Environment: All That Plastic

By Chung Hyunhwa

It was only in 2021 that I was awakened to see where we were. My closest friend pleaded with me about our environmental status. She had read several books about environmental issues and started using bamboo toothbrushes and waste-free shampoo bars. I took the future of our next generation seriously and started reading books, listening to lectures, and participating in campaigns.

Many of us are fed up with the trash problem, but not many doubt it will be recycled. In the 65 years of recent plastic history, it is known that only 9 percent of it was recycled. In Korea, the recycling rate of plastic has increased, but it is still estimated to be about 30 percent, according to Dr. Suyeol Hong, an expert in the recycling field. Also, in 2020, 1 Korean person used 67 kilograms of packaging plastic according to EUROMAP, ranking the second in the world. This may improve in 2021 because Korea has just implemented the separate collection of transparent PET water bottles for recycling. Considering all this effort to wash the material at home for recycling, it is still disappointing to confirm the numbers. The Gwangju Sangmu Incineration Plant is not running at the moment, so using the landfill is the only option. Reportedly, there will be no land available for landfills in 2030. Then what?

I feel relieved to know that a lot of consumers are into recycling. However, considering that we are all busy people and how much effort we are making to recycle, manufacturers should pay attention to product/package design to leave no trash. They should use a single material as much as possible, and if this is not possible, the design should allow people to separate the materials with ease, while ensuring the sanitation and protection of the products.

It may mean that products should be designed to maximize their functions but minimize the unnecessary plastic decorations. Consumers should also change their attitude toward packaging. I sometimes read complaints about packaging or wrapping even though the product was delivered with no problem. If consumers keep this attitude that packaging shows the manufactures’/sellers’ care for them, then the manufactures will want to continue overpackaging and overwrapping.

Plastic lasts 500 years, and incineration of plastic releases 90 times – 90 times!!! – more carbon-dioxide than paper. Besides, hazardous gas including dioxin is released into the air as a result of incomplete combustion. Plastic is

broken down into microplastics or nanoplatics that can be absorbed into the brain or the placenta even when not burned. In the sunlight, the process speeds up, so now we should not use plastic in the first place and instead pursue a plastic-free lifestyle.

Biodegradable plastic breaks down only at the right temperature – higher than 58°C – and under certain other conditions. In addition to being pricier, it is not strong enough for multipurpose uses, is not recyclable, and is not entirely safe after decomposition. If it were buried or burned in the wrong condition, this plastic would also definitely release carbon-dioxide. There are many categories that plastic is separated into: PP, HDPE, LDPE, PS, PET, PVC, and Other. Apartment complexes separate plastic into only transparent PET bottles and all the rest together. PET that is not transparent water bottles may not be recycled. At the separation facility, workers select materials manually, so small pieces will all go into the incinerator or a landfill. It is necessary to increase the recycling rate so as not to use petroleum, a fossil fuel, and to decrease the use of plastic that will turn into greenhouse gases or microplastics. Advanced technology or public jobs can help do this.

Manufacturers should design goods using a single material. If they want to make goods using more than two kinds of materials, they should explain this, justify the reasons, and design them to allow easy separation. Eventually, they should attain design permits to do this sort of packaging legally. As we put warning labels on cigarette packs, the law should force manufacturers to mark the kind of materials used for the product and the packaging very visibly on the front side so that consumers cannot avoid seeing the mark and can separate the materials accordingly. (Many of us need magnifying glasses to find these marks now.) In addition, distributors and retailers should stop wrapping vegetables in styrofoam dishes and plastic wrap. The stickers on bottles should be easily removed or the product should go entirely label-free. Anything that is not recyclable should be marked “Not for Recycling” clearly so that buyers can decide if they want to purchase goods that include trash. It is magnificent to see some manufacturers starting to go minimal on their packaging and show that they care about the trash issue, but pertinent laws and an efficient system are the shortcut.

There should be a system to give benefits such as carbonfree bonuses or “green marks” to package-free product manufacturers or their distributors. Nowadays, AIassisted recycling machines are on the market to reward people directly with credit card points. The government should install such machines everywhere to encourage recycling. There should be a lot more collection areas for recycling materials for more efficiency in every neighborhood. There should be a webpage and/or an app to report whether goods are easy or not easy to recycle. It is important to educate the citizenry and encourage the manufacturers, but it is way more important to create the necessary laws and efficient systems for more comprehensive and effective recycling.

