Last week, the NYT times spent some time to cover the dance form “Flex” after their performance at the Dumbo Arts festival. The art form has been on the rise, growing out of Brooklyn to be featured on TV and stage all over the world.
Check out an excerpt of their article below…
…Rooted in east Brooklyn, flexing is expanding in popularity, and the flexors here also represented other boroughs. According to Reem, flexing grew out of the Jamaican style brukup (also rendered as bruk-up or bruk up), but its resemblance to American popping and locking is clear. There’s a lot of mime, much robot articulation of the joints and Egyptian-angled “tutting.”…
After successfully raising $50K in 50 days, the producers and writers behind East WillyB are garnering more attention then ever. Today, their story was featured as part of a write up covering the traditional television networks’ disconnect with their increasingly Latino audiences.
Check out their video on the show below….
Latino Show for a New Generation
“East WillyB,” a Brooklyn-based Web series, is taking on issues facing a growing Latino population.
By now you’ve heard that Usain Bolt did what only two have done before him: defend his Olympic 100m title. With his Olympic record time of 9.63 seconds, Bolt won his fourth medal, all gold.
The New York Time has done a great job putting his win in perspective, comparing his time to every other 100m medalist to date.
Interesting article from yesterday’s NY Times on the AIDS Epidemic in Cuba. It actually covers various themes such as foreign aid, prostitution, education and, of course, healthcare in describing the success the island nation has had controlling the virus.
Check out an excerpt from the story below…
…Cuba now has one of the world’s smallest epidemics, a mere 14,038 cases. Its infection rate is 0.1 percent, on par with Finland, Singapore and Kazakhstan. That is one-sixth the rate of the United States, one-twentieth of nearby Haiti.
The population of Cuba is only slightly larger than that of New York City. In the three decades of the global AIDS epidemic, 78,763 New Yorkers have died of AIDS. Only 2,364 Cubans have.
Other elements have contributed to Cuba’s success: It has free universal basic health care; it has stunningly high rates of H.I.V. testing; it saturates its population with free condoms, concentrating on high-risk groups like prostitutes; it gives its teenagers graphic safe-sex education; it rigorously traces the sexual contacts of each person who tests positive.
By contrast, the response in the United States — which records 50,000 new infections every year — seems feeble. Millions of poor people never see a doctor. Testing is voluntary, and many patients do not return for their results. Sex education is so politicized that many schools teach nothing about protected sex; condoms are expensive, and distribution of free ones is haphazard. …
Mr. Kartel has been making the rounds lately, in promotion of both his new album and upcoming book, among other things. The people over at The FADER & New York Times have seemed to take notice of his hustle.
He graces the cover of the latest FADER issue, their annual Summer Music Special, and is featured in a recent NYT article covering his various branding efforts. Both are good reads.
Check out The FADER‘s accompanying podcast below…
In Brooklyn, the West Indian Day Parade goes straight down Eastern Parkway. It’s as much a summertime celebration as it is a competition to see who has the biggest truck with the loudest speakers. Most of what gets played is, of course, West Indian music, but the city’s summer bombast shouldn’t be exclusive to soca, calypso and reggae. Sometimes you just want to hear an acoustic guitar played fulled blast out of an 18-wheeler. We’ve rounded up our favorite jams from our Summer Music Issue and prepared a proper soundtrack for your big truck or beachside iPod speakers. Six years into his career, Soulja Boy is still welcome at our barbecue, and so are FADER #74 stars Vybz Kartel, Woods, DJ Harvey, Jhene Aiko, Clams Casino, Pure X, Grimes, Little Dragon, Fat Trel and Shabazz Palaces. It’s hot out out there, and it should be.
Condolences to the family, friends and fans of the legendary Mr. Gil Scott-Heron who passed away last night at the age of 62.
Gil was luckier than most as he’s left behind a legacy that will outlive him and will resonate for years to come. The countless messages on Twitter and numerous stories populating the web in the event of his passing are testament to that.
See some of the highlights of the love being shown below and after the jump….
Gil Scott-Heron & Mos Def – Live @ Carnegie Hall, NYC 6-28-08 (…via)
Gil Scott-Heron & Mos Def – “New York City”
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Gil Scott-Heron & Mos Def – “A Song For Bobby Smith”
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This past weekend, The New York Times took a look back on the humble beginnings of Manny Ramirez as a prodigious Dominican immigrant from Washington Heights. It’s a story told through words from his former George Washington High School teammates, coaches and friends, compiled by former Times reporter Sara Rimer. Definitely an interesting read, even for those who aren’t fans of baseball.
Check out an excerpt from the article below…
Hero. Cheat. Prodigy. Ingrate. Free spirit. Knucklehead. Hall of Famer. Pariah. Enigma. Manny Ramirez, one of the great right-handed hitters of his generation, who retired from baseball this month after once again testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, was many things to many people — fans and family and teammates from Santo Domingo to Washington Heights to Cleveland to Boston. Sara Rimer, then a reporter for The New York Times, met Ramirez in 1991 at George Washington High School in Manhattan. Over two decades, she enjoyed a memorable and mystifying acquaintanceship with Ramirez.
Whether they go by names such as Voodoo, Obeah, Santeria or Polu, West African religious traditions exist all over the world in regions affected by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This past weekend, The New York Times explored the repercussions of the recent resurgence in the practice in New York among recent Haitian refugees and younger professionals alike.
It’s definitely an interesting read. Check out an excerpt from the article below…
…Long misunderstood and maligned in Western popular culture, voodoo has become a spiritual anchor in New York City’s vast Haitian community and in Haitian enclaves across the country as practitioners look for comfort after the devastating earthquake in the impoverished Caribbean nation last year.
In New York, where there are roughly 300,000 people who were born in Haiti or are of Haitian descent — the largest concentration in the United States — richly painted basement voodoo temples are sprinkled around Harlem and in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Mambos, or voodoo priestesses, say they can barely keep up with “demann,” or prayer requests; spiritual love recipes to lure recalcitrant lovers are the most popular. Voodoo prayer circles in which practitioners meet to commiserate have also proliferated, with a notable intensity in the months since the earthquake…
…and the video below that explores thing further…
Haitian-Americans are embracing the centuries-old traditions of voodoo, an often stigmatized religion that is undergoing a renaissance in New York City.
For a long time the US has been practicing the policy of deportation for ex-cons. In some ways the Caribbean has become a dumping ground for them. A year after the earthquake in Haiti deportation resumed to Haiti even though conditions were still poor. The NY Times picks up from that point to show you the stories of a few young men who were deported for minor offenses.
American business men have been investing in Dominican baseball academies trying to sell players to MLB teams. The boys are from poor backgrounds and minimally educated. The focus for the academies is baseball and get the best out of the kids – education as mentioned in the video is a side note. Here’s the story on what’s going on there…
