Ashley August' Book Release Event !

    Ashley August is a 20 year old Brooklyn Native, Writer, Actress, FemCee and New York City's current Youth Poet Laureate. She began her poetic journey during the summer of 2009 at Urban Word NYC where she has taken part in various slams, competitions, and productions. Now August has released her first chapbook through Bronx-born publishing company Evolution NYC.

    The event was held at the funky bar/restaurant Drom NYC, in Manhattan's East Village. It is a very spacious, modern, stylish venue, and the lights were dim for a classy nighttime feel. The evening began with founder of Evol NYC, Ashley "Ajay" Johnson greeting and thanking all of the guests and then introducing out our hosts.

    The beautiful hosts were good friends of Ashley's and fellow artists, Mojo Disco and Jessica McGrath. Both were lively and very charismatic, entertaining the crowd with funny stories and clever remarks the whole night.
    The first poet to grace the stage was Jay Davis who introduced herself and stated that she hadn't performed in about six months, but would gladly be there for Madam August. The pieces she shared were some old, some new, all lovely. Her performance was followed by another good friend and FemCee Nossis. Nossis kept the energy in the room at an all time high while she performed 3 songs that she wrote and produced herself. Our final performer was Spoken Word artist Reynold Martin, who shared three of his most popular poems(I know because I've heard them before and he is amazing) just before the lady of the hour, Ahsley August, hit the stage reading straight from her book "Love Handles"

     "Love Handles" is a journey of the breaking, healing and discovery of Love's in's, out's and between's. It's a Brooklyn soul figuring out how exactly to handle Love. August performed a select few poems from "Love Handles, a few of which most of us were familiar with and impressed the crowd more than she already has before.

Here are a few photos from the night, courtesy of Kash Photography:

Nossis

Ashley August

Reynold Martin

The Audience

August performing alongside her friend Mariah

Mojo and Jessica

Jay Davis

     The hosts kept the party going, as well as the DJ, DJ Flip Bundlez. Somewhere during the night there was a Twerk/New Orleans Bounce battle between Mojo and a friend of Ashley's, I don't know who one but it was the icing on the cake of the unforgettable night.

Get your own copy of Love Handles HERE!
Also, connect with the artists!
Ashley August

EvolNYC

Kash Photography

FoxGold ?!

    Now I know her as Cristal Joshua, but she is now debuting as rapstress: FoxGold. Her first track "Deep Down Inside" hit the interweb just yesterday and it is quite promising. The song is very house, very upbeat and the Azealia Banks comparisons are certainly soon to come. But with this track FoxGold represents and declares who she is.






Listen:

   As a fan of Hip-Hop music I appreciate samples and as a young woman I appreciate other women speaking their mind and not being afraid to tell it like it is. Fox exudes confidence throughout the whole track and though we are all tryna bring house back, "Deep Down Inside" is effective and stands alone. This first single is exactly what a first single is supposed to be. It grabs attention, introduces who the artist is, and leaves the listener wanting more.

I have no idea what to expect from Foxgold but I am excited !

Check her out:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BadFoxGold
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/BadFoxGold
Tumblr: http://badfoxgold.tumblr.com/

Spring Break in Boston

   Last week a few friends and I went on a short trip to Boston, during Spring Break. We stayed at the Hampton Inn. We were there for 3 days and 2 nights. Most of our time was spent roaming the streets of Downtown and having fun in the hotel. Boston is very different from NY. Their subway system is so much smaller and less intricate than ours and although it is a city it had more of a town/suburban feel to me. What I liked most about Boston was Faneuil Hall, which is their main shopping area and  I learned from this trip that I certainly should travel more, I only went to Boston!

Here are a few photos:

Our Hotel room

a note from the hotel

Breakfast

Breakfast

Our view

The Pool

AppleBees

Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall

Us :)

Bk Stories cast at The Nets game!

   Aside from performing at The Barclays center, a prize for the 7 finalist apart of Brooklyn Stories was to attend a Nets game, at the Barclays Center in a VIP suite. We arrived and walked around the VIP floor "OOh"ed and "Aah"ed a little and then got to our suite. There was food and drinks. We all took photos and enjoyed the game. The Nets won! Here are a few photos I took.

Briannah, me, and London

Darren, Briannah, London, & Nykemah

Doing Havana/Marley Twists for the first time!

   The other day while talking to my friend Briannah, she mentioned that she wanted to do something new with her hair and I told her that I've been wanted to experiment with doing twists for a while. She suggested I use Marley hair and do the style like Havana Twists.

   She bought the hair(4 packs of Marley Braid hair), I parted her hair into four sections and got started. I used two strands of the Marley braid hair per twist and combed through them for thickness. The whole style took about four hours. Here's my step-by-step video:

Brooklyn Stories !

   I performed alongside 6 of my friends/fellow #Udub poets. The Bk Stories event was a staged reading of stories the 7 of us wrote revolving around the borough and performed at the Barclays Center. This whole program was created by Lemon Andersen and Urban Word, and included a month of intensive workshops all leading up to the show.

