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Adam Wassilchalk
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Nov 5, 2023 9:29 am
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Jasmin Porter Photo
Nicole Cardoza — Magician NeueHouse Madison Square Manhattan, NY Oct. 31, 2023
“This is my first time performing for such a wide, intergalactic, interspecies audience,” Nicole Cardoza observed, looking out across NeueHouse Madison Square’s cinema space, which was packed full of creatures and characters laughing and cheering.
In the early hours of Halloween night, we’d all gathered to see Cardoza, a children’s book author, philanthropist, and most importantly, a magician who tours her magic act around the U.S. To her knowledge, she’s only the second Black woman in history to do so.
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Brittany Menjivar
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Nov 1, 2023 9:55 am
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APOCALYPSEHALLOWEENPARTY A downtown warehouse Los Angeles Oct. 28, 2023
As a recent East Coast transplant, I’ve noticed a major difference between New York parties and L.A. parties: people here rarely dance. At clubs, most patrons only cross the floor on their way to the smoking patio; even at raves, only a small throng of attendees spins and sways before the turntables, the rest preferring to huddle in corners as they ingest their powder of choice. This was not the case at the Apocalypse Halloween Party, hosted by filmmaker Patrick Hartley, creative director Damiano Villalobos, and photographer Lydia Ren. The Partiful page for the event listed over 700 RSVPs — and indeed, when I arrived at the appointed Downtown warehouse complex, the place was packed with writhing bodies. Despite the dystopian theme, few guests appeared zombified. Chatter was lively and smiles were bright, even when the Cobrasnake wasn’t nearby.
Tethered hot air balloon rides are a surreal experience that one isn’t likely to soon forget. So I learned at my first visit to a big annual event in North Carolina, the Carolina Balloon Fest.
Mistah Fab and Chef James Syhabout in conversation with Jobina Fortson-Evans.
Bespoke Cocktails and Stylish Conversation Oakland Style Week Kissel Hotel Uptown Oakland Oct. 19, 2023
The evening was still hot as I got dressed to head downtown for Cocktails and Conversations, a cocktail mixer and panel talk hosted by Visit Oakland as part of this year’s Oakland Style Week. Opting for shorts and a big blazer, I was surprised to find myself on the dressier side of the crowd, a mix of curious folks who found the event online, city employees, Visit Oakland staff, and local and not-so-local personalities and “influencers.”
Northern California is viewed, rightfully so in my opinion, as having a hyper-casual approach to style and comfort. The Bay Area is regularly dismissed by those in the know and all who eschew the techno-bro Patagonia vest or Berkeley-coded socks and Birkenstocks. Some of us like a combination of form and function, even if the function is just slightly hindered — we need to look cool.
But there’s a lot to be said for comfort, personal authenticity, and style of one’s own right, even if it isn’t cool — yet. The ultra casual has become the American uniform, and much of that was born from West Coast hip hop artists and the ever-present ease of our surfers and skaters. Gen Z doesn’t seem to do formal, so maybe Cali cool (GORPCore, as they might say), or cozy casual, or soft and flowing (on the internet, cottage core), is here to stay.
by
Synclaire Cruel
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Oct 23, 2023 11:23 am
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Chia Chong/Savannah College of Art and Design
Afrofuturism in Costume Design Ruth E. Carter National tour Through March 31, 2024
Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design, a colorful and informative touring exhibit of outfits designed to transport viewers back into the midst of some of the most popular movies over the past 30 years, mesmerized attendees at its recently-concluded four-month stop at Raleigh’s North Carolina Museum of Art before its current stop in Detroit. Carter’s ability to transform materials and fabrics into visually striking pieces generates a deeper appreciation for the art of costume design.
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Jamil Ragland
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Oct 23, 2023 10:22 am
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May the Force be with you.
New York Comic Con Javits Center, New York, NY Oct. 12 – 15
When I went to New York Comic Con, I was ready for the spectacle of a lifetime. It’s one of the biggest pop culture events in the world, drawing visitors and celebrities from all over (when there isn’t a strike, that is). But the biggest spectacle of all came from a woman I bumped into at an industry event.
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John Williams
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Oct 19, 2023 10:09 am
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Sarah Bass Photos
At Saturday’s festival.
Life is Living Oct. 14, 2023 Defermery/Little Bobby Hutton Park West Oakland, Cal.
The “Life Is Living Festival” of 2023 was nothing short of a tribal celebration of community and family in intergenerational expressions. Starting in 2008, the West Oakland park, Defermery, aka Little Bobby Hutton Park, has been transformed into a menagerie of brilliance, with “Water is Life” Swim Day, a Black Panther Skate Park, Kijani Food Market, Black Community Survival Conference, Community Altar, The Box Stage, and “The Future 50 Hip Hop Show” featuring upcoming talented hip hop artists, all with beautiful graffiti murals in the background.
