Gentrification Humor at it's Best (Videos)

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Get Inspiration from Artist Shantell Martin

The work of Shantell Martin is a meditation of lines; a language of characters, creatures and messages that invite her viewers to share a role in her creative process. Part autobiographical, and part dreamlike whimsy, Martin has created her own world that bridges fine art, commercial art and the everyday experience — conversations, objects and places.

Using her simple trademark – black ink and white surfaces, Martin’s illustrations transform everything from walls, found objects, ceramics, luxury goods, sneakers, and even faces into a visual narrative. Martin’s diverse portfolio illustrates her gift of navigating many worlds. Her commissions at Asia’s ultra-high end department store Lane Crawford and Y&R’s global headquarters were met with the same amount of fanfare as her live talks and drawing demonstrations.

Martin has been featured on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, and her hand-illustrated bedroom walls graced the cover of the New York Times home section in May 2012. Her work has appeared in Creative Review Magazine, and she is still honored to have been named French Glamour’s New York’s “coolest it girl” in 2011. Her latest fashion collaboration with fashion brand Suno was featured in Vogue in August 2013.
ARE YOU YOU, curated by Isissa Komada-John, is a site-specific installation exploring change, flow and identity. This is Shantell Martin’s first solo museum exhibition. (MoCADA)

Check her FRESH here and meet her in person during her stay at MoCADA. She'll even draw on you, if you're nice. :)

Jypsea HOME Launches in Brooklyn this Saturday

Join me, NJ-based Designer/Leather Artisan Meca McKinney of Jypsea.com, as I reveal my debut collection of leather & exotic skin handcrafted HOME GOODS in Brooklyn, NY on 4/20/13. RSVP: http://jypseahomelaunch.eventbrite.com

Free admission with RSVP & dessert platter and VIP Swag Bags for Press & Shoppers.

Afro-Punk Stars: Erykah Badu with the artist formerly known as Mos Def

Margarita Corporan

Read the AfroPunk highlights in the Rolling Stones.

AFROPUNK RETURNS TO BROOKLYN'S COMMODORE BARRY BARK AUGUST 25-26

The 8th Annual Afropunk Festival is returning to Brooklyn's Commodore Barry Park on August 25-26. The 2012 festival brings together its most stellar line-up yet, featuring a diverse mix of performers including Erykah Badu featuring the Cannibanoids, Gym Class Heroes, Janelle Monae, Das Racist, Toro Y Moi, Skindred, Reggie Watts, Spank Rock, and more listed below.
In addition, the largest Street Skate and BMX showcase returns with the NikeBattle For the Streets Skate and BMX Competition. The event will feature the nation's best amateur skaters and BMX riders in a competition to be judged by top professionals in both sports.
Described by the New York Times as putting "rock and rebellion squarely in the category of African-American music," the Afropunk Festival has become a Brooklyn intuition and the focal point for the burgeoning Afropunk movement.
Regrettably, last year's festival was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. The storm almost put an end to the Afropunk Festival, but through the organizations' dedication and hard work, and the support of this year’s sponsors which include Nike, vitaminwater, Kind and media sponsors The Fader and WNYC, the festival is back delivering the best music, food, culture and sports—and still free to the public.

Lineup

Erykah Badu featuring the Cannabinoids Gym Class Heroes Janelle Monae Das Racist Skindred Toro Y Moi Reggie Watts Spank Rock Ninjasonik Toshi Reagon Straight Line Stitch The Memorials Radkey Bad Rabbits Gordon Voidwell The London Souls Cerebral Ballzy Phony Ppl Body Language

http://afropunkfest.com

(reblogged from http://www.jambase.com/Articles/92895/Afropunk-Fest-Erykah-Badu-Janelle-Monae-Gym-Class-Heroes

Press Release: UNDERWRAPS, First Global Modeling Agency Representing Muslim Female Fashion Models Launches During New York Fashion Week

NEW YORK, NY--  January 24, 2012—Nailah Lymus, the Brooklyn-based fashion designer behind Amirah Creations , announced today that she will launching a modeling agency during New York Fashion Week.  Known for breaking barriers as a Muslim female fashion designer, Lymus has decided to extend her brand and make history by launching UNDERWRAPS (http://underwrapsagency.carbonmade.com/), the first global agency representing Muslim female fashion models.  UNDERWRAPS’ roster will debut in a fashion showcase presented by Amirah Creations on February 11^th. 

“As a Muslim Women who has also worked in the Fashion Industry, I observe a heavy Muslim influence in all areas of fashion,” Nailah Lymus said. “Designers, photography, editorials all displaying inspirations from Muslim fashion. I feel there is a need to shine the light on Muslim women who have been some of the originators of trend setting modest fashion for years. I'm bringing Muslims to mainstream-- covered is the new couture.”

