I can only claim to know Whitney from the outside: The daughter of famed gospel singer Cissy Houston. Niece to Dionne Warwick.  The way she pretty much owned the 80s and early 90s.  She was Michael Jackson-huge and, for a time, was the voice of AT&T.  She went on to sell 170 million albums over the course of her career.

We also remember Bobby Brown and her drug addiction, and the toll it must’ve taken on her body and her voice.  If there’s any lesson here, it’s to value your gifts.  Always.

Just so you’re clear about what I’m talking about, here is the voice that set the bar for pretty much every female pop and R&B singer after her: Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce.

Here’s a look back by servicemen and Frank Gifford during the Persian Gulf War reflecting on what it meant to hear Whitney sing the National Anthem at the Superbowl 25 in 1991

Finally, here’s the biggest hit from her debut album. Back in the day when a label would go four singles into an album:

Rest in peace, Whitney.

@rashaadnewsome

Just putting in the late pass request up front.  Thankfully, I got to see Rashaad Newsome’s excellent show recently, and I encourage you all to do the same.  It will be an inspiration for anyone who’s interested in seeing how a young artist takes his love of hip hop and connects that to other creative and intellectual interests.

I’d only heard of visual artist Rashaad Newsome (above in a photo courtesy of Italian Vogue) thanks to a big profile on him and his work that appeared in the New York Times.  Here’s what the paper had to say about his show:

”Herald” . . . offers up Mr. Newsome’s modern-day take on heraldry, centuries of European tradition mashed up with hip-hop’s latest swagger, like a coat of arms inspired by the young rapper Nicki Minaj. It represents the culmination of several strands of his work: history applied to the juxtaposition of high and pop art; symbols isolated, mixed and re-appropriated; the exploration of African-American culture. And along with a related appearance at Performa, the performance art biennial, where he will present the festival’s first-ever rap battle, it could mark his breakthrough as a young artist. At 31 he is aiming for a contemporary art bull’s-eye, the intersection of the classics and the street.

According to background material for the exhibition

Heraldry is a 900-year-old practice of designing, displaying, describing an recording coats of arms and heraldic badges.  While heraldry began as a means to distinguishing participants in combat when iron and steel helmets hid their faces, today it is illustrative of civic and national pride.  More to the point, it functions primarily as a form of visual identification.

Swaggalicious, 2011

So, the show is Newsome’s ongoing inquiry into the field of heraldry and its relationship to contemporary culture.  And for Newsome, that point of convergence is hip hop.

One thing you can’t help miss is the excellent execution of his ideas.  Most pieces, especially the ones on the first floor of the Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea, are large works.  Newsome tends towards collage and due to the size, there is meticulous attention to details, many of which are repeated through each work.  Up close, you can see the hours that went into both the work itself and the frames.  In fact, the frames themselves are modern hip hop-driven updates on ornate, Baroque style.

Newsome also works in video and live performance art, as well.  As part of the recent Performa 11, he organized a rap battle called Tournament.  Extending the heraldry idea, the MC battle was meant to recall a medieval joust, in this case performed by 10 up-and-coming New York lyricists.

An example of his performance art (and not connected to this show) can be seen in this excerpt from Shade Compositions.  Performed in 2009, the piece features a chorus of over 20 black women.  The women were divided into sections as would’ve been the case with an orchestra.  The women performed a score that was made up of sequenced gestures and sounds that were indicative of “shade”.  Take a look:

Newsome shared this with Italian Vogue: “I’m creating this whole new world where I strip things of the stigma of being ghetto and turn them into high art.”

Clearly, he is an artist to watch.  Unfortunately, this particular show is only running through December 3, so try to see it  before it closes.

Additional links:

• Rashaad Newsome official
• Marlborough Gallery Chelsea

This should be very cool!  Glad to see the Fishbone doc Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone is getting out there and into theaters.  This 4PM EST/1PM PST chat will also include the film’s directors Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson.  BRC Executive Director Earl Douglas will moderate.

You know where to go: Facebook.com/BlackPublicMedia

The chat kicks off a series of theatrical screenings in various cities.  For example, the Brooklyn screening starts on this Friday, October 7 at the ReRun Theater and goes through October 13.  Info on all screenings can be found here.

@sbtfly

Today’s a big day for a certain sista up in the T.Dot. Yes, today is the official release of Saidah’s debut album (S)Cream. To mark the joyous occasion, she and I did a quick sitdown via Skype last night.

Among the topics of discussion:

• Her marketing shorthand description that seems to be sticking
• Her experience as a co-producer of her album
• The Canadian black alt scene: Band/artists such as The oOooh Baby Gimme Mores; 88 Days of Fate; Abstract Random; Amenta; Shy Wisdom; and Brenda Thomas, to name a few.
• Her musical lineage

Check out our convo here:

Additional link:

• Saidah Baba Talibah official

credit: Daniele Tamagni, “The Playboys of Bacongo” 2008

This looks to be a very cool photography exhibit.  Here’s a brief description:

Africolor – the exhibition – looks at the connections in photography between Africa, color, and color photography. While Africa as a subject has attracted and inspired photographers since the invention of photography, because of the obvious financial and technical issues involved –
photographing Africa in the 19th century was largely a European endeavor. By the middle of the 20th century, however, photography both as a business and a means of artistic expression was beginning to flourish across the African continent.