More about Brooklyn Stories:
     Tony Award-winning writer Lemon Andersen and literary outreach program Urban Word NYC are cultivating the next generation of Brooklyn's storytellers with the inaugural presentation of BROOKLYN STORIES. In partnership with the Brooklyn Nets and MetroPCS, seven talented, young writers showcased their finely crafted narratives inspired by the eighty-one square miles of Brooklyn USA.

   The program began in October 2012. Young people under 21 were asked to submit their personal Brooklyn Story, by simply dropping it off at designated MetroPCS stores across Brooklyn. Several workshops with teaching artist were set up across the borough, over the next month, to help the entrants develop their stories for the next level.

   Twenty-five young writers earned their way to performing at the Brooklyn Public Library in a memorable semi-final showcase in December. Out of those twenty-five, seven were selected for an intensive workshop series to prepare for the Finale at Barclays Center. The finalists had the opportunity to work with award winning writer and native Brooklynite Lemon Andersen and Urban Word NYC's talented teaching staff to craft their Brooklyn Stories for a once in a lifetime performance.

Black History Month, reminder

Here are a few inventions by Black People/PoC

Chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield
 Liquid paper was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham
The square-bottomed paper bag was invented by Margaret Knight
The dishwasher was invented by Josephine Cochrane
The windshield wiper was invented by Mary Anderson
Kevlar was invented by Stephanie Kwolek
Potato chips were invented by George Crum
The carbon-filament lightbulb, which was actually more practical than Edison’s paper-filament bulb, was invented by Lewis Latimer .
The blood bank was invented by Charles Richard Drew
The protective mailbox, the precursor to today’s public mail boxes, was invented by Philip B. Downing
The gas mask was invented by Garrett Morgan
The birth control pill was invented by Luis Miramontes and two other scientists
The magnetic compass, porcelain, gunpowder, the mechanical clock, and paper money were all invented by the Chinese
The condom, high heels, paper, and the pen were all invented by the Egyptians

There's also Agriculture, Writing, The wheel, Domesticating chickens, Tea, Math and The concept of “zero”, amongst other concepts and customs originated by ancient civilizations.

All of this enlightenment was inspired by a very ignorant photo on tumblr:

Jean-Michel Basquiat

    Basquiat is a New York Native and very well know modern artist who reached the height of his success during the 80's. Many young artist now-a-days love him and his legacy lives on. If you haven't already please watch the documentary about his life and career: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, it is available here on Hulu.com

    At 15 years old, the artist ran away from home and became a staple of New York City's underground arts scene. He began as a graffiti artist under the SAMO pseudonym, making critical and ironic quips with semi-coherent jabs such as "SAMO©… 4 THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE." It wasn't long before Basquiat turned to painting, keeping his knack for re-appropriation, rhythm and aggression firmly intact. (Huffingtonpost.com)

 

  Soon Basquiat's abstract painting style became a staple. He was very popular on Downtown Manhattan's art scene and his paintings were highly demanded. Years after his untimely death his fame skyrocketed and doesn't seem like its dying down.
     My reason for posting about Jean-Michel, despite his talent and impact on artists like myself, is that a new exhibition has opened at the Gagosian Gallery, examining over 50 of his works. Jean-Michel Basquiat will show until April 6 at the Gallery in New York.

Featuring over fifty works from public and private collections, the exhibition spans Basquiat’s brief but meteoric career, which ended with his death at the age of twenty-seven. Thirty years after Larry Gagosian first presented his work in Los Angeles, twenty years after the first posthumous survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1992–93), and eight years after the Brooklyn Museum of Art retrospective (2005), viewers will have a fresh opportunity to consider Basquiat’s central role in his artistic generation as a lightning rod and a bridge between cultures. (http://www.gagosian.com)

image courtesy of Huffingtonpost.com

I am certainly looking forward to seeing the exibit and I hope I can take hundreds of photos, I will definitely be blogging about it. To see more about this at Huffington Post and Gagosian.com

AfroPunk: THE DOCUMENTARY

AFROPUNK is more than the annual festival, it is a MOVEMENT. AP represents "the other black experience", basically Black People who don't typically watch BET. It all started with the Documentary.

AFROPUNK - "The Rock and Roll Nigger Experience" was the original title for the movie before it was changed to what we know as today: AFROPUNK - The Documentary, a 66 minute documentary explores race identify within the punk scene. More than your everyday "Behind the Music" or typical "Black History month "documentary this film tackles hard questions, covering issues such as exile, loneliness, interracial dating and black power. We follow the lives of four people who have dedicated themselves to the punk rock lifestyles. They find themselves in conflicting situations, living the dual life of a person of color in a mostly white community. AFROPUNK - The Documentary features performances by Bad Brains, Tamar Kali, Cipher, and Ten Grand. It also contains exclusive interviews by members of Fishbone, 247- spyz, Dead Kennedys, Candiria, Orange 9mm and TV on the Radio to name a few.

The Film is now available on AP's Facebook page and here it is:

For more news on AFROPUNK go to:
Visit our website: https://www.afropunk.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/afropunk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/afropunk

AFROPUNK - The Documentary, as well as the whole movement, has inspired me greatly, as an artist and just as an individual. I can not wait for this year's festival just to see how the community has, and will continue to, grow.

Quote

Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.
                                                        -Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment