Culture: saving Mr Hughes' home

As a young girl in Portland, Ore., Renée Watson immersed herself in the words of Langston Hughes, discovering that his poems about black identity mirrored experiences in her own life. Since moving to Harlem more than a decade ago, she has often walked by his old home — a three-story brownstone on East 127th Street with cast-iron railings and overgrown ivy.

The author spent his final 20 years, and wrote some of the most notable literary works of the Harlem Renaissance, in this house. It was designated a historic landmark in 1981. Yet in recent years, the property has remained empty. A performance space opened in 2007 but closed when the tenants were evicted about a year later. In 2010, the current owner listed the house for $1 million but found no buyers.

With her neighborhood experiencing rapid gentrification, Ms. Watson, 38, an author and poet, felt that too many crucial landmarks of the Harlem Renaissance, like Mr. Hughes’s home, were disappearing or going unnoticed.

“It feels like, whether it’s intentional or not, our stories are being erased,” Ms. Watson said.

So, after a year’s worth of planning, she began to preserve the legacy of the house herself. She began a nonprofit organization, persuaded the owner to let her lease and renovate the brownstone, and started raising the money necessary to do so.

If she can successfully open Mr. Hughes’s home and maintain it as a public space, it would be a notable feat, especially in New York City, some preservationists say.

“That’s a pretty remarkable mission-driven desire to preserve a place,” said Seri Worden, senior field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “I do think it’s rare, and it sounds like it’s working.”

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In a city brimming with famous homes and buildings, there could be a historic landmark on every block. Across the five boroughs, more than36,000 properties are designated landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Mr. Hughes’s former home is one of these properties, meaning the building’s exterior cannot be altered without approval from the commission. But since the brownstone is a privately owned home, the public cannot step inside to the space where Mr. Hughes’ creativity flowed, unless a new owner or tenant decides to convert it to accommodate that use.

With rents and mortgage costs soaring in the city, a small preservation group or nonprofit group like Ms. Watson’s must often confront almost insurmountable financial obstacles in order to buy, preserve and maintain a property.

Photo

The home was designated a landmark in 1981, but in recent years, it has remained empty.CreditUli Seit for The New York Times

“It’s one of the greatest challenges facing historic preservation today,” said David Ehrich, a former banker who has led many efforts to preserve the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. “The cost of historic preservation is almost out of reach.”

Ms. Watson envisions using Mr. Hughes’s home as a gathering space for young artists, tied to a nonprofit she is starting for emerging writers.

In June, the homeowner agreed to lease and eventually sell the brownstone to Ms. Watson’s organization as long as its members could raise the money. Ms. Watson took to crowdfunding and raised more than $87,000, which she says is enough to cover the first six months of rent and renovation costs. She plans to sign the lease later this month.

Ms. Watson would not say how much the owner was asking for an eventual sale. Similar homes nearby have sold in the last several months for about $2 million.

Several famous New York City homes have been converted into museums — such as the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens — but many were sold or donated to the city. Other efforts have failed or stalled because of a lack of funding, resources or cooperation from the building’s owner.

Some historical preservation advocates, like Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts, emphasize the importance of a homeowner’s right to keep a home private, even if it is a historic landmark.

Moreover, many existing house museums across the country have struggledto maintain budgets and build attendances. A house museum, Ms. Diamonstein-Spielvogel argues, might not be the most effective way to teach the public about a historic figure.

“I care more about who did what in that building,” she said. “I care more about his ideas than his furniture.”

Ms. Watson’s efforts are still a gamble. Like any nonprofit, her collective will need to continue fund-raising in order to sustain the home, she said. They also hope to bring in additional revenue by renting out rooms to artists and authors for events and book launches.

What makes Ms. Watson’s approach unique, Ms. Worden said, is the fact that she does not simply plan to make it a house museum, but rather is creating a space for educational and creative programs.

