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L'Rain
Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band. L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls "approaching songness". Her self-titled debut, '' L'Rain'', was included in best-of-year lists by publications including '' Pitchfork'' and '' Bandcamp Daily''; her second album, ''Fatigue'' (2021), was named the best album of the year by '' The Wire''. She has collaborated with artists including Vagabon, Helado Negro, and Naama Tsabar, and performed with Kevin Beasley at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Early life and career Cheek was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she lived with her mother, father, and grandparents. Her father, Wyatt Cheek, worked in music marketing and promotion for entities including Select Records an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatigue (L'Rain Album)
''Fatigue'' is the second record by Brooklyn-based experimental musician Taja Cheek, under the moniker of L'Rain. It is her first recording with record label Mexican Summer. ''Fatigue'' builds on Cheek's experimental compositional approach, drawing from an eclectic collection of genres and employing field recording elements. Instrumentally, it has help from twenty collaborators, who lend the record clavinet, saxophone, and more. Upon its release, ''Fatigue'' was greeted with rave reviews. It was named the best album of the year by British magazine '' The Wire''. Background Taja Cheek planned on naming her second record ''Suck Teeth'' because she "loved how it encapsulated a very black sound of disapproval, annoyance, and disappointment." Composition ''Fatigue'' has musical footing in experimental pop, as well as orchestral pop. However, the record contains diverse songs that bend genre. Ambient music, gospel, jazz, post-punk, neo soul, R&B, shoegazing, soft rock and sound c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Rain (album)
''L'Rain'' is the debut studio album by experimental musician Taja Cheek, who performs as L'Rain. The album was released in 2017 by New York City-based label Astro Nautico and included in best-of-year lists by publications including '' Pitchfork'' and '' Bandcamp Daily''. The album cover is an image of Cheek's forearm, which is tattooed "L'Rain"; she chose the name after her mother, Lorraine, died during the making of the record. ''L'Rain'' features Andrew Lappin on guitars, Alex Goldberg on drums and percussion, Jeremy Powell on saxophone, and TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone on backing vocals. Cheek composed and performs vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, samples, and percussion on the album, which she co-produced with Lappin. Musical style ''L'Rain'' has been recognized as an experimental album drawing on many traditions and genres; reviewers have identified the work's style and influences as including free jazz, ambient, noise music, and disco; R&B, post-punk, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Beasley
Kevin Beasley (born 1985 Lynchburg, Virginia) is an American artist working in sculpture, performance art, and sound installation. He lives and works in New York City. Beasley was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial in 2014 and MoMA PS1's Greater New York exhibition in 2015. Education and early life Kevin Beasley was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan in 2007 and an MFA from Yale in 2012. Work Beasley is known for sculpture that incorporates found materials - especially clothing - and casting materials like resin and foam. While these materials cure or set into their final state, Beasley works them with his body, a process that points to his interest in sculpture that traces of the artist's body while retaining a bodily, fleshy quality of its own. Many of his sculptures also contain audio equipment or are used in sound-based installations or performances. Notable exhibitions Beas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican Summer
Mexican Summer is an independent record label founded in 2009 by Keith Abrahamsson and Andres Santo Domingo. Based in Brooklyn, New York, the label has released recordings from artists including Best Coast, Kurt Vile, Ariel Pink, Allah-Las, Weyes Blood, Connan Mockasin, Jessica Pratt, and Cate Le Bon. The label is named after the song "Mexican Summer" by Marissa Nadler. In 2013, '' T: The New York Times Style Magazine'' described the label as "a bastion for experimental pop, not to mention a model for successful music publishing in the 21st century." History Mexican Summer began in fall 2008 as a subscription service for limited edition, ornately packaged vinyl pieces. On September 2, 2008, they released their first 12" vinyl single ''Sätt Att Se'', from the Swedish rock band, Dungen. “I think the whole idea of Mexican Summer really just came because I wanted to try to develop artists in a different way,” said Abrahamsson. The label continued to add bands to its roster, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State . Retrieved September 18, 2016. with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utica Avenue Station
The Utica Avenue station is an express station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway. Located at Utica Avenue and Fulton Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, it is served by the A train at all times and the C train at all times except late nights. History This underground station opened on April 9, 1936, as part of an extension of the Independent Subway System (IND) from its previous Brooklyn terminus at Jay Street–Borough Hall, which opened three years earlier, to Rockaway Avenue. The new IND subway replaced the BMT Fulton Street El. The Reid Avenue El station, which was originally named Utica Avenue and was formerly above the current subway station, closed on May 31, 1940.New York TimesLast Train is Run on Fulton St. 'El', June 1, 1940 Station layout The station has four tracks and two island platforms, typical for a four-track express station. The outer track walls are made of tile and have a maroon trim line with a dark maroon border ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jitu Weusi