Korea declared its aim to become a carbon-neutral society by 2050, but Gwangju declared that it would reach this goal by 2045, which is five years earlier. Gwangju is well known for its citizenry that contributed greatly to Korea’s democracy. There were people who fought with their lives, and the citizens banded together to overcome the May 18 uprising in 1980. Now, is it not time once again to use our citizenry as a beacon to protect our earth from this climate crisis? I hope more citizens will come to the fountain on Fridays in front of the ACC – which once was the rallying plaza for our people to keep Gwangju safe from a brutal military dictatorship – to campaign voluntarily and to spread solidarity throughout the country.

If we do not act now, as in the movie Interstellar, our future generations may not have any other career options but to become farmers to produce their own food for survival, while corn may be the only food that grows on the crisp, dry land. Scientists may also have to search for a way to evacuate humankind to another planet, which is probably impossible to find. Or, as in the movie 2012, only the people who have proven the value of their genes would be accepted on the “Ark,” and the rest of us may face a destiny of death outside of said “Ark.” We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and face the same climate crises, no matter what religion or ideology we have. It is now high time that the “Candle Protest for the Environment” should ignite.

Illustrations by Wi Hunho.

Note: This piece originally appeared on the blog https://blog. naver.com/icanfly2you/

From Gwangju, Chung Hyunhwa is currently leading Gwangju Hikers, an international ecohike group at the GIC, and getting ready to teach the Korean language. Previously, she taught English in different settings, including Yantai American School and Yantai Korean School in China, and has worked for the Jeju school administration at Branksome Hall Asia in recent years. She holds a master’s degree in TESOL from TCNJ in the U.S.

By Emmanuela Sabatini

Naju is a cultural heritage city in South Jeolla Province with a lot of historical places to visit. I went to the city to visit the Naju Image Theme Park, the filming site for many historical Korean dramas and movies. There have been a lot of Korean dramas and movies filmed there; among them are the highly popular Jumong (2006), and my personal favorites Goblin (2016) and Joseon Exorcist (2021). They even have Jumong’s picture painted on the floor of the gate entrance. Through these photographs, I hope you feel, as I did, the sensation of historical drama at Naju Image Theme Park!

Emmanuela Sabatini is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. She did an internship at the Gwangju International Center in September–December 2020. You can follow her life journey at www.emmasabatini.com. @emmasabatini

Reviewed by Michael Attard

This memoir of a young woman covers a short period of her life, yet the roots of the story date back to ancient Mesopotamia and the later 7thcentury rise of the Islamic Caliphate.

Nadia is Yazidi, a Kurdish-speaking people living in northwestern Iraq who have practiced their monotheistic religion for millennia. Their peaceful life was destroyed with the emergence of ISIS, or the Islamic State, whose goal was to militarily re-establish the political-religious state that existed shortly after the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In ISIS thinking, the Yazidi were pagan nonbelievers and thus could rightfully be enslaved.

Nadia recounts recent historical details that may not be interesting or seem of importance to some readers, but they are significant in understanding the formation of Nadia’s thinking. This is not a story of forgiving one’s enemies.

There are a lot of family members, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. However, through the horrors suffered by these individuals, Nadia elucidates the breadth of the evil.

In the summer of 2014, when Nadia was 19 years old, ISIS came to her town of Kocho, south of the Yazidi holy Mount Sinjar. The Kurdish soldiers had fled after having sworn that they would protect the Yazidi. Still many Yazidi from nearby were able to escape to Mount Sinjar, although conditions were terrible. “Life in Kocho stopped as people stayed inside for fear of being seen by ISIS.” On August 12 came the ultimatum to convert or suffer the consequences. letting emotion distort the facts, although she makes it clear: “It was chaos.” Most of the men were killed, although two brothers, while badly wounded, managed to escape from the pile of corpses laying upon them.

The women were separated into groups – married and unmarried – with the ISIS fighters more interested in the single women. Nadia had no idea what happened to her mother. It was on a bus to Mosul – the ISIS capital – that she was first molested. Her complaints were answered with, “What do you think you are here for?”