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The Steinway Mansion, a property in Astoria once owned by the Steinway family of the piano company. The executive director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society has tried for years to raise money to buy the house.CreditUli Seit for The New York Times

“House museums are really challenging,” Ms. Worden said. “We do have to think bigger about some of our historic sites.”

In Queens, Bob Singleton, the executive director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, has tried for years to raise money to buy the Steinway Mansion, an elaborate Italianate villa once owned by the Steinway family, of the piano company.

When the house went on the market in 2011 for the first time in decades, he formed a group called Friends of Steinway Mansion, but they failed to raise enough money.

In 2014, the mansion and the surrounding lots were sold to its current owners, who bought the property as an investment. Warehouses and storage units have been built on the nearby land, but the mansion has remained vacant.

Sal Lucchese, one of the property owners, said he would “absolutely entertain” an offer to turn the mansion into a public space, but so far, Mr. Singleton’s group and others have not had the means to do so.

Beyond the financial costs, Mr. Singleton said the zoning and renovating logistics involved with converting the mansion into a community center required support from local elected officials, which he did not yet have.

“You need every component in the community on board for this,” Mr. Singleton said. “Unless you have that, everything else is moot.”

For a different group on Long Island, acquiring a historic home was just the beginning. In 2006, local advocates persuaded the Town of Huntington to buy the dilapidated home of the jazz artist John Coltrane and convert it into a museum. But largely because of a lack of funds, it has taken about a decade for the foundation in charge of the home to make progress on its renovation.

The Friends of the Coltrane Home hope to open the house to the public by late 2018, said Ron Stein, the group’s president. Yet it is still unclear how the museum will raise money to maintain itself.

“The challenge though, is not just saving the house,” Mr. Stein said. “It’s trying to find a workable, sustainable economic plan for the house.”

“It’s not a one-and-done situation.”

Film: A "Gold Standard" gangster flick passes its Silver Anniversary

On this day in 1990, the Martin Scorsese-directed Mafia film Goodfellas, starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and Joe Pesci, opens in theaters around the United States. The movie, which was based on the best-selling 1986 book Wiseguy, by the New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, tells the true story of the mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill (Liotta), from the 1950s to the 1980s. Goodfellas earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.

Martin Scorsese, who was born on November 17, 1942, in New York City, received critical acclaim for one of his earliest films, Mean Streets (1973), which marked the first time he worked with Robert De Niro. The two men also collaborated on Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The King of Comedy (1982). FollowingGoodfellas, in which De Niro played the Irish mobster Jimmy Conaway, the actor collaborated with Scorsese on Cape Fear (1991), which co-starred Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange, and Casino (1995), which was co-written by Pileggi and co-starred Pesci and Sharon Stone. Scorsese’s movie credits also include Gangs of New York(2002), The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006), which earned him his first Best Director Oscar after five previous nominations in the same category.

Prior to co-starring in Goodfellas, Ray Liotta, who was born on December 18, 1954, appeared in such films as Something Wild (1986), with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels, and Field of Dreams (1989), with Kevin Costner. Liotta’s later credits include Cop Land (1997), with Sylvester Stallone, Hannibal (2001), with Anthony Hopkins, and Narc (2002).

Joe Pesci, who was born on February 9, 1943, appeared in such movies as Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) before his award-winning performance in Goodfellas. His later film credits include the blockbuster Home Alone (1990), in which he played a bumbling burglar; the comedy My Cousin Vinny (1992), with Marisa Tomei; and A Bronx Tale (1993), which marked Robert De Niro’s directorial debut.

Lorraine Bracco, who was born on October 2, 1954, earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in Goodfellas as Henry Hill’s wife, Karen. Bracco, who began her career as a model, later appeared in such movies as Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Radio Flyer (1992), The Basketball Diaries(1995), with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Riding in Cars with Boys (2001). She is perhaps best known for her role as Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit HBO series The Sopranos, which originally aired from 1999 to 2007.

Music: the Radio Rise of Angie Martinez

- from CNN Money

Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z. New York City radio personality, Angie Martinez, has helped put some of hip hop's biggest names on the map.

