The 41st Annual International African Arts Festival: "BAADENYYA" (Since 1971) June 30th - July 4th, 2012 9AM - 9PM Daily (Rain or Shine) Bklyn, NYC

                              

WOW! This is so historic! Can you believe this awesome Africentric event had first started in 1971???

"BAADENYYA" in the African Swahili language means "Brotherhood & Sisterhood" and it is so INCREDIBLE that International African Arts Festival has endured the test of time. 

- ROD

 Official Website: iaafestival.org

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The 41st Annual International African Arts Festival will take place during Saturday, June 30th thru Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 at Commodore Barry Park (Navy Street, between Park and Flushing Avenues, on the border between Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene) rain or shine.

The 5-day annual arts and crafts festival includes an African Marketplace, dance and music performances, and fashion shows. The festival is dedicated to the preservation of art forms, traditions, and cultures of Africa and its diaspora.

For more information, visit: www.iaafestival.org or connect on Facebook.

 

About The International African Arts Festival...

The International African Arts Festival began in 1971 as the African Street Carnival, a PTA’s block party fundraiser for an independent school in Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn with local entertainers, about 20 arts and crafts vendors, along with food prepared by the parents. Almost 2,000 people came to the event and it was a success. The International African Arts Festival (IAAF) has been part of the Brooklyn’s cultural landscape for 40 years. Each year a committed team of Board members, consultants, part-time seasonal staff and volunteers, work together to transform a city park into an outdoor African cultural oasis that celebrates traditional and contemporary expression of various African cultural art forms.

         

THPAC's 36th Season SOULS OF OUR FEET: PEOPLE OF COLOR DANCE FESTIVAL June 17th, 19th, & 20th, 2012 @ 7:00PM Kumble Theater in Bklyn (NYC)

Official Website:
Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center

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THELMA HILL PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (THPAC)

Presents

The 36th Season (2012)

SOULS OF OUR FEET:
PEOPLE OF COLOR DANCE FESTIVAL
With A Special Re-Creation Of "Tilt" By George Faison

The 36th Season (2012) Runs

June 17th, 19th & 20th, 2012
At The Kumble Theater
At Long Island University, Brooklyn
7:00PM

BUY TICKETS (Kumble Theater)

(May 15, 2012 – New York) – Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC), in association with the Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn celebrates its 36th season of astounding performances with the Souls of Our Feet: People of Color Dance Festival June 17 at 7pm, and June 19, 20 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased at the Kumble Theater box office, 718-488-1624, and online at www.kumbletheater.org. Special ticket sale price of $10 before June 17.

The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center is proud to announce a special re-creation of Tilt by renowned Tony and Emmy Award winning choreographer and director George Faison. Originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1975 Tilt foreshadowed the end of pinball machines and the coming age of video games. The work features the music of Labelle and Ashford & Simpson. This revival for THPAC will introduce a whole new audience to this masterwork.

The season will also include choreographer and former Hamburg Ballet principal dancer Francesca Harper, rising dance powerhouse Sidra Bell; three emerging “Dance Sons of Brooklyn” Germaul Barnes/Viewsic Expressions Dance, Malcolm Low & Jamal Jackson Dance Company; the fast-rising dance company from Philadelphia, Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble; and making their first time appearance in THPAC series DANCE IQUAIL. THPAC's annual dance festival has become the must-see dance event not only for Brooklyn dance enthusiasts, but also for the entire city. The anxiously anticipated festival has earned a reputation for showcasing established, emerging and new choreographers and dance companies.

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About Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC)...
The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) was founded 36 years ago to support the creative ideas of choreographers and dance companies of color.  Our mission is to offer performance opportunities to artists so they can share their work with diverse communities, furnish rehearsal and "incubation" space for choreographers and dancers, and serve as a bridge between artists and the community.

Over the years, THPAC has supported and attracted emerging and established dance artists of color who seek out the organization’s experimental, yet historically aware environment. THPAC has become a viable institution for communities that have traditionally celebrated and reflected on their social and cultural issues through the rituals of music, dance, literature, and performance.

THPAC’s founder Larry Phillips began working as a dance therapist in Brooklyn at a community center that sponsored children's education and support programs for single parents attending New York Technical College.  The programs were the forerunner of THPAC. In 1977, he renamed the organization after his deceased but renowned and highly influential teacher, Thelma Hill. Ms. Hill is remembered as a positive force in the dance world of New York City and beyond. She also danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and the historically significant New York Negro Ballet Company.  She was a member of the dance faculty at the American Dance Festival and devoted herself to teaching dance most notably at the Clark Center. She died tragically in a fire in November 1977 but her passion in nurturing talent lives on in the organization that proudly bears her name. For more information visit http://www.thelmahill.com/

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About Alex Smith

Alex Smith was appointed Executive Director by the THPAC board in 1995 and later Executive Chairman. Under his tutelage and passionate commitment over 150 artists have been presented in performance including Ron Brown, Valerie Winborne, George Faison, Louis Johnson, Marlies Yearby, and Fred Benjamin, seven new programming formats have been added, and THPAC’s annual Life Time Achievement Awards, whose recipients include Louis Johnson, George Faison, Ella Thompson Moore, Dianne McIntrye, Fred Benjamin, and Kathy Grant and Dudley Williams, were established.

