These days, I rarely take the time to sit with my thoughts. Life moves fast. Things seem important and I vow to discuss them soon – at least internally – but chronological distance has a way of chipping away at the importance of any one occurrence… and thus my mind moves on. Well not today. It’s been a busy half-year both here at WOHM and personally for me, much of it seems like a mostly enjoyable blur. WOHM has the largest team we’ve ever had, we’re communicating through various mediums, and we’re definitely achieving our core goal of being out here. Still, I always feel like we can do more, so let me set the stage for where we’re at and where we’re going.
In case you haven’t heard, Dizz and I do a radio show / podcast type-thing we call WOHM Radio which drops (almost) every first Tuesday on GoJuiceRadio.com on which we play our favorite NW music, discuss hot topics, and interview artists such as Tope, Fountaine, and Stewart Villain. It’s really just a great way to catch up with what’s going on locally without having to do a ton of reading. It’s also the place we drop gems. This month, we interviewed Jon Belz and talked about the everything from Damian Lillard attending a rap show at the Holocene to NBA conspiracy theories to Glenn Waco in handcuffs. You can find the 1-hour episode (as well as a few others) on our Mixcloud site in podcast format. Due to technical difficulties, the new show will broadcast on GoJuiceRadio.com next Tuesday. In the future, I am hoping to increase the number of shows we do, perhaps moving towards twice a month.
Tomorrow night marks the 7th installment of TheTHESIS, a monthly collaboration between We Out Here Magazine and KPSU (Portland State University’s radio station) at which we bring out the best local hip-hop, pay them, and have a great time doing it. This month’s show features headliners Neka & Kahlo, the Portland duo who just released their improvisational EP Fridays in May right here on WOHM. Also performing is Rasheed Jamal – finalist for Willamette Week’s prestigious title of Best New Band – and Ripley Snell of the Futro Collective. Per usual, there will also be a special guest, but that’s under wraps for now! I’m really proud of how well the show series has done and I can’t thank Blake Hickman (of KPSU), Janessa (WOHM/SlimGoods) and Verbz (official DJ) enough for making this a huge success. I promise that the boat party was not our pinnacle. We have more tricks up our sleeves!
On social media we’re as active as ever and looking to expand our reach. Twitter and Facebook remain our core with Instagram growing by leaps and bounds. We’re slowly reviving the Tumblr and also experimenting with Periscope, which I think has LOTS of applications for us being in fact, Out Here. But social media, for us, is just a tool to draw readers into the site. The site is where we want you to land so that you can stay awhile and learn about what else is going on. That’s why I brought back my personal guarantee of new music every day. If the post office is open, we’re going to bring you new music. We’re also looking to expand on what has always been our main draw, original content. More show reviews, more album reviews, more video, more pictures. If you haven’t already done so, bookmark it!
With summer coming up, we’re going to be plenty busy with What The Festival, GirlFestNW, the Sneaker Cart launch, the upcoming 2nd annual Summertime Kickback, and continuing support for recurring events such as The Rewind and Slap Night. We continue to pride ourselves on organizing and supporting amazing, unique and safe events, and I’m sure we’ll add a few more to our plate. When you see us in the streets say what’s up!
So that’s my State of the WOHM Address. We are more equipped than ever to deliver more quality content to our readers, viewers, listeners and participants and that’s exactly what we plan to do. We aim to be relevant, we aim to be fun, we aim to be real. Art does not entertain us, art suffices us. Come join us. Be #OutHere.
If you want to partner with We Out Here, find me on Twitter or drop me an email.