IDENTITYLA 2017

Photo Credit: ISA (International Secret Agents) on Facebook

As everyone knows, May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month; which is the celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Just like most commemorative months, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month originated with Congress. In the late 1900s, Reps. Frank Horton of New York introduced House Joint Resolution 540 to proclaim the first ten days in May as Asian Pacific Heritage Week. Within that same year, Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution, Senate Join Resolution 72. Neither of those resolutions passes, so in June of 1978, Rep. Horton introduced the House Join Resolution 1007. This resolution proposed that the President should "proclaim a week, which is to include the seventh and tenth of the month, during the first ten days in May of 1979 as 'Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.'" This joint resolution was passed by the House and then the Senate and was signed by President Timmy Carter on the 5th of October that year to become the Public Law 95-419; which amended the original language of the bill and directed the President to issue a proclamation for the "7 day period beginning on May 4, 1979 as 'Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.''" During the next decade, presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week until 1990 when Congress passed Public Law 101-283 which expanded the observance to a month for 1990. Then in 1992, Congress passed another law, Public Law 102-450, which annually designated May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. More background information can be found here.

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Council Member David Ryu, ISAtv (International Secret Agents), WongFu Productions, Far East Movement, and the City of Los Angeles hosted the IDENTITY LA: Concert and Celebration festival on May 6th, 2017. The line up for performers consisted of Korean R&B artist DEAN, Us The Duo, Giraffafe, starRo, Year of the OX, Kronika, Doctors & Engineers, DJ Zomanno, Tells, SAAY, MISO + many other guests. Not only where there great acts but there were many booths and food trucks there as well. Two of my favorite food trucks however was Milk+T (@milkandt on Instagram) and Seoul Sausage Co. (@seoulsausage on Instagram); also known as the only two food trucks I was able to visit due to the massive amount of attendees who were waiting in the long lines to get food and beverages before the real party started.

Photo Credit: MJ Blogs

Milk+T known to be the world's first self serve boba truck to roll through Southern California (as it says on their food truck). Although it was my very first time trying their drinks, I have to say I am not disappointed a bit. They are one of my favorite boba drink sellers ever. Not only were all drinks $5 but the first 80 people in line were able to receive their drink in one of their (really aesthetic) glass bottles. Customers were given the opportunity to pick one of their famous Top 10 drinks from the menu or build their own drink. Their Top 10 drinks were:

1. The Classic / Milk Tea; Lactose-free milk, handcrafted brown sugar syrup, and black tea.

2. Best Friend / Green Milk Tea; Lactose-free milk, handcrafted brown sugar syrup, and green tea.

3. Unbelievable / Honey Green Tea; Handcrafted honey syrup with green tea.

4. Pineberry / Pineapple + Strawberry Green Tea; A thirst quenching blend of handcrafted pineapple and strawberry syrup with green tea.

5. Bombsquad; An explosion of fruit flavors with handcrafted simple syrup and green tea.

6. Black Tea A La Mode / Ice Cream Black Tea; Handcrafted simple syrup, black tea and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

7. Area 51 / Cucumer + Kiwi Black Tea; Handcrafted cucumber and kiwi syrup mixed together with black tea.

8. Lady Bug / Watermelon + Strawberry Black Tea; Equal parts of handcrafted watermelon and strawberry syrup and green tea.

9. Kiwi To My Heart / Kiwi Green Tea; Handcrafted kiwi syrup and green tea.

10. Guilt Trip / Blended Real Milk; Blended lactose-free milk with swirls of chocolate, caramel, and handcrafted brown sugar syrup.

Although I did not have enough time to get a taste of something from the Seoul Sausage menu, they had some great choices from Da KFC, Korean Fried Chicken Wings w/ Pickled Daikons, to their their KBBQ Burger, Korean BBQ Beef Burger w/Garlic Jalapeno Aioli and Pickled Onions. In less than three years, they had become the premier force behind cutting edge Korean BBQ. It was founded by brothers Ted and Yong Kim alongside Chef Chris Oh. They are known for being the winners of Season 3 of The Great Food Truck Race, Food Network's second highest rated show.

Despite the massive crowd in front of the stage, I was able to see my favorite artists Giraffage, Us the Duo, and of course DEAN very clearly. Giraffage, also known as Charlie Yin, is a Taiwanese American electronic music record producer from San Jose, CA. So far in his career, he has collaborated with other electronic music producers, including Porter Robinson. He is a regular performer at venues in the San Francisco Bay Area but has performed both independently and alongside other artists across the world. In addition to the various remixes of various tracks, Giraffage has produced two full-length studio albums, including Comfort in 2011 and Needs in 2013. Many of the remixes he has done can be found here on his SoundCloud. Us the Duo on the other hand is a folk pop duo consisting of husband-and-wife Michael and Carissa Alvarado. Michael was born and raised in North Carolina and comes from a Puerto Rican descent while Carissa was born in Los Angeles, CA and comes from a Filipino descent. The duo started uploading six-second covers of popular songs on their Vine account; this resulted in them earning almost 5 million followers as of August 2015. They were signed to Republic Records in 2014 and are widely regarded as the first musicians to have signed to a major record label due to their presence on Vine. More information about them and links to their social media accounts (including their YouTube channel) can be found here. Kwon Hyuk, also known by his stage name DEAN, is a South Korean alternative R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. He released his first solo EP 130 Mood: TRBL, as well as multiple collaborations with both American and South Korean artists. My favorite tracks that he performed at the Identity Festival were I'm Not Sorry, Bonnie & Clyde, what2do, and 21.

Overall, the event was one of these best cultural event I had attended. I give WongFu Productions, ISAtv, and everyone else who made that day possible a big round of applause and I can't wait for next year's IDENTITYLA Festival!

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