There’s something irresistibly simple and fun about Jason Solarek’s AirWear line. Emblazoned with global airport codes and unabashedly, cheerfully yellow, his messenger bags communicate glocal life like a cryptic message between folks with ties and homes the world over.

Perfectly sized for laptop travel and weekend world jaunts, roughly 60 codes are available for order now here.

Or, because TRACERS are unmatched at making new homes in new places, you can email TRACE here and get any code you call home on a free custom, one-of-a-kind piece.

Amatus-sami has come a long way since she first learned the jazz standards from her dad, riding around in his taxi while he scatted along with the radio. Born in Chicago, raised in Philly and now living in New York, she’s risen the ranks as an electronically-inflected female producer and a hypnotic soul and hip-hop singer.

But along the way, this mixed Arabic, transcultural multi-talent has also picked up wisdom — including a few tips from ?uestlove, Barry Harris and Meshell Ndegeocello — and a mission: it’s hard for young artists to make it, harder now than in a long time.

With her debut album, “Everything in Pieces,” in the works, Amatus is also leading a charge to connect young artists and to seek support outside of an industry hesitant to compensate artists unless they produce cookie-cutter sounds and radio ephemera.

Check out the first in a series of events and fundraisers this Sunday, May 4th at Libation in New York with DJ Rich Medina, DJ Center and Amatus-sami herself. But before that, check out it out below as Amatus tell us about the music revolution, her addictive album and what web tech 2.0 has done to musicians.

TRACE: From your own experience with the industry, what needs to change?

Amatus-Sami: Everything! Artist development. Everything moves so quickly. There are a lot of talented people that don’t get to hang in there as much or get the opportunity that would take them, who knows, wherever they need to go. I don’t feel like people invest in the industry well and people don’t stick in the industry long enough to really feel it’s creativity span beyond just one genre.

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So much could be said about the insidious way mainstream media has re-appropriated graffiti. Many still question the credibility of street artists who choose a gallery or any other “conventional commercial outlets” over the street to display their work; but still, graffiti remains one of the most intricate and creative art form!

Over the last few years Fafi has imposed herself as one the leading female graffiti artists (alongside Claw Money, Indie , Miss Van…) and this is just the beginning, the fafinettes are here to stay!

After the bags, the shoes and the make-up she’s now invading your desk with these ultra-girlie sets of “sticky-notes”, notebooks and vinyl-shaped notepads, courtesy of Japanese brand Mark’s.

Check them out here.

Late in 2007, British soul singer Estelle’s plea — well, demand really — to be taken cross-country by some Yankee dude could be heard across the U.S, and the people loved it. That first single, “American Boy”, featuring Kanye West, became a multi-platinum hit stateside for the half Senegalese-half Grenadian singer who signed to long-time collaborator John Legend’s Homeschool Records last year.

Estelle, 28, has her own brand of soul, mixing electronic, hip hop and reggae-dub stylings on her upcoming album Shine, which will be released in the U.S. tomorrow, April 29.

Until then, Estelle will be bringing her Brit groove across the pond to New York’s Highline Ballroom tonight as part of her Shine tour. The girl’s got presence and a strong voice that is sure to please as much as her hit single.

For more info on Estelle, click here and for tix, click here.

Estelle
Highline Ballroom
431 W 16th St
Between 9th and 10th Ave

Watch out! Once you’ve heard her terribly catchy and sexy sound you’ll be caught. But who exactly is DJ Missill? DJ, VJ, producer, graphic designer?

As a “self-made woman”, Missill has built her own private Idaho that she is willing to share with dance clubbers. Her universe is composed of hip hop and electro bits mixed with animé characters.

Nicknamed the “Urban punk” by British media, she hit definitely her target earlier this year with well-named album “Targets,” adding to her usual signature a dose of ragga breakbeat and stings of rock. Her ultimate mission: to win over your hearts…

The fourth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is going on from Tuesday, April 29th through Sunday, May 4th. 181 writers from 51 countries are participating in 82 events in New York. I think you should be able to find one or two that appeal to you. Go here for more information on the festival, and here for a full schedule of events.

Also this week:

Tuesday, April 29, 7:30pm
Housing Works Used Bookstore & Café (126 Crosby St.)
Circumference: A Journal of Poetry in Translation

Close out Poetry Month by attending this reading from the newest issue of Circumference, which, as the byline suggests, is a literary journal featuring poetry in translation. Brian Henry will read his reads his translations of Tomaz Salamun and Ales Steger from the Slovenian; Christina Svendsen will read translations of Kurt Schwitters from German, Jeffrey Yang will read his treanslation of Su Shi from Chinese, and Bitite Vinklers will read translations of Imants Ziedonis from Latvian. To be followed with a Q + A and signing.

