Grab your máscaras and join us as we celebrate the joyful Caribbean and Latin American tradition of Carnaval with music, storytelling, dance workshops, and art-making for all ages. It all takes place on Saturday, Feb. 15, from noon to 4 p.m. at El Museo del Barrio in Harlem.
Details here.
BRONX, N.Y. — Brown Bears at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo “bear-ly” notice the 8-degree temperatures and feel right at home in 11 inches of fresh snow.
New music roundup!
Upcoming shows I want to see:
Just making this “to do” list public so I have to oblige and not punk out in favor of catching up on “Scandal” on the Roku.
La Mecanica Popular at the Electric Cowbell and Barbes APAP Showcase 2014 THIS VERY SATURDAY at DROM.
Helado Negro at the Silent Barn Bushwick, Brooklyn, in early February.
Buika at Town Hall in NYC this April.
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Tour video!
Last, but certainly not least, have you been to Panama? I sure haven’t! But I want to go. Check out this behind-the-scenes footage of Making Movies recent trip to the homeland of the Chi brothers (lead singer-songwriter/guitarist and bassist of the band). You’ll feel as if you’re there and live vicariously through them, EXCEPT for the part in which they hold snakes and scorpions. No thank you! 🙂
The band never stops touring, really. So stay tuned for upcoming tour dates here.
So if you’re into good music, the funky stuff with SOUL, you have to be into Sharon Jones. Born in Georgia but raised in New York City, Jones has a very interesting music career. After years of trying to make it in the business, including stints as a corrections officer and armored car guard, she got a record deal in her middle age when someone discovered her backing vocals on a Lee Fields track. (Fields is another of my favorites, and also someone who ‘made it’ later in life.)
I saw Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in concert on the Upper East Side a few years ago and was blown away. Her energy was contagious. (Yes, this meant white people were having dance spasms in the audience of Beacon Theater. It was amazing.)
And this is why I’m super pleased to share news that one of my favorite DJs from Texas, Chorizo Funk, has put some of her best tracks into a mix: ‘#WeLoveSharon.’ Whew, it’s got so many of my favorites, including “I’m Not Gonna Cry (Scroll to 13:41 in the mix).” Damn that woman could SING!
By the way, this is the second in Chorizo Funk‘s “#WeLove” series. The first one, #WeLoveOtis, is one full hour of the best Otis Redding jams ever. Listen to and download it here.
And keep up with Chorizo Funk’s gigs and new mixes on his Facebook page. And catch Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings live (you must!) by checking her tour dates here.
Totally random fact about me. If I’m getting ready to go out on a Saturday night, chances are I’m listening to old archives of “The Danny Stiles” radio show.
Stiles, who died in 2011, had this totally rad show in which he played “the greatest records of the 1900s” from 8 to 10 p.m. on Saturday nights on WNYC (820AM). Luckily, WNYC still airs archived shows.
I don’t know … it may seem corny, but throughout the show, I imagine couples dancing at parties in that era. In fact, Styles will talk about parties during the Depression, which must have felt like the highlight of the week, considering the circumstances.
I feel as if you could never stop learning about music history in this country. Stiles didn’t just play songs by the greats, such as Frank Sinatra, or one of my personal favorites, Glenn Miller. (Listen to “In The Mood.” You’ll know it. It was a global hit in its day.)
Stiles pays homage to the history of music from our country, often featuring musicians of color, who as you may know, are at the roots of American music, though it was brought to the mainstream by record labels and white singers.
On this week’s show, he played a song that I know (incorrectly) as “Mani” (the Spanish word for peanut) because I’ve heard it on old Spanish radio stations. The song is called “El Manisero/The Peanut Vendor” and though there were several versions by many recording artists, it was Louis Armstrong who made it a big hit in the 1930s as Cuban rhythms was influencing music in the States. It was smart of Armstrong to record it. All of this I learned on the Danny Stiles show.
But wait! There’s more.