Islam has had a strong influence in the fashion industry for years with stylings gracing such coveted magazine covers as Vogue as well as providing inspiration for noteworthy collections including Victoria Beckham’s Fall/Winter 2012 line. Islamic models have also brought diversity to the catwalk including recent stars Hanaa Ben Abdesslem (Tunisian) and Hindi Sahlial (Moroccan). Representing a seasoned roster, each model brings a modest yet genuine professional attitude combined with an ethical sensibility that “works.” UNDERWRAPS is creating a fusion of inclusion—marrying the best of both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

The Amirah Creations show featuring the models from UNDERWRAPS will take place on February 11^th beginning at 6:30pm at Rare by FS Charlie, 317 Church Street in Tribeca (New York city). To view the official invite, visit www.underwraps.eventbrite.com.

For press and VIP inquiries, please contact Tamara Walker at 347.827.1284 or via email at tamara@sienamediagrp.com.

ABOUT NAILAH LYMUS

Nailah Lymus, a clothing and accessory designer since 2004 has nourished her deep hunger for all things fashion at the youthful age of seven using her God given talent to accentuate the natural allure of the woman. Being a self taught designer equipped Ms. Lymus with all of the poise needed to showcase her gift amongst more seasoned designers. Recently showing at NYC Fashion Week 2011 and featured in Couture Fashion Week 2011 Lymus has established her name in the Fashion industry. Now combining both of her passions (modesty and fashion) Lymus is launching the FIRST Muslim Female Model Agency merging the best of both worlds.

ABOUT UNDERWRAPS 

UNDERWRAPS is the FIRST global agency representing the Muslim Female Fashion Model. A seasoned roster, each model brings a modest, genuine, smart, savvy, professional attitude, combined with an ethical sensibility that makes "it work".

Influencing the fashion industry for years, Muslim fashion has graced the covers of coveted magazines such as Vogue and has been providing inspiration for noteworthy designers from early on. UNDERWRAPS is creating a fusion of Inclusion—creating the best of both worlds.

For more information, visit www.underwrapsagency.carbonmade.com

ABOUT RARE NYC 

Originally founded in 2003 by celebrity stylist Ruth Roche, RARE is one of New York City’s premiere salons, catering to clients who dare to be bold. Today, the torch has been passed on to principal stylist and new owner Fatima Sheikh, who recently merged her brand, FS Charlie, with RARE. Located in the heart of Tribeca, RARE offers and extensive menu of hair and beauty services. In addition to their array of services, RARE works closely with the city’s creative community to produce distinct projects with fashion, music and lifestyle driven brands. For more information about RARE, visit www.rarenyc.com

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Could a Painting on a Drug Dealer’s Storefront be the Last Work of Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Fascinating story about my favorite abstract artist, Basquiat, in New York Magazine. So eery and upsetting but amazing all at once. Read the story here.

Nit Ra Sit Originals

The Diamond Dress-Back

Front

Upper back

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF.  My name is Neith Rasuten I was born in Harlem U.S.A, I really feel like a bit of old Harlem resides in me.  The days of pageantry and showmanship I am drawn to the era of the Harlem Renaissance.  I think everything I create in some way pays homage to that time.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED ON YOUR CREATIVE PATH? I owe my creativity, appreciation and understanding of art and beauty to my grandmother.  An artist that worked in a number of mediums she introduced me to them all.  As a child I remember her taking me to piano lessons and having me play what I had learned for the family each week.  She made oil paintings and hand stitched tapestry along with embroidery watching and learning from her are among of some my finest memories of childhood.  Designing clothes was a passion of hers which quickly became mine as well. 

WHAT DO YOU CREATE? I create women’s clothing and design accessories.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE? I am inspired by cultures from around the world.  Traditional garb given a modern edge than recreated in textiles you might not normally see them created in. Architectural design shapes and colors in nature.  Reviewing what has been done before and making it modern or giving it a twist. It really never gets old for me.

 

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO MAKE A LIVING BY BEING YOUR AUTHENTIC, CREATIVE SELF?  Networking mostly, also I am able to work with boutique owners.  I market my work on several different internet platforms.

WHAT NEW PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON?  I picked up a celebrity client this year so working on her line.  As well as Spring/Summer 2012 collection.

HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND & SUPPORT YOUR WORK? People can find me on a host of platforms I teach sewing techniques from my U-stream Channel, I show case design features from my blog and Tumblr, I am on Etsy and you can shop with me directly by going to my website www.nitrasit.com.  I am also carried by Calabash clothing boutique in Brooklyn, NY. Down to Earth Boutique & Gallery in Suffolk, VA and Wondo Gehnet in St. Vincent, WI.

