PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED FOR DUMBO’S ANNUAL LIVE AT THE ARCHWAY SERIES, JUNE 20 to AUGUST 15
Jun 20, 2024 to Aug 15, 2024
Official Site
The DUMBO Improvement District announces programming for its annual Live at the Archway series beneath the iconic setting of the Manhattan Bridge Archway. Eight free concerts and visual art exhibits will take place on Thursdays at 6pm from June 20 to August 15, 2024 (no concert on July 4th).
MUSIC:
The series begins on Thursday, June 20 with a concert by La Banda Chuska, a group that re-imagines the vintage sounds of Peruvian cumbia. Kicking off opening night for La Banda Chuska is Fogo Azul. Also on the series this year is country music artist Paisley Fields (June 27), a concert presented in collaboration with Brasil Summerfest (July 11), contemporary salsa band Sonóra Nuyorkina (July 18), multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Jerron Paxton and Dennis Lichtman (July 25), Gentleman Brawlers (August 1), alternative singer-songwriter Tracy Bonham (August 8), and a concert presented in collaboration with Queerchella (August 15).
ART:
In an ongoing exploration of the artistic legacy of the neighborhood, each week at Live at the Archway, a Dumbo-based visual artist is featured on the Art Wall, where the audience has the opportunity to directly engage with the artist and create a new collaborative piece together. The following artists will present on the Art Wall in 2024: Sam Ticknor (June 20), Billie Elise (June 27), Noah Lyon (July 11), 20x200 in collaboration with Joan LeMay (July 18), Emily Nam (July 25), Annick Martin (August 1), Joshua Reynolds (August 8), and Melanie Hope Greenberg (August 15).
During Live at the Archway evenings, beer and wine will be for sale from The Archway Bar, the Dumbo Improvement District's plaza concession powered by the team that brings us The Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg. The Archway Bar is modeled after the Manhattan Bridge Three Cent Line, the first trolley service that began operations on the bridge in 1910. Additionally, dinner bites will be for sale from local Dumbo restaurants.
“Music, drinks and dancing underneath the Manhattan Bridge? It's such a special only-in-New York City experience here in Dumbo!” said Dumbo Improvement District President Alexandria Sica. “The artists who will be performing this year are perhaps our best slate ever, and we can't wait to take it all in!”
Live at the Archway 2024 Series Programming
THURSDAY, JUNE 20
LA BANDA CHUSKA
Opening by Fogo Azul
Art Wall by Sam Ticknor
La Banda Chuska is re-imagining the vintage sounds of Peruvian cumbia and surf through the lens of their New York City home and diverse musical and cultural backgrounds (Peru/Argentina/USA/Puerto Rico). They take inspiration from the twangy 1960s surf bands of Lima (Los Belkings, Los Siderals) as well as the psychedelic flavors of 1970s chicha (Los Destellos, Los Orientales de Paramonga). The band has been playing their musically expansive and dancey tunes around New York City for the past three years, building up a loyal local following through a monthly residency at Brooklyn's Barbès and opening for touring groups including Meridian Brothers and Son Rompe Pera. The band features Adele Fournet on keys/vocals, Felipe Wurst and Sam Day Harmet on guitars, Erica Mancini on accordion/vocals, Abe Pollack on bass, and Joel Mateo on drums.
Fogo Azul is a New York City-based all-women, trans, and non-binary Brazilian Samba Reggae drum line. Fogo Azul (Blue Fire) was born at the intersection of founder and Buffalo, New York native, Stacy Kovacs’ passion for samba reggae; her deep respect for its cultural roots as a music of protest and resistance; and her belief and activism in support of gender equality and her sense of civic duty in the current environment to publicly awaken and inspire people to resist oppression and exercise their power to uplift society—loudly. Launched in 2016 as an extension of Marcus Santos’ samba reggae-based Grooversity education project, Fogo Azul NYC is an age and ethnically diverse community that spans the drummer spectrum from novice to professional.