How does listening to this show translate to music I’ve heard in the nightclubs today? Well, using “The Peanut Vendor” as an example, Uproot Andy (real name: Andy Gillis) tends to play this track (I’m guessing this is the version he plays, though I can’t be 100 percent sure) at his well-known “Que Bajo?” monthly parties. It’s obvious they sampled “The Peanut Vendor” sound. And now I’ll think of Danny Stiles and Louis Armstrong in 1930 the next time I hear it!
Bonus fact: Another of my favorite Big Band songs is “Midnight, the Stars, and You,” by Ray Noble, otherwise known as one of the songs in The Shining. Creepy, right? 🙂
Re-post from Lindsay Brooke Davis’ blog:
Good afternoon, friends!
Oh, what a day it’s been so far. Some of you follow me on Facebook and may recall an update about a man who Googled me on his iPad while we were on his second date, found some footage of me reporting from SXSW and proceeded to google the model/presenter who set up the segment so we can look at her in a bikini.
This inspired me to finally create a web series I had been thinking about for over a year called Bad Dates in the City, currently in pre-production! #LBDinNYCProds @BadDates
After I decided I had no interest in seeing this man again, I ignored his three texts “Did you take the bus home? “How’s it going?” and “Hello”) which came over a span of a week and a half until I opted to text him back this morning to the polite tune of, “Thanks for the other night and it was nice meeting you, but don’t wish to chat further. Thanks and good luck! Best, Lindsay”
Well, here is how this Ivy league grad with an MBA that I met on JDate responded:
Read the rest here.
Me and spoken word don’t have much of a relationship. When it first appeared on my radar in 2002 via HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, I couldn’t watch it (I was working nights then) and somehow [wrongly] figured it wouldn’t be my thing.
A few years later, while working at a radio station in New Jersey, my boss gave me a a pair of tickets to Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. I figured, why not? I was instantly blown away. It was like rap, which I was a fan of, but at a varied tempo and performance style, and subjects ranged from life in the city to feminism.
Still, I didn’t keep up with it much. Though it was at its height then, venues hosting spoken word were few and far between when I lived in New Jersey (outside of college campuses, that is) and as a journalist working crazy hours in the middle of the Garden State, I wasn’t able to frequent New York City’s Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe. As they say, life gets in the way.
Silly me. I shouldn’t be surprised at all that the Internet is rife with spoken word videos. And it gives me great pleasure to share the latest by one of my frat brothers (yes, I was in a sorority in college), Goya Robles.
If you’re a fan of CBS’s The Mentalist, you’ll be familiar with Robles as he starred in an episode two weeks ago. He’s an actor (watch his reel here) and spoken word artist (and lots, lots more) and “Heart Music” is his latest.
See more of my colleague Tom Stoelker’s work here.
Bronx, NY –– Nov. 13, 2013 – On Friday, Nov. 15, Deputy Bronx Borough President Aurelia Greene will join officials from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo and children from PS 205 at Zoo Center to kick-off Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.’s holiday toy drive to benefit Bronx military families.
In honor of the start of the holiday season, school children from PS 205 will be on hand to donate the first toys of the year.
The partnership between the Bronx Zoo and the Borough President on the toy drive has become an annual tradition. The Bronx Zoo will serve as a collection point for new, unwrapped toys donated by members of the community. Toys will be collected through the end of December and will be distributed by the Borough President’s office to local veterans and active-duty members of the military and their families.
In appreciation for their generosity, those who make a qualifying donation of a new, unwrapped toy at any of WCS’s wildlife parks between Saturday, Nov. 16 and Tuesday, Dec. 31 will receive a free ticket to the Bronx Zoo or New York Aquarium depending on location.
Toys will also be collected at the other WCS wildlife parks. Toys collected at Central Park Zoo and Queens Zoo will be donated to families in need within the communities they serve. Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium will collect toys to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. Toys donated at the Prospect Park Zoo and New York Aquarium will receive a ticket to the New York Aquarium. Visit http://www.wcs.org/toydrive/.
If you’ve ever walked around an urban neighborhood in a major city, you may have noticed them being sold on tables set up on the streets. They are slim novels, and usually depict people in the cover art. They are urban fiction books.
