother passed away shortly after the album was completed. Despite the difficulty of their individual losses, the bond that unites the collective has been helping Flores cope and slowly heal. “I think that’s another part of the strength of this group. We have all experienced [losses] together in different ways, but we know how to support each other,” said Flores. While things have been incredibly difficult, the collective has managed to channel their grief into a movement that’s larger than life, putting out tracks that speak to people. C
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The Melodic Journey of Amara Lin 64 Sight and Sound 16.2
W
Written by Daniel Arriaga Photography by Jai Tanju Instagram amaralin__
owing crowds with outstanding performances at just the age of three, Amara Lin is no stranger to the music world. Fast forward to today, she is the lead singer for two bands and teaches music at three different schools. She’s really come a long way with music. Though she doesn’t come from a musical household, being involved with music since she was so young was the main cause for her wanting to make a life with it. Never has she had to figure out what she’s wanted to do with her life, because she’s been doing the thing she’s loved since she was a toddler. “My mom’s a music lover, so she put me in music classes when I was really young just to be exposed, and it took, but I didn’t really come from a music household,” Lin says. “I’m not sure things would have turned out the way they have if I were. Since I was young, I never had any other aspirations for anything else. Music was the only thing that made sense.” Up until the pandemic, Lin always considered herself a solo artist writing her own music and performing. It wasn’t until one day at her job that she got an invitation to be a lead singer
for her current band, Silk Road. “So the local band Silk Road came together when I started working for San Jose Guitar Center. My boss’s son was performing at an event with me and said, ‘Hey, I’m starting a band. Do you want to join it?’ ” Lin says. “They already had some parts together, then we came along and dragged a few other people in, and I got my sister to join us doing backup vocals. That was cool, and very unexpected.” Lin’s music can be considered multigenre, but her main focus is on making pop rock or progressive alternative. If you ask her, she’ll tell you her sound is quite different. “I do a little bit of everything. I like the singer/songwriter aspect when it’s just me and my instrument” Lin says. “I do some pop rock, progressive rock, present rock, with metal elements.” Lin’s musical sound is so unique that you cannot really label it into one genre. She attributes a lot of her sound to music greats from the ’70s. “I listen to everything but primarily ’70s music. I love psychedelic progressive stuff like Pink Floyd, the Doors, and Electric Light Orchestra,” Lin says. “Of course I like the female songwriters of that era—Carole King, Joni 65
“I don’t think it’s ever been a concept in my mind that I would not be writing at some point in my life. I don’t care if I’m 80, so long as I can always express myself in that way and have the lenience to be able to.” -Amara Lin
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林 Mitchell, and the more recent Alanis Morissette. Those are the mains.” When it comes to making great music, every artist has an area that they hone in on, trying to perfect it. Some focus on the sounds of a song, such as vocals and riffs, whereas some are more into lyrics and storytelling. Lin likes to focus on storytelling and relatability with her fans. “I’m such a lyricist, I really care about lyrics. It doesn’t matter to me if the song is catchy, but if it doesn’t have good lyrics, it doesn’t hit as hard,” Lin says. “So I have to have a concept. Sometimes I write a poem and then write a song off of that, or I’ll come up with a melody and find words to match it, but when I do that it doesn’t feel as real and raw. When I’m writing with someone else, it’s nice because I don’t have to focus so much on the instrumental aspect. I get to nerd out and write something as somebody from an outside perspective and match how it feels with lyrics.” Lin is passionate at what she does, and when it comes time to retire, she doesn’t see that in her future. Being in love with making music, she wants to create even in old age. “I love performing so much, and I love writing so much, I can’t decide which one is better,” Lin says. “I don’t think it’s ever been a concept in my mind that I would
