Not Another Freakin' Mermaid Parade Slideshow... Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2009

I know that everybody and their momma posts a slideshow of their pics of the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade in all its pastie-clad glory, so why should I be any different?

New York Loves a parade. We have three GLBT/Q Pride Parades in three separate boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens). We have several St. Patrick's Day Parades. We have three Puerto Rican Day Parades, with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan being not only the largest Puerto Rican parade in the nation, but also one of the largest outdoor events in the country. There's the Chinese New Year Parade in Manhattan's Chinatown and the Lunar New Year Festival and Parade in Flushing, Queens. In Brooklyn we have the West Indian Day Parade (aka the Labor Day Parade) which is modeled after the Carnivals of Trinidad, Tobago and other Caribbean Islands with a Carnival tradition.

There's parades based on religion, such as the Sikh Cultural Society Parade, the Muslim Day Parade, the Easter Parade, the Christian Youth Parade and the Hare Krishna Parade.

There's parades based on ethnicity and national origin, like the above mentioned Puerto Rican Day Parades and Brooklyn's West Indian Day Parade. There's also the Mexican Day Parade, Cuba Day Parade, Hispanic Day Parade, African-American Day Parade, Turkish-American Parade, Norweigian-American Parade, Dominican Day Parade, Haitian-American Day Parade, Phillipine Independence Day Parade, India Independence Day Parade and Pakistan Independence Day Parade, just to name a few. No disrespect to any group I may have left out.

Then there's the art parades, like the Soho Art Parade, the Village Halloween Parade which is the country's largest night parade and the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. The mulicultural New York Dance Parade feautures live bands and DJs and showcases everything from ballet to breakdancing, belly dancing to tango, and from salsa to swing.

Last but not least, there's the D.I.Y. nature and street theatrics of the more chaotic, unpermitted events like the monthly Critical Mass bike rides where bicyclists take over the streets promoting eco-friendly transportation alternatives and celebrating bike culture, the NYC Zombie Crawl and NYC ZombieCon where massive hordes of zombies terrorize innocent onlookers, the NYC SantaCon in December where hundreds of drunken Santas take to the streets spreading joy and the annual No Pants Subway Ride where hundreds of New Yorkers ride the subway without their pants, also spreading joy.

The Mermaid Parade is definitely one of my favorite New York City parades, tied for first place with the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Like the Halloween Parade, the Mermaid Parade is an art parade that's free and open to the public to participate in. The majority of those marching in both parades make their own costumes and floats, and exemplify the creativity and free spirit of the New York that pirates like Billionaire Bloomberg are trying to sell off to the highest bidder.

Founded in 1983 by Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit arts organization that also produces the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, the Mermaid Parade pays homage to Coney Island's forgotten Mardi Gras which lasted from 1903 to 1954.

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is a celebration of the sea and the sand and of all things Coney Island. You'll see participants dressed as scantily-clad mermaids and mermen, sea creatures, pirates and the occasional lighthouse. You'll see tattooed freaks and weirdos, drag kings and queens, burlesque performers and every manner of artistic self-expression.

Every year the Mermaid Parade features a different celebrity Neptune King and Mermaid Queen, who rule over the proceedings. In the past local celebs like David Byrne, Queen Latifa and Moby have graced the parade with their royal presence. This year I was pretty freakin' excited because the Neptune King was none other than Mr. Harvey Kietel. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture of Mr. Kietel because that part of the parade sped past us. I also didn't realize that part of the duties of the King and Queen is assisting in the opening of the beach for the summer swimming season by cutting through ribbons representing the seasons, and tossing fruit into the Atlantic to appease the Sea Gods. I didn't go down to the beach for this part of the festivities. I probably could have met Harvey Kietel and asked him if he wanted to go get tacos.

Brooklyn Pride Slideshow

Brooklyn Pride was pretty chill. It was extremely small comapared to the annual Manhattan Pride Parade, but then again, everything is small compared to the Manhattan Pride Parade. But Brooklyn Pride had more of the feel of a block party. Which, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing. What was really cool about it was that it was almost completely lacking all the corporate sponsorship and rampant mindless consumerism. I think the only corporate booths I saw at the street festival were Starbucks and Ikea (who both suck), and there were absolutely no corporate floats, which was such a relief. Very few politicians too. Borough President Marty Markowitz was there, sporting rainbow beads and a christmas tree light covered float, but Marty shows up at everything Brooklyn, and as he says "If you don't live in Brooklyn, you should move to Brooklyn."

Brooklyn Pride is in its 13th year.

Stonewall Was a Riot! NYC GLBT Pride Events 2009

Ok, Pride month is well underway. This year I totally missed Queens Pride yet again. They just have theirs so damn early in the month. Next year I'm going to have to check it out.

I keep forgetting that New York celebrates Pride all month long! It shouldn't be a surprise considering Pride started in New York City. Pride Day commemorates the Stonewall Riots that took place in New York City's Greenwich Village 40 years ago.

The Stonewall Riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations sparked by a police raid (which were routine at the time) that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village. It was just one raid too many. The largely poor, working class, Black and Latino queers and trannies in the Village, many of whom were hustlers and homeless queer youth, fought back against the brutally homophobic police with bricks, bottles, barricades and burning garbage. This spontaneous uprising against state sponsored repression, which lasted several days, led to the modern Gay Rights/Queer Liberation movement in the US and around the world.

Today GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall Riots. Unfortunately Gays and Lesbians have become a "marketing demographic" and Pride is for sale to the highest bidder. Worse yet, the concerns of the transgender community are pushed to the back burner and assimilationist Gays and Lesbians are often embarrassed by all the "freaks and deviants" who "make Gays look bad." The crossdressers, the transvestites, the transsexuals, the leatherfags, the butch dykes, the bdsm/kink community, the hustlers and the homeless queer youth. Those in the community that are most at risk for job and housing discrimination, gaybashing and other hate crimes. You know, the types of people who 40 years ago had enough of all the hatred and oppression and fought back, thus sparking the rebellion that led to the modern Gay Rights movement in the first place.

Let's never forget why we celebrate.

Here's a schedule I've compiled of some of the coolest, and queerest Pride events for the month of June. Enjoy. And remember to play safe...


Brooklyn Pride
brooklynpride.org

Saturday June 13th 2009
Prospect Park at Bartel-Pritchard Circle
15th Street and Prospect Park West

Multicultural Festival
11:00 am – 6:00 pm

Night Pride Parade
7:30 pm Kick Off


NYC Pride (Manhattan)
NYC Herritage of Pride

The Rally
Saturday June 20th 2009
2:00 – 6:00 pm
42nd St. and 6th Ave. at Bryant Park

Pridefest
Sunday June 28th 2009
11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. and West 14th St.

The March
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Starts at Noon
5th Avenue and 52nd St. to Christopher and Greenwich St.


Other Pride Events...


That's My Jam!
Bed-Stuy/Brooklyn Queer Pride!
Saturday June 13, 2009
$5 before midnight, $10 after midnight
Sputnik Bar
262 Taaffe Place
TWO FLOORS OF DANCING, $3 Vodka Specials. DJ Helen Harris, DJ Tikka Masala and DJ Designer Imposter, New Wave Karaoke with Bobby Service and Black Waterfall. Intimate, monthly mixed queer party.

Get Laid Queer Dance Party
BK Pride Edition
Saturday june 13, 2009
9:30 pm door. $10 cover.
Southpaw Brooklyn
125 5th Ave, Park Slope
Please donate books, media, zines, and more to a literary grassroots collective! WRITTEN W(HER)D is an upcoming Brooklyn-based lending library and book collective for womyn, girls, & LGBTQ people/youth of color. As part of the collective, WRITTEN W(HER)D will develop initiatives fostering literacy among LGBTQ incarcerated youth.

Bronx Pride
Saturday June 20, 11:00 am-8:00 pm
Barretto Point Park

Folsom Street East Pride Day
Sunday, June 21, 2-8pm
28th St. between 10th and 11th Aves.
folsomstreeteast.org
Folsom Street East is New York’s premiere s/m-leather-fetish themed street festival. Folsom Street East is the largest outdoor event of its kind east of the Mississippi and attracts nearly 10,000 visitors. The street will once again be lined with some 50 community groups and vendors that appeal to the LGBT and the kink communities and mobs of leatherclad musclehunks. A one-stop shop for leather gear, porn, and toys.