But her greatest success story is her own.

 Raised by a single mom in the New York City neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Brooklyn, Martinez began to get into trouble at age 15. While her mom worked, she spent her days drinking, smoking pot and listening to music with her friends. During that time, Martinez was absent more days than she was in school.

Hoping to turn things around, her mom sent her to Miami to live with an aunt. A few months later, her mother moved too after landing a job as programming manager at Miami radio station Power 96. Martinez got an internship at the station and discovered she loved the radio.

After she graduated high school, Martinez moved back to New York and got an internship with Hot 97. At the time, it played freestyle dance music. It would be years before the station turned to hip hop music and for Martinez to start hosting her own show.

Two big turning points in Martinez's career were leaving Hot 97 for New York's 105.1 and interviewing rapper Tupac Shakur. Martinez's interview with Tupac was so powerful that she feared it would further fuel the growing rivalry between the East and West Coast hip hop scenes and never released it in its entirety.

Now, at 45 years old, Martinez is known as "The Voice of New York." In May, she published her memoir, My Voice, which sold out immediately and was on the New York Times Best Seller list for two weeks.

This is Angie Martinez' American Success Story.

What are some of the biggest hurdles you've faced in your career?

Finding my self-confidence.

I started in radio really young. I was in the public and I was still learning who I was.

Now I know who I am and I know my strengths. I wish I had developed that earlier. I could have accomplished a lot more in my life.

What were your greatest personal successes?

Something happened to me in my 30s where I started to come to terms with who I was.

I had a better sense of who I was and to see the bigger picture of my life, instead of harping on all the things that slowed me down in my 20s. That was a big accomplishment.

Interviewing Tupac was a turning point. I realized that how I'd use my voice could really matter. Another moment was changing companies and leaving Hot 97. I had to leave the nest to become my own, fully. That gave me the confidence that my voice was my own.

And writing my memoir was a real milestone. To be able to look at my whole life and assess my challenges and my successes and to be able to give it to people in a way that they can find value in that for themselves, that's great.

Who has helped you out the most?

It all starts with my mom.

She's always been there. She's someone I can trust unconditionally and who's loved me unconditionally. When I needed some tough love she did what she was supposed to do.

I'm a really good judge of character and that's given me great friends, people that I can really be honest with.

People like Funkmaster Flex, and the other people that I worked with earlier in my career, I would not be here without them.

What would you say to a person who has no idea what they want to do?

I think that sometimes it takes people most of their life to figure out: "This is what I love! This is what I want to do!"

Just keep looking for it. There's opportunity everywhere.

Some people have a plan and they know what they want to do. That wasn't me.

But I knew I loved music and radio so I learned everything that I could about it.

Live your life with passion, and your work and passion may come together. But it's not by accident it's by showing up and over delivering.

You write that you had trouble paying your bills, even while working. You were actually evicted.

I think a lot of us just weren't taught about [finances.] It's not something that I blame my mom for. I think my mom was learning, herself.

I was young. I started working at the station in my teens with no real thought about how to handle my money.

I've worked with financial advisers and friends and I'm still learning, but clearly I'm not in the position where I was back then.

How do you define success?

I think success is when you're doing something that makes you feel fulfilled and when you're offering something to the world.

I have a good life, but I'm always chasing success and growth. I don't know if that's good. There's something to be said about that 70-year old sitting on a porch drinking lemonade, chillin'.

Is our country in a hopeful place or in a downward spiral?

There's going to be hopeful moments and there's going to be downward moments, it's an evolution.

Look at the racial issues in this country. I think they're getting worse because they're about to get better. People are just tired of the status quo in terms of how black and brown people are treated. Our time is noisy and complicated, but we'll push through.

What is your American dream?

I'm still figuring it out.

There's a quote from Tupac, "I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world." I feel like that about my life.

Jazz: Glasper and Co set for next Experiment

from JAZZIZ

The Robert Glasper Experiment will release their new album ArtScience on Blue Note Records on September 16.

The album features keyboardist Glasper alongside saxophonist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Mark Colenburg. Each of the band members shared in the production and songwriting duties for ArtScience, which will feature their characteristic sound, defined by an eclectic mix of influences from strands of jazz, funk, rock, soul, hip-hop, electronic music and pop.

The Experiment will celebrate the release of the album with a concert at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on October 3.

For more information, go to http://www.robertglasper.com/

Books - Indies carve out their retail space

from Lit Hub

A few weeks ago, Milkweed Editions, long established as a literary press, announced it would open an independent bookstore in Minneapolis. Not long after, Curbside Splendor, a relatively young small press in Chicago, revealed its plans to open a bookshop in Chicago’s South Loop.

Suddenly, an increasing number of independent presses are going into the retail book business, morphing into full-service community hubs for book browsing and expanded literary programming. Some see retail floor space as an opportunity to bring more customers and supporters to their front doors. Others see it as an important source of income to support the publishing. All say it fulfills their missions as the literary hearts of their communities.

In 2008, Melville House Publishing moved to Brooklyn and opened a bookstore to sell its own books and to serve as an event space for other local small presses. Two years later, Hub City Press (which published my first novel) opened a bookshop and event space in Spartanburg, S.C., selling not only the books it publishes but general interest books as well.

Deep Vellum Publishing experimented this year with a bookstore in Dallas, though founder Will Evans is now looking for a buyer.

Other literary non-profits are jumping into the act as well. Bookmarks, which hosts the largest book festival in the Carolinas, announced this spring was raising funds to open a downtown independent bookstore in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Tulsa Literary Coalition is opening Magic City Books in Oklahoma later this year. Neither city has had an independent bookstore for years, but both now will have hybrids not unlike the ones that publishers are creating.

Just a few years ago, in the throes of the Great Recession, the traditional publishing industry was in trouble. Independent bookstores already had been written off, and then Borders went under, proving even the big box bookstores were struggling. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple were all competing (and filing lawsuits) over the growing ebook market. Meanwhile, self-publishing was the Next Big Thing. In other words: print was dead, bookstores were passé, and self-published ebooks were the way to connect writers to readers without a middleman. The mainstream media agreed: this was the new reality.

But if this was the new reality, what is going on with all these non-profits and independent presses opening local bookstores? Why would anyone decide to open a bookstore in our allegedly post-retail, post-print world?

In the case of Milkweed Editions, much of the decision for opening a bookstore had to do with space. In 2000, the press joined the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The three organizations were tired of rising rents and living office-to-office in downtown Minneapolis, so they raised several million dollars in grants and donations and bought a building on an under-developed stretch of land near the Mississippi River.

“It’s become one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in Minneapolis,” said Daniel Slager, publisher and CEO for Milkweed Editions.

The neighborhood has revitalized and grown up around their building, so when 750 square feet of street-level space became available in the building, Slager and the rest of the Milkweed team felt a bookstore could thrive.

“We do live in communities, and we want to be part of a coming-together in this place,” Slager said. “We’re trying to bring together readers and writers, and we’re committed to being here in Minneapolis.”

A bookstore is a way to get people into contact with books. Slager said the Milkweed store—which will have a soft launch in July and a grand opening in the fall—will feel more like a gallery than a traditional library-style bookstore. He foresees rotating exhibits related to the publishing process, such as cover designs and manuscript pages to offer insight into what they do as a publisher, as well as a space for literary events.

The store will feature an abundance of titles from independent presses, he said. “We want to create a physical space to showcase some of the amazing books coming out of excellent smallish publishers.” He likened the store to the taproom for a local craft brewery, explaining, “We want to be a taproom for all these great indie press publishers so we can say to readers, ‘Hey, do you know about Wave Books? Do you know about Tupelo Press?’ I can’t wait to see the shelves covered with indie press books from all over North America.”

This notion of curating small literary presses is also driving Curbside Splendor with its new book and record shop, set to open this summer in Chicago’s South Loop. Editor-in-chief Naomi Huffman said she anticipates the store will be highly curated and will focus solely in books from independent presses.

“Indie publishing is about discovery,” she said. “We are going to have an educational component, because people don’t necessarily know about indie literature. Our focus is on delivering literature to people who don’t know what they’re looking for, and maybe don’t even know it exists. Indies are publishing the best literature today, so the opportunity to tell more people about it is very exciting.”

Founded in 2009, Curbside Splendor has been publishing books “to rewrite the tradition of Midwestern publishing.” The press has published numerous books about Chicago or by Chicago authors, providing a uniquely local flavor.

In many ways, the bookstore continues what Curbside Splendor is already doing with the press. “We’ve built a reputation in Chicago for being out and about,” Huffman said. “We hold a reading series in Logan Square. We do popup book fairs across the city. We’re trying to establish a connection with readers, and we view the bookstore as an extension of that.”

The bookshop will be housed in the Revival Food Hall inside the National building downtown, amid numerous restaurants and other shops. Huffman said that each neighborhood in Chicago has its own beloved bookstore, and that Curbside’s bookshop, with its programming and educational focus, should fit nicely in the South Loop.

“What we’ve been discovering over the past few years is that publishing is no longer just about publishing books. It’s about delivering literature to people. The best way to do that is not just selling a book—which a bookstore will do—but creating a community that people want to be involved in. We’re very excited by the opportunity.”

The Hub City Bookshop in the upstate of South Carolina now has six years of operation under its belt as an offshoot of the non-profit Hub City Writers Project and its Hub City Press. Southern Living magazine recently named it as one of the best bookstores in the South.

For more than 20 years, the Hub City Writers Project has served as an important literary hub, not just in Spartanburg but in the South at large. The press has been quietly publishing some of the South’s best new literature—fiction, poetry, history, memoir, and more. They also run a national writers residency, a summer writers conference, multiple writing contests and now—thanks to the bookshop space—nearly 100 readings, workshops, and other literary events annually.

Betsy Teter, founder and executive director, said establishing a retail store was both a brainstorm and a necessity. In 2008, Spartanburg’s sole independent bookstore (and Hub City Press’ largest customer) went out of business. “It was a survival thing for us,” Teter explained. “Without a place for people in Spartanburg to buy our books, we were going to have trouble.”

At the time, Hub City was crowded into an office with another arts organization. The board and staff believed downtown Spartanburg needed a bookstore, so they raised $300,000 in less than three months as the community got on board with the idea. “In the beginning it was a much smaller idea than it ended up being,” said Teter. “We sell Hub City Press titles in the front of the store, but we also have thousands of other titles as well.”

Opening a bookstore in 2010, when the media seemed to be taking an almost pornographic interest in the demise of traditional publishing and independent bookstores, was perhaps a counterintuitive idea, but the great news for organizations like Milkweed, Curbside Splendor, and other presses forming bookstores today is that the risk paid off big-time for Hub City.

“We have more than doubled the number of people making charitable contributions to our organization since opening the bookshop,” said Teter, adding that sales at the bookstore help bring in revenue for Hub City’s press and programming. The bookshop, located in an old Masonic Temple, now serves as a kind of Grand Central Station for downtown.

“Our mission is to ‘nurture writers and cultivate readers,’ so we’re providing a place in our downtown for people to peruse books, interact with writers, and to talk about books with people who are knowledgeable,” said Teter. “I like to think of our bookstore as a literary center.”

Perhaps this is the new reality for publishing. As New York publishers and tech companies continue to vie for market share and boost quarterly returns, local literary communities are taking matters into their own hands, building unique book cultures across the United States and continuing the old-fashioned task of bringing together writers and readers.

Business: A Jamaican "In Reserve"

Dave Rodney

A Jamaican from Mulgrave Lane off Slipe Pen Road in Kingston, Clive W Blackwood, has been recently named executive vice president and general auditor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the largest bank in the federal reserve system in the United States. The appointment was made by the bank's board of directors, and Blackwood will be responsible for internal audit at the New York Fed. He will report directly to the board of directors of the bank.

Blackwood is now the bank's liaison with all matters relating to the Office of the Inspector General of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. Additionally, he is the bank's liaison to the US Government Accountability Office. The Federal Reserve Bank formulates and executes monetary policy, supervises and regulates depository institutions, keeps prices stable, employment high, inflation low and fosters a stable financial climate.

Mr. Blackwood has a solid background in risk and auditing, spanning over twenty years in the financial services industry. For the past ten years, he has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the Internal Audit Group of the New York Fed. Previously, he was audit director at American Express Company. He also served as an auditor at KPMG's Assurance Services practice, and he has served on the board of directors of the New York Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

"Clive has distinguished himself as an auditor and a leader both at the New York Fed and across the system, and he will be a great general auditor", William C Dudley, president and CEO of the New York Fed said.

Clive Blackwood is a graduate of Ardenne High School in Kingston and he holds a bachelor of science degree from New York University. While pursuing his studies in the United States, Blackwood held a number of non-banking jobs along the way to enable him to advance his studies, working as a cook at McDonald's and as a sales clerk at Macy's Department Store. Before migrating to the United States, Blackwood had worked at the COK Solidarity Cooperative Credit Union in Cross Roads for eight years under the leadership of former general manager Aloun Ndombet-assamba.

"At COK, Clive was a pleasant and hard-working staff member", Ndombet-assamba, now Jamaica's high commissioner to the United Kingdom recalls. "I am proud of his growth, and proud that COK had a hand in molding him and his work ethics", she continued.

Clive is now a certified internal auditor, a certified information systems auditor, a certified financial services auditor and a certified bank auditor.
"I am elated and humbled by this appointment, and it proves that hard work, determination and faith do pay". Blackwood told the Gleaner. And anything I do, I do it with passion and integrity", he affirmed.

source - Daily Gleaner

Arts: Word! brings Carib's best to Brooklyn

Word! A Caribbean Book Fest is an afternoon-long celebration of Caribbean letters and thought for all ages. The program highlights the range and diversity of literary work emanating from the Caribbean and writers invested in the Caribbean Diasporic narrative.

Presented by Caribbean Cultural Theatre with support from Medgar Evers College (CUNY), Caribbean Research Center, Charles Evans Iniss Memorial Library, School of Liberal Studies and Education, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts; Poets & Writers, Inc.

localjoe.myorganogold.com

New "SON" Rising overseas

With the Jamaican edition now firmly entrenched  - and widely anticipated - on the entertainment calendar, the premier gospel festival, Fun in the Son,  has been spreading its wings. 

Last August saw the 2nd annual staging of the gospel event in New York City, on the buzzing North-east region of the legendary borough of the Bronx (home, so the claim goes, of hip-hop, but that's another history.) 

The event was realized through a sterling partnership between Fun in the Son conceptualizers, the Tommy Cowan-led Glory Music and Good Neighbors Community Outreach Agency and arises from the well-stated success of the former in promoting successful gospel showcases in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.  

Fun in the Son, with its emphasis on the "Son" started in the north coast resort of Ocho Rios, with the aim of offering a fun filled alternative to traditional spring break activities. Endorsed by the Jamaica Tourist Board, the event is recognized by many as a wholesome family festival. It has grown over the years to a "mega event" with a variety of engaging activities all under the banner of reaching young people for Christ .

Glory Music's Tommy Cowan, who is the event organizer, affirmed that the festival  is about changing lives and giving people hope, as the show's motto suggests: Know Christ and let Him be known.