The slave market “was like the scene of an explosion,” as the women “moaned as though wounded.” Her use of simile and description is sparse throughout the book; her initial purpose is to relate the truth of her story.

At the home of an ISIS guard, Nadia met the man’s mother, thinking that surely here she might find sympathy. The closest she came to it was “It’s not your fault that you were born a Yazidi.” This woman knew that she was separated from her family by force, that all the men in Kocho had been killed, and that she, like others, was suffering the violence and humiliation of rape. Nadia said, “I hated her.”

During the first week of her captivity Nadia tried to escape. She thought that if she could get onto the street, she would look like every other woman, dressed in the black abaya and niqab. Who could tell the difference between “a Sunni woman going to market or a Yazidi girl escaping?”

Apprehended going out a window, punishment was swift. She was whipped. Later six men came into the room. She remembers how one man so carefully folded his glasses and put them on a table not wanting them to get broken before his turn at raping her.

Eventually, “You stop thinking about escaping or seeing your family again.”

At one point, Nadia relates, “He came in and locked the door. He had a gun attached to his belt, and I imagined grabbing it and putting it to my head.”

Although in constant fear, Nadia kept her wits about her and on a second attempt escaped successfully. Wandering the streets, she worked up the courage to knock on the door of a house in a poorer neighborhood. Nadia knew that ISIS was largely homegrown and that “there was no reason for me to think that behind any of these doors lived a sympathetic person.” An older man let her in. “For a moment my heart stopped … the men had beards and were wearing baggy black pants.”

Much more happens in the last 100 pages of the book as Nadia struggles to escape ISIS-run Mosul, enter Kurdcontrolled Iraq, and find remaining family members. Nadia more strongly declares her views. Even of the people who helped her, she wants to know why they had done nothing before. In 2016 when Mosul was liberated, citizens claimed that they were glad ISIS was gone. How is it, then, Nadia wants to know, that when she was there, life seemed so normal? She says, “I think they did have a choice.” At the final Kurd checkpoint, Nadia could have made things much easier for herself by simply telling the Kurds that she was Yazidi. “The Kurds want us to forgive them for abandoning us.” But she would not do so, still holding the Kurds partially responsible for the Yazidi massacres in Sinjar.

Finally, safe in Kurd-controlled Iraq, Nadia no longer needed the clothes she had been forced to wear. “I got ready to throw my abaya in the garbage, but stopped at the last moment, deciding to keep it as evidence of what ISIS had done to me.”

It is generally accepted that ISIS has been defeated, but for Nadia the fight goes on. Through the United Nations and Yazda, a Yazidi rights organization, she has spoken to the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. Her purpose is clear: to bring ISIS and all those who supported them to justice.

“I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.”

Michael Attard is a Canadian and has lived in Gwangju since 2004. Though officially retired, he still teaches a few private English classes. He enjoys reading all kinds of books and writes for fun. When the weather is nice, you may find him on a hiking trail.

The Gwangju International Center (GIC) is a non-profit organization established in 1999 to promote cultural understanding and to build a better community among Koreans and international residents. By being a member, you can help support our mission and make things happen! Join us today and receive exciting benefits! • One-year free subscription and delivery of the Gwangju News magazine. • Free use of the GIC library. • Free interpretation and counseling services from the GIC. • Discounts on programs and events held by the GIC. • Up-to-date information on GIC events through our email newsletter.

General: 40,000 won Students: 20,000 won Groups: 20,000 won per person (min. 10 persons) Inquiry: member@gic.or.kr / 062-226-2733

By Boipelo Seswane

Reoratile stared out the window.

They had been on the road for an hour or so – at least, that is what it seemed like with the sun beginning to dip low in the blue dusted with wispy, ghostlike, candy-cotton clouds. It felt good to see them again after such a long time.

Hot air collected sand from the similarly scorching earth, slowly swirling it around like a child waving ribbons excitedly overhead.

Whip — this way. Whip — that way.

