It’s officially summer and the wave of 80-degree days is upon us. Summer songs are as yet undecided but Sexyy Red and Tay Keith’s “Pound Town” and PinkPantheress and Ice Spice “Boy’s A Liar” remix may spar with Doja Cat's laid-back “Attention” for tone-setters. Election year summers mean a lot more in hindsight, because they either become the best memories before dark times or the preview to prosperity. The Brooklyn Museum is turning African fashion into a metro event with their exhibition opening this weekend. It’s free for members and the public for a limited time as well. Plum Beach, Fort Tilden, and Orchard are my favorite shores to camp out and sun (and barbecue if it’s not fine-worthy). Read the list for high culture, short films, and sweet, sweet jokes.
Special Events and Tributes
African Fashion at Brooklyn Museum
Fri Jun 23 - Sun Oct 22
Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Heights
Garments from West and South Africa are on display at the Brooklyn Museum, which has always celebrated patterns and prints from the broader diaspora. We will take these cues as inspo for future sneaker hunts, baby blankets, and living room decor. That cramped apartment could use some color and you’ll find it once you leave to see what rainbows are out there.
Cost: Free with RSVP
New York’s Public Beaches Open
Starting Wed Jun 21
Various beaches from the Rockaways to the Jersey Shore
Not enough New York films take place on the beach but the ones that do (Summer of Sam, He Got Game), use it as a backdrop and a respite from tension. When there was no AC, when there were blackouts galore, the beach was a natural destination for antsy New York street kids, burnt-out teachers, dreamy writers, and more. Please go to the beach once a month this summer to beat the humidity, or support the nutcracker industry, or simply to be.
Cost: Free or low-cost
NxWorries, Robert Glasper, BJ the Chicago Kid, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway
Sat Jun 24
Prospect Park, Flatbush
Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge formed NxWorries when each was a boutique act, lavishing in the kind of creativity and collaboration that comes from virtuosic skills and eclectic tastes. Now, the vocalist is a superstar, without question, and the producer’s discography looks like an indie hip-hop CVS receipt. They’re revisiting some of their original cuts with another master, Robert Glasper, and his cohort (Bilal killed at his last show). Song mavens BJ the Chicago Kid and Lalah Hathaway round out the benefit concert lineup and Okayplayer will be in the house so pull up.
Cost: $103.25
Ab-Soul
Wed Jun 28
Racket, West Village
TDE’s best kept secret drops into town for a set at Racket, where he’ll bring a brand of spiritual science maybe extinct in current rap. The lyric maestro also foregrounds his wordplay as much as his West Coast street background without limiting himself to regional trivia. He’s a direct connection from the cosmos to the curb.
Cost: $39.98
Gina Yashere, the Woman King of Comedy
Sat Jun 24
Bell House, Park Slope
Gina Yashere is an international comedian with roots in the second-generation struggle of Nigerian success. She looks different and chooses to tug at what we mean by “queer” or “quirky” in every act. But her comedy is familial, not tokenized, husky but not heavy-handed. She’ll play at the Bell House this weekend.
Cost: $30.57Love Is Strange: Romance Shorts
Fri Jun 23
Greenwood Cemetery, South Slope
With the return of Rooftop Films, there’s an avant garde resurgence as well. The development of emerging filmmakers is a New York underground that relies on support, critical thought, and tenacious patrons like you. This screening in Greenwood Cemetery could break the Next Big Decade of directors and actors, or send them to streaming. It’s stunning the amount of choice you have in this fate, though.
Cost: $30.57