Arts & Entertainment
Pro dancing is more than just making a living
By: Mariana Zepeda The stiff competition. Being rejected during auditions. Not knowing your next income source. Those are some of the reasons why many aspiring dance professionals get asked, “What’s your backup plan?” Yet, for many of them, dance is more than just a way to make a living. “I would do it for free […]
An exhibit on flag-burning artists of 1970
By Nayla Nernekian The first items viewable to those entering 80WSE Gallery on Sept. 9 will be a wall-sized U.S. flag, photos of Christian crosses and a plywood table from the church that hosted “The People’s Flag Show,” an open-call art show protesting war, racism, patriarchy and government surveillance in 1970. If those visitors follow […]
Where the sidewalk is an art studio
By Liz Namgung In the winter of 2000, Fejzo stepped onto the jet bridge at John F. Kennedy airport, bags heavy with art supplies from Albania. He began drawing as a child. Now, at 48, living in his adopted city, portrait sketching has become his full-time job. His workspace isn’t the standard walled, windowed studio. […]
Women hiring women in film
By Ellie Kourkoulakos A young man was motioning to passersby to avoid the Washington Square South sidewalk where cameramen were peering through lenses and others on the film crew were assembling equipment they pulled from plastic containers. The directors’ chairs lined up on the sidewalk would eventually seat Lena Dunham and Natalie Portman, actresses who […]
How selfies reshape the concert experience
By Cailyn Williams Concert-goers Lara Afolayanka and Ashley Simplice steadied their cellphones, positioning the camera lens to capture the Barclays Center display screen as it shifted from a WNBA player advertising an upcoming game to a banner touting that evening’s Brooklyn stop on Tyler the Creator’s sold-out Chromakopia tour. “I definitely went on Pinterest and […]
Bridging music industry’s gender gap
By Michelle Yang Amina Walker has sung for as long as she can remember: at home, in the car, in her bedroom, on city streets. But when she’s on stage, she gets butterflies in her stomach. And when it’s her turn at the mic during Sound Thinking’s weekly jam sessions, she puts herself out there, […]
Paragraph by paragraph, a writer’s room
By Sri Sowmya Tanguturi When she started crafting her first book, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson utilized Paragraph Workspace for Writers, a spot on Fourteenth Street reserved for writers. Among that workspace’s various offerings was a flexible schedule. “I had assumed that I would go to the office on a nine-to-five schedule,” she said. “But […]
LES arts, activism center to reopen
By Mariyatou Jabbi When Victoria Law walked through the doors of that Lower East Side organization all those years ago, she planned to help the nonprofit hand out meals at Thompson Square Park. She went there as she was wondering who she would be as a grown-up. “‘I don’t have to be a doctor or […]
Selling art where it’s against the law
By Aisatou Kabba For years, Marty Allen has been selling his handmade puppets and Bryan Closi has been peddling his photography on some of the busiest spots in Manhattan, including ones where selling their work is illegal. “I’ve had my stuff confiscated and the police threaten to push me out. And when they do come […]
Vietnam veteran’s street art and backstory bring him friends, finance and a home
By Munazza Choudhury An elderly man sits atop a dented and dinged motorized red scooter that he relies on to get around. An injury has made his 79-year-old legs too weak for walking. Spackle and paint are splattered on his white T-shirt and blue jeans. He has propped a bag of pale blue tiles on […]
Jazz has a post-pandemic rebound
By Kai Russell When she was 19-years-old, Rie Yamaguchi-Borden started work as a cleaning person at the Smalls Jazz Club. She had no idea she would find her passion and career there. “It sucked me in strong enough that I started to take piano lessons, I started to sing, I started to play drums,” said […]
‘Drag Story Hour’ combats homophobia, gender-identity biases
By Huria Ali The hate she received when she was 22, made Gloria Sotelo Quijano feel like she should stop being Lori Lu, the drag artist she turned into for performances and bookings for Drag Story Hour. “They will say very misogynistic, homophobic and even sometimes transphobic comments towards me … I got very, very […]
Street performers aim to inspire and uplift
Street Performing in NYC By Anthony Jose Urena On a patch of concrete in Washington Square Park, Adjua Ajamu lays down his paisley-printed red carpet and, on top of that, a tip jar and a cube-shaped speaker that is connected to his phone. It powers the synthetic music that is the background for his singing. […]
At Ballet Tech, the first Black leader
By Mailynn Arias If dance in America is a pyramid, said Dionne Figgins, 42, a Black woman, White-dominated ballet remains at the top. But, added Figgins, speaking generally about dancers for whom ballet is the foundation and about ballet itself, “The ballerina can never do the African step.” Ballet is “not better,” Figgins continued, ”it’s […]
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