Picking up momentum and collecting more grains, the dust devil snake-dancing across the veld rose higher and higher. Even the dancing dust devil rose poetic as it danced further away from the road. She must have dozed off when the taxi began moving. The long-distance taxi rattled along the dusty dirt road, heaving and creaking as it carried its occupants. The taxi’s joints rattled, tires speeding along the long road, fire at its feet, racing away from the devil. Except it was going in the wrong direction. She sat up slowly, tired beyond measure. Like one who had been pushing away a giant thumb intent on crushing her. She was spent, catching her breath after the thumb had disappeared with no idea if it would come back. Restless and weary, she was catching this breath but felt as if she was becoming even more exhausted as each second passed. It was too quiet in the taxi and her own thoughts were too loud.

Leaning into the warm glass, she thought of the letter that had arrived at her door two weeks before on a sunny day after a week of rain. The sky was boasting blue on that day, too. The crisp, white envelope in her window was anything but expected and served to unravel the careful excavation she had been doing. Seeming a joke at first, she realized

it somehow arrived almost two years too late, yet exactly when she needed it most. Jay had sent her an email a few weeks after he had left, saying to expect something in the mail soon, but he had no idea when. Sending each other letters, poems, scribbles from whatever tiny corner of the world they found themselves in had become a tradition of theirs.

It was always a joy finding on her doorstep a postcard or tiny scribbled note of greeting in an envelope from some far-off place he had traveled to on her doorstep.

R, if you had told me

If you had told me, as we stood by the window and time crystalized to nothingness, that all would be what it is now, I would have been astounded. The sky shook and turned a sickly orange as we stood watching. Even the misunderstood parts of us looked on in awe – for once a similar thread held us together, and we drew breath in the same way. I am grateful for all the poetry I have lived out with you beside me.

To say I love and loved you once is an understatement. I ask myself what it is I know of love when too often I am unable to find the words necessary to describe it. You held my hand once – that felt nice. You felt nice. Time was on our side. Yet now it fades beyond our grips even as our fingertips circle each other’s palms filled with hope. Do not let go, you say. Do not let go either, I say. But nothing is holding us together except those very words. Weak threads.

We lie together against the bitter cold of the wintertime night and howling wind outside. I thought the stars were aligned for us, you say. Yes, they were. But we lost sight and moved to free will. The stars figured we knew what we were doing and left us to our fate. — J

Nothing else except those words.

In the days before he left, they had filled each day with all the things they enjoyed doing together. She had insisted they find and make time. It felt nice. Talking about the fears they had held onto, walls they had built separating themselves from the world, and all the ways they had not been able to make their ways to themselves. It felt like an unburdening. Embracing in the bus terminal, she had thrust her own envelope into Jay’s hand.

Even though she had told herself she was penning those words for him, in truth she had written them for herself, too. For the parts they had allowed themselves to share and for all the time they had poured into all the love they could.

J, all about love

There are things – moments that look like love. Like the hold of a hand or some other memory of tenderness you assumed you did not deserve as you closed yourself away from it all. It also looks like the day you decided you were worthy and let yourself hold every feeling. You held the door open and let it rush upon you. There is a multitude of places that mean love, and each one is a kindness you deserve. — R

Reo smiled watching him walk away.

It felt warm inside her heart.

He disappeared behind the glass doors into the gleaming blue of the day, into the red bus and set on his journey towards home. For all the fears she might have had about starting over, she could not deny the magic of his letter arriving two years later, just as she was packing away her life to set out on the road as he had all that time ago.

Or that of the sunny spoekasem-filled skies.

Or the dancing dust devil and the way it held her time like the stolen glances and leaning-in dances they had been too afraid to dance before those few summer days.

Reo closed her eyes, leaning deeper into the warmth of the glass window. The taxi rattled on along the road no longer with a devil fire at its wheels but with the fearless dance of the dust devil ready to rewrite her fears.

Photograph by Hector Ramon Perez on Unsplash.

Boipelo Seswane is a Seoul-based South African artist. She is a teacher, performer/creator (actor, model, painter), and writer with experience in multiple facets of creativity, including writing, editing, theater, and film. She has always been interested in interrogating life through words and other forms of expression. @bopzybee

Interview by William Urbanski

GFN, the Gwangju Foreign Language Network, has a brand-new radio show that has hit the airwaves this spring: Way Back With U. The cohosts of the station’s newest project are Aline Verduyn, who is new to GFN, and Woong Tae Ryu, a veteran GFN host. The Gwangju News was fortunate to be able to interview the show’s cohosts recently. — Ed.