The Survival Stage host, Mama Charlotte O’Neal, shared historical context on the impact and influence of the Black Panthers to this West Oakland community. I was not aware of the Panthers’ connection to West Oakland, but later I was inspired along with festival goers by her “Power to the People” poem reminding us “do not let them take away your joy.” She closed the stage with “50 Times Love,” a tribute to her husband, Brother O’neal, for 50 years of unconditional love through life’s peaks and valleys while committed to the struggle for liberation.
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Sayre Piotrkowski
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Oct 13, 2023 11:49 am
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Christina Wilson Photos
DJ Sake One takes to the turntables as the party begins. DJ Emelle commiserates with Oakland journalist and author Pendarvis Harshaw in the background.
The Art Of Storytellin’ Level 13, 341 13th St. Oakland Oct. 7, 2023
Twenty-five years ago, I could not have possibly known I’d be spending this past Saturday evening in the alley between 12th and 13th streets in Downtown Oakland celebrating OutKast. Nor could I have known that DJ Sake One’s “The Art Of Storytellin’” would have become a “can’t miss” event throughout my 30s and early 40s. On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1998, I had just started my senior year of high school, and a friend decided to cut our third-period classes to go to the record store. Our anticipation insisted that waiting until 3 p.m. was out of the question. Not only was this the release date of OutKast’s third album, “Aquemini,” but albums by Jay‑Z, Black Star, Brand Nubian, and A Tribe Called Quest were also being released that same day.
Twenty-five year later I carried the historical symmetry of that date, which took place 25 years after hip-hop’s “birth,” into this year’s installment of an event called “The Art Of Storytellin’.” The party has a rich history here in the Bay Area. It took on special significance this year as commemorations of hip-hop history and milestones have been taking place all over the world in celebration of the culture’s 50th anniversary.
Christina Wilson Photos
Detail from the southern wall of the alley at the rear of Level 13.
During a show at Albany’s Fuze Box Sunday, performance artist/activist Vermin Supreme unveiled the platform of his 2024 presidential campaign, and that platform is ponies. (He’s a single issue candidate.) Ponies will revitalize America, he said. Ponies lower our dependence on foreign oil. Ponies are a renewable resource. And ponies are delicious.
The evening’s spectacle transformed Albany’s perennial punk rock nightclub into a political rally from a parallel Dadaist universe.
“We are literally in culture’s uterus.” Jourdan Hicks observed, while facilitating a panel titled “Future Forward: Art, Activism & Politics”. The discussion between Hicks and artist-activist-organizers Chelsea Miller and Sumayyah Ali was one of many panels, presentations, and performances held at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater during an inaugural [at] The Intersection Festival of Arts & Ideas.
“We give birth to culture. We feed culture. We are informed by culture.” Hicks continued, simultaneously setting the stage for the panel discussion and speaking to the mood and significance of the festival as a whole.
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Sayre Piotrkowski
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Oct 4, 2023 11:35 am
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Sarah Bass Photos
Somos Culturas: Purple corn beer. Who knew?!
No cash needed: pre-purchased tickets exchanged for drinks.
Oaktoberfest in the Diamond Oakland Sept. 30 & Oct. 1
For lovers of Oakland, Oaktoberfest effectively concentrates the flavors, sounds, and spirit that made you fall for the town into one weekend-long, oversized block party.
Despite a participating brewery list that boasted national brands like Trumer and Ballast Point, and regional favorites like HenHouse Brewing and Altamont Beer Works, the longest lines at this year’s Oaktoberfest, the event’s 16th edition, were reserved for Oakland’s own.
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Brian Slattery
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Sep 21, 2023 10:20 am
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Legendary culture writer opens up at launch of annual writer-award fest.
Ida Lødemel Tvedt Photo
2023 Campbell fest keynoter Greil Marcus.
A rumination on the question of why people write — delivered by legendary culture writer Greil Marcus — that took in his personal history, the history of the tail end of World War II, and David Lynch’s classic Blue Velvet proved a moving and thought-provoking start to Yale’s Windham Campbell Festival on Wednesday evening. The festival, which runs Thursday and Friday, celebrates the world of words, centering on this year’s recipients of the Windham Campbell Prizes.
An annual motorcyclists' gathering highlights the power of a lesser-known two-wheeled art form.
Mickey Mercier Photos
Tyler Burrell at the Rumble with his 1972 Honda Scrambler. The greasy, dented machine oozes rat-bike style.
Traveling tintype photographer Matthew Nixson.
Hill City Rumble Prairie Street Live Fayetteville Sept. 16
Thirty miles south of where a museum retrospective of Annie Leibovitz photos was opening in Bentonville, a tintype photographer named Matthew Nixson was shooting portraits of tattooed men and women at a vintage motorcycle show.
Nixson, a traveling photographer from Waco, Texas, came to Northwest Arkansas with a portable studio for shooting the sepia-toned tintype portraits in a vendor tent. Business was brisk; customers eagerly posed under bright lights while he ducked under a black shroud to snap their $65 pictures with an antique accordion camera.