While acknowledging that "some of it has been quite a battle, " the entertainment veteran remained upbeat, stating "Wherever there is a battle there is a great victory," He also was unreserved in acknowledging the contribution of Jamaica Broilers, longtime partners of the Jamaica event, 

Now, there are plans afoot to cover even more ground with additional destinations in the US as well as other Caribbean stops. 

The Fun in the Son "formula" is a blend of spoken word ministry with inspirational performances. In New York, Pastor Paul Peart delivered the former, with the musical ministers including Papa San, Glacia Robinson and Carlene Davis.  The previous Jamaican showcase was addressed by Andrew Palau, and featured headliner Hezekiah Walker as well as the aforementioned stalwarts and Kevin Downswell, Goddy Goddy, Kereen Gregory, Jermaine Edwards, and more .

There were additional thrills in the form of the Christian stunt riders Extreme Sports, a five-man team out of USA

localjoe.myorganogold.com

Art: Earl McKenzie's explorations continue at UWI

Dr Earl McKenzie poet, painter and philosopher will launch an exhibition of his paintings on Monday April 27, 2015 at 6:00pm at the UWI Regional Headquarters Building, Mona. The launch will include poetry readings by friends and colleagues including: Ann-Margaret Lim, Dr. Velma Pollard and Trudy Schoepko. The guest speaker will be Lecturer in the Department of Government and fellow artist Dr Clinton Hutton. This will be McKenzie’s fourth solo exhibition of paintings and poems. He has also exhibited at the Caribbean Literary and Cultural Centre in New York.

McKenzie is retired from the University of the West Indies, Mona, where he taught philosophy. He is the author of eight books including two volumes of academic philosophy and two collections of short stories. In 2012, his multi-genre volume of poetry, fiction, essays and visual art entitled A Bluebird Named Poetry solidified his skill in connecting diverse genres of artistic expression. In her launch of the text, Kim Robinson-Walcott notes that McKenzie “is interested in exploring his own multidimensional creativity with abstract, intellectual curiosity.” This exploration is evident in his paintings which, according to Edward J. Sullivan, Professor of Art History at New York University, “have the suggestive power of Giorgio Morandi: one of the greatest masters of the simple object.”

McKenzie has won numerous awards for his work. In 2000, he was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to literature, and in 2011 he received a Mico University College 175^th Anniversary Award for distinguished service. His exploration of the intersections among genres of expression continues in the forthcoming publications of his first novel, a third collection of short stories and a memoir in 2015. The exhibition, which will be mounted in the lobby of the Headquarters Building, will run until May 8, 2015. The public is invited to attend.

Bob (Marley) Heads to Baltimore

As reported in billboard.com - 

The godfather of reggae will live again when Marley has its world premiere at Center Stage in Baltimore next month.

Written and directed by award-winning British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah (Elmina's Kitchen), the new musical featuring songs by Bob Marley tells the story of a pivotal moment of his life in the late 1970s, when he returned to Jamaica after two years of self-imposed exile in London following an assassination attempt. The show uses events surrounding that homecoming to chronicle the musician's transformation into a 20th century cultural icon.

The project marks the first time that Marley's songs have been featured onstage in a biographical context. The musical includes, among others, songs from the albums Exodus, Kaya and Rastaman Vibration, written during the period when the story is set.

The title role will be played by Mitchell Brunings, who became a YouTube sensation after performing Marley's songs on the Dutch version of The Voice.

The cast also includes Broadway regular Saycon Sengbloh (Motown: The Musical, Fela!) as Rita Marley; Mykal Kilgore as Stevie Wonder, Krystal Joy Brown as backup singer Judy Mowatt; and Ano Okero as producer and filmmaker Don Letts. Other real-life figures portrayed in the show include Peter Tosh (Michael Luwoye), Island Records founder Chris Blackwell (John Patrick Hayden), Bunny Wailer (Damian Thompson), Marley's art director Neville Garrick (Jaime Lincoln Smith) and Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley(Howard W. Overshown).

The production features music direction by Jason Webb, choreography byGermaul Barnes, scenic design by Neil Patel and costumes by ESosa.

