Bring in the Spring! RAMA is proud to present the return of the bay area’s premier event featuring the very best in Pan Asian talent, Go!Ohana. RAMA is on a mission to create a new Pan Asian Arts Movement by supporting artists and connecting them with the community. Go!Ohana is the place to be for the Pan Asian family. Join them this Friday as they present their most hard-hitting lineup of artists in the past year…
FEATURING:
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Representing San Francisco Universal Zulu Nation as well as the global Hip-Hop scene, Mandeep Sethi is a young yet seasoned emcee/DJ from that has shown and proven his ability to rhyme and freestyle with the best. As a member of Zulu Nation, Mandeep was raised by the 5 elements of hip-hop: emceeing, djing, breakdancing, graffiti, and KNOWLEDGE. For Sethi, the microphone represents a catalyst of change, rhyming about social consciousness as well as cultural awarenesss while remaining true to the undefinable essence of hip hop’s versatility. Mandeep’s primary focus is to educate the youth about the circumstances in which we are living in and resonate ancient culture within them, revealing the gods in all of us. From rhyming to djing, music serves as the language translating beats and words into scripts and hymns. The music speaks for itself.
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With what MTV Iggy calls, “an eclectically soulful style,” soul/r&b singer Dawen explores the gamut of American life. Fusing soul/r&b with funk and jazz, Dawen offers up a lyrical style that appeals to both the emotions and intellect. His smooth baritone and sensual falsetto recall the vocal stylings of Maxwell and Sade to the delight of audiences everywhere. In his debut album American Me, Dawen covers everything from identity and social issues, to love, loss and redemption. American Me is available now on 
and Amazon. The music video for his single “Wake Up” is on YouTube. A recent Grand Prize Winner of Kollaboration Acoustic 4, Dawen has performed for Grammy Award-winning artist Macy Gray and has shared the stage with artists such as Marié Digby, slam poets Beau Sia and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, and actor James Kyson-Lee from TV’s Heroes. Dawen continues to perform throughout the US and Asia.
Steven Espaniola
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It’s rare when an artist arrives on the scene offering a refreshing new spin on a traditional genre of music. Steven Espaniola is that artist. Raised in Aliamanu, Hawai’i and now residing in the Bay Area, Steven is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in Ki Ho’alu (Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar), ‘Ukulele, Upright Bass, and Leo Ki’e Ki’e (Traditional Hawaiian falsetto). Of Hawaiian, Filipino and Spanish decent, his ethnicity is as diverse as his unique sound which preserves the integrity of the traditional with a flourish of the modern. Steven is currently at work in the studio recording the followup to his successful debut which is due out in 2011.
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Bochan is passionately sowing the seeds of a Neo-Cambodian musical breakout movement. Bochan bridges the gap between the East and the West – with her uniquely soulfully sweet and sultry Indie Pop sound with the help of pianist/producer, Arlen Hart. She draws from both her current Oakland urban environment and her traditional Cambodian upbringing to create this fresh intersection of worlds. Bochan grew up traveling around the US, singing for her father’s Cambodian rock bands. That journey is alive today in the music, which has moved from rock roots to its current inception. Stepping out from the traditional style, Bochan looks to enter a new musical age.
Here’s the event info:
Go!Ohana
Friday, April 8, 2011
7:30pm
La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
$8 Online
$10 At the Door