Iced Tea, Art and Taiko at Ku Day Ta
Date: July 13th, 2009
By: Michelle Thai
“I think the Taiko event was a great chance for people to get together and learn more about the local artists featured that day,” said Jennifer Dang, a student at UC Davis. “It was also a great way for people to sit down for a cup of tea and socialize with one another, which I’ll definitely be coming back to do more often!”
On June 20th, Ku Day Ta hosted a mini festival: Tea, Art and Taiko. Celebrating the beginning of summer, the event was also aimed to bring our widely diverse Bay Area community together to support local artists, businesses, and organizations.
During the event we proudly featured some amazing artwork from the following local artists:
- Adriane Dedic (http://www.myartiststudio.com)—a local artist who showcased her beautiful Geisha paintings and was one of the Taiko performers.
- Alex Glanville—a sophomore at Ohlone college and a budding artist with undeniable talent in photography.
- Oliver Kolay—another local artist and friend of Ku Day Ta who shared his exquisite abstract paintings. He held a table at one end of the lounge to hand-paint customized cards for customers.
- Jennifer McGrew-Lacefield—a great artist based in Sacramento who’s unique and striking artwork Ku Day Ta was very fortunate to feature.
- Jessica Nguyen—an absolutely adorable nine-year-old who has a real talent for origami! The donations she collected during the event will be sent to the charity UNICEF.
- Sonya Paz (http://www.sonyapaz.com)—a charming and talented artist from San Jose who designed our eye-catching T-shirts that feature our Mango Jazz iced tea.
In addition to these individuals, Ku Day Ta sponsored the Taiko group, Wadaiko Newark (http://wadaikonewark.org), who put on a thrilling Taiko performance. Taiko, which means “drum” in Japanese, are generally stick percussion instruments. Often used in warfare to motivate troops, to drive away evil spirits, and to communicate with neighboring villages, Taiko has above all always been a form of entertainment.
During their three hours at Ku Day Ta, the wonderful members of the Wadaiko Newark invited spectators to join in on their performance by giving both adults and kids the chance to learn and play some short measures.
Ku Day Ta owner Bee-Bee couldn’t help but join in on the fun, too. “It was really fun and a great work out. I may become a fan now,” said Bee-Bee. “Terry and the rest of the members were such good teachers. I urge everyone to check out Wadaiko Newark.”
The Taiko performance, the art exhibition, and the discounted iced tea seemed to really delight our customers. Vivian Duong, a 19-year old San Jose resident, shares her thoughts with me: “Not that many stores are willing to put in so much extra time to create events like this, so I really like how this event brought the community together. I stayed over an hour catching up with my college friends and watching the Taiko,” she said. “We love the art, especially that guy who did those cool card paintings. My friends bought some from him.”
As a small business itself, this was truly a wonderful experience for Ku Day Ta to collaborate with local individuals and organizations to make this eco-community event as successful as it was.
July 19th, 2009 at 12:09 am
great entry and great event! thanks for quoting me!
July 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks for posting about this, I would love to read more about this topic.