Sam Ticknor focuses on drawing and painting in his Dumbo artist studio using water-based materials including gouache, watercolor, and ink, making imaginative and free-wheeling works on paper. He has put up several painting exhibitions in New York City, and is working on 60 watercolor paintings for an upcoming picture book.
THURSDAY, JUNE 27
PAISLEY FIELDS
Art Wall by Billie Elise
Paisley Fields was an official performer at SXSW last year and was named one of the best musical discoveries of the festival by the Austin Chronicle and Jambase. His most recently released duet with Mya Byrne was featured on Democracy Now, in Rolling Stone, NPR, and more. Out Magazine also named him one of the 20 queer country artists you should know in 2022. Paisley's music has been played on CMT, SiriusXM, and radio around the world. Nashville Scene and CMT also named him one of 12 artists to watch in 2022.
Billie Elise NY Design Studio and Gallery, located in Dumbo is a creative haven co-owned by partners Billie and Elise. Billie, a published multidisciplinary artist and administrator at Hunter College’s Graduate Art education program, brings a unique artistic vision to the studio. Elise, a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in sales and a degree in finance and investments, adds a touch of business acumen and creativity to the mix. Billie Elise’s residency program allows artists to immerse themselves in their work, with the opportunity to design and create in a studio space. Billie Elise is committed to assisting artists with brand development, marketing, promotion and sales.
THURSDAY, JULY 11
Concert presented in collaboration with Brasil Summerfest
Art Wall By Noah Lyon
Brasil Summerfest is the largest international Brazilian music and arts festival in the world. Launched in 2011, Brasil Summerfest presents an unprecedented lineup of music, film, workshops, and a street fair at high profile venues in New York City. This is the sixth year of Brasil Summerfest’s collaboration with Live at the Archway.
Noah Lyon is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He began a prolific output of underground zines, buttons, shirts, music and radio broadcasts as a teenager. Since graduating from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2002 he has exhibited his drawings and paintings at galleries and museums internationally. His works are in the special collections of The Brooklyn Museum, MoMA, The Tate Britain, and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
THURSDAY, JULY 18
Sonóra Nuyorkina
Art Wall by 20x200 in collaboration with Joan LeMay
La Sonóra Nuyorkina is a contemporary salsa band made up of young talented musicians who bring a fresh sound to the Latin genres. Repertoire spans from classics to the most popular hits of today. The band has played at the best Latin clubs in New York.
20x200 is a pioneering online art company that sells a curated collection of limited-edition, museum-quality prints and artworks by emerging, established and legendary artists. A woman-owned, small, independent business, 20x200 has been introducing incredible artists and exceptional art to collectors since 2007. From the start, its motto has been It’s Art for Everyone®, and it always will be. The company works hard to deliver an authentic collecting experience to novices and experts alike, and are unwavering about offering art that’s accessible for a wide range of budgets, believing that everyone can—and should—collect art, and that artists should have more opportunities to make a living making work.
Artist Joan LeMay excavates and communicates the emotional and energetic core of her subjects, herself included, as an act of connection and projection. Whether painting in high-chroma or drawing in greyscale, her work prizes visceral emotionality. Her fragmented figurative compositions, as well as her portraits of loved ones, public-facing artists of all kinds, and herself are all exaltations of humanity. LeMay’s fine art has been exhibited internationally in galleries, museums, alternative venues, and public spaces in New York City, New York; Los Angeles and Pomona, California; Seattle and Anacortes, Washington; Portland, Oregon, Provincetown, Massachusetts, London, England and Koln, Germany. Her work has been published in dozens of publications and multiple books, and she has collaborated extensively with independent filmmakers and creative agencies. Her artwork appears on several album covers.