Stonewall: The Revolution
June 22-28, 2009
Chair & the Maiden
19 Christopher St. (just east of the Stonewall Inn)
Iconic photographs of the Gay Pride Rebellion, March & Parade 1969-2008 by Suzanne Poli celebrating Stonewall’s 40th Anniversary and the evolution of the 21st Century Civil Rights Movement.

Snapshot's Pride Kick-Off Party!
Tuesday June 23, 2009
$5 cover starts at 10 doors at 9.
Located at The Delancey
at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge (btwn Clinton & Attorney)
*snapshot* is a weekly mixed queer party in the city featuring art, music, film, photography, performance + exposure. *snapshot* attracts the most diverse crowd from all boroughs and gender-identities. *snapshot* throws sexy, dirty, crazy parties soundtracked by some of the best dj's among us. Be sure to pick up a flier for their PROUD AS FUCK party to get a discount admission!

SAGE Presents:
40th Anniversary Reunion Gay Liberation Front (GLF)
June 25, 2009, 6:00 pm
LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th St
A panel and 40 year reunion reception for the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) which was founded in Manhattan in 1969, directly following the Stonewall riots will be presented by SAGE. The panel will feature several speakers from a variety of perspectives who were active participants in GLF.

FIERCE Presents
Outdoor Screening of Paris Is Burning!
June 25 2009, 8:30pm FREE
Pier 46 on the Hudson River Park
FIERCE is a membership-based organization for LGBTQ youth of color between the ages of 13-24. FIERCE will be screening Paris Is Burning, a documentary that focuses on the ballroom community. This screening marks the first ever LGBTQ programming on the pier which is a victory for FIERCE's Safe Space Saves Lives Campaign! Organizations such as FIERCE and other LGBTQ specific groups will be tabling at this event. All are welcome!

Switch N' Play
June 25 2009, 9:00 pm $10
Burlesque at the Beach at Sideshows at the Seashore
at the corner of Surf Avenue & West 12th Street
in the heart of the Coney Island amusement park.
Switch N' PlaySwitch N' Play (SNP) is a Brooklyn-born, New York-based drag alliance committed to entertaining its audiences with an eclectic repertoire of dance and theatrical numbers. Queer in every sense of the word, SNP spans the gender spectrum in life and on stage.

TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project's
5th ANNUAL TRANS DAY OF ACTION
Friday June 26th 2009
Rally 3:00 pm, March 4:00 pm
Gather at Union Square West between 14th Street and 15th Street
(West Side of Union Square Park)
Marching to Sheridan Square/Christopher Park
(Across the Street from the Stonewall Inn)
Audre Lorde project
On June 26, 2009, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard.

Dyke Rock Benefit Show
Friday, June 26, 2009
Doors at 8:00 pm. $5-10
Silent Barn
915 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood
L to Halsey or M to Myrtle/Wyckoff
Carnal Knowledge, your favorite local all-girl political hardcore band reunites. Also: Zombie Dogs, The Diamond Sea, Ina Ina!, and Brilliant Colors.

NYC Dyke March
Saturday June 27, 2009
Step Off 5:00 pm Sharp!
Bryant Park
West 42nd St and 6th Ave.
The Dyke March is for women only. Supporters can cheer them on from the sidelines.
"The Dyke March is a protest march, not a parade -- we don't ask for a permit, because we have the right to protest. As lesbians, we recognize that we must organize amongst ourselves to fight for our rights, our safety, and for visibility. Thousands of dykes take over the streets every year in celebration of lesbians and to protest against ongoing discrimination, harassment, and anti-lesbian violence in schools, on the job, in our families, and on the streets."

Post Dyke March Spectacular at Ginger’s
Saturday June 27, 2009
8:00 pm. $5-10
Ginger’s Bar
363 5th Avenue, Park Slope
F to 4th Avenue, R to 9th Street
Party for your right to fight! Chrissy P spins the shiz to make you dance hard. Tasty shots for the girls and $3.50 pints of Guinness all night.