Gwangju News (GN): The first thing I would like to know about is this YouTube Live initiative you are doing. Why did you decide to go with a “multimedia” approach to your show?

Aline Verduyn (Aline): Ah, you must be referring to the Birthday Special we did on April 1! We streamed our show live on YouTube and interacted with our listeners live for the first time. It was a lot of fun, and we are now thinking of making this a regular practice. We are still working on it but would love to interact more with our listeners.

Woong Tae Ryu (Tae): Before we even mention it, I think you all know it. Although radio is one of the most profound broadcasting mediums out there, it is handing over its position to new platforms, like YouTube. It is a general consensus in the radio industry that it would be very difficult for radio to survive without merging or using the power of YouTube in one way or another. Also, after a couple of months of piloting, we are planning to promote our show on other platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. So, sit tight and be ready for it!

GN: How did both of you get involved with GFN? Did you have previous experience in broadcasting?

Tae: You know, when you read this kind of interview, the interviewees often say things like “I never dreamed of doing this kind of thing for a living.” Well, welcome to my life! Before doing this, I was just working for conventional Korean companies in overseas marketing. But the passion for leveling-up my English proficiency, combined with a crucial push factor from a near life-threatening office drama, made me crazy-brave enough to dive into the completely new realm of radio broadcasting. Oh, one more fun fact about me: I landed my job here at GFN six

years ago by doing an impersonation of Agent Smith in The Matrix during the interview.

Aline: Well, I miraculously rolled into my position only six months ago, when I was interviewed by GFN for Gwangju People. In awe of the experience, I said I was willing to come back for anything else they would need me for! They took me seriously, and I then did a little segment called “Lost in Translation” with our favorite host, Arlo. So, this new show is not only a new adventure but a massive promotion and a great honor for me!

GN: How would you describe the “radio chemistry” between the two of you?

Tae: Absolutely off the charts! I really could not have asked for a better cohost, coworker, secretary, teacher, communicator, friend, or more simply, a better human being! In the very first week of the show, some listeners told us that they thought we had known each other for a very long time because we were just telepathically synchronized (if you have ever watched the Japanese animation series Evangelion, you would get this reference instantly), but we basically just met at a brainstorming meeting, without even having a chance to formally or informally introduce ourselves to each other, less than a week before the show was launched. Considering that, our chemistry is even more miraculous, on a cosmic level, I would say.

Aline: [Flattered] I agree! Absolutely superlative! I do not know whose idea it was to pair us up, but I could not have asked for a better cohost, partner in crime, and mentor. We are two peas in a pod. Thanks to our different backgrounds and talents, we are constantly learning from each other. We understand each other (including our sense of humor!) so well and have so much fun on the

show together. My favorite messages that we get from the listeners are the ones saying our chemistry is good, so I am happy that listeners have picked up on that and the positive vibes transmitting through our microphones.

GN: Listening to the show, I noticed that it switches between English and Korean pretty seamlessly. How do you find a balance between the two languages? Also, why is this an important feature of the show?

Aline: Yes, we love the bilingual aspect of our show! Creating a bilingual environment starts with considering it to be normal to switch between languages. And that is how we are – all the time! Listeners can pick up on a few words in the other language while still following the gist of our news items. Before you know it, you will all be bilingual!

Tae: For GFN, up until recently, the target audience was expats in the Jeollanam-do area. However, a lot of factors started to seep in that required rethinking our strategy. Those include both a decreasing number of international students on government scholarships and of English teachers, and the rise of YouTube. So, GFN set the new direction of embracing more local Korean listeners. Also, another underlying factor could be that South Korea seems to be in the entry stages of becoming a multicultural society, with more multicultural families in rural areas and more expats getting media exposure. Hence, the bilingual show – to answer the call of the era.

GN: Talk about the importance of your time slot: 6:10 to about 8:00 p.m.

Aline: Well, it is an honor to be on prime-time radio every day! We have big shoes to fill following Arlo’s seven-year tenure. We say that we are “responsible for your evening” and a “companion on your way back home from work.”