THURSDAY, JULY 25
JERRON PAXTON AND DENNIS LICHTMAN
Art Wall by Emily Nam
Jerron Paxton (formerly “Blind Boy” Paxton) and Dennis Lichtman are both world-renowned multi-instrumentalists and vocalists whose musical friendship has grown organically in New York City for more than a decade. Paxton and Lichtman recently released their self-titled first full-length recording. Smithsonian Folkways recording artist Paxton presents Black folk music from nearly all the idioms that entails: stride piano jazz from New Orleans to New York; deep blues on guitar and harmonica; rural music from the beginnings of Black arrival in America played on fiddle and banjo; ragtime; and other turn-of-the-century-music that gives the full breadth of pre-WWII Black music. Paxton transports his audiences not to a time, but to a state of mind that allows them to enjoy and internalize Black folk music, as has been the American experience for centuries. Lichtman is a world-traveling bandleader who is best known for running the famed trad-jazz jam sessions at Mona’s Bar in New York City since 2007, which was described in the Wall Street Journal as “ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young traditional jazz and swing players.” He is a masterful multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, mandolin, violin, and more) who has toured and recorded with The Lovestruck Balladeers, Pokey LaFarge, Ghost Train Orchestra, Jim Kweskin, and his own projects: The Brain Cloud, Mona’s Hot Four, and his newest original music album Secret Workshop. Paxton and Lichtman’s mutual love of the history, stories, and significance behind the music they play is apparent as they romp through an energetic and engaging set of acoustic blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley pop songs, 1920s jazz, twin fiddle hoe-downs, and original songs and compositions.
Emily Nam is an interdisciplinary artist, who integrates design-led research and curatorial practice. Through her research, she is examining the sensorial interplay between color and shape and its implications with a direct experience — to misuse, misinterpret, and make contact with. Nam’s work has been included in Vogue, The New York Times, and more. Nam was selected as one of the Top 8 Emerging Designers in Australia, showcasing her sensorial sculptural work BODY CLOTHING OBJECT EXPERIENCE, with Object Gallery, Sydney, now Australian Design Centre. Emily maintains a studio practice in Dumbo.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1
GENTLEMAN BRAWLERS
Art Wall by Annick Martin
Brooklyn collective Gentleman Brawlers is led by creative duo Becca Fox and Matt Walsh. The band channels musical inspiration Talking Heads with their distinct brand of Afrofunk and indie dance music. The BBC’s Tom Robinson hailed them as "a virtuoso live band, grooving together like a beautifully engineered machine.” Through a sonic blend of disco-based horn lines, sticky highlife guitar, and polyrhythms from West Africa, Trinidad, and Brazil, Gentleman Brawlers’ live shows ignite a community-based, improvisational energy. In studio, the band will often reimagine their songs through an EDM lens. Gentleman Brawlers has opened for Cimafunk and GRAMMY award-winning artists Los Amigos Invisibles and Fantastic Negrito at Brooklyn Bowl, and performed at Pier 1 on Manhattan's Upper West Side for Summer on the Hudson.
Annick Martin is a Latinx, New York based art director and graphic designer who loves candy, traveling and her dog Ronnie Macaronnie. As a Design Director at Nickelodeon, she can be found making kids' worlds a little more colorful via the many channels she art directs on YouTube, which includes favorites like SpongeBob Squarepants and more recently, Dora the Explorer. Aside from her role at Nickelodeon, Annick is very in touch with her culture and loves to bring her Latin roots to all elements of her life, especially all her creative projects. She makes stickers and GIFs and works on fun projects for artists such as Becky G, Romeo Santos and Rosalia.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8
TRACY BONHAM
Art Wall by Joshua Reynolds
Tracy Bonham is a classically trained violinist and pianist turned alternative singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 1996 with her twice GRAMMY nominated album, The Burdens of Being Upright (Island Records). This debut album cast Bonham into the global spotlight with MTV fame and major radio airplay with her #1 alternative chart-topping song “Mother Mother”. Over the past 27 years, Bonham’s albums and live performances have shown what it is to be an ever-evolving artist. Borrowing harmonic structures and beautiful melodies from her favorite classical romantic composers, Bonham stretches herself artistically to combine this rediscovered passion with her unique and quirky songwriting style to create musical alchemy.
