There is a venue within the Downtown Los Angeles area where you will find one of the longest running free performance art spaces to feature multi-disciplinary artists of Asian Pacific American descent, as well as artists from around the city. Hold up. A venue with performances that features spoken poetry, music, theater, and sketch show pieces and you can watch all of this for free? Could such a place possibly exist??
Such a place DOES exist and it’s called Tuesday Night Project!
Founded in 1999 by Traci Kato-Kiriyama, the TNP is home to the 1st & 3rd Tuesday Night Cafe series, a venue that I have been able to experience since moving to Los Angeles over 5 months ago. I’ve gone to several since then and each time, I have always been blown away by the quality of the performances and the open mic performances from those who you could totally see them becoming the next big thing. Hosted by a larger than life Johneric Concordia, there is always a vibrant energy that encapsulates every single Tuesday Night Cafe and that’s something I bring home with me as I grow only inspired from experiencing such energy.
Yesterday, TNP hosted Blogger’s Night and invited major APA blogs from the Los Angeles area to come out and see what the venue was all about. Koji Steven Sakai and I came out to represent for 8Asians and tonight’s performances featured Dawen, Brown Star, Room to Improv, Wells, and many more. Each of these artists were fantastic and I highly recommend checking them out whenever these guys perform in your area. I’m especially looking forward to Brown Star when they perform again in Los Angeles later this weekend.
While Tuesday Night Project has been able to perform their cafe concert series free for many years, they can only do so with generous love and support from the Los Angeles community, especially the Asian Pacific Americans in this city. Donations are always encouraged and speaking of which, TNP will be hosting their annual benefit on July 31st at the JACCC Plaza! You can check out the benefit event here.
The next Tuesday Night Cafe will be on July 20th and from then on, it will be the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays Tuesdays of every month until autumn. Be sure to come out and show some love to the hardworking staff of TNP and to the fantastic artists that come perform for no charge whatsoever. It’s a selfless act that not a lot of people do these days and it is one more reason why you should support Tuesday Night Project.