Suzette Newman and Blackwell are producing for Stageplay. The Baltimore engagement runs May 7 through June 14, and while no plans for the project have been announced beyond the premiere, theater insiders are speculating about a future commercial life in New York or London if Marley is well-received.

This article originally appeared in THR.com. 

Book review: The erotic memoir returns, from the East

A touchstone of the 1970s "Me Decade"(and in fact a holdover from the 1920s/1930s heyday of Henry Miller, Anais Nin et al), the erotic memoir  essentially disappeared from popular consciousness and discourse from the early 80s onward.

Who better than a Jamaican to revive the genre and with a near unexpected twist?

Stefhen Bryan initially escapes his mother's repressive parental style, or so he thinks, when he lands,at age 15, at his father's place in New York City. When it becomes clear however, that his father is totally uninterested in nay kind of relationship with him, he begins a westward odyssey that takes him first to Denver Colorado, and eventually to California. the substance of Bryan's parental relationships are detailed in the one-man play "Doodu Boy", which forms an important corollary to this book.

After gaining his first degree, and with brief detours in the UK as well as back in his native Jamaica, Bryan - financially down and dogged by his own familial obligations, accepts, in 2001, an offer to teach English in Japan, where he is suddenly able to fulfill his long-held predilection for Oriental women - an appetite first stoked in Jamaica, where the girls of Chinese and mixed ancestry offered a picture of  financial substance relative tothe grinding poverty of his own formative years.

Thus given free rein, Bryan indulges in a sexual spree that would likely defeat many men and may well have made Miller himself proud. Wives, students, professionals (including the co-ordinator of his teaching course) all make up what he describes as a "revolving army of sexual partners, all Japanese. 

The memoir describes Bryan's carnal adventures through a cultural lens that touches on interracial relationships, promiscuity, patriarchy and abortion. Included is sex research that one reviewer asserts "would make Kinsey proud." 

This ethnic exclusivity does impart to the author some insights as to a national psyche of the Japanese woman (aided by Bryan's own extensive bouts of therapy), but for the reader, it largely comes off as a little black book opened for public viewing; one sexual conquest essentially following another, with much the same descriptives used. Bryan's dynamism (coupled with a distinctly amoral persona) is palpable, but the prose itself is never spectacular enough to transcend the subject matter. 


 The author's outsider-insider observations of mores and relationships in Japan are fascinating. They are also the kind of blunt talk you won't get elsewhere. Black Passenger, Yellow Cabs is a ride you may take willingly - but perhaps only once.

"Out The Gate" takes off; #13 nationally in per-screen average

From a list of 112 movies currently playing in United States theaters the weekend of May 13th, box office gross reports show the indie film, "Out The Gate"  starring Paul Campbell and Oliver Samuels at the position of #13 in the nation, in a ranking of average gross per screen. The action/drama also starring Shelli Boone and Everton (E-Dee) Dennis, opened in New York City at AMC Theaters and National Amusement Multiplex Cinemas last Friday in the first multi-theater opening for a Jamaican film in decades.

            Paul Campbell, best known for his riveting performances in ‘Dancehall Queen’, ‘Shottas’, and ‘Third World Cop’, reportedly gripped the audience with his vicious portrayal of Badz, the don of LA, while Oliver Samuels, surprised audiences in a serious role, proving his talent extends beyond the traditional comedic roles that have made him a legend.

            Well pleased with the weekend turnout, AMC Theaters, America’s largest theater chain, has booked the film for a second week. “Word of mouth is definitely spreading”, stated Keith Lewis, one of the films producers, “seeing the reaction of the audience has been the most rewarding part of this journey” he continued. The musically driven picture was directed by first time directors R.Steven Johnson and Qmillion under the name ‘The Village Brothers”.  Produced and distributed by Jamaican/American company Far I Films, the triumphant movie is set to open in Jamaica this summer, and then return to North America for openings in Miami and Toronto, before moving on to London.