Burnt Sugar surrounding Mikel Mwalimu-Banks. Photo by Ginny Suss

Artists For Mikel Mwalimu-Banks

After suffering a violent fall on a Lower East Side sidewalk in 2018, Burnt Sugar family member Mikel Mwalimu-Banks saw a neurologist. The appointment proved a fateful turning point in his life. Mikel was diagnosed with a form of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disease that affects the muscles of your face, shoulders, upper arms, and lower legs. The devastating diagnosis upended what was once an active life in the arts, culture, and music industries. More egregiously, the condition devastated Mikel’s ability to generate a sustainable living from his craft. Having contributed his unique style of artistry, fashion, and overall humanity to New York’s progressive Black underground scene for more than 50 years—half a century—the community he inspired and influenced is now returning the favor.

Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Photos by Shane Nelson

More on ‘Hapo Na Zamani’

Led by Black artists, activists, and intellectuals in the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Arts Movement helped to shape the ideologies of Black identity, political beliefs, and African American culture at that time with an impact that can still be felt today. Hapo Na Zamani (Swahili for “then and now”) re-imagines a happening from that
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Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Photos by Shane Nelson

Lincoln Center’s Free Silent Disco & Free Fast Track

As part of the Juneteenth celebration, the audience is invited to an after-performance dance party hosted by Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis of the East Village’s Middle Church featuring a Silent Disco of re-imagined gospel music by DJ Rimarkable. Costumes, visual art and production design for this event are courtesy of the acclaimed installation artist Dianne
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Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Photos by Shane Nelson

Southern Ohio Appreciation Shout Out !

With our last Dayton Ohio performance being in 2012, BSAC would like to thank Kenneth Marcellus, Paula Ashcraft, Jim “Rev. Cool” Carter, Niki Dakota, Basim Blunt, Leslie Marie Lindsay, Don Thrasher, Napoleon Maddox, Peter Benkendorf, Eileen Carr and Chris Schadler for sweetly sticking with us ; and lastly and especially Lisa Wagner of the Dayton
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Poster for Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber at Concert of Colors. Detroit. July 25, 2002

Concert of Colors

The Concert of Colors is metro Detroit’s free annual diversity-themed music festival. Global music at its finest at this colorful, festive, upbeat coveted summer event. Housed in Culture Source a coalition of 152 arts organizations in Southeast Michigan, the Concert of Colors has become the Midwest’s biggest diversity and arts festival. It is produced by
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HotHouse Unity in the Community “Pocket” Festival

This multi-arts event will feature performances by Trio W.A.Z., The Fred Jackson Quintet, and Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber. Visual and conceptual artist Mikael DiFiore will lead group art–making activities. The Jazz Journalist Association will present a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award to Gregory Stephen Ionman Tate – the founder of the Burnt Sugar Arkestra.

Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Photos by Shane Nelson

Our Wicked Lady’s History & Covid Policy

This huge, once empty Bushwick warehouse was transformed into Our Wicked Lady (OWL) in 2015. With a spacious open-air in the warmer months and fully winterized in the colder months rooftop terrace and bar; plus rehearsal spaces and artist studios below, OWL is truly a gathering place for Brooklyn’s artist community. OWL would like you
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Burnt Sugar Arkestra. Photos by Shane Nelson

While We Are Still Here…

Burnt Sugar is honored to be a part of “The 5th Annual Sugar Hill Music Festival” (In Tribute to the Mizell Brothers and Gil Scott-Heron) presented by “While We Are Still Here” . Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 2:00 PM EDT. Sugar Hill Luminaries LawnHighbridge Park 155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue Harlem, NY 10032 While We Are Still
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