Bluestockings Queer Pride Showcase
Sunday June 28th, 2009 7:00 pm
$5-10 Suggested Donation
Bluestockings Bookstore, Fair-Trade Cafe and Activist Center
Lower East Side of Manhattan
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington
It’s Queer Pride in New York, and tonight we’ve got some of New York’s most innovative, provocative, and powerful LGBTQ authors and spoken word artists. It’s 40-years after Stonewall, but pride and struggle are still with us! Reading and performing tonight are Kelli Dunham, Kestryl Cael, Felecia Luna Lemus, Taueret Manu, Sassafras Lowrey and Kay Barrett.

Snapshot's Proud as Fuck Party!
Sunday June 28, 2009
Doors at 6pm (till 4am)
Two for One drinks from 6-9pm
$15/$10 with Flyer
Located at The Delancey
at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge (btwn Clinton & Attorney)
*snapshot* is a weekly mixed queer party in the city featuring art, music, film, photography, performance + exposure. *snapshot* attracts the most diverse crowd from all boroughs and gender-identities. 6 DJ's handpicked from around the world all night long featuring DJ SVETA, DJ LAUREN FLAX, DJ ROZE ROYCE, DJ NOA D, DJ TEASE, final surprise DJ TBA.

HOT! Festival
July 2 - August 25, 2007
Dixon Place
This summer festival has been happening every July since 1991, and it includes full length and shorter works in performance, music, theater, dance, literature, poetry, spoken word, puppetry, burlesque, drag, and circus.

Snapshot's Pride Hangover Party!
Tuesday June 30, 2009
$5 Cover at 10:00 pm Doors at 9:00 pm.
Located at The Delancey
at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge (btwn Clinton & Attorney)
*snapshot* is a weekly mixed queer party in the city featuring art, music, film, photography, performance + exposure. *snapshot* attracts the most diverse crowd from all boroughs and gender-identities. with DJ Mary Mac. 3 floors with live performances in the basement and an amazing all-year round, heated, beautiful roofdeck.

Full "Egg Rolls and Egg Creams" Slideshow

I got some really cool shots of the inside of the Historic Eldridge Street Synagogue during the Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival. The festival was sponsored by the Eldridge Street Museum and celebrated both Jewish and Chinese American culture in New York City. After the Festival I took the rest of the afternoon to walk around Chinatown and take pictures. Got some nice shots of outdoor markets, storefronts and the Manhattan Bridge. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died right when I discovered a huge scateboarding competition in a small park underneath the Manhattan Bridge. It was mostly kids of color (Black, Latino and Asian) and the park was full inside and outside of the fence. Loudspeakers were blaring Hip Hop music and nearly everyone had a board in their hands. Would have made some great photos, but oh well.

Egg Rolls and Egg Creams 6/7/09

The Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival took place on Sunday June 7th 2009 on Eldridge Street where Chinatown meets the old Jewish Lower East Side.

I almost didn't make it to the festival because I was up all night the night before and I had to upload photos and video to my computer so I could delete them off the camera. I had filled up the memory card with photos and video from the Brooklyn Museum of Art's monthly free party Saturday night.

I got to the festival just in time to see the tail end of Chinese Opera performers acting out the story of the Monkey King, take a tour of the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue, listen to Klezmer music and watch a game of mahjongg.

The Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival also included lion dancing (which I unfortunately missed), Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Scribal art and Chinese calligraphy, tea ceramonies, hands on Challa making demonstrations and kosher egg rolls and egg creams for sale. To say the festival was a "unique slice of New York City life" is probably an understatement. It's this kind of cross-cultural event that makes New York City what it is.

The event was sponsored by the Eldridge Street Museum, which is located in the recently renovated and restored Eldridge Steet Synagogue (12 Eldridge Street between Canal and Division). The Eldridge Street Synagogoue is home to the Congregation Kahal Adath Jeshurun, which has met continuously for Sabbath and holiday services since the building first opened more than a century ago.

