Radio AAI

Storefront Gallery @ Asian Arts Initiative, 1223 Vine Street
September 13, 2022 - February 28, 2023

Radio has long been a part of the grassroots vernacular: as alternative media, as a mutual aid tool, as a means to share information to limited listeners, as an uncanny symbol of early technological connectivity, as a hobby tool for conspiracists of disaster mentality.

Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) welcomes you to explore Radio AAI, an interactive storefront highlighting our experiments with radio.

On view is the Beat of Asian America, a radio show about drum cultures of the Asian diaspora. In Season One we are featuring oral histories from Taiko drummers. Taiko is a rich form of drumming that has been a part of Japanese culture for centuries, and in our show, prominent artists will discuss their practice, asian history, and the impacts of the pandemic in Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

Also on view is Stories from the Storefront, a radio recording booth designed to record the stories of anyone passing through our storefront space. Asian Arts Initiative opens the mic to patrons of our community storefront and gallery. What do you want listeners in Philadelphia to know? Who do you want to connect with? How do you find yourself here? AAI in collaboration with PhillyCAM/WPPM will produce a series of “off the street” mini series collection of segments recorded in our booth.

This season of Beat of Asian America is brought to you by Asian Arts Initiative and made possible by major support from the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the William Penn Foundation. It is produced by Asian Arts Initiative in partnership with Rowhome Productions.This season of Beat of Asian America is brought to you by Asian Arts Initiative and made possible by major support from the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the William Penn Foundation. It is produced by Asian Arts Initiative in partnership with Rowhome Productions.