Links:

www.nitrasit.com

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nitrasit

http://nitrasit.tumblr.com/

http://nitrasit.blogspot.com/

http://www.etsy.com/people/nitrasit

Stef-N-Ty Designs

1. My name is Stephanie Dickey and I am the designer and owner of Stef-n-Ty, a fashion design company that I started in 1992, as a partnership with my husband, Tyrone Dickey, (hence the name Stef-n-Ty). Ty is the creative marketing director and I am the designer. I had been designing and making clothing since 1981 when I opened my first dressmakers shop in Annapolis, MD. Then when Ty and I got together in 1992, we decided to move to NY and start our own menswear line.
2. I was first introduced to clothing design at a very young age by my great-grandmother, herself a dressmaker. She taught all of the girls; daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters in the family how to sew, knit, & crochet. She always told us that people will always need clothing so we would always have a skill to make a living. I learned patternmaking and all my sewing skills from her. I also inherited from her, my eye for textiles. I began in my first shop doing alterations and custom dressmaking for people in the community as well as putting on my own fashion shows with my line of women's clothing under the label "Stefani". Years and 2 children later when I met and married Ty we decided to move to NY and try our hand in the cultural creative industry there, and began our menswear line in Brooklyn.
3. I create, one-of-a-kind funky hats for women & men, made from upcycled and vintage textiles, as well as clothing for women, mostly tops and jackets with a free flowing Afro-Asian feel. I do clean lines unique textiles, and unusual and creative closures.

4. I am inspired mostly by textiles. I am a very tactile person, and am drawn to things with great texture and drape. I am also inspired by everyday people, I like styles that will work for "real women", who may not be model size but still want to let loose the Diva in them. Love, love, love natural fibers and findings, cottons, wools, leathers, bone, horn, wood, stone...earth elements.
5. I have been making a living at this full time for 19 years, although there have been a few times when either Ty or I have had to take a parttime job, for the most part this has been our only source of income. We sell to individual clients, we sell wholesale to boutiques, we do shows and events, and we have a regular retail venue at the Rust Belt Market, an artisans market in Ferndale, MI right outside Detroit where we live. It has been incredibly hard at times, but we have never given up doing what we do, we just go on to Plan B, C, D........

6. Currently I am finishing up with summer hats and starting to plan and cut hats for Fall/Winter season. I am also doing a line of shrugs with leather appliques of sistas with funky natural hairstyles made of shells, grommets. eyelets, safety pins, etc.

Stef-n-Ty designs can be seen online on Facebook and www.stef-n-ty.com.
Our hats and/or clothing is available in 10 boutiques in DC, Philly, MD, Chicago, & Detroit (see FB page for list - click on info) as well as directly from us at our studio:
227 Iron Street Unit 313, Detroit, MI and at our retail venue, The Rust Belt Market 22801 Woodward Ave, Ferndale, MI ( 9 Mile Rd)
Contact: Stef 773-230-0616 or Ty 410-949-7189

Stef-n-Ty
Urban chic clothing for men and women. One of a kind classic pieces with a touch of the unique. Stef-n-Ty clothing is never out of style!

Artist You Should Know: Lorna Simpson

Ebony (6), 2010.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
April 16 - July 10, 2006

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
March 1 - May 6, 2007.

I learned about this sista in college late last year . It's not often do you read about a black, woman artist, particularly one still living, in school textbooks so I took special interest in her.
She was born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, and received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and her MFA from the University of California, San Diego. When Simpson emerged from the graduate program at San Diego in 1985, she was already considered a pioneer of conceptual photography.  Lorna Simpson first became well-known in the mid-1980s.
Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Miami Art Museum; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. She has participated in such important international exhibitions as the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany. She has been the subject of numerous articles, catalogue essays, and a monograph published by Phaidon Press. Simpson's first mid-career survey was exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Miami Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and the Gibbes Museum in South Carolina. Of late, she had a solo exhibition at Salon94, New York, in 2008 and a solo exhibition at Obadia Galerie, Paris, in 2009. In 2010, she is the recipient of the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award in Art.

Her latest work is called Gathered and is currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum.

 

 Hear Lorna discuss her process for her latest work.

Learn more about Lorna Simpson at her website.

Sex Crimes Against Black Girls Exhibit

...sex crimes against Black girls are the dirtiest of our laundry – nasty, gaping wounds too infected to heal on their own.  Whether at levels macro, when children in war torn countries like Uganda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are forced to take on roles as sex slaves, or on the micro-level, when daughters and nieces are violated by their brothers, cousins, uncles and fathers, sex crimes against Black girls, no matter how secreted, occur every minute, of every day, around the globe...