not be writing at some point in my life. I don’t care if I’m 80, so long as I can always express myself in that way and have the lenience to be able to do that.” Wanting to help people is an overall goal for Lin. Along with doing music, she is currently a double major at De Anza College in music and psychology. She hopes to land a job in music therapy one day. “Music was always a constant. It was always something I did, but I didn’t realize why. When I began writing at fourteen, I realized that it was kind of the thing holding it all together,” Lin says. “Music keeps me sane, so if I could make music that helped keep other people sane, that’d be pretty cool.” Having recently released the song “Breathlessly,” Lin reveals that there is plenty of music on the way, and that they have more projects on the horizon. “We’ve been releasing over the past couple years. We’ve been dropping singles here and there, and we’re hoping to drop a project,” Lin says. “We have a lot in the vault. We’ve been doing a lot of music video covers, and for my other band in the works, we’re hoping to work on an album in the next year.” C
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Chow Mane 68 Sight and Sound 16.2
CHOW MANE Written by Esther Young Photography by Stan Olszewski chowmane.com Instagram chowmane
As a whole, Chow Mane’s discography strives to be neither the hero nor the victim, the golden child nor the player. He’s a conscious observer, churning impressive verses out of his own life, providing soundtracks to feelings that deserve their own nuanced portrait. 69
I
n 2015, a joke song posted on SoundCloud went viral, gaining heat on frat party playlists and kickback rotations. “ABG (Asian Baby Girl)” gave voice to a cult stereotype that had emerged slowly in the ’90s and then spread quickly in the mid-2010s: “Fake lashes, fake Gucci…she love to drop that lil’ booty / My lil’ mama 5 foot 3 and she love to pop that E.” From coast to coast, the common denominator of listeners was often young adults of the Asian diaspora. From there, San Jose–based rapper Chow Mane could have pushed the comedy rap angle to accelerate his growth in the industry. Instead, he chose to invest in the broader range of his voice. Capturing the momentum of “ABG,” his first EP, Mooncakes (2017), leaned into his family background—ethnically Chinese with roots in Vietnam and Shanghai. The title track, “Mooncakes,” highlighted the tantalizing, expensively homemade symbol of celebration. But from within the mixture of lotus seed and egg yolk emerged a story of collective survival. After his parents’ divorce, as a kid, he bounced between San Jose and Salinas, often sharing the house with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. “It was like eight of us at my grandma house / Dad was sleeping on the floor, my mama on the couch… On the TV no Nickelodeon, only the VHS that my auntie just rented out from the shop.” Beyond personal history, his full repertoire ramps up pride in the experience of being a “third-culture” kid—raised in a culture not quite the parents’ and not quite mainstream. These listeners can fully enjoy the references Chow pours generously into his lyrics, from the party hardy Asian glow reference—“But where your friends, where your pills, where your pepcid at? / Her girlfriend got it in her purse, and she just left”—to the strait-laced Chinese appreciation for what’s good and affordable: “Ball of sesame, full of red bean / And the check please,哇, 很便宜” (wow, how cheap). Whether he weaves them into bilingual party anthems or anecdotal confessions, Chow writes lines with the power to pin his listeners in a memory of their own. From his South Bay Summer (2020) album, images like “In the Pekoe parking lot she smoke her Juul and take a sip / Superstars on her feet and my hands on her hip” land the listener right in that era before Juuls were outlawed and before an identical boba shop opened under a different name.