Friday, May 2, 7:00pm
McNally Robinson (52 Prince Street between Lafayette and Mulberry)
Jonathan Lethem and DJ Spooky

It’s a night of music and language at McNally on Friday. Jonathan Lethem (author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude) is reading from his latest novel, his latest novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet, now out in paperback if you were waiting to read it until then. Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, will read from Sound Unbound, a meditation on the remix.

With her voice flickering soulfully, Ayo could melt stone. She has that kind of voice, entirely her own, that you will hear once and recognize instantly forever.

But as much as Ayo’s airy yet earthy chords are all her own, so too are her socially incisive lyrics, style and musical composition, which are transcultural to their core, drawing on her Roma and Nigerian parents, her Germanic childhood and her Parisian love.

Don’t miss this one. She’s opening the ground-breaking series, World Nomads, at the Alliance Francaise in New York next Thursday, May 1st.

Also up at World Nomads, which celebrates and interrogates world citizenship from Africa outwards, catch up with literary talents Nuruddin Farah, Abdourahman Waberi, and Chenjerai Hove; a stunning film series on legendary director Ousmane Sembène’s influence on African cinema; an intimate chat with Claude Grunitzsky, founder and Editor-in-Chief of TRACE; and the brilliant beats of DJ Spooky.

Check out of the full schedule of World Nomads here, Ayo’s talent here and DJ Spooky here.

Following the mutually agreed-upon departure of Marina at the end of last year, Gorky and Pedro came up with the genius but slightly random idea of auditioning for Bonde de Role’s new band member through what seems to be the usual reality TV route of searching for one on air.

With the help of MTV Brazil, screening over 100 Bonde wannabes and an extensive schedule of karaoke comps and mud wrestling, the victorious new members are Ana Bernardino and Laura Taylor.

You heard right; they decided not on one but two new female vocalists!! The new quartet have announced plans for a North American tour kicking off in late April in which the band will hit Miami, cross coasts to the Coachella Festival and then work back east from there.

Bonde Do Role will be performing on Saturday, April 26th along with Prince, M.I.A, Hot Chip, Marc Ronson and many more at Coachella, running from today through Sunday at the Polo Fields in Indio, California. Other exciting performances across the weekend include; Black Kids, The Raconteurs, Santogold and Spank Rock.

It’s going to be hot…literally!!

Check out Coachella’s full listing here and Bonde de Role’s schedule here.

Camp-outs and concerts in tandem automatically conjure images of mud-covered revelers at Woodstock swaying to the beat of somebody’s guitar and professing everything is love under a certain herbal haze.

Don’t expect flower power when Cool Kids step on the stage at Coachella Music Festival this weekend. Chuck 23 and Mikey Rocks, the Cool Kids, are better known for the kind of heavy, spare beats and verbal acrobatics that are more likely to knock the petals off said flowers.

The duo got together a few years ago after Chuck 23 heard one of Mikey Rocks’ beats online and reached out to him. It was kismet: they decided to collaborate and good thing for us, it worked out. Over the past two years, the duo rose from the Chicago underground on the strength of their beats and rhymes on a string of indie rap hits that include “Gold and a Pager” and “Black Mags” the latter a shout-out to BMX bikes.

Not content to let the sleeping dog lie, they’re set to release “The Bake Sale” EP on May 20 and an as-yet-untitled full length album later this year on their label, C.A.K.E. Recordings.

For a taste of what they have in store at Coachella, check them out here and here.

(UP)Rising Sonz! is no easy phenomenon to explain. Recently, it has become a book, but even in that form it becomes something more — a collection of connections made with images and ideas.

Created by Mark Felt and TRACE contributer, Scott Kinsey, (UP)Rising Sonz! feels like the lifebook of a micromovement or a mad roadtrip undertaken by ’soul skaters’ who travel through (sub)cultural and lingual borders by skating, experimenting with styles, making art and tagging up their urban global playgrounds.

In reality, UPRising Sonz! started as a simple creative endeavor to connect up with Japanese skaters, travel and kick around on a strong DIY tip.

We caught up with Scott to check in with his own thoughts on what (UP)Rising Sonz! is all about, what exactly a ‘Soul Skater’ is and what’s up with global youth subcultures.

Check out the book here.

TRACE: In your own words, what is (UP)Rising Sonz!?

Scott Kinsey: (UP)Rising Sonz! communicates so many things on so many different levels to each of us that was involved in its creation. We set out to create a project in which we could first and foremost, be creative and
we wanted to work with our friends to incorporate all the things that make us happy in life. The point of all this was to get lost in the moment…Lost in the art of it all with friends and family and share our experience and our art. (UP)Rising Sonz! is our window into the lifestyle of our friends and family. It is creativity, it is skateboarding, it is art, it is a lifestyle.

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