Sex Crimes Against Black Girls from Clarisa James on Vimeo.
Curator: Shantrelle P. Lewis
Shantrelle P. Lewis is an independent curator of African Diasporan Art who currently serves as the Director of Public Programming and Exhibitions at the Caribbean Cultural Center Africa Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). The granddaughter of New Orleans artist, Charles Lewis and a fourth generation graduate of HBCUs, Ms. Lewis was introduced to the performing and cultural arts of African Americans by her parents who are collectors themselves. A New Orleans native, Shantrelle returned home in September 2007, after a 12-year stint on the east coast, to assist in post-Katrina revitalization efforts. As an independent curator, Shantrelle initiates projects that are meant to incite, inspire, and shift the paradigms of their audiences. Her curatorial credits include exhibitions on a variety of topics ranging from Contemporary Haitian Art, a tribute to Betty Davis, the Haitian Revolution, The Feminine in African Sacred Traditions, and New Orleans sacred traditions. As part of her lifetime commitment to her beloved city, Shantrelle is producing and directing her first documentary The Wild Magnolia, as part of an oral history project of the Magnolia Housing Projects, which will also include a book of photography and a permanent exhibit to be housed at the site’s community center.

See the exhibit: Skylight Gallery, 3rd Floor 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Get more information:
http://www.sexcrimesagainstblackgirls.com/

A Day in the Life of DARU JONES: Drummer Extraordinaire

I am surrounded by tons of creative entreprenuers on the grind but my dear friend Daru Jones takes the cake. I've learned that if I want any face time with the homie, I better be prepared to hang with him at DD172, the art gallery/record studio of Damon Dash, or catch him at a gig. Time for "just kicking it" is rare. Thoroughly inspired by his international hustle that includes several spot date gigs often with big timers like Talib Kweli, Black Milk and Curren$y--a grind that keeps him ripping stages at home and abroad--I ask dude to share a typical day in his life with our readership. He's gone from playing in his church's band in Michigan to blessing international stages and being hailed as the next Questlove. He plays everything from rock, hip-hop, soul, classical, and inspirational joints. And this doesn't even mention his work as a producer! This is how the Brooklyn, NY resident gets it done. Be inspired to step YOUR grind up!




TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010

Waking up at 929am hearing my

super alarm go off. FLAMES!

9:35am About to say my everyday morning
prayers to help me get through the day

10am Quick glance at emails, facebook
and webpages to see what's new. Time to do indoor
25min workout routine to get the body flowing

1117am MY ADIDAS T-Shirt & more stash

1113am Picking out gear for today
from T-Shirt stash 1

1120am The GOLDEN iron.
Time to get the wears crispy!

1130am Ok it looks like it's going to
be a RockSmithTokyo gear day

1140am Breakfast time with my fave cereal, Kashi

1145am Time to get the hygiene
RIGHT

Noon: Time to make moves

and head to DD172
to meet everyone by 1pm

YESSS!! Finally in motion!

Almost there!

115pm Finally made it to DD172

Just walked into the Dash Gallery

Headed downstairs to Under100 to pick up Taye Drums

It's 135pm and Taye Drums Go-Kit
all packed also MonoCases
and ready to head to Souncheck by 2pm

But before leaving, had to stop by and
say peace to the homie Ski Beatz!

What a surprise and guess who is in town?
the Talented Ms. Terri Walker and
looks like she is showing Ski how to play the Sax.

Aight!! Made it to City Winery by
2pm for Soundcheck.

John Forte & Valerie + McKenzie Eddy
& Sean O'Connell backed by the Sensei's
(Brady,John & Myself) tonight at 8pm

Bumped into the talented
John Forte during soundcheck

Soundcheck is finally over and its about
430pm. Heading to my friend Sean's old apt.
to help him move somethings out. Check the Ghostbuster's firehouse behind me.

This pizza was worth the 17 bucks
but was able to get it on the house
being that i was performing tonight. YES!


(PAUSE. I have no idea what went on between LUNCH and DINNER but apparently it is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. ;0)

645pm dinner. I know I should change my eating habits
but today is not the day!





AIght Mealtime over 735pm
now time to head back to City Winery



Backstage with McKenzie Eddy & the Sensei's
About to hit the stage in 10 min



Showtime 805pm now time to get on those
Taye Drum and Go-Kit.



Show is over and Drum kit is broken down.



It's 1045 pm now backed at DD172 Under100
and looks like we have to re-setup gear
for after party Jam




Didn't even know the homies
TradeMark & Curren$y were here

It's almost Midnight and
the jam sessions is finally over





Back on the A train heading home



  

No Sleep till Brooklyn.
Goodnight
115am

For more about Daru Jones, check out:
http://www.darujones.bandcamp.com/

http://www.darujones.blogspot.com/

http://www.twitter.com/darujones

http://www.myspace.com/rusic

http://www.myspace.com/darubeats

http://www.reverbnation.com/darujonesofrusicrecords