On July 1, 2009, 15 New York City public high school students will premiere their film Discovered –a digital "machinima" film produced in Second Life that explores the powerful issue of child sex trafficking through the fictional story of one Mexican teenager. Discovered is the final product of a year-long, intensive digital filmmaking program called…
Category: New York
A soggy but satisfying Mermaid Parade at Coney Island
What started out as the worst Mermaid Parade day ever, turned into one of the best! The weather forecast was for severe thunderstorms all day. So the organizers of my group the Brooklyn Bombshells Revue decided that it was too risky to have us march in the parade. I can not explain how much the…
OMG Mermaid Parade is Tomorrow! Harvey Keitel, They Might Be Giants… and possibly rain
Finally finished my outfit for the MermaId Parade tomorrow! For those that don’t know, Saturday, June 21, is the 26th annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, the nation’s largest art parade and the my absolutely favorite part of summer in New York City. As has been tradition for the past years, the lindy hoppers participate as…
Room available in my awesome Fort Greene apartment
Just a reminder that I am still seeking a roommate to share my lovely two-bedroom apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn starting on July 1st. Tell them what they get, Don Pardo! A goodly sized furnished, two-bedroom pad in a modern apartment complex Full kitchen with gas range, oven, dishwasher Access to several major subway lines…
Global Kids teen Sabienne featured in NY Daily News!
The New York Daily News has a sweet article about five New York teens who beat the odds by graduating. The story features Global Kids teen leader Sabienne Brutus! In 2005, the High School for Global Citizenship student and her siblings moved to Crown Heights from Haiti to escape the country’s political instability and to…
Twitter as an Event Organizer’s Tool: Our Experience with the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival
About a month ago my friend David sent me an email asking about how we could use the micro-blogging service Twitter to help spread the word and coordinate a swing dance festival that we were helping organize. We started brainstorming and decided to try it out. As it turns out, Twitter is a pretty effective…
The Global Shim Sham compilation video: a labor of lindy love involving 5,000+ dancers from around the world
This video is the result of several months of effort involving an estimated 5,000 dancers in over 22 countries: the Global Shim Sham. This was produced by a dedicated team of volunteers for the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival, and shown to an appreciative audience of about 2,000 people on Saturday, May 23. Read on…
Fantastic photos from Frankie 95 Festival on Getty Images
In all of the hubbub, I forgot to announce that the prestigious Getty Images stock photography service has put up several beautiful photos from the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival, mostly from the memorial service and the dance in Central Park on Friday, May 22. Check out the entire set here. One of them has already…
Gripping documentary about the International Criminal Court premieres in New York June 12 & 13!
I got the exciting news that June 12 and 13 is the New York premiere of The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court for the opening night of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. There will be two screenings: Friday, June 12, 7:00pm: Filmmakers and ICC Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda present for Q&A…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 5: Chazz dances for his dad, Battle of the bones, Big Apple Lindy Hoppers! We love you, Frankie!
Tonight was the final night of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival, and what a lovely way to end an incredible five days of celebration! Here's Chazz Young, Frankie Manning's son, dancing on behalf of his dad with 95 follows. Continuing the tradition started at Frankie's 80th birthday of having Frankie dance with one follower for…