Watch “Nhojj – MUSIC and the Word”

                   

Nhojj LIVE @ The Brooklyn Museum [01-07-2012]
Copyright © 2012 ROD PATRICK RISBROOK

Nhojj – MUSIC and the Word chronicles homosexual indie singer-songwriter Nhojj in preparation for the landmark “Out & Proud” Brooklyn Museum First Saturday concert. Through interviews, rehearsal and performance footage, the 16 minute short elaborates on the power of music, and the positive messages behind the lyrics of his songs.

   

CHAZ - Aries Birthday Party @ Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture Saturday April 14th, 2012 After Party @ Club Langston

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CHAZ - Aries Birthday Party

Saturday, April 14th 20I2
8PM -12 Midnight
Admission $IO
Free for Aries with ID Who Brings 1 Paying Guest

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
53 Prospect Park West
Brooklyn N Y 11215

D.J. Fred Pierce
Live Performances by Neil Totton and Barry Parker

Showtime - IO OO PM
Host: Wesley Curtis

Food, Vendor, Raffles

Call for tickets: 718-771-7469

Partial proceeds to benefit
Unity Fellowship Church NY
Griot Circle

After Party at Club Langston
1073 Atlantic Avenue (@ Franklin Street)
Brooklyn, NY
$5.00 before 2AM when you mention Chaz Accessories


Sponsors
James Saunders Marketing
The Suave Gent.Com
Maxwells Bakery
Atlantic City Convention and Visitors
Tropicana Las Vegas
LY.R.I.C
Club Langston
Circle of Voices
Atlantic City Resorts


Upcoming Chaz Accessories Events

April 21
Ocean Ave and Parkside Ave -Outdoor Plaza
(Brooklyn)

April 22
Philadelphia Pride

April 28
Ocean Ave and Parkside Ave -Outdoor Plaza
(Brooklyn)

May 5
Ocean Ave and Parkside Ave -Outdoor Plaza
(Brooklyn)

May 26-28th
BAM Dance Africa Hanson PI and Ashland PIace Under the Clock
(Brooklyn)

June 23rd
Harlem Pride Jackie Robinson Park 145th St and Bradhurst Ave
(Harlem)

June 30 - Juiy 4th
International African Arts Festival @ Commodore Barry Park
(Brooklyn)

Aug 10-12th
F.I.B.O. Fire Island
(Cherry Grove, Long Island)

Aug 19th
Bed Stuy Pride
(Brooklyn)

Trayvon Martin SUNRISE: 1995 To SUNSET: 2012 Trayvon Martin Rally @ Union Square (NYC) Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin
(1995-2012)

THE BACKSTORY: Trayvon Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was an African American teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Martin, who was unarmed, had been walking to his father's girlfriend's house when Zimmerman, acting as an unaffiliated neighborhood watch member, followed him based on alleged suspicious activity. Soon after, he fatally shot Martin during an altercation between the two.

UPDATE (Wednesday, March 21st, 2012)

I was at the Trayvon Martin Rally at 14th Street/Union Square in New york City.

I felt compelled to show up because I am emotionally disturbed and PHUCKING ANGRY as white men (whether in police uniforms or NOT -- in this case) continue to shoot down and KILL Black boys and men -- people who LOOK LIKE ME with impunity and no JUSTICE BEING SERVED!!!

I wonder when we as African folks, the sleeping giant, will wake up and not take this shit anymore. I write this blog entry in anger -- and YES, how can I not be angry within these United States of AmeriKKKa when things like this keep happening over and over...???!!

After the initial coming together and rally at Union Square, we were very successful in taking to the streets and shutting down traffic and overwhelming the police for a while. I was very HAPPY about that because it wasn't going to be business as usual in NYC. Also, I was encouraged to see TONS of YOUNG FOLKS out there. The demographics were mixed across gender and race; there were also folks from pre-teens to folks in their sixties out there as well.





The following pictures are my documentation of the political rally. I choose to render the pictures in a RED split-tone color to represent Trayvon's BLOOD being spilled and well as the blood of all the lost African murdered during the middle passage...

ALWAYS REMEMBER... AND TAKE A STAND ON A WORTHY CAUSE TO ELEVATE HUMANITY...

THE STRUGGLE (UNFORTUNATELY) CONTINUES...