Jitu Weusi (born Leslie R. Campbell; August 25, 1939 - May 22, 2013) was an American educator, education advocate, author, a community leader, writer, activist, mentor, jazz and art program promoter. He is one of the founders of the National Black United Front, Jitu Weusi Institute for Development, and the International African Arts Festival. The festival started in 1971. Weusi along with Aminisha Black and supporters were the founders of The East (East Cultural and Education Institution), Uhuru Sasa School (Freedom Now School), in Brooklyn for grades K through 12, the African Street Festival in Brooklyn which became the International African Arts Festival, the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium, Black News co-founder, founding member of the African American Teachers Association, and For My Sweet. For my Sweet is a cultural events and art gallery space in Brooklyn. Early life Weusi was born Leslie R. Campbell in 1939 and raised in Brooklyn from a working-class family. He was b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The East (Brooklyn)
The East was a community education and arts organization in Brooklyn, New York City focused on black nationalism, which was founded in 1969. Founding and Activities Founded in 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City by a group including students from the African American Student Association (ASA) and Jitu Weusi (Les Campbell), The East was a community education and arts organization based on principles of self-determination, nation building, and Black consciousness. It served as a branch of Amiri Baraka’s Congress of African People (CAP) until 1974, when The East pulled out of CAP due to CAP's ideological shift towards increased Marxism. Originally located at 10 Claver Place in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, The East served as a hive of many activities. It provided day care for children and evening classes for adults, and served as home for ''Black News'', a bookstore, restaurant, catering service, food co-op, and a bi-weekly national Black nationalist news publicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium
The Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium (CBJC) is a not for profit arts organization. Jitu Weusi was one of the co-founders. CBJC organized an annual jazz festival in Central Brooklyn, New York and created the Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame and Museum. The festival occurs every April. This music series is New York City's longest running festival dedicated to straight ahead jazz. This celebration of jazz presents 35 events on 23 days with more than 100 musicians performing in clubs, venues, colleges, faith-based and cultural institutions throughout this borough of New York City. Brooklynites, jazz musicians such as Cecil Payne, Betty Carter, and Kenny Durham as well as less heralded artists Cal Massey, Betty Roche, Gigi Gryce, and C. Scoby Stroman contributions are remembered by way of conferences and performances. Brooklyn jazz hall of fame * Ahmed Abdul-Malik * Roland Alexander * Chief Bey * Eubie Blake * Art Blakey * Joe Carroll * Betty Carter * Kenny Dorham * Leonard Gaskin * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Subtlety
''A Subtlety'' (also known as ''the Marvelous Sugar Baby'' and subtitled ''an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant'') is a 2014 piece of installation art by American artist Kara Walker. ''A Subtlety'' was dominated by its central piece, a white sculpture depicting a woman with African features in the shape of a sphinx, but also included fifteen other sculptures. These fifteen "attendants" to the sphinx were enlarged versions of contemporary blackamoors produced in China. The piece was installed in the Domino Sugar Refinery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn from May through July 2014. Although thematically consistent with Walker's earlier work, its scope and presentation were departures from her oeuvre. The project was commissioned by Creative Time and underwritten by New York-based real estate developmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domino Sugar Refinery
The Domino Sugar Refinery is a mixed-use development and former sugar refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City, along the East River. When active as a refinery, it was operated by the Havemeyer family's American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar and was one of several sugar factories on the East River in northern Brooklyn. The family's first refinery in Williamsburg opened in 1856 and was operated by Frederick C. Havemeyer Jr., the son of American Sugar's founder. After a fire destroyed the original structures, the current complex was built in 1882 by Theodore A. Havemeyer, Thomas Winslow, and J. E. James. The American Sugar Refining Company grew to control most of the sugar industry in the United States by the late 19th century, with the Brooklyn refinery as its largest plant. Many different types of sugar were refined at the facility, and it employed up to 4,500 workers at its peak in 1919. Demand started to decline i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kara Walker
Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Walker was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997, at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest ever recipients of the award. She has been the Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2015. Walker is regarded as among the most prominent and acclaimed Black American artists working today. Early life and education Walker was born in 1969 in Stockton, California. Her father, Larry Walker, was a painter and professor. Her mother Gwendolyn was an administrative assistant. Als, Hilton (October 8, 2007)"The Shadow Act" ''The New Yorker''. A 2007 review in the New York Times described her early life as calm, noting that "nothing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
