recap: rra fellowship summer showcase 2023
5 min
Hey y’all, it’s your favorite RRA blogger, Meera. I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but let me tell you, RRA has been the best kind of busy! From fully funding our 2nd-annual Fellowship program to welcoming new team members behind the scenes, we’ve been so grateful to reach such wonderful milestones this year and can’t wait to continue to grow into next year.
Our most exciting milestone, aside from welcoming our 2023 Fellows (which you can learn about in our last blog), was organizing our first live event in NYC! We wanted this event to be an opportunity for our Fellows to come together, perform, and celebrate as graduates of the program. And what a beautiful “graduation” it was. The room was full of passion, ambition, and hilarious jokes (courtesy of yours truly as emcee of the night) - the perfect way to end our hot desi summer.
If you weren’t able to attend the show, don’t worry, I have you covered with a quick recap and in case that only makes the FOMO worse, fear not, our Summer Showcase will be back next year featuring our new class of Fellows, so we hope to see you then!
the stars of the night
The show opened with our 3rd place winner, Sowbarnika, as she performed her Fellowship song, “Almost Us”. She switched it up for a beautiful acoustic rendition of “All in my Head” by Tori Kelly with the guitar for her second performance. Up next was our 2nd place winner, Janaki, who performed her two singles, “A Seat on the Ground” and “Tunnelin” which had me both tearing up AND bumping to the beat. For the finale, our Fellowship 2022 winner, Priya Mani closed the show with her single,”Starry Skies”, which came to life in an incredible way live, and “It’s Not Real” (an upcoming single!). Each of the Fellows brought such a captivating energy to the stage and so flawlessly connected with the audience. We are so proud of them and are grateful to be a part of their early careers as artists.
aapinh founded & supported
As we were planning our showcase, something that was really important to us was creating this night for the community, by the community. This meant everything from our venue to beverage sponsors, were AAPINH-founded. We strongly believe in creating opportunities to support others in our community, so that each one of us can see success along the way.
We had the pleasure of hosting our event at BATSU!, a Japanese-founded venue in the East Village. Our marketing partner, Outer Voice Media, led by two South Asian-American brothers, provided support in community outreach. Junglee Bev, a South Asian fusion beverage company, supplied a variety of their wild drinks for the night. Videography and photography were done by Raunak Naik and Naim Mahbub, respectively.
culture & community
After the performances, we opened up a mixer hour for folks to have the time to connect with each other. It was so nice to see people meet old friends, make new friends, and even meet virtual friends in person for the first time! I loved listening to people share their stories about their identities, passions, and dreams - there’s something so empowering about being in a room full of creatives. As someone geographically distant, but incredibly attached to the South Asian community, I flew back home the next day feeling so fulfilled that I was able to be a part of this special night.
Lastly, this night couldn’t have been possible without all of you who came out to attend. From Orlando, FL to Philadelphia, PA, it was truly all of you who made our showcase so special and we hope you equally had a wonderful night. Thank you for continuing to support us and we promise this will not be the last time you see us live in person!
As Fall kicks into gear, our Fellowship 2023 program is officially in high swing. Our new class of Fellows have begun working on bringing their songs to life and if you want to stay tuned with their journeys, make sure to follow our Fellowship IG. We can’t wait to watch them blossom into artists and hear their songs in early 2024!
Stay well, shine bright.
~Meera
