Month: April 2019

Bishop Briggs: Beauty in the Darkness

Briggs’ passion for music and performing started at a very young age. While her family still lived in Japan, Briggs explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly the very moment she recalls falling in love with the art. “I think it’s a rite of passage that the minute you land in Japan, you have to go to a karaoke bar. So that’s what my family did. I moved there when I was 4.” She continued, “My dad went up and sang Frank Sinatra, and I just saw this joy and this light in his eyes, and I just wanted a piece of it.”

Briggs got the piece that she wanted, and then some. She also took to karaoke while in Japan, giving her the opportunity to sing in public and showcase her talents. She was later discovered while performing at a bar in LA. This led to her working with the production team of Mark Jackson and Ian Scott. The irony of being discovered performing at a bar, in similar fashion to stumbling upon her love for performing at the karaoke bar with her dad at 4-years-old. They worked with her on her debut single, “Wild Horses,” and her first single off the album “River.” “Wild Horses” took on a life of its own shortly after being released. The song was picked up by Acura and used in one of the car company’s commercials. The song caught the attention of many of her future fans, who discovered her by using the Shazam app in order to find out who performed the song.
She's since had the pleasure of performing at Coachella in 2017, before her debut album had even dropped. Her debut album “Church of Scars,” came out in April 2018, introducing the world to her sound. Which is often described as “dark,” but that doesn’t seem to bother her one bit. In the hit single, "River," she described a scenario of falling out of love "faster than a hairpin trigger." Some of her songs are about love. Her single, “Baby” is one that has a different element. “I'm very drawn to darkness, so the thought of releasing a song that wasn't so heavy didn't seem in character," the singer-songwriter said in an interview with Billboard. "But I felt like it was too honest to not release it."

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Joseph “Sentrock” Perez: Poetic Imagery

As the images pop up, there’s a lot to process. Bright colors, large eyes and words all come together in one piece. When these types of works show up, art is no longer a spectator sport. We are involved and become a part of this world. Joseph “Sentrock” Perez has created a graffiti-based work of art that screams at you in both pictures and words.

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Amancio Ortega: The Billionaire Behind Zara

Amancio Ortega is the third richest man in the world and but many people have not heard of his name until now. His company is more famous then the man behind the scenes. Ortega founded Zara, an affordable retail store that sells quality merchandise to consumers. Ortega, is from Leon, Spain, his father worked on the railroad and his mother helped support the family by working as a maid.

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Cher’Don Reynolds: Imprinting Generations with Hope & Self-Love

“When I started my first business,” entrepreneur Cher’Don Reynolds explains, “I simply wanted to put messages of empowerment and celebration on shirts. I wanted customers to have the option of glitter, rhinestones and different colors.” But it didn’t take her long to find out that what she wanted didn’t quite fit her start-up budget.

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Elbow: When Hard Works Pays Off

British alternative rockers Elbow began their band like many do – as a group of college students, looking to play a few gigs at a local bar. And as is the plight with many college bands, their group generally maintained slight visibility and stayed largely below the radar. What decisively set them apart, however, was not only their unusual sound, a form of British pop focused on both the alternative and avant-garde, but their persistence, as well.

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Erica Barrett: Culinary Heaven or Hype?

In the culinary world, only a handful of regional cuisine reaches international level. “Southern food,” is considered a delicious, heart-warming, feel-good cuisine that affects all those who try it. According to John T. Edge, the director of Southern Foodways Alliance, the Southern food people refer to is based on food developed by women, who are often black, originating from dishes generated during slavery  in the South of the United States.

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