With the advent of color photography and in particular with the acceptance of color photography into the mainstream of fine art in the 1980s, the vivid colors and bright light of the continent seemed to serve as inspiration for a wide range of photography from the indigenous to the imagined and from documentary to staged. Celebrating the diversity of color photographic expression, Africolor presents groupings of work that are a compelling (but by no means comprehensive) sampling.

Photographers included in the exhibition include Italian photojournalist Daniele Tamagni; renowned Malian photographer Malick Sidibe; Dutch photographer Ruud van Empel; South African Lolo Veleko; Martin Parr, known for his “trademark acid color palette”; Samuel Fosso, described as “the African Cindy Sherman”; New Yorker Mickalene Thomas; and street artist JR.

credit: Ruud van Empel, “World 21″, 2006

credit: Mickalene Thomas, “Nollywood 11,” 2010

The exhibition is on display at

Danziger Projects
527 West 23rd Street
NYC 10011

Images courtesy of Danizger Projects.  Thanks, Carly!

@drmadvibe

Oh, man!  Not sure how I almost let this one slip past me.  Sorry, people.

Anyway, there’s still two full days to donate to Angelo’s project.  He’s crowdsourcing the funding for his solo project, Dr. Maddvibe Brings You The Angelo Show. He’s trying to raise $25,000 to produce and distribute the album.  Cool thing is, he’s pulled in over $16K.  He’s so close, fam.

Let’s all pull together and support this groundbreaker!  Just to get you in the mood, here’s one of my personal favorite Fishbone joints:

Now head over to Kickstarter and get your donate on!

When we last caught up with Rozz Nash-Coulon, she was launching the project Coulon, which was a collaboration with her husband Neil.  You may recall that it was a more acoustic and intimate project versus the amped up sounds of her previous band Red Lotus.

While Rozz has been off my radar for a minute, it’s good to see that she’s keeping herself busy with a very  worthwhile startup.  She and her partners are seeking community support (via IndieGoGo) of the Brooklyn Performing Arts Intensive. What is it?  Here’s how she describes it:

Brooklyn Performing Arts Intensive is a free four-week summer performing arts program housed at the Green School, open to all NYC youth ages 13-21 of all artistic levels, from beginners to advanced actors, dancers and singers. No formal training or experience is required to attend the program – just a love of the arts and a willingness to learn new things and have fun!

The goal is to expand the summer program into a year-long one.  Here’s more on the program’s impact:

The Brooklyn Performing Arts Intensive provides an opportunity to bring underserved youth from all five boroughs together to collaborate and learn in a fun and challenging arts environment. Furthermore, it is a pre-professional program that will give young artists the necessary tools and skills to prepare for high school, college, and auditions in the field. This program is in its third year and has trained over 150 young artists thus far. We are moving to a new location that will enable us to serve a greater number of young people. Without funding, we will not be able to expand or possibly even continue to offer our much needed programming. Youth arts programs are drastically being cut by local and federal government. After school programs are becoming extinct. It is our belief that young people, particularly those from the low income neighborhoods that we serve, deserve an opportunity to participate and further their growth in a high level arts environment.

So, please support this, if you’re able.  You can donate via IndieGogo. Rozz and her partners are already halfway to their $7,500 goal. Also, if you’re so inclined, you can join the team at a benefit fundraiser this coming Sunday at Union Pool.  Info here on the flyer below.

Additional link:

• Facebook page for Brooklyn Performing Arts Intensive.

@sandrastvictor

Starting at the end of the month, you’ll have four(4) chances to see the incredible Sandra St. Victor on our side of ye old pond.  That’s right, in what seems to be an annual event, Sandra does right by her Stateside fans (the East Coast ones, at least) and settles in a for stretch.  The big show seems to be the one above at the Highline in NYC.  She’s also promoting a fifth date in Paris.  Oolala!

The dates:

July 30 – Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra at the World Financial Center NYC
August 4 – SSV Naked & Lovely at Highline Ballroom, NYC
August 6 – SSV acoustic at Adinkra’s House, NJ
August 13 – Live Tropical Fish featuring Sandra St. Victor & Maya Azucena
September 11 – Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra (Paris, France)

Heads up have been given.  Shout out to Fiona Bloom, who’s co-promoting the show.

Additional link:

• Sandra St. Victor official

Yes, Santi White tells Billboard, a new Santigold album is on the way this fall.

Recorded in Los Angeles, Jamaica and New York, the new album features collaborations with Major Lazer producer Switch, TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, John Hill, Greg Kurstin and Ricky Blaze, among others. Like her 2008 self-titled debut, Santigold says the forthcoming effort will be sonically eclectic but with some “epic” curveballs thrown into the mix.

“I wanted it to feel dynamic and powerful,” says the 34-year-old singer (real name: Santi White). “I still have the songs that sound very electronic and clubby, but I have a couple ballads on this one — my own type of ballads, where they just sound big, like the way some old Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel songs were…on this one song, we did a whole section that has a bottle used as the percussion, so there’s layers upon layers of Greg Kurstin playing a bottle and literally filling it with different layers of water, and stacking each note. Mixed with a marimba and taiko drums!”

Read more at Billboard.

@vanhunt

Fans of Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/producer Van Hunt (above in a photo by Shalon Goss) can mark September 27 on their calendars.  That’s the date what where you hoping for?, Van’s first album in several hears, is scheduled to drop.

In the meantime, give him your email address, and you’ll get a track from the new album, “June”.  Check it here:

Here’s a warm welcome back to the hot stagelights for Van Hunt!

Shout out to Mike Ragogna for the heads-up!

Additional link:

• Van Hunt official