Kollaboration Executive Director Victoria Ju, Ariel Loud and Troy Osaki. Photo credit: Jeremy Kwong.
On Sept. 21, Kollaboration Seattle brought back the glamour to Edmonds Center for the Arts for its fourth talent showcase drawing about 500 in attendance. YouTube sensation Jeremy Passion, Prometheus Brown of Blue Scholars, Thanh Tan of Seattle Times, DList Editor in Chief James Zachodni, spoken word artist G Yamazawa, Terrence Spencer of PGBoyz and Vanna Novak of Speak to Persuade helped light up the ‘60s-themed night, while hosts The Fung Bros. entertained the crowd with their jokes and charm. But it was finalist Troy Osaki and Ariel Loud that ultimately mesmerized the crowd with their spoken word performance of “Morning Service.”
“From the beginning, my goal has been to share my story about identity, heritage, and family history as best as possible in hopes to build and connect with others,” said Osaki. “Collaborating with Ariel has helped me bring my poetry to new life I never thought was possible and being able to share our work with the Asian-American community has been rewarding in and of itself,” Troy said.
Troy and Ariel won the grand prize of $1,000 and a chance to compete in Kollaboration Star later this year. Hip-hop dance team The Baby Bosses won the $500 Verizon Audience Choice Award. Other finalists were singer-songwriters Christian Kang and Agnes Ingarra and emcee Rogue Pinay.
Kollaboration Star will be held on Saturday, November 16, 2013 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Five finalists of the 14 cities’ grand prize winners will be selected by online vote. One finalist will be selected by all the executive directors, for a total of six finalists to compete for the $20,000 grand prize. Online voting will begin mid-October. More details will be available at www.Kollaboration.org.
