Stevie Wonder- Wonderful at the Apollo Theater recap
Fresh night at The Apollo as the honored and inducted Stevie Wonder into the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame. Sinbad hosted the night which kicked off with a performance by Raphael Saadiq. Wyclef Jean introduced a video clip of Stevie’s work as an activist and also introduced a performance by Melanie Fiona. Tony Bennett gave a short piece and then did a duet with Stevie. Take 6 did a strong acappella set and Yolanda Adams was one of the final performers covering a Stevie Wonder track. The night went full tilt when Ray Chew (and the Crew who backed all performances) brought out Questlove, Chick Corea, Paul Shaffer, Dougie Fresh. The after-party highlights were Stevie and Dougie Fresh freestyling and live remixing a couple of tracks. See videos here
TTK: Urban Equistrian Photo Recap
Shout out to my boy Dre and TTK. Dope show and concept. Plus there were tons of Lo heads with some classic Lo gear. Look at the Cosby piece in the Lo sweater and the Storm Troopers dressed to the nines in the Polo Olympic suits.
Hip Hop Howl Recap
Hip-Hop Howl: A NY Minute featured a bevy of performances by artists- some raw and others refined-as part of The Howl Festival. The Howl Festival is a three-day affair named after Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl.” The event celebrates the East Village and Lower East Side’s contribution to the arts in various aspects, including music, dance, poetry and more, with live painting, vendors, puppet shows and a lot of performances.
On 9.5.09, Crosby & Miz Metro presented Hip Hop Howl as a two part event, with the day event featuring one song performances and the night event featuring more artists from the “A NY Minute” mixtape. Overall, there were a few polished performances (namely Shinobi Ninja, Circa 95, Sciryl, Wordspit and Joya Bravo) that showed they have blessed a stage or two with their presence in the past as seen in their stage performance and the delivery of their art. Other talents had that niche following feeling that can’t be explained but one needs to know that it is there (I enjoyed Spills but can’t explain why). Overall, the event had a great vibe as you saw all the artists entering the audience and jamming to their peers. See the photos below and click more to see video of Spills and Joya Bravo.
(more…)
Parlour #7 The Golden Girls Exhibit – Recap
Last Friday, I got an invite to an art show. Friday night art show been there, done that and enjoy it every chance I get. This one was new to me as when I was looking up the address it pointed me to the Upper East Side. Now I am no gallery connoisseur but I was fairly certain there wasn’t a gallery at the indicated address; nonetheless I load up the toys and headed out.
I met up with Kaz and walked into the apartment and, as any experienced house-party goer knows, immediately sought out if there was an air conditioner, and more importantly, if it worked. After both were confirmed as Yes!, I secured space directly in its flow and interacted with the guests. Eventually I made my way to see the rest of the apartment and art. The space was well balanced with art, beverages and randomly placed candy spread through L. Stein’s apartment. The egg-shell / creamish white walls were decorated with various size canvas works that presented colorful and intricately detailed pieces. Sadly, I didn’t grab my correct lens so I couldn’t capture the best shots and to add lipstick to the pig-the batteries on my flash died – double fuckery!
The show was produced by Parlour and hosted at the home of L. Stein. This show was titled No. 7 – “The Golden Girls” and featured paintings by artists Alison Blickle and Megan Burns. Their works created fantasy-type environments that had feminist (not of the “I Hate Men” level) undertones and subjects, who expressed freedom and exploration.
Parlour was conceived by Ciara Gilmartin and Leslie Rosa-Stumpf (she is the excited one at the start of the post) as a nomadic art show traveling the world known as New York City, ever changing locations and art on display.
Night At The Museum – BK Style
Stop #3 on the fun binge was the Brooklyn Museum for Target First Saturday party. This month’s theme was “Celebrating the Caribbean: Its Bacchanal Time Again!” I kid you not the parking lot looked like a mass camp. Everyone had a grand old time dancing to the music, eating Dippin’ Dots and enjoying the beverages. The music was very heavy on Soca and Calypso tunes but veered off theme from time to time with Afrobeat (not saying anything is wrong with it!!). I ran into a few friends who joined in on the circle of dance.
Fresthetic 2 Year Anniversary Party
This was stop #2 on my 24-hour fun binge yesterday. Fresthetic celebrated the 2-year anniversary yesterday in WillyB. I passed through with my homegirl and a friend to check out the space for the first time. The small spot has a cornucopia of art affairs for all senses and what made yesterday’s event even better – THE ICEE Man was present. For those not in the know, the Icee Man is a name blanketed on all in the profession of service icees. The more established/traditional ones of this ilk tend to have three or four flavors max and these are always: Coco (coconut with real pieces), Cherry, Pina (Pina Colada) and Rainbow (time to time this flaor is not listed on the cart but is something you have to ask for). The Icee Man seemingly always know when an event is going on as they are always found near large or small gatherings of folks.
