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Totem Star shines for youth artists during COVID-19
“Although it’s tough to be confined in our homes with less physical accessibility and interaction, we always encourage our young artists to keep making art,” Pak said. “To keep writing. To keep telling their story. And if they’re feeling scared or anxious, to be assured that we all are. Writing, singing, rapping, and creating music may just be the best medicine.”
Totem Star music flourishes over digital airwaves and across generations
“It had been months since the half dozen young artists on the call had seen one another, months since Totem Star, a recording studio and music workshop for youth, shut its 250-square-foot space to protect against the deadly coronavirus. But closed doors are no match for the internet, or for the family-of-choice that Totem Star helped create.”
Totem Star on King 5 News
Daniel Pak Featured In The International Examiner
Thaddeus Turner aka Thaddillac In The Seattle Times
Daniel Pak In Crosscut
“You have to keep it in the positive no matter what,” Pak says. “Reggae is a music of healing — it was created to uplift the community.”
Access to the Arts: Spotlight on Totem Star
Every young person who steps into the threshold of our studio at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center receives the same orientation: “Welcome to the family.” And we mean it. Totem Star is all about lifelong relationships with our young recording artists, many of whom we’ve now known for close to ten years and who are coming back to give back.
Totem Star and ‘The Resistance Mixtape’
“What people need to understand about Totem Star is that, more than a record label, first and foremost we’re a family. Before you’re an artist you’re a human, and Totem Star teaches you how to do that. You can be an artist and not be a role model but Totem Star teaches you to be an artist and a role model.” - Monica
Totem Star and Daniel Pak offer music, education to youth
“Totem Star is more than a recording studio. It’s a safe space, an escape where kids who might normally find themselves in conflict because of the neighborhood in which they grew up or their social circles can sit together, learn and grow.” - Daniel Pak
Daniel Pak’s mission to share music
“Totem Star is more than a recording studio. It’s a safe space, an escape where kids who might normally find themselves in conflict because of the neighborhood in which they grew up or their social circles can sit together, learn and grow.” - Daniel Pak
Band of the Week: Kore Ionz
“Aloha is not just hello and goodbye, it’s a way of life. It’s how you treat people, how you take care of people unconditionally. And so, as an artist in Seattle, I pledge that with every bit of my life energy, I will continue to give more music to the world for the purpose of spreading more aloha and, as I sing in the song “First Avenue,” “reteaching the world to love.” - Daniel Pak
