Arts & Entertainment
Supporting Community via Social Media
By Shruti Vadada Spectrum staff Using proceeds from a GoFundMe campaign that attracted, among other donors, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, one youth group donated 200 masks and 400 medical gowns to a nursing home. Another youth organization has partnered with several public libraries on Long Island to teach seniors, via Zoom, how to stream […]
Dance as Art and Therapy
By Francesca Fierro Staff writer For Di’Anna Bonomolo, Sohel Bagai and Selena Zhang, participants in the month-long Tisch Summer High School Dance program, dance is more than an extracurricular activity. It’s been a form of therapy. “I have suffered with anxiety and PTSD from events like my dad’s departure from my family and sexual assault. […]
Galleries Fight to Stay Open
By Samantha Alzate Staff Writer Sitting at a work bench in his West 10th Street art gallery, sandwiched between an alley and a hair salon, Numan Jalallari takes in the view of the people passing by. He waits for someone to come inside. “I don’t see what I used to see,” said Jalallari, owner of […]
Performers Ease Subway Commute
By Wilmer Ortiz Staff writer Benjamín Schnake Gálvez sat on a chair, playing a six-stringed guitar at the Union Square station. Into a microphone, he sang a mellow song in Spanish that was broadcast through a small amplifier. He is one of the performers sanctioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts & Design project. Its […]
Litefeet Dancers Part of Hip-hop Lineage
By Grace Oladunni Staff writer “Clap your hands, clap your hands … ” Those lyrics were thumping hard out of a loud speaker. A solo dancer, encircled by a crowd of other dancers, was showing off his new skills. He wasn’t this good when he started out doing Litefeet, one of the latest forms of […]
Iconic Theater Aims for New Audiences
By Hannah Hur Spectrum staff Since May, Film Forum, one of the nation’s handful of non-profit movie theaters, has been outfitted with tiered stadium seating to give its ticket-buyers more leg room, comfort and better sight-lines. These and other improvements are part of a $6 million renovation that Film Forum directors hope will provide a […]
A Performance Space of Their Own
By Samhitha Saiba Spectrum staff Four women glide across a black floor, bodies twisting and leaning into one another under a pink glow of light. Audience members watch from the edges of the room, some rising every now and then to drift to a different corner. Their eyes stay trained on the dancers. It’s closing […]
Off B’way Playhouse Crowdsources Funds
By Juliana Guarracino Spectrum staff Money has gotten so tight at Off Broadway’s Theatre 80, which doubles as an East Village performance space and a community meeting house, that it has launched a Go Fund Me campaign to raise $70,000. “When you kill the entertainment industry here, when you turn New York into a cultural […]
A Global Contest for Hip-Hop Ladies
By Andrew Najjar Staff writer Sunlight poured through the window and onto the mural, an abstract splash of colors, in the main entry and hallway of the Knockdown Center in Maspeth, New York. A group of dancers occupied the hallway. Some were sitting on the floor, eating, stretching and socializing. Some had headphones in their […]
Making Art With News Headlines
By Erinn McKenzie Staff Writer A poster on Cem Kocyildirim’s desk says “Everything is So F*cked Up.” That’s one of the first things a visitor might see in Kocyildrim’s studio in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where he creates art with plenty of messages, some subtle, some not so subtle. “She Said” is how he titled one piece. It’s a […]
A Tale of Two Tattoo Artists
By Kyah Blair Spectrum staff Lavan Wright … Before he became one of the tattoo artists at Think Before You Ink in Jamaica, Queens, Lavan Wright had spent six years in the U.S. Air Force. And, before that, he’d dropped out of the New York Institute of Technology, where he first studied architecture, then graphic […]
Tisch Grad: I Want to Uplift People
By Sarah Beckford Spectrum staff The main character of Kyleel Rolle’s debut film, PRÆY, gets shot, gets forced to rob a store, gets into a car crash and leaps from a mountaintop to chase a female vision who represents goodness. The film, which has been screened at several film festivals and will be officially released […]
Urban Word Puts NY Teens on a Healing Stage
By Tanisha Priya Ahmed Spectrum staff Urban Word NYC offers more than just a safe space for teens, it also hosts open mics. A diversity of teen performers at those open mics hold forth about their sexual experiences, sexual harassment and racism, among other topics. Jeffrey LeGrande, a Harlem 18-year-old and St. John’s […]
Music Inn’s Worldwide Reach
By Lakhsmi Chatterjee Spectrum staff Space is so limited at Music Inn World Instruments that sitars, flutes, drums and assorted instruments from around the globe are strung along the ceiling and vinyl records are piled on the floor of the two-story storefront. The store bills itself as one of the oldest world music merchants in […]
DJ Academy Teaches Old Skills to a New Breed
By Brandon Ortega Spectrum staff The art of DJ’ing was pioneered by legends like Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay, who mixed and cut records and pushed cultural in New York City during the 1980s. Some might say that, as digital tools have replaced hands-on scratching and cutting and other turntable […]
Rhythm and Rhyme at Nuyorican Poets Cafe
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdDFmFe-7dI[/youtube] Video by Melissa Denizard
Underserved Youth Find Serenity Within Artistic Safe Haven
Tayllor Johnson, 22, has performed many pieces of spoken word at the White House, yet, nothing beats the feeling that engulfed her as she stepped foot onto the stage of the Nuyorican Poets Café. “This is the Nuyorican Poets café, so it’s a pretty big deal to be performing in this space for me,” said […]
Music Venues for Seasoned Performers Also Nurture Up-and-Comers
Two years ago, a 16-year-old Ali Isabella became the youngest artist ever to perform at Wembley Arena in London. At that 12,500-seat venue, she was the opening act for country singing star Reba McEntire. Isabella landed in that British spotlight by virtue of having spent part of her adolescence doing what she thought necessary to […]
Gallery Eyes Low-Budget Art Lovers
Selling high-end art at relatively low-end prices is the strategy behind Carré d’artistes, a French firm that opened its first North American gallery in the West Village this month. “The concept is very welcomed by the artists, by the people, because, usually, traditional art galleries have an incredible price or target a very small part […]
Muralist Prefers Making Art For Public Viewing
When Strand, one of New York City’s oldest bookstores, invited muralist Michael Fumero to paint on one of its exterior walls, his first response was, “This is cool.” Then, from roof to sidewalk at that East Village location, he brushed on shades of red, yellow, green, blue and light flesh tones to create an animated […]
Street Performer’s Antics Offend Some, Entertain Others
The Great Perfarter knows that people think he is a raving lunatic. But there is a method to his madness, he said. “I was always attracted to what David Letterman, Tom Green and Andy Kaufman did on the street,” the Perfarter said, referring to those comedians, “the crazy man on the street who was […]
With Concrete As a Canvas, Sand Painter Pours Out His Art
First, Joe Mangrum sets up his boundaries, using four plastic buckets to roughly mark off a square. He rests a ringed binder filled with photographs of his artwork on a table he’s set up nearby. Then, he gets to work. From a dozen or so Ziploc storage bags, he grabs handfuls of sand dyed in colors […]