Tae: As Aline said, prime time! That is when most of our target audience tunes in: expats, students, office workers, anyone trying to learn English or Korean by listening to both an informative and fun radio show. So, here is our selling point. Unlike other so-called news shows, these key words are what we are all about: informative, fun, homey. On your way back home from a long day, you would not want to tune in to something overly serious or critical. You want to relax, but you kind of want to know what has been happening around the world while you were at work. So that is where we come in. Just like good old buddies, with a pat on the back, we talk to our dear listeners, saying, “Hey, I know it’s been another long day, but you did good. Now, just sit back and relax, and we’ll tell you what’s been happening today.”

GN: There have been a lot of shake-ups at GFN lately – program changes, etc. When you were developing the show, what lessons did you take into consideration? Tae: When it comes to radio station shake-ups, or reshuffling, I think there are two kinds. The first is seasonal or yearly shake-ups – the regular ones – and then there are the “earthquake” shake-ups where programs are either terminated or created. When Way Back With U was first conceived, it came from the latter, as it was the first time in GFN’s history to put a bilingual show in its prime-time slot, where the show City of Light had been for over seven years led by our veteran host Arlo. Arlo’s show and his style of conducting a show is tailored towards more traditional radio listeners and, it can also be said, for more of the intellectual types. Now, for our Way Back With U, Aline and I try to inherit the informative element of Arlo’s show and mix it up with our golden retriever and poodle-like reactions to keep it relaxing and fun on everyone’s way back home after work. So, informative and fun – two birds with one stone.

GN: With so much happening in the world today, how do you decide what to talk about every day?

Aline: In the first half of the show, we cover a lot of news updates in the show’s different segments: “What’s Up Today,” “Hello World,” “Today’s Korea,” and “Eyes on Gwangju.” Unfortunately, it is not always positive news. A lot of sensitive topics are addressed, but we try to keep an open and positive mindset. To keep things upbeat, our team always finds quirky news that makes us chuckle or smile, like that article about the bear entering a house and being chased out by two small barking dogs!

Tae: We keep the best for last: “In Your Letter.” That is where we read the heart-warming stories of our listeners. They have made us laugh, tear up, and ponder. So, if you have a story you would like to share with us, be it happy, sad, or funny, please do not hesitate to submit it to gfnwayback@gmail.com! Include a song request, and it will make for an excellent end to our show. So, stay tuned!

Woong Tae Ryu loves genuine conversations with people from different walks of life and loves them even more when they require learning a new language. This human golden retriever spent five years in the U.S. trying to study numbers but instead ended up making lifelong friends and mastering their language. Marking his sixth year at GFN, Tae started hosting the new flagship show Way Back With U with Aline, the best cohost on Planet Earth.

Aline Verduyn has lived in Korea for five years across different cities and is now happily settled in Gwangju, where she is co-hosting Way Back With U on GFN Radio and working on her master’s thesis. @gwangjumiin

Top of The Drop By Daniel J. Springer

In only the second release and first full-length since the untimely death of Daniel “MF Doom” Dumile was announced on December 31 of last year (he’d passed exactly two months before, true to his supervillain style, on Halloween), Super What? just dropped on May 7 in collaboration with Czarface. The latter is a supergroup project formed in 2013 between Wu Tang’s Inspectah Deck and Brooklyn-based underground duo 7L & Esoteric. True to that ethic and the general penchant hip-hop artists have for albums full of collabs, Super What? features a bevy of oldschool heavies on the LP, with features from Del The Funky Homosapien, DMC, and more up-and-coming artists like Kendra Morris and Godforbid. Not a mind-blowing album but a fun and quality listen.

For those of you looking for that album of the year, St. Vincent's (true name: Annie Clark) sixth career studio LP is both a departure for the artist stylistically and surely one for those that love the power of the human voice. It’s a mellow, funky journey through some quite dark memories for the Bowiesque shapeshifting chameleon, and an album that surely reflects its own meticulous construction in illuminating ways. However, it’s the vocal arrangements and the power of Clark’s voice that stands out above all the other qualities, with wicked shrieks, howls, and very long carries that make this album a must high in the running for album of the year.

