Rhapsodic City: Music of New York
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Wednesday, March 20 @ 6pm
A 30th Anniversary celebration of Style Wars
With Henry Chalfant, Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez, and iona rozeal brown
http://on.nypl.org/Y61Z1N
This spring, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents Rhapsodic City: Music of New York, a new six-week long interdisciplinary series exploring the city’s distinct role in the formulation, emergence, and legacy of some of the most exciting music movements in the 20th century.
Tackling a different music style or subject each week—hip-hop, punk, the folk music revival, Prohibition-era jazz, Mambo and Salsa, and the Brill Building’s heyday—Rhapsodic City: Music of New York features panel discussions with icons and experts, performances by leading artists, special film screenings and presentations of the Performing Arts Library’s remarkable collections.
Highlights from the series include a discussion of punk style and sound with Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein; performances by Jazz Age Lawn Party founder Michael Arenella, Grammy-nominated bandleader Bobby Sanabria, and Joe McGinty from the Losers Lounge Band; a celebration of women in hip-hop; and an exploration of Greenwich Village in the ‘50s and ‘60s led by Elijah Wald, author of the book that served as source material for the Coen Brothers’ latest film.
“At The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, we are deeply aware of how vital music is to this city’s cultural fabric,” said Jacqueline Z. Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleishman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “Using our vast archival materials—including sheet music, films, recordings and more—Rhapsodic City: Music of New York provides an opportunity for us to illustrate some of the most compelling examples of how New York inspires new genres of music, and how musical styles from around the world have become part of the city’s own cultural narrative, creating a distinctly New York story.”
All events included in the Rhapsodic City: Music of New York series take place at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (40 Lincoln Center Plaza) unless otherwise noted below, and are free and open to the public.
Hip-Hop
Nearly 40 years ago, hip-hop started in the Bronx during one of the lowest points of the borough’s history. Counteracting the urban decay, violence, and corruption, hip-hop culture emerged as a musical nexus, emanating creativity and liberating struggle. Today, the now global movement transcends race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Wednesday, March 20 @ 6pm
A 30th Anniversary celebration of Style Wars
With Henry Chalfant, Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez, and iona rozeal brown
http://on.nypl.org/Y61Z1N
Style Wars is regarded as the indispensable document of New York street culture and subway graffiti art of the early ‘80s, Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s filmic record of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis. In partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, this event will feature a screening of Style Wars followed by a discussion of the documentary’s enduring influence with Chalfant and a panel of artists and scholars, including sculptor/painter Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez and moderated by painter/DJ iona rozeal brown.
Saturday, March 23 @ 4pm Reception, Program Begins at 5pm
Fresh, Bold, and So Def Women in Hip-Hop
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
http://on.nypl.org/11lxr3C (advance registration recommended)
As part of Women’s History Month and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Hip-Hop 4.0 Initiative, this program highlights the contributions and achievements of women in hip-hop. The event features
Performances by Genesis Be, Ebonie Smith, and FM Supreme
Screening of Nuala Cabral’s Who’s That Girl: Women of Color & Hip Hop (17 min)
Sneak peek preview of Breaking Silence: Passing the Mic to Our Daughters Project, a forthcoming documentary exploring how Black and Latina teenage girls today respond and relate to hip-hop culture
Panel discussion with guests including Nuala Cabral; Dr. Brittney Cooper; Autumn Robinson; Beverly Bond; Ebonie Smith; Piper Carter; and moderated by The Schomburg Center’s Hip-Hop Scholar In Residence Martha Diaz
Punk
Haunting a handful of clubs in downtown - and downtrodden - Manhattan, the gritty and fertile 1970s New York Punk scene, with its anti-establishment ethos, was an amalgamation of music, style, attitude, and above all, personalities that influenced a worldwide movement. At the center of New York Punk was the club CBGB. Bands and artists such as The New York Dolls, Suicide, Blondie, the Ramones, and Patti Smith all graced the stage with a particular message to share.
Tuesday, March 26 @ 6pm
The Blank Generation
http://on.nypl.org/UpmZVU
This evening features a collection of short films that focus on the experiences of young Punks in New York. Works to be screened include:
Punking Out, 1979. Directed by Maggi Carson, Juliusz Kossakowski, Frederic A. Shore. Shot in 1977, this 25-minute film features performance and interview footage of the Ramones, The Dead Boys, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids at CBGB.
Jane, 1974. Directed by John Rosen. A mini-portrait of Jane Barrington, a self-proclaimed groupie.
Kidnapped, 1978. Directed by Eric Mitchell. The director’s first film, shot in super-8, stars Mitchell, Anya Phillips, Patti Astor, and Duncan Smith among a crowd of hip “poseurs,” talking sex, manners and politics.
Wednesday, March 27 @ 6pm
Platinum Punk
With Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Will Hermes
http://on.nypl.org/XjP77n
Music icons Debbie Harry and Blondie co-founder Chris Stein join Will Hermes, senior critic for Rolling Stone and author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, for a discussion of the style and sound of the New York Music scene in the 1970s and the personalities that influenced a worldwide movement.
© Mare 139 & 12ozProphet - Monday March 11, 2013
