APIA Creative Spotlight: Playground Art Crew
Shining a Light on Asian American Pacific Islander Creative Culture
The first APIA Creative Spotlight is dedicated to the Playground Art Crew. The PAC is a business based in Hawaii with a mission to inspire creativity in students through providing art supplies and lessons.
Playground Art Crew was founded by Jeff Kaneta in 2016. It was aimed to give back to the community as well as address the state of poverty that is often overlooked in the Hawaiian islands. Hawaii is the most expensive state in the U.S. to live in, yet 1 in every 6 Hawaiians live in poverty. The PAC has hopes to empower the students in Hawaii by providing them the supplies and the know-how for self expression.
For every purchase made on the PAC’s website, the PAC makes a bag of art supplies for a student in need. When specific purchase goals are reached, the PAC partners with a local school to arrange donations and art lessons. The PAC have already arranged such events at Waianae Elementary School and Leihoku Elementary School in the west side of Oahu, Kalihi Kai Elementary School in Honolulu and Kaneohe Elementary School in the east side of Oahu.
One of their most recent projects is a mural commemorating the late Daniel Akaka who passed away this April 2018. Daniel Akaka was the first U.S. senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry. The mural was painted on the building of Kaneohe Elementary School, where Akaka was principal for three years.
Earlier this year, the Playground Art Crew released their first ever coloring book that features illustrations by local Hawaiian artists. And let me tell you, some of these pages are DOPE! These are some of my favorite artists in the book:
7sketches
7sketches’ artwork is SOOOO COOOL! From a Buddhamax (Buddha + Baymax) to Ukelele Playing Bruce Lee to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shredding some sick waves, 7sketches is legit! If you like anime, marvel or just geeky stuff in general like I do, this is the artist for you!
Lauren Okumoto
Lauren Okumoto is an artist with some chill-ass concepts! She has pretty awesome paintings and portraits. Her “Senses” series is my favorite and I can’t wait to see more of her “Daruka” series!
Lightsleepers
“Overall, spreading the love for Hip-Hop and all things Fresh, through example, action, educating, progressing, elevating, and cultivating. The Lightsleepers; never sleep, don’t sleep, and won’t sleep.” — ktc
Originally started as a radio show by Kavet the Catalyst, Lightsleepers is an Ohana of individuals dedicated to Hawaii Hip-Hop roots, culture and life. They make sick apparel and even sicker music! Their music collective has them lofi hip hop vibes, which I can definitely appreciate. I found a bunch of their music on soundcloud!
That’s just a snippet of the artists featured in the coloring book. There are even more among them!
All in all, the Playground Art Crew does such good and inspirational work for both their local community as well as the artistic community and I hope the best for their endeavors. Actually, I hope they’re ok with me writing about them. But anyway, please check them out at their website here where they keep a blog on all of the things they’re doing! Buy some apparel or the coloring book so that a student can get some art supplies (Lord knows I could’ve used some when I was a kid)! Let’s also work hard to build this ever-growing AAPI Creative network!
And as always, thank you so much for reading my feels! I would love to listen to your thoughts and please feel free to shoot me suggestions for spotlights on other Asian American Pacific Islander creatives! Let’s all vibe on another level shall we?
Background on the start of my AAPI Creative Spotlight Series:
I began this series to address what I believe is a lack of Asian American Pacific Islander creative exposure. As an aspiring artist myself, I found it extremely hard to locate examples of Asian American artists and musicians and other general creative types. That drove me to think, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a website or publication that focused on that.” And voila! Here is my attempt at solving my issue! Think genius.com (God i love genius.com), but with more topics!