Between 1880 and 1924, two and a half million Eastern European Jews came to the United States. Close to 85 percent of them came to New York City, and approximately 75 percent of those settled on the Lower East Side.

Built in 1887 for the tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants already settled on the Lower East Side, as well as the hundreds of thousands who would arrive in the coming decades, New York’s first great East European synagogue "expressed the hope that the immigrants’ religion and culture would flourish on American soil." Before the construction of the Eldridge Street Synagogue Eastern European Jews met in rented halls, converted storefronts, renovated churches and other makeshift locations.

By the 1920s the congregation had dispersed far beyond the Lower East Side and immigration quotas stemmed the tide of new arrivals. In the 1950's the congregation could no longer afford the costly repairs and maintanience and started to meet in the street-level chapel rather than the sanctuary. By the 70's and 80's the synagogue had fallen in to such a grave state of disrepair that investigations showed that emergency stabilization was needed and if no work were done the building would collapse.

Public interest in the synagogue’s fate grew, and by 1986 the Eldridge Street Project was formed. The Eldridge Street Project conducted emergency repairs, secured National Historic Landmark designation for the building and raised over 15 million dollars over a 20 year period for the extensive renovations. The Eldridge Street Synagogue is now one of the last remaining built by the Eastern European immigrants who made the Lower East Side the world’s largest Jewish city in the early 1900's.

Along with guided tours of the Synagogue, the Eldridge Street Museum features new exhibits and programs, such as the Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival, the American Jewish Immigrant Experience in Song and Walking Tours of Sacred Sites on the Lower East Side (synagogues, churches and temples encompassing 200 years of religious life in New York City).

One of the many highlights of the day: I bought an Emma Goldman finger puppet from the Eldgridge Street Museum's Gift Shop for my girlfriend Liberte who is organizing Starbucks at Union Square East, right next to Union Square Park where Emma Goldman gave many of her historical speeches. The tag on the puppet even went into great detail of Emma Goldman's anarchism, stating that she was an "outspoken anarchist, feminist and advocate for birth control" who "struggled for the anarchist cause her whole life." It goes on to talk about her being deported back to Russian, becoming disillusioned with the Russian Revolution and later settling in the UK.

I'm always surprised at how many public murals depict Emma Goldman in the New York, even ones sponsored by the City such as the mosaics in the Chrostopher Street 1 station. It's like playing Where's Waldo with my favorite free-thinking, free-loving Jewish anarchist revolutionary.

Brooklyn Museum's First Saturdays

Every first Saturday of the month The Brooklyn Museum of Art throws a huge FREE party for all of New York, and I gotta tell ya, it is a party. There's cash bars on multiple levels serving Brooklyn Lager and plastic cups of wine. There's usually live music on different floors competing with DJs. And people dance. I mean, this is Brooklyn we're talking about. The dance floor is packed whether there's a live salsa band or a DJ spinnin old school jams. When my brother was in town he flipped when he saw how crazy people went when the DJ closed out the night by playing "No Sleep Til Brooklyn." You know, I think the Beasties lied to me, I moved to Brooklyn and I still don't get any sleep.

"First Saturdays" are sponsored by one of those huge union-busting "big box" stores, you know the kind that are destroying everything that is unique about New York, putting small mom and pops, bodegas and other independent businesses out of business and turning the City landscape into one big strip mall that could be Anywhere, USA. Indianapolis. Minneapolis. Chicago. Terre Haute. But at least they are giving something back by throwing us the craziest f***ing party you'll ever see in an art museum.

If you haven't been you should really go. I'm serious, they are fun, and it seems like everyone in Brooklyn and their momma shows up.

The theme this time around was Islamic art and culture.

Sufi-inspired Soul Jazz band Brooklyn Qawwali Party rocked the first floor pavilion with their funky tribute to the music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, aka "The Emperor of Qawwali." Pakastani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who came from a long line of Qawwali performers (dating back 600 years), was responsible for blending modern sounds with the ancient art of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). The Brooklyn Qawwali Party plays mainly instrumental versions of his Qawwalis on conventional Jazz instruments rather than traditional instruments associated with Qawwali.

