CAST CALENDAR BUY TICKETS SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE! The quest for love, achievement and identity is universal, but what role does race play in the story of our lives? On the eve of Obama’s first election, four Harvard intellectuals find themselves entangled in a complex web of social and sexual politics in this provocative and funny new play by Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly), helmed by Kenny Leon (The Wiz), the Tony Award®-winning director of the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. STRICTLY LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! 6 WEEKS ONLY, BEGINS JANUARY 26 $30 Tickets for ages 30 and under. Valid ID Required. Not available for all performances Groups of 10 or more can save up to 63%. Learn more about group rates. CALL (212) 246-4422 VISIT Second Stage Theatre Box Office 305 West 43rd Street Subject to availability. All sales final. No refunds, exchanges, or retroactive discounts. Blackout dates may apply. Offer may be discontinued at any time. Cannot be combined with any other offers.  All artists/schedules/discounts subject to change without notice. Joshua Jackson’s photo provided courtesy of Justin Stephens/Showtime. Tessa Thompson’s photo provided courtesy of Emily Berl/The New York Times/Redux. #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

Limited engagement thru March 20 Vineyard Theatre presents DOT BY COLMAN DOMINGO DIRECTED BY SUSAN STROMAN with Colin Hanlon, Marjorie Johnson, Stephen Conrad Moore, Libya V. Pugh, Michael Rosen, Finnerty Steeves, Sharon Washington The holidays are always a wild family affair at the Shealy house. But this year, Dotty and her three grown children gather with more than exchanging presents on their minds. As Dotty struggles to hold on to her memory, her children must fight to balance care for their mother and care for themselves. This twisted and hilarious new play grapples unflinchingly with aging parents, midlife crises, and the heart of a West Philly neighborhood. Colman Domingo (WILD WITH HAPPY) returns to The Vineyard following his solo show A BOY AND HIS SOUL and Tony Award® nomination for THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, reuniting with Tony Award®-winning director Susan Stroman after her ground-breaking work on THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS. >>READ MORE Also join us for our DOT Talkback Series! View the schedule here. SAVE $20 – 3 EASY WAYS TO ORDER: VISIT: CLICK HERE to use code DOTBWW. CALL: 212-353-0303 and use code DOTBWW. IN PERSON: Bring this offer to the Vineyard Theatre Box Office (108 East 15th Street) *CONDITIONS: $59 ticket offer (reg. $79) valid for all performances, standard seats only. Offer may be modified or revoked at any time. Limit 6 tickets per order. Some blackout dates apply. Subject to availability. Offer cannot be combined with any other discount and is not valid on previously purchased tickets. All sales final. No refunds or exchanges. Phone and online orders are subject to regular service charges. Offer valid through 2/21/16. #DOT www.vineyardtheatre.org DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. If you need assistance, please contact us at boxoffice@vineyardtheatre.org or call 212-353-0303 Vineyard Theatre |108 East 15th Street |New York, NY 10003 #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

#cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

Still image from Cloud Mapping by Debra Swack Harlem, NY … Public Art Curator Savona Bailey-McClain is presenting FRESH EYES, an exclusive, site-specific Harlem Digi-Tour for FRIEZE WEEK 2015. She is curating videos from a select group of artists and will lead this location-based tour in the Mt. Morris Historic District, that’s FREE to the public. Two tours will be given Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 1 p.m. on the southeast corner of 125th Street and Lenox Ave. and again at 2 p.m. Participants must have cell phones or tablets that can scan QR codes. FEATURED FILMS Cloud Mapping by Debra Swack Even Gray Feels Blue by Negin Sharizadeh What We Were, What We Are, What We Will Be by Bryan Christie ARTISTS BIOS Bryan Christie, Negin Sharifzadeh, Debra Swack BRYAN CHRISTIE’S explores the spectrum of human experience and inner workings of the human body. “Our lives start with trauma as we are brought into the world from the safety of our mother’s womb. We eventually die, experiencing the loss of all that is dear to us. Yet transcendence and the experience of the sublime are rooted in this fleeting material existence. The divine is made evident through tangible and sensual experience; without our physical selves, we would not experience moments of wonder and the mysterious.” Christie’s paintings are created from multiple layers of silk bound together with encaustic, mounted on wooden panels. Many of the figures’ poses are derived from ancient classical sculpture and Renaissance paintings. His video works involve 3D renderings that are layered like his paintings  to create new appreciations of the worlds within the human body. Christie is fascinated with the interplay between our flesh-and-blood existence and something less tangible—our soul. NEGIN SHARIZADEH is a multi-disciplinary artist, performer, and filmmaker based in New York. Growing up in Iran, one of the world’s most historically and socially complex regions, in the wake of revolution, she is fascinated by the mechanisms and interplay of different natural, emotional, and political systems. She has explored these themes through multiple mediums of drawing, sculpture, performance and more increasingly combining all through stop-motion animation. Sharifzadeh’s short animated film, Even Gray Feels Blue, has been featured in festivals, galleries and museums around the world, receiving numerous awards in New York film festivals and Video art competitions. Sharifzadeh has had solo exhibitions and performances in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sao Paulo and Tehran, and has been part of numerous international group exhibitions. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Tehran University in Iran in 2002, and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Performing Arts in 2010. “Even Gray Feels Blue” investigates the nature of melancholia and solitude, translating these intimate and deeply personal feelings into their aesthetic essences. The echoes of the individual moves into collective realities. Sorrow becomes social malaise. DEBRA SWACK is a Fulbright Specialist and Phi Theta Kappa in computer science who began exhibiting new media and sound art in the early 90s at Xerox Parc while doing software testing and technical writing for PolyGram Records/Universal Music Group. She is mentioned in Art and Innovation at Xerox Parc, published by MIT in 1999, and works with immersive and interactive environments in addition to all traditional media. She has received three co-production grants from Banff Centre (95 Chimes, Carousel and Digital Maze Symmetry Project) and was awarded a Summer Artist Residency by Creative Capital in 2012. Her last article on The Emotions after Charles Darwin, a project on the universality of emotions to aid international neuroscientists in autism research, was published by Leonardo Electronic Almanac/MIT Press in 2013 and will be featured in Binghamton University Magazine in 2015. Animal Patterning Project; a software derived, synthetic bio-art animation was published in Infinite Instances, by Random House in 2011 and exhibited at the Binghamton University Art Museum and Offline at Central Booking Gallery in NYC in 2014. In summer 2014 she was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome and also presented Cloud Mapping Project at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Leonardo Electronic Almanac by MIT Press and presented at Banff Centre for the Arts in August 2015. She is also collaborating with evolutionary biologist Monica Gagliano on Bloom, a bioacoustics sound-art installation that will also be published in Plants and Us by Lexington Press. Cloud Mapping Project is a real-time interactive animation installation and soundscape about the cloud, its significance and history in science and computing, as an enduring subject in art and music, to its unforeseen consequences as a tool for surveillance. Is the trade-off of having technology at our fingertips worth its ability to directly influence and contribute to the growing obsolescence of individual privacy along with increasing our vulnerability due to the inherent problem of one’s cloud not being managed by oneself and the potential of one’s cloud data falling into the wrong hands? ABOUT THE CURATOR SAVONA BAILEY-MCCLAIN currently lives and works in New York City. She is an independent curator and producer. The range of McClain’s practice has included sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media. McClain is the Executive Director & Chief Curator for The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. a seventeen year old public art organization and curatorial collective serving neighborhoods around the City. Her public art installations have been seen in the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post among others. McClain has installed works in Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Governors Island and Harlem. Noted works include The H in Harlem, Counting Sheep, Story Piles, East River Flows and Loosely Coupled. McClain is now developing new digital installations and location-based interventions using a tour platform. ABOUT THE MARCUS GARVEY PARK ALLIANCE The Marcus Garvey Park Alliance is a not-for-profit 501C3 community organization that was formed back in 2000 to make improvements to Marcus Garvey Park. Today the MGPA advocates for the park and the residents of the surrounding communities of East Harlem and Central Harlem. We are inspired by the creative culture that Harlem is famous for and work to support the arts in Marcus Garvey Park. Because the park is surrounded by residential homes, schools and day care programs, we dedicate a lot of our efforts to make sure the children have the best possible park experience. Everyone is invited to get involved and become a member of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance. #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

ALEX UNTHANK CHANCE | POSSIBILITY New Photographs Exhibition June 5 – June 26, 2015 OPENING RECEPTION Friday June 5th 6:00-8:30 pm Rio II Gallery 583 Riverside Drive (@135th Street) 7th floor 212-568-2030 x208 Harlem, New York #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

#cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

Cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres start at 6:30PM.  Poker begins at 7:30PM. $250 to play (which includes all costs for poker buy-in, open bar, food and lots more); $125 if you just want to watch, drink, dance and eat. Please register online at http://www.storefrontacademy.org/poker.   You will then see a line for either $250 as Poker Player or $125 as General Attendee Prizes:  There will be great prizes for the top finishers including high end jewelry, exclusive getaways, sports memorabilia and more.  We will also have a wonderful silent auction. We will have an acclaimed DJ keeping it lively and other surprise guests. #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

#cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

#cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

#cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

by Kysha Harris @SCHOPgirl Should you find yourself in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem hungry, tired and in need of a respite from the noise and bustle of the streets, head immediately to    (763 St. Nicholas Avenue between 148th & 149th Streets). There, at their door, take your last laden breath and exhale into a little slice of tranquility and a big bite of some authentic Ethiopian food with a Mediterranean twist. Tsion (pronounced: see-on) owners, and long time Harlem residents, couple Beejhy and Padmore, have created a place to not only feed the body with healthy food and drink but to feed the spirit with local art, music, yoga and more. The spacious remodeled brownstone ground floor features a bar, lounge area, plenty of seating and a small outdoor area that promises to be just what you need through the summer. We sampled the Ethiopian veggie combo with shiro, atakilt alicha, gomen and lentil served on top of, and with, the famous spongy sour injera bread. We also tried tibs, a beef dish with spices. Now we could explain each of these flavorful dishes at length but why not just go and taste it for yourself?! We promise the attentive staff will answer all of your questions and take good care of you. Thankfully Beejhy wouldn’t let us leave without having malawach. Normally this crisp Middle Eastern pancake is served as a savory dish with hard-boiled egg and tomato dip. However the sweet version emerged adorned with honey and coconut. We did not refuse! Thank you Tsion and welcome to the neighborhood. Please save us a seat! Tsion Cafe 763 Saint Nicholas Ave 212 234 2070 #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY

The 2015 Essential Harlem, Washington Heights & Inwood Guides are here!  Snag your copy before their gone from local news racks or CLICK HERE to download. #cultural #guide #essential #event #Harlem #local #Uptown #culture #NewYork #experienceharlem #experience #ExperienceHarlem #NYC #shoplocal #harlemnyc #harlemites #NY