Empowering the Entertainment: Insight Into Kollaboration SF 4

Already enrolled as a full-time third year college student and occasionally posting these blogs on here that hopefully some of you Patch readers come across, is it possible for me to have the time and energy to be doing anything else?  Well... there’s also Kollaboration SF.

I know I mostly blog about books and motivation methods on this media forum, but today I wanted to address this local entertainment movement.  And don’t worry, that wasn’t a typo I just made when I typed the name of it, for we spell Kollaboration with a “k.”

Kollaboration is a North American non-profit organization that promotes and showcases emerging talent out of the Asian American community, in a day and age where that particular demographic is still highly overlooked and typecasted in mainstream media.  It originally started back in 2000 in Koreatown, Los Angeles by a man by the name of Paul “PK” Kim.  

What started off as a single show to promote Korean-American entertainers has since emerged to this continental movement for all Asian-Americans; spanning across cities such as New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Toronto, Honolulu, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas and, of course, San Francisco.

Kollaboration has come a long way since its inception, discovering artists left and right and aiding them on their way to stardom.  Just to give a glimpse as to how widespread and influential this movement has become over the years, here’s a fun fact: Electro-hip hop group Far East Movement were the 2006 winners of Kollaboration LA, only to become the first Asian American group to earn a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 four years later.

The San Francisco chapter of Kollaboration is in its fourth year of existence, already preparing for the big showcase this summer.  One unique aspect about these showcases is that audiences are introduced to a wide assortment of talent from the Bay Area.  At our previous showcase last fall at Zellerbach Hall in UC Berkeley, our competitors included singer Jayne Rio, electro violinist CryWolffs! Violin, music group Monsters Coming Home, tricking group Team Loopkicks and singer/guitarist Peter Chung (who was also our winner).

In addition to the wide range of talent found within the competitors, we also draw upon well-known Asian-American figures to come and either be judges or performers.   Some of the people we’ve invited over the years included rock band New Heights, comedian KT Tatara, YouTube singer AJ Rafael and basketball player Jeremy Lin.

While the winner goes home with $1,000, there’s one thing that all the competitors, judges, guest performers and staff members win; and that is the opportunity to go by Kollaboration’s slogan and spread “Empowerment through Entertainment.”

Do you think you have what it takes to be featured in Kollaboration SF 4?  Now is your chance!  In order to be called back for a live audition, you must submit a video of yourself, doing whatever it is you do; singing, dancing, comedy, etc.  The video must be no more than four minutes long and must provide a link to the video as well when filling out the application.  If you’re performing as a group, at least one of you must be Asian-American.  If you are called back for a live audition, you must be available on Saturday April 27.  The deadline for submissions is midnight on April 15.  For more information and to fill out an application, click here: http://kollaborationsf.org/audition/.

In addition, we are also seeking sponsors for our showcase.  Sponsors can range from a wide variety of venues.  We’re looking for food sponsors, media sponsors, etc.  Once the handbook for sponsors is available on the official Kollaboration SF website, I’ll post the link in the comment section below.

Bottom line, I just want to say that this an incredible movement to be a part of.  None of us are getting paid for doing this; this is just something that we feel the need to do.  We are all driven by our passion to get Kollaboration out into the world, the same way the competitors we come across every year want to get their voices out there too.

If you want to learn more about us, visit our official website at http://kollaborationsf.org/ and check us our on Facebook (Kollaboration SF Bay Area), Twitter (@KollabSF), Instagram (kollabsf) and Tumblr (Kollaboration SF) as well.