The free tickets for the screening of "I Love Hip Hop in Morocco" went fast (all 340 of them). I would have loved to have seen that. The documentary on the first Hop Hop concert in Morocco would probably make a good double feature with "Slingshot Hip Hop", which is about Palestinian Hip Hop, and features my favorite bilingual Arabic/English Hip Hop emcees, DAM (Da Arabian MCs). In fact I wish the BK Museum got DAM to play the event, that would've been the shit. But I have no complaints, the BMoA throws a hell of a party every month and it doesn't cost a thing.

From 9:00 pm til 11:00 pm DJs Fabian Alsultany and DJ Pepe spun Arabic dance music in the parking lot of the museum and it was so packed people were spilling out into the grass and up the hill. At one point some of the kids from the breakdancing crew that were performing earlier out in front of the museum climbed up on top of a really tall truck and started dancing on top of it. The crowd went nuts. It was so cool. There were some belly dancers winding through the crowd, full on belly dancing costumes. They had the moves.

The vibe was all kinds of Brooklyn. Everyone just dancing, having a good time. People of all races, gender expressions, sexualities, class backgrounds, religions. It was so cool seeing so many Heredi Orthodox Jews chillin at an event celebrating Islamic culture. But that's what Brooklyn is all about to me. Yeah, I know there's all the different tensions, and the old saying goes that "Brooklyn has people from every country on the face of the planet, and none of them can get along" but there are spaces like the Brooklyn Museum First Saturday Parties, the African Dance Festival, Atlantic Antic and Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park where people do all come together to party, to play, and to celebrate our shared human-ness.

Upcoming Events: Free Outdoor Concerts in Prospect Park and Central Park

Summer in New York City also means you get to watch some the world's best musicians perform in the city parks and other public spaces for absolutely FREE. Over the past few years I've seen Isaac Hayes, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Neville Brothers, Me'Shell NdgeOcello and many more of my favorite artists all for free! If you live in New York you should really take advantage of the many cultural and artistic events The City has to offer, especially during these tough economic times. What better way to spend an evening?


Celebrate Brooklyn 2009
Prospect Park Bandshell
June through August

Celebrate Brooklyn is one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Launched in 1979 as a catalyst for a Brooklyn performing arts scene and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, Celebrate Brooklyn has been an anchor in the park's revitalization and has become one of the city's foremost summer cultural attractions. All Celebrate Brooklyn events are free, but they do ask for a $3 donation at the gate.

Some highlights this year include:

Monday, June 8 (Opening Night)
8:00pm/gates 6:30pm
David Byrne
“The Music of David Byrne and Brian Eno”

Thursday, June 25
7:00pm/gates 6:00pm
Femi Kuti & Positive Force
Melvin Gibbs’ Elevated Entity

Saturday, July 11
4:00pm/gates 3:00pm
They Might Be Giants (For Kids)!

Saturday, July 18
2-9pm/gates 1:30pm
African Festival:
King Sunny Ade
Mandingo Ambassadors
Abena Koomson
Sing Sing
Yasser Darwish

Friday, July 24American Express Roots Music Series
7:30pm/gates 6:30pm
Buckwheat Zydeco
The Holmes Brothers

For more info and complete schedule:
briconline.org/celebrate/schedule.asp


Summer Stage at Central Park
Rumsey Playfield in Central Park

Central Park SummerStage, a program of City Parks Foundation, presents performances of outstanding artistic quality, free of charge, to serve the diverse communities of New York City. Central Park SummerStage is located at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. Enter the park at 69th Street and 5th Avenue on the east side or at 72nd Street and Central Park West on the west side.

Some highlights this year include:

Sunday, July 05
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Oumou Sangare
Les Nubians
Asa

Saturday, July 18
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Q-Tip
Chester French
Little Dragon
Benji B

Sunday, July 19
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Alpha Blondy & The Solar System
Lee "Scratch" Perry & Dubblestandart
Subatomic Sound System

Friday, July 24
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Bettye LaVette
Budos Band (badass Brooklyn afro-soul)
Rhythm Revue with Felix Hernandez

For more info and complete schedule:
summerstage.org

**********

Also check out the River to River Festival for film, art and music in city parks and public spaces throughout Manhattan all summer long!