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While Chow isn’t the only rapper to release a track called “San Jose,” his brings personal narrative to the city’s meme-able moments. “Throw your hands in the air like somebody here tryna rob ya,” chants the hook; but only after testifying in the first verse: “Aye, right next to Education Park / I stay right by the water in the city of the Sharks / Last year they scrapped my Civic for some parts / That used to be my mom’s car, I swear that almost broke her heart.” On the same album, “From SJ to Salinas” reflects on the other half of his childhood in Monterey County with his dad, where he was noticeably a minority: “Early morning blues, time to go to school / Daddy dropped me off at seven he had some things to do / I spent two hours wandering ’round until assembly line / My hands were frozen cold, I’m wearin’ handme-downs…I know we got the same eyes, but I ain’t seen what he seen.” When Chow’s music began to fuel itself financially, he initially tried to keep it under wraps. “I would think I’m spending too much time or too much money working on this when I could be doing something to provide.” But as his family embraced his music as his means of providing, it became easier to focus on each next step—and at first, there were too many. “When I was first starting out and trying to get my name out there, I was working hard trying to network, get in rooms that had people more known than me and everything,” he shares. But Chow wasn’t set on becoming a star. “The biggest I wanted to be was maybe somebody who could perform at a festival, but not to the point where my whole day is managed.” These days, he feels less pressure to push his stats. “I’ll always have in mind a next release, a bigger project,” he explains, “but I’m pretty okay with the status of where my stuff stands within the whole subgroup of Asian American hip-hop.” Expressing gratitude for his core fan group—which is notably strong in Vancouver, Seattle, and New York—he adds: “I’m getting a bit older too, and diversifying what my interests are.” So far, cooking and filmmaking have a fair share of his attention. Looking back on his early days of DIYing music videos and forming an online community around his cooking journey, he notes that music is just one way to preserve the stories he tells. Ultimately, what’s important to him is passing them down to other generations—so that third-culture kids can always speak their truth. C
s u t a t s e h t h t i w y a k o y t t n i e r h t p i w I“ ’m s d n a t s ff u t s y m e n r a i e s h A w f f o o p u o r g b u s e l o ” . p o h the wh p i h n a c i r Ame -Chow Mane
D I K RDS O L Xev Nebula, Tb Payback, Menasce, and
Written by
Troy Ewers
Photography by Jay Aguilar
kidlords.co Instagram kidlords_
72 Sight and Sound 16.2
O2 Tony,
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Jax Huckle
Paige Kalenian
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riginality is what makes an artist who they are—a simple concept, but in an era where a lot of artists mimic other people and styles with hopes of making it big, the embodiment of this concept is almost as rare as seeing a car with a CD player. The Kid Lords are a music group from San Jose who exemplify originality. If you’re an artist who isn’t sure if being yourself will get you where you want, look no further than the Kid Lords to show you how to maintain what makes an artist an artist. The Kid Lords is the musical collaboration of childhood friends Tb Payback, Xev Nebula, Menasce, and O2 Tony. Established in 2020, the Kid Lords create genre-bending music that uniquely blends elements of alternative rap, cloud rap, and vapor trap with familiar sounds from each of their diverse upbringings. The group name comes from the movie Lords of Dogtown and the artists being kids with humble beginnings in a garage on their childhood street. Today they bring a diverse and talented sound to the Bay Area music scene. Xev Nebula calls the group “a multiverse Black Eyed Peas,” and even though it may sound like a joke, the phrase is an apt metaphor for the group’s authenticity. The originality of the Kid Lords is displayed in their personal style, both musically and aesthetically. Their personal style is something out of a video game, and their chemistry as a group is reminiscent of a family. From their music and clothes to their live shows, there’s nothing that they aren’t creating together. “Everyone has an idea, and we work on all of them,” O2 Tony explains. This process didn’t just start when they began making music—the Kid Lords were always this way. They were dressing the way they do now back when they didn’t have any money. When you look at them, the four members look like a unit, but each stands out in their own way. The Kid Lords’ music is a buffet of influences that they mix together to create a sound that is not only original but also transcendent. Their song “Star Dance” blends the sounds of 73
