From Slack to SXSW: My Journey with Yogetsu Akasaka

Back in the summer of 2020, the world was in lockdown, and I found myself taking an online meditation class at MIT. It was a time of introspection, and like many others, I was trying to find some semblance of peace amidst the chaos. One day, during our discussions on mindfulness and zen, a classmate dropped a bombshell in our Slack channel—a video of a Zen Buddhist priest turned beatboxing sensation, Yogetsu Akasaka. The conversation went something like, "Tateki, do you know him?" My response was a simple "No," but little did I know, this brief exchange was the beginning of something much bigger.