APEX OUT THE BOX! Featuring JenRO April 8, 2005

APEX OUT THE BOX!

Featuring JenRO
http://www.jenro.net/

and other guests

hosted by KIWI (NATIVE GUNS)

8-10PM

ABOUT THE FEATURE:
JenRO was born and raised around the Bay, California. The destined star grew up around music her entire life. Her Father was a disco DJ and her Sister a music composer.

JenRO's first time rapping on stage was at the age of 10 years old. While at a summer camp, she rapped about raccoons on her bunk bed and how she hated her cabin leader. She was pulled off stage for not following her summer camp's criteria that consisted of a forest scene skit. However, JenRO did not let this stop her from her early dreams of being a female mc.

While being eleven years old, drug dealers and gang members crowded the corner of her Vallejo home and gave JenRO her first four bar song to write as she walked home from school. After moving back to South San Francisco, she was arrested her first week of Middle school for writing on the walls at school. She recorded her first song herself on a tape recorder at the age of 13. As a leader, she was also the only female drummer for the Jazz Band all throughout middle school and high school.

As JenRO was getting older she was always told girls should never rap. At 15 years old, JenRO would battle against the older teenage boys in her neighborhood and prove everyone wrong. She became the only female rapper on stage during the lunchtime performances and talent shows in high school. Outside of high school, JenRO competed and won several poetry slams across the Bay. She would get asked to perform at hip hop shows and local street fairs. At the age of 17, JenRO starred in a short documentary called "Rebel Girls" based on one of her raps. This film played in theaters across California. At 19, JenRO was already establishing her name by performing at major city events such as East Bay Pride, SF Pride, and "Carnaval". She has performed at San Quentin State Penitentiary twice this year and has also recently expanded to doing international shows from the Philippines to Mexico. Most recently she opened up for Jesse McCartney, Nina Sky, Tre Scott (formerly of O-Town), Ashley Poole (formerly of DREAM), Myra (Theme Song for "Princess Diaries") and many others, JenRO's striking words have gotten her published in world wide books such as, "What It Took for Me to Get Here" and "Paint Me like I Am". She has also been featured in the "San Francisco Chronicle", "Padrisimo Magazine", "Bay Times", "Source Magazine", "Time Out New York" and "Portland Tribune". This past December JenRO also made an appearance on VH1's "My Coolest Years".

This talented bilingual star has already worked with artists such as Spice 1, Young Noble (Tupac's Outlawz), Goldie Loc (Snoop's Eastsidaz), Conscious Daughters and Mr. Kee to name a few. Most recently she recorded a single for her upcoming album with Alexandra Bachelier, a top 30 finalist from the first season of American Idol. She is currently finishing up her debut solo project titled "The Revelation" which is being put out by La Movida Records, LLC in late March. The single "Hottie, Hottie" will be arriving at a radio station near you real soon so please be sure to request that when you hear it

http://www.jenro.net/

ABOUT THE APEX & PUSOD PARTNERSHIP:

The first week of each month API hip hop is out in front in radio and at an artspace. Listen to Apex Express on-air the first Thursday of the month from 7-8pm, 94.1 FM or www.kpfa.org, and then the next night, Friday, the artists are live at Pusod, 1808 - 5th St. Berkeley, CA. Apex Express - KPFA Radio's Asian Pacific Islander (API) program partners with Pusod, an API Arts & Environment Community Center to make this happen.

KPFA 94.1 Apex Express, the only hour-long radio show focused on API music and public affairs in the Bay Area, has joined Pusod, the only API focused arts and environment center in the east bay, to create a bridge of support through back-to-back programming between community-based spaces both on and off the airwaves.

Every Thursday from 7-8pm unique API programs that focus on music ranging from indigenous and electronica, along with spoken word and provocative interviews. "We started shortly after 9/11 when the community was hard-hit", says Apex Executive Producer Gina Hotta, "and out of that came a commitment to bring to the air API voices and POV". On March 3, APEX launched a new monthly API Hip Hop radio show airing every first Thursday of the month, hosted by local emcee, Kiwi, of Native Guns. In collaboration with Pusod, the hour radio show does not stop there. A live element was created to give listeners a chance to experience the artists featured at the radio show, live and in the flesh the following night at Pusod. ?APEX out the Box?, every first Friday at Pusod, is part of back-to-back programming between Pusod and APEX. ?It was created with the intention of actively supporting spaces of empowerment for marginalized communities in an otherwise homogeneous mainstream media.?, says Maya Santos, Pusod Program coordinator and co-host for Apex. Pratap Chatterjee and Curtis Loo are also on-air and on-board for Apex.

?Hip Hop is an organic and essential piece to home-grown community based programs,? says Kiwi, producer and host, ?even if you?re not a hip hop head, you can learn something from hip hop because it is a space meant to build bridges across many cultures.? Pusod and APEX are working together in the spirit of hip hop to not only celebrate the music, but the culture that gels people together.

Tune in to KPFA 94.1, from 7-8pm on Thursday, April 7th,
http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=aud-one.kpfa.org&port=8000&mount=icy_0&file=dummy.m3u
as APEX brings API queer hip hop to the foreground. Featuring JenRO, south San Francisco-based emcee will speak on her experience as a female, mixed heritage, and queer-identified emcee. Also San Jose-based organization, EMPAQ (Empowering the Movement of Pinays And Queers) will be speak on their recent campaign to stop the deportation of a local Transexual Family. JenRO will also be peforming at ?APEX out the Box!? on Friday, April 8th at 8pm, at Pusod, 1808 5th Street in Berkeley.

Pusod, which means "navel" or "umbilical cord" in Tagalog and Bisayan (both Filipino dialects), is a center that fosters the honoring of roots in culture, land, and history through the arts, environmental awareness, and education.

Please visit http://www.pusod.org/pusod and http://www.kpfa.org for more information.