Known mainly as a dance music producer since his debut seven years ago, the North Carolinabased producer and DJ’s previous work has been an interesting meld of ebullient escapism and cinematic pop, with the confidence of youth shining through. On his latest album Nurture, we see the artist taking a bit of a different track, at least thematically, exploring the difficulties of finding any kind of positive permanence, most notably tranquility and closure.

In a tremendous slept-on LP from late January that has gotten rave reviews from the likes of Pitchfork and a feature piece in The New York Times, the artist's latest Urban Driftwood has been a delightful sneaky surprise in the first half of the year. This is the 24-year-old guitarist’s sophomore LP, and while 2018’s Unwind felt a bit like a technical skills showpiece, Urban Driftwood has much more of a progression and overall narrative than that, culminating in a blissful final piece that features for the only time a bit of rhythm from some koras and hand drums that punches the end to this fantastic album.

The Beatles veteran, now 78, has been a very active presence in the last handful of years, and it seems he finally hit his stride last year with his latest LP III. Well, to show that the old man still knows who’s hot stuff on the modern scene, he released McCartney III Imagined, a remix compilation and showcase of some of the established vets and young artists he’s been enjoying. Remixes and covers from the aforementioned St. Vincent, along with Phoebe Bridgers, Anderson. Paak, Khruangbin, and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien make for an album that’s not to be missed.

The Los Angeles-based band that was originally the solo project of Michigan native Ben Schneider had long been hinting that their fourth LP was in the works, but fans were kind of left in the dark as to what exactly was going down. However, with the release of this languid, glorious bit of strings and desert soul, the band released this, the title track to their latest full-length. “Long Lost” dropped on May 21 via Whispering Pines/Republic Records.

It’s hard to fully emphasize and describe the forwardthinking eminence of the man who created the afrobeat sound in the early 70s as the main percussion behind Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band. Unfortunately, the great spirit called him back last year, but There Is No End defies even the almighty with 45 minutes of scintillating collabs.

In what might be the most on-the-nose of the deluge of post-Covid prognoses to be commercially released, this one muses on the not-so-hypothetical of what might happen when Hollywood reaches irrelevance with a dreamy, funky accompaniment that has become the singer’s trademark.

In the latest single from Gwangju-based (supervilain) Oisin Magee, we finally get an irreverent video shot at Daein Market along with a look at the young maven of mystery for those of us that aren’t super local. Produced and arranged by Gwangju’s percussion master Dan Lloyd, the song itself is a perfect bit of sun-splashed rock for a summer drive or barbecue.

It could be interpreted as kind of weird to muse (even effusively) how lucky we are in Gwangju to have Johannesburg, South Africa, native Lizz Kalo gracing our scene, but it’s not off the mark. The artist, who made her solo debut last year in November with Y.O.U., is making a big mark on the local scene with a tremendous new monthly event in “Creative Social.” Check out the second “Creative Social” monthly on June 5 and moving forward as this is a landmark event not to be missed!

If you’re talking about the local expat music scene here in Gwangju, Andrew Vlasblom is surely one of the men in the middle. Vlasblom has released a follow-up LP to 2019’s Boardwalk City Blues with another quality mix of folk, soul, and jazz in Hitchhiking for Love, a semiautobiographical album about his travels across North America as a young man.

Nancy Wilson – You and Me

Sons of Kemet – Black to the Future St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home Jorja Smith – Be Right Back The Black Keys – Delta Kream

May 21 Lord Huron – Long Lost

Black Midi – Cavalcade k.d. lang – Makeover

June 1 Lana Del Rey – Baptize

Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee Black Pumas – Capitol Cuts: Live from Studio A

Garbage – No Gods No Masters June 12 V/A – Truth to Power

Kings of Convenience – Peace or Love

Lucy Dacus – Home Video Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny haha

Daniel J. Springer (aka “Danno”) is the creator, host, writer, editor, and producer of “The Drop with Danno,” broadcasting nightly on GFN 98.7 FM in Gwangju and 93.7 FM in Yeosu between 8 and 10 p.m. Prior to this, he was a contributor to several shows on TBS eFM in Seoul, along with being the creator and cohost of “Spacious” and “White Label Radio” on WNUR in Chicago. You can find “The Damyang Drop,” his monthly collaborative playlist with The Damyang House, on YouTube and Spotify. @gfnthedrop