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*co-written by Boima Tucker and Thanu Yakupitiyage


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Photos in this series were taken by Sabelo Narasimhan (daytime photos) and Neha Gautam (evening photos).

On September 18th, 2012, Dutty Artz, Beyond Digital, La Casita Comunal de Sunset Park, La Union, CAAAV-NY, and the Arab American Association of New York presented the first edition of Beyond the Block at Rainbow Playground in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Beyond the Block was a day-long music, arts, and community festival that took place in the crossroads between several major immigrant communities in New York. We had performances and participants from various communities in the South Brooklyn area, and invited musicians, artists, and organizers from outside the neighborhood in order to connect them. As we attempt to improve upon our efforts with future incarnations, we present the story of this festival with the hope that it can serve as an example of the merging of arts activism In-Real-Life with the ideals of a ‘globalized society’.

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RP BOO footwork pioneer

 

Wills Glassspiegel sent me this after I ran into him on the street and remarked how much I enjoyed the radio broadcast he worked on for Afropop about the black American roots of house and techno here.

I’ll let him speak:

“Thought you and Dutty Artz might be interested in this interview tape I recorded in Chicago with Traxman, RP Boo, DJ Earl and Boylan.  I think everyone has been trying to describe “footwork” and no one quite gets to it like these guys.  In publishing this tape (which i did with their permsision), I was reminded of Lomax’s old oral history interviews with blues musicians.  So important for musicians to tell their own stories.”

Yup, I agree. I always prefer to listen to music talk about their own work and scenes as opposed to various usually distant journalistic interpreters. Listen, learn and enjoy.

 
Footwork Selects by longlooks