“Expanding our consciousness was big for our confidence.” -Menasce
74 Sight and Sound 16.2
Lil Uzi Vert modern trap with UGK soulful Southern rap and is something that would play in your local club. “Neport Shawty” has a light night psychedelic feel that can only be described as euphoric, while “WAR” is the soundtrack to a riot scene in a major motion picture. The music makes you want to see them live, and live shows are where their support from fans is undeniable. The personal connection between fans and the group through live shows has been key to their authenticity. It’s where the Kid Lords say they see their growth as artists. “It’s motivation to keep killing it,” they say in excitement. Their first ever show was a fundraiser for a school in the Philippines. Since then, they’ve gone on to headline shows at venues like the Brick & Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco and to open for artists like Robb Bank$, D. Savage, BabyTron, and more. Where does all this originality come from? Well, it comes from a “Bay Area–born confidence” and an expanded level of consciousness that allows the group to have a sense of perception and freedom to be themselves. “It’s easier with the Kids,” Tb Payback says about being confident on stage. The Kid Lords have an aura about them that comes from being comfortable in their own skins. “Expanding our consciousness was big for our confidence,” Menasce explains, and this confidence allows others to be confident too. Their influence means the Kid Lords have the potential to leave a lasting impact in the local music scene—especially with their highly anticipated debut album KLD, produced by Dreamawake. Leaving a lasting impact doesn’t happen when you’re a follower of the trends or when you ride the wave. You leave a lasting impact by setting the trend and going against the grain, and the Kid Lords are prime examples of this. They are unapologetically themselves, and any artist afraid to be themselves can turn to the Kid Lords for inspiration. Whether it’s through music, fashion, or live performance, the Kid Lords have proven themselves to be one of one…well, four of four. C 75
NE E E D L E L D E N GR O O V E V O O GR As the local label nears 50 releases, four of its creative collaborators open up about their eclectic legacy. Pictured: (L to R) David Ma, Jeff Brummett, Allen Johnson, and Michael Boado 76 Sight and Sound 16.2
E H T O T H E S D R O C R E RDS A
Written by Brandon Roos Photography by Daniel Valencia needletothegroove.bandcamp.com needletothegroove.net Instagram needletothegrooverecords
t the center of Needle to the Groove Records, lie four friends whose bonds have been strengthened in the pursuit of amplifying art. “Don’t put any of our jokes on the record,” cautions Allen Johnson. “Unless they land,” chimes David Ma. The witty banter among Johnson, Ma, Michael Boado, and Jeff Brummett reveals the camaraderie on which the Needle to the Groove (NTTG) label has been built. “That’s what our vision was from the jump: Let’s find [music] we like. Let’s get it out there. Let’s not be too stressed on [asking] ‘Did it sell out?’ ” explains Johnson. Their business dealings remain casual, as they’re far more likely to talk shop over a bottle of Jameson than to call for a formal meeting. Grounded in a shared desire to not let the business of records ruin their friendships, they’ve developed a broad musical catalog that stands as a testament to the great musical diversity found throughout the Bay Area. “You can’t pigeonhole us, that’s for sure,” explains Boado, “and we want to keep that going.” Collectively, the label partners carry deep connections in numerous music scenes. Johnson and Boado run NTTG’s downtown San Jose record shop (Dan Bernal, owner of NTTG’s Fremont location, is a silent label partner). Boado, a fixture in the local club scene known as DJ Basura, is a partner at The Ritz in downtown San Jose. Ma is a renowned music journalist who recently began teaching a hip-hop history course at San Jose State University. Brummett has been a musical mainstay, contributing to numerous local bands over the years. Soon after opening NTTG’s downtown San Jose location, Johnson 77
Aki Kumar B. LEWIS CASUAL CRYPT Controller 7 Diamond Ortiz DJ.BASURA DJ PLATURN Kiri Lord Brothers Marinero Mint.Beats Platurn & Edgewize VALLEY WOLF Weezmatic Will Sprott (aka Prince Paul + Don Newkirk)