Fresthetic is a concept space founded by Randy Quiles, Michael Cordero, Eddie Soto, and Omar Corder in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The store front serves as a gallery space for a wide spectrum of artists and a shop featuring silk-screened clothing, bespoke jewelry, films and more. Back story time -I went to Junior H.S. (Phillipa Schulyer – still have my gym shirt) with Michael and we recently bumped back into each other a couple months back at a party in Fort Greene. Since then we continue to cross paths (most recently was at Afro Punk) at various artsy fartsy affairs around the city. As I continue to do artful good, I realize that the circle of similar folk is small, growing community. Pictures from the 2 year anny below.
Kiante and SoleFood NYC Block Party
Kiante the Sneaker Mann and Solefood teamed up with several sponsors, including The Source Magazine, to transform Lispenard Street (TriBeCa, NYC) into a Back to School block party, that featured live painting, giveaways and a back to school fashion show. Also, there were live paintings by 5 artists with 4 of them doing tributes to Mr. White Socks aka the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The event had a decent turnout as I can’t think of anyone in NYC who doesn’t like free music, giveaways and fun. I See the gallery below for images of the artists, their paintings, a performance and people that were all out at the event yesterday. I had to leave as the fashion show got started, so I didn’t get any pictures from it.
“Work To Do” Photo Recap
Fresh show in soho! The Greene Studio was completely covered in art- floor to ceiling- which made the show immersing! Check out the gallery for pictures from the event.
Justin Bua – Brooklyn Reception
The House of Art Gallery in Brooklyn, NY will host an artist reception and book signing for Justin Bua this Friday and Saturday. Come out and see some of his dope pieces and get your book signed by him. Bua’s art style is truly unique as he mixes strong character design with an unique mix of colors.
UPDATED with pictures
Mediums Art Gallery Post-Event
Below are pictures from Mediums at The Paint Factory opening night. It was a packed show with a wide assortment of artist. Be sure to check it out as the gallery will be open for another two weeks.
Puma Rings in 60th Birthday with Jus Ske, Charles Hamilton, The Knux and Chester French
The night opened with Jus Ske playing music for an hour playing everything from the expected hits, some mash-ups and other tracks. Harlem’s own pink poster child #2, Charles Hamilton took the stage after Ske’s mix and did a performance of a couple of his hits in what seemed like a short set filled with Hamilton joking with the crowd and performing a rapid fire set. The Knux, riding the high of being dubbed “the year’s best hip-hop debut” by Rolling Stone magazine, followed with what seemed to be a shorter but musically tighter flowing set than Charles Hamilton. There was a good amount of time for Ske to get back on and spin more music as the crowd grew antsy for Chester French to hit the stage. When the band finally did take the stage, the crowd was a little lighter as people left following each of the preceding performances. Chester French provided an energetic performance led by D.A. as the clock struck midnight reminiscent of label mates N.E.R.D.
Click below for pictures and video from the event.
Puma continues their birthday celebration with in-store discounts and concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Visit www.puma.com/bday48 for more information.
Recap of Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson Birthday Party
The posthumous power of Michael Jackson continued on Saturday as Spike Lee threw a birthday party for him in we Brooklynites’ claim to grass aka Prospect Park. There were easily over 1,000 people dancing through the rain soaked ground for a little over 5 hours as guests, including politicians, celebrities and the general audience came out to celebrate Michael’s 51st birthday. The power of Michael and his music were evident in the diverse and friendly setting that blanketed the park, as you had all makes of people out and about infectiously dancing, smiling and mouthing the words to Michael’s songs. I enjoyed seeing the impersonators – especially Black and White Mike dance in lockstep to several of MJ’s songs. You have to understand these two guys met in the press pit, for what I assume to be the first time, and reenacted Michael’s moves without a flaw. The musical selection, while great, left me with a slight gripe as there were several of the popular tunes replayed throughout the course of the day.
It is Michael and I have no problems with hearing P.Y.T., Beat It, Thriller and the list goes on, 2 or 3 times but when you get that count up to 5 or 6 and more often back to back playbacks you are left to wonder what about his other music. Easily the King of Pop has songs to span over 5 hours, while all are not dance/party-tempo friendly, the majority of his catalog contains songs that you can’t help but succumb to and groove.
White socks, glitter gloves, posters and bootleggers were all abundant to honor the King of Pop. All in – Spike Lee, NYC Parks, and all the people who helped make this happen did a phenomenal job on organizing, relocating and executing a birthday celebration that will go down in history for the positive vibes and the good, clean fun it provided. I look forward to seeing what he does with the footage. Below is a sneak peak at the pictures I shot from the event, I have many more that will be online later tonight.
August 31, 2009 | Categories: Art + Design, Audio + Video, Commentary, Events | Tags: Events, michael jackson, Spike Lee | 1 Comment »