Featured Artist: Nora Chipaumire

Above: Nora Chipaumire mid-sketch at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (Photo taken by Al Hall)
It’s taken me an unprecedented MONTH to react to this artist, primarily because her residency at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) had such a profound impact on me. My interactions with Nora Chipaumire started because of [...]

Illadelph Roots Crew, Rising Down Review

If you have yet to hear the new album from Illadelph’s hip-hop cognoscenti, what are you waiting for?  You can see my review of this bombastic masterpiece in the upcoming June issue of BlackGrooves, which should be out next week.  Enjoy!

Featured Artist: Vampire Weekend

The combination of my fantastic, Upper West Side Soweto-powered beach weekend and the last two posts over on Stuff White People Like have compelled me to feature Vampire Weekend at long last.  Did Clander’s inclusion of the “Oxford comma” in his latest (hilarious) post have anything to do with the VW song of the same [...]

Featured artist: Banksy

Too often art in public places has been shaped by the forces that put together funding to get it there or by the ambitions of an artist to go so far over the top that nobody can understand what they’re saying.  Not the case with Banksy.  I must be way behind the hipness curve on [...]

Heads up: BlackGrooves

Thanks to the online periodical blackgrooves.org, I just discovered new artist Kevin Michael. His (still fairly new) CD features collaborations with Lupe Fiasco, Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip, and Akil Dasan. On the heels of John Legend’s recent success, this R&B crooner is going to look at first glance like he’s posing to ride that [...]

Warpaint, having listened thoroughly…

What’s really tragic about freelance critic David Peisner’s review of the new Black Crowes album has nothing to do with his ignorance of the post-review 2.5 stars that Maxim assigned to the album. There’s also less travesty in the fact that he did not hear the album in its entirety before reviewing it than [...]

Featured Artist: John Lytle Wilson

Behold, as John Lytle Wilson makes his grand entrance, you’re sure to do a double-take. Wilson’s recent juxtapositions of robots and monkeys have garnered the attention of more than one hip gallery around the country, and his notoriety doesn’t appear to be waning any. It’s tough to know how to react to his [...]