and Boado wanted to branch out. “There was an appeal to do something that had a higher ceiling and could correspond with the shop,” recalls Johnson. In the early 2000s, he ran Birthwrite Records out of his apartment while living in Chicago, and he remembers the struggle of selling releases without a true place of business. After reading about the history of Stax Records, which started when the now legendary label opened a recording studio in the back of a record shop, he saw how their storefront could double as label headquarters, offering visibility for their efforts. Since 2016, NTTG has released nearly 40 titles of varying formats and styles. There are the overlooked gems: cassette-only releases like Kiri’s ambient Practice Bird Heads and the Apatheater EP, a collaboration between DJ Platurn and rapper Edgewize. There’s the unexpected home run: Prince Paul and Don Newkirk’s By Every Means Necessary, Vol. 1, the soundtrack to a Netflix documentary on Malcolm X. There’s the rising creative voices of Modesto Latin rockers Valley Wolf, and Bay Area-based beatmakers Mild Monk and mint.beats. Diamond Ortiz, the most-released artist on the label, is a g-funk diehard and master of the talk box. “Our eclectic tastes are represented in the artists [we support],” notes Brummett. “I think we’re kind of celebrating our differences.” The imprint’s musical variance has become their hallmark. Ma states their hope is for the label to be trusted by listeners, no matter the release. “Hopefully [the label logo] becomes like a seal of excellence,” he says. “I think we want to be there for the deviations,” adds Brummett, highlighting how much the label believes in letting artists be
78 Sight and Sound 16.2
“It’s a crazy feeling when someone that I don’t recognize walks in and asks for something specifically on the label. I’m just blown away.” -Allen Johnson
themselves. “Strange Things” by producer and songwriter B. Lewis is arguably the most mellow track in his discography, while “Jaan e Jaan” by Aki Kumar adds a dash of dusty Bollywood funk to Kumar’s otherwise blues-centric persona. While all four stress that the label is a labor of love, they also view their work as a distinct privilege that lets them shed light on the efforts of unsung creators. It’s a point that hits home for Brummett, since numerous friends and fellow musicians have found an outlet in NTTG and its offshoot label, Slow Thrive, which releases projects from DIY bedroom artists and underthe-radar bands. “Those are the guys that mean the most to me because they obviously care. If you are not getting any attention or money, and you’ve been doing it for 15 years, this must mean a lot to you,” he shares. “We get to curate that to the world.” Next year, the label plans to roll out Valley Wolf ’s long-awaited full-length debut, which features sessions produced by Chicano Batman’s Eduardo Arenas. It will also be time for Johnson to step back into the limelight as a creator. He’s set to release Starduster, an EP from legendary rapper Casual, featuring beats from Johnson under his alias, Albert Jenkins. The label may still have plenty of work on the horizon, but that doesn’t prevent Johnson from stepping back and feeling a great sense of pride every time they sell one of their titles at the shop. “It’s a crazy feeling when someone who I don’t recognize walks in and asks for something specifically on the label,” he shares. “I’m just blown away.” C 79
CONTRIBUTORS The production of CONTENT MAGAZINE would not be possible without the talented writers, editors, graphic artists, and photographers who contribute to each issue. We thank you and are proud to provide a publication to display your work. We are also thankful for the sponsors and readers who have supported this magazine through sponsorships and memberships. Be a part of the CONTENT community. Contact us at:
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CYNTIA APPS Cyntia is a commercial and food photographer from Panama, and based in Silicon Valley. She specializes in brand elevation services for businesses through compelling & visionary storytelling.
JESSE GARCIA Jesse is a graphic design student at Sacramento State. He was born and raised in San Jose and has a passion for soccer and design. Instagram: jessesgdesigns
Instagram: cyntiaappsphotography
KAH MUN CHIA Kah Mun is a writer and photography enthusiast based in San Jose. Originally from Malaysia, her work is inspired by the cultures around her and an adventurous spirit to discover new things.
DANIEL VALENCIA Daniel is a photographer who practices traditional/alternative black and white techniques. Based in the Bay Area, he uses photography as a method of communication and self-expression.
PRIYA DAS Priya is a writer, dancer, and co-founder of Mosaic America. Based in Silicon Valley, her work is informed by the innovative intersections between art, culture, and society.
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COVER This issue’s cover art is by Steven Free, Girafa. Read the interview and see more of his artwork on page 52.
DANIEL ARRIAGA Daniel is a San Jose-based freelance writer covering topics ranging from music, art, sports and community. He works to promote up-and-coming artists and his goal is to showcase a different side of the city.
DANAE STAHLNECKER Danae is a San Jose-based writer and editor” invested in creative storytelling and intentional community. She has a fondness for niche, macabre, and experimental art.
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