THE NEXT GIG: East Ville des Folies -- February 7th at Webster Hall

I'll be singing jazz at East Ville des Folies as they resurrect the not-so-temperate 1920s for their Third Annual Beer and Whiskey Festival -- replete with four floors of burlesque, booze and savory delights -- on Saturday, February 7th at Webster Hall. Come get foolish with us.

the next gig: harlem arts festival 2012

THE HARLEM ARTS FESTIVAL is a FREE annual festival presenting Harlem-based music, dance, theater, and visual arts. Taking place at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park June 29-30, 2012, we invite the community to celebrate Harlem’s vibrant cultural landscape and contemporary artistry.

for more information: http://www.harlemartsfestival.com

there's a gallery walk, performance art, exhibits, music, dance -- and all of it is based in harlem.  francesca and i will be performing on the main stage at the newly renovated (and newly renamed) richard rodgers amphitheater.

here's the gist of what francesca and i will do: In this as-of-yet untitled theatrical performance, Queen Esther explores black feminism by continuing to deconstruct the iconic siren Billie Holiday through movement, sound and vision.  With Ms. Holiday’s speaking voice as an aural backdrop, Queen Esther sings her more relatively unknown yet timeless songs, melding this soundscape into Francesca Harper’s compelling choreography, exploring a relatively unknown side of Lady Day.

see you there!

colin powell rocks out!

how amazing is this? i love how impassioned he is in these shots...

this is president bush the younger's 71 year old former secretary of state colin powell at the royal albert hall last night, in an impromptu dance/performance with a nigerian hip-hop group called olu maintain. he was there to speak as a part of THISDAY's 3rd annual africa rising festival, a celebration of african style, fashion and culture. apparently after powell left the podium, he was so inspired by the music that he joined in to sing and do a version of the nigerian dance yahoozee.

this is a side of colin powell i never imagined i'd ever see. he may be a republican and a conservative but apparently, he is truly blacker than black -- and proud of it. that gives me a lot of hope.

what's so exciting about this?

this festival is all about pan-african unity, involving models and musicians and leaders and activists from the entire black diaspora -- from alek wek and naomi campbell to lionel ritchie and beyonce, from king sunny ade to busta rhymes and then some. this is the first year that the festival has gone international. they were actually stateside, in DC! anything that brings all of us together to celebrate our accomplishments, that's focusing on "sustainable solutions" instead of problems, and that raises awareness of the good things that africa -- and africans everywhere -- are bringing to the table is a wonderful thing.

and here we stand as americans, on the brink of electing the first african-american to the presidency. the whole world is watching. it's so important that every eligible voter show up and do their civic duty on november 4th. perhaps it's true that africa is about to experience a renaissance. all africans, worldwide.

it's interesting to note that olu maintain's guitar-playing father is a medical doctor with the nigerian army and that olu studied accounting at the polytechnic in ibadan and has his own label, reloaded records.

here's a part of what mr. powell told the audience:

"I stand before you tonight as an African American.

Many people have said to me -- you became Secretary of State of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black, and I say yes, so that we can remind our children.

It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains.

A lot of wrongs have been done to the continent of Africa by Western powers faced with an iron curtain and a bamboo curtain. These barriers have now fallen and the world is being driven now by new financial forces.

Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same, in my continent - in Latin America, it's happening also. It's now Africa's turn.'"