Author: Jared Michael Nickerson

Save the date for Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden’s 33rd Annual Neptune Ball.  SHCCBG’s yearly gala will celebrate past achievements and honor Council Member Steven Matteo, Joanne Gerenser (Executive Director of EDEN II,) Margarette Purvis (President & CEO of the Food Bank for New York City) and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.. This year SHCCBG celebrates 40 years of growing art and culture with a beautiful cocktail party featuring live performances by the Burnt Sugar Repertory Arkestra in the Music Hall, a silent auction in the Great Hall with all emcee’d by “Living Colour” guitarist & founder & long-time Staten Island resident … Vernon Reid. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

Stefanie Batten Bland is a choreographic artist who creates performances rooted in community, highlighting the  delicate threads that connect us to one another and to our planet. Based in contemporary dance theatre, Company SBB constructs futuristic environments with installations ripe in poetic theatrical flavors that are emotionally driven. In 2008 while head choreographer of the Paris Opera Comique, in France under direction of Jérôme Savary,  Stefanie founded Company SBB so that she might better investigate the human condition and relationships within our natural world. Her works for stage, non traditional spaces and dance cinema have performed throughout Europe, Asia and the USA.  SBB also creates for gala and VIP events such as Guerlain Perfumes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, SYTYCD-Poland and for the 2012 French Presidential gala in Cannes France.

http://www.companysbb.org

True to her name, Brooklyn-native, Karisma Jay, is an honors graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts where she majored in dance. She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School where she studied Performing Arts and Pre-Medicine and is a certificate student of the Mathematics Education Master’s program at City College. Teaching dance since the tender age of 11, she has honed her skills of working with children and adults to develop the confidence and charisma of even the shyest, youngest and/or oldest of students. Dancing and performing since the age of two, she has studied at Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Ailey School (Junior Division) and has performed/toured with prestigious dance companies such as Brooklyn Ballet, Maimouna Keita, Creative Outlet, Asase Yaa, and Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence. Professionally, Karisma has been featured in programs aired on Netflix, BET, MTV, NBC, and VH1. She is the 2016 winner of The Stars of New York Dance Award and Caribbean Life’s Impact Award. In 2013, Karisma joined the company of the longest-running Off Broadway musical, STOMP. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of AbunDance Academy of the Arts with a mission to lead by example so that everyone who crosses paths with her flourishes AbunDantly.

There will be a Master Class with Karisma Jay from 7pm to 8pm

http://www.karismajay.com

Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber returns to the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center for the seventh time since debuting their David Bowie tribute in 2011; revisiting & re-imagining their own tunes from That Depends On What You Know Parts 1,2&3, Not April in Paris, The Darknuss, Negrocity, The Rites, Making Love To The Dark Ages and a heavy dose of … More Than Posthuman-Rise of the MojoSexual Cotillion.  The Burnt Sugar Arkestra … flat-bottom-bumping-jumping-jimmy-jam jams forward since 1999 … Ya heard !!!!!

Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Patient(ce) is an evening-length, interdisciplinary work is inspired by father daughter conversations between Stefanie Batten Bland and controversial composer and film maker Ed Bland.  This creation will examine the structure of jazz with its formal emphasis on the eternal present.  Through a collaboration with futuristic jazz ensemble Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and visual installation by Ms. Batten Bland and Alaric Hahn, PATIENT(CE) will examine the critical relationship that the musical, physical and visual arts have with space and time.

Curated by Jonathan Howard Katz, the Periapsis Open Series is a paid performance opportunity for choreographers who are collaborating with composers and/or musicians.  This program includes GIG (Whitney G-Bowley), with composer Jenna Nicholls  and Yoo and Dancers.  There are two performances at 5pm and 8pm.

Sugar Nation … a message from the organizers of the fundraising effort for Ivan Julian:

“First, thank you so much for pitching in with your time and energy–and money when possible–to help Ivan in his extreme need. The latest news regarding his condition is that, slightly over a year after his cancer diagnosis, and the months of radiation and chemotherapy in 2015 and early 2016, he’s been prescribed and is undergoing further chemotherapy. He’s faced all this with a profound toughness, and his spirit remains strong, but the economic problems harry him and his family as well, and, of course, that’s where there’s a certainty of effective help. So, thank you so much for contributing.

We’ve also created a GoFundMe page for Ivan, where people can simply donate money. It’s at https://www.gofundme.com/IvanJulianFund

Another reason we’re writing now is to extend the network of people who are aware of the situation. We’re hoping you might be able to send a message, a template for which we’ll provide here, in a broadcast email to your own personal mailing list, to as many friends and colleagues as are convenient for you to contact, to bring the situation, and how to help, to more people’s attention. This template for you to copy and paste into an email (and of course personalize if you care to) is appended below.

There was an incredible response to the announcement of the May 4th benefit concert; tickets sold out the day they became available.  That means $18,000 for Ivan.  The venue, City Winery, had another day, May 7, open and they offered it to us for an added show. We jumped at that, and tickets went on sale to the public on March 31. To order tickets for May 7 show : http://www.citywinery.com/newyork/tickets/heart-on-fire-concert-for-ivan-julian-feat-matthew-sweet-thurston-moore-vernon-reid-living-colour-ira-kaplan-of-yo-la-tengo-lee-ranaldo-of-sonic-youth-the-dictators-nyc-more-5-7.html

Thank you again!”

All best,

BG Hacker, Richard Hell, Sharyl Holtzman, James Mastro, Nick Tremulis

May 7 lineup
MC: Lydia Lunch. Performers: THE DICTATORS NYC; Ira Kaplan; Arto Lindsay; Thurston Moore; Lee Ranaldo; Vernon Reid & Burnt Sugar Arkestra;  Jim Sclavunos; Matthew Sweet; and special guests.  House band:  Vinny DeNunzio (percussion), Steve Goulding (