Support EN'B to Create&Release their Debut EP

EN’B is a lost soulchild of diaspora, yearning to realize their dream as a musical storyteller. Since their upbringing in Los Angeles, California, EN’B has had an unrequited passion for musical expression. They started singing and playing instruments at 4 years old, in church choirs and Korean traditional music groups. When L.A. took an economic down turn date, their family had to move to Arkansas, where Eunbi would attend middle school and high school. Attending the historic landmark, Little Rock Central High School, they were immersed in orchestra, gospel choir, and marching band lead by an HBCU band director-- playing motown, R&B , and soul music. Through these experiences, they learned a wide breadth of music genres from Western classical, Korean, and Black diasporic music. School was their ticket out of Arkansas. While attending Goucher College to major in Peace and Conflict studies, they were trained in Jazz vocal and improvisation. Since graduating, they have been helping to create platforms for artists of color to teach and showcase their work through community workshops and music venues in Baltimore. 

I was never to pursue music as a career; But I have recently realized that music has been deeply rooted in my life and that I have agency to pursue these passions of musical storytelling. Working through my mental wellness and deconstructing my socialization as a Korean American femme to realizing my trans non-binary gender identity, I was able to realize that filial piety, gender roles, and cutural expectations do not have to control over my life destiny. For the past few years, I have been unlearning gendered,racial, political, social expectations of self sacrifice and self-deprecation, to relearn mantras: “I can take up space”, “I have a voice”, and “ I can pursue my own desires”. It is time that I realize the gift that have been hiding behind the scenes to uplifting other artists and use my efforts for my own growth as an artist. 

I need your support to widen the scope of representation for QAAPI, who are often invisible and disenfranchised of cultural citizenship. I plan to create a 9 song EP and a visual solo project featuring a photobook and music videos. The donations from this campaign will be directly funding equipment and the labor of fellow POC artists for collaborations. This EP will encompass my journey and reflections on diaspora, gender identity, and reconnection with ancestry through my tribulations in Los Angeles, Little Rock, and Baltimore - my three homes. Throughout my life as a Korean American, ‘Han’(한)  has been an ever-present emotion of grief or resentment and yearning for justice, rooting from Korean war-time, sex slavery and land division. Using both electronic sounds, sampling, and live traditional Korean instruments, I plan to evoke the presence of ‘Han’ within the dysphoria of body and soul throughout the dysphoric immigrant journey. The rhythm of the janggoo 장구 drums evoke the visceral ‘Han’ from the depths of my psyche and gut intuition. The gayageum resounds the pain and sorrows of ‘Han’ through the cries of its convulsing strings. My intentions are to create conversation from the self to the soul and bring together isolated community-- to talk through the pain, trauma, depression, and celebration of QAAPI history to create opportunities for expressive healing through musical storytelling. 

My work is fueled by your support: friends, family, and community who have consistently shown up to community workshops, jam sessions, my musical acts, who have provided encouraging words and supported my personal journey. You have encouraged me to realize the worth of our collective gifts and pursue my self-expression through storytelling and music. This is not just my story, nor just the QAAPI story, but the story of future-making against oppressive systems and dated labels that we must overcome. This EP is for people who have repeatedly been disrespected, displaced, underestimated, or discriminated for their complexion, history and ancestry.