This Friday, January 22, in Brooklyn is the Haiti Solidarity Benefit, a really cool youth-organized fundraiser for Haiti. Global Kids is one of the organizers of this event, through our partnership with the High School for Global Citizenship. Performers will include : Andre Rousseau and Alove Saint Surin Haitian Musician Tiga Jean Baptiste and Tchaka…
Category: New York
Houston Person Swingin’ Hard at New York Swing Dance Society (video)
Here's a quick clip of the fantastic Houston Person and his Quartet performing at the New York Swing Society Dance last Saturday, January 16 in New York City. The New York Swing Dance Society has been a vital force keeping alive the art of swing dancing in NYC for the past 24 years. They have…
Fela! the Musical: fighting tyranny with a beat you can dance to
Tonight I finally got to see Fela! the musical on Broadway, after hearing rave reviews from so many other people who had seen it. It was totally worth the hype. Fela! is a lushly created musical production depicting through speech, song, drum, and dance the true story of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a musician and activist in…
“B-Girl” the Movie : A for Effort, C- for Execution
Finally got to see “B-Girl” the movie last night at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village. It was a small audience for the showing, which was followed by a Q&A with the producer, the director and star of the production Lady Jules. They all seem like such nice people, so I hate to…
Rikomatic’s 2009 Year in Review
I'm not sure anything could encapsulate my entire year better than this one picture from the New York Times. For me it was a sublime, bittersweet moment — leading hundreds of people marching, dancing, clapping, making music, laughing and crying in celebration of the life of one humble man who touched us all. The year…
Swinging in the New Year: 2010 New Years Eve Dance Parties (updated)
Looking to get your swing on during New Year's Eve in New York City? Here's a listing of swing (and soul and blues) dance parties happening over the next few days you might be interested in: Tuesday, December 29: Lo Fi Lee Presents the Holiday Swing Ball at Connolly's, 121 West 45th Street, NYC. Featuring…
Advance Ticket Sales Ending Tonight for Salon New Years Eve Eve Party!
Patrick sent out an exciting update on the already exciting Salon New Year's Eve Eve party happening on Wednesday, December 30th: THE SALON is thrilled to announce sponsorships by DEWARS and INFINIUM SPIRITS! This includes free Scotch tastings all night long by Dewars and top-shelf premium spirits from Infinium featured in our specialty cocktails, at…
Swinging at the Piano Store 10 Years Ago! (video)
Here's some really neat footage of folks dancing and hanging out at one of the coolest swing venues ever, the short-lived Piano Store in the Lowereast Side, back in March 2000. The Piano Store was an actual old piano store that some folks converted into a clandestine hangout for lindy hoppers, loungers, jazz musicians and…
Building an inclusive swing dance community
Picture of “SwingingOUT” Group in Toronto, Canada. I’ve heard that there are a couple of lindy hoppers who are working on creating a LGBTQ-friendly swing and blues dance in New York City, which I say is long past due. Other places like San Francisco and Toronto have had long-standing queer-friendly swing dances for years and…
The joys and challenges of teaching 13-year olds how to break
Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching a hip-hop workshop to a group of Global Kids teens in the Bronx, which was a unique challenge for me for a number of reasons. Here's how it went. Global Kids has been running programs at the middle school IS229 for the past couple of years, exposing these…