Joshua Reynolds is a creator by nature, calling his style of photography/videography, “PhotoGraffix” , which has a cleaner graphic style usually comprised of symmetry, reflections and low angles. He tends to stray from the beaten path and chooses to utilize unorthodox angles, which help to reshape the viewer's perspective to show that there's more than one way to view the world around them. He tends to incorporate birds and bridges into his imagery, as a symbol of upliftment and connection, as he feels he is a bridge of sorts, connecting people, places and concepts. His ultimate goal is to travel the world, creating from his heart and soul, while uplifting, educating and inspiring others through creativity in one form or another.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15
Concert presented in collaboration with QUEERCHELLA
Art Wall by Melanie Hope Greenberg
One year ago, the talented singer-songwriter Kiernan and the visionary Price Troche joined forces to establish a festival that not only celebrates inclusivity but also amplifies the voices and experiences of queer artists. By definition, Queerchella aims to create a platform where diversity thrives and the talents of the LGBTQ community are showcased and celebrated. Queerchella has successfully booked more than 70 LGBTQ artists and remains at the forefront of the local music scene. Artists from diverse genres are welcomed to submit their works to Queerchella through online applications, ensuring each show is distinct. The individuality of every performer contributes to the allure of Queerchella, as it unites artists of various backgrounds to curate an entertaining lineup and revel in an evening of queer art.
Melanie Hope Greenberg is an illustrator and author with long ties to Dumbo. She has published illustrations with UNICEF, Children’s Defense Fund, and Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as hundreds of images in magazines, on greeting cards, and as gift items. She has illustrated 17 trade published picture books, six of which she also wrote. Her books have won awards and are on notable, honor, and library reading lists. “Mermaids on Parade” has been called ”seminal” by School Library Journal, and included in Brooklyn Public Library's ‘125 Essential Brooklyn Booklist'. “Down the Subway” was a selected New York Times Great Children’s Read. Greenberg was an Artist-in-Residence for the Eric Carle Museum’s first NEA Grant. She presents author-illustrator workshops, blogs for Huffington Post, and contributes monthly art activities to educational websites.
About Live at the Archway
Live at the Archway is an annual series of free concerts and interactive visual arts programming in the unique setting of the Dumbo Archway, one of the only covered outdoor spaces in New York City. Founded in 2015, the series reflects the neighborhood’s diversity and commitment to the arts, and showcases a broad variety of music, dance and visual art styles.
Programming consists of a headlining act on stage, including music and dance in a diversity of genres, and an interactive experience led by a Dumbo-based visual artist, also in the Archway.
Live at the Archway is presented by the DUMBO Improvement District, and curated by Clara Inés Schuhmacher of the DUMBO Improvement District, together with Jan Bell of the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival. Additional partners include Brasil Summerfest.
About the DUMBO Improvement District
The DUMBO Improvement District, founded in 2006, is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and promoting DUMBO, Brooklyn—a bustling enclave on the waterfront where quintessential old New York charm meets creative Brooklyn at its very best. The DUMBO Improvement District showcases DUMBO as a world-class destination, advocating on behalf of DUMBO's businesses, property owners and residents, and amplifying its creative and innovative vibe through The Archway programming, public art, free WiFi, public space maintenance & beautification and the #DUMBOVIP card, among other initiatives. @dumbo_brooklyn
About Brooklyn Americana Music Festival
The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival (BKAMF) features Brooklyn-based Americana songwriters and their bands alongside touring bands from across the country to perform both outdoors and indoors in Dumbo and Red Hook. Voted ‘Best of Brooklyn - Best Festival’ Empire State Awards 2023. Tenth annual September 12 - 16, 2024.
Brooklyn Americana Music Festival is made possible with funds from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. @bkamericanafest
Author: DUMBO Improvement District
Brooklyn
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