Also found in bodegas, urban fiction (also known as street lit) is one of literature’s fast-growing genres.
I recently got a chance to interview New York’s Melissa Castillo-Garsow, a Mexican-American author and Yale doctoral student. Her first street lit novel, Pure Bronx, which she co-wrote with her mentor, Fordham University professor Mark Naison, is set in the Boogie Down.
Read my interview with Castillo-Garsow, in which she gives her thoughts on the origin of the book, but also about health and fitness (the story appeared on the Latino-centric health and wellness website, Vida Vibrante), here.
But, below, she talks to me about the characters of Pure Bronx, Khalil and Rasheeda, a young couple from the South Bronx, trying to make it out of the ghetto and have a taste of the prosperity middle class Americans take for granted.
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Gina Vergel: Dr. Naison mentioned (in an interview with the student newspaper, The Ram) that the story has a social justice aspect. Why did you two include such an aspect in this story?
Melissa Castillo-Garsow: Social justice for me is something that has always been a major part of my life. I originally did not like English or writing classes- the stories and main characters (mostly white male) never resonated with me and neither did classical language like that of Shakespeare. I was a good student, but I struggled a lot and didn’t enjoy reading very much. I first began to write because I proposed a column for the high school newspaper about human rights. I was a member of Amnesty International (one of two or three at my school) and was deeply concerned that people my age did know about what was happening in the world. Since then, everything I do has must have some sort of social justice aspect – I wouldn’t consider it worthy of my time, otherwise. Art for Arts sake is just not how I function. Art, writing, even academia (in the model of someone like Gloria Anzaldua) should invoke thought and emotion.
What many of the Street Lit books lacked, Dr. Naison and I found, was that aspect of social commentary. They often ended very tragically through the trope of the inevitable result of ghetto life, or overly glamorized monetary aspects of “the Life.” We wanted to provide an alternative narrative – that involvement in illegal or unsavory activities does not define you. Other possibilities are available and fulfilling, especially if you commit to social justice and your community.
GV: What can you tell me about Rasheeda’s character?
MC-G: Rasheeda is definitely a strong female character. Raised in poverty, she is committed to bettering herself through high education, even when every aspect of her life provides her with other models or tells her its not possible. She overcomes many traumatic experiences without the guidance of a father or mother while assuming responsibility for her younger brother. I loved living with Rasheeda for the years we worked on this. She is so determined, strong and confident. But she is also sassy and fun. She is the one the keeps Khalil in check.
GV: Since the story is set in the Bronx, an area teeming with Latinos these days, how much do they come into play in the story?
MC-G: Latinos are an important part of the story because they are a vital part of the Bronx. Like many African Americans, two of Rasheeda’s closest friends are Puerto Rican and there are also Mexican and Honduran characters. Khalil also understands Spanish from having grown up in projects with Puerto Ricans and other Latinos as well. At the same time we don’t glamorize relations in the Bronx – some of the African American – Latino relationships are friendship, others are antagonistic. But you will definitely find español in Pure Bronx!!
GV: You’re a doctoral student. What will your dissertation be on? What do you hope to do with your Ph.D? Teach? Any plans to continue with Street Lit?
MC-G: My dissertation is going to be on Afro-Latinos in 1920s and 1930s New York City. Afro-descended Latinos in this country are a completely understudied and diverse group in this country, especially in this time period. And yet, it was such a vibrant, artistic and important time in African American history. I want to uncover how Latinos (who because of their appearance and segregation were in very close quarters with African Americans) were relating or not relating to black culture and politics.
I do hope to teach, specifically Latino Literature and History, and perhaps some creative writing.
I also have a deep interest in popular culture – particularly Latino/a and Latin American Hip Hop. Currently, for example, I am working on a project about Mexican Hip Hop in New York. (Ed. That sounds interesting to us!)
Maybe more street lit? I’m not sure. We do have a sequel to Pure Bronx in mind. I guess it just depends on if there’s interest!
Read more about Melissa Castillo-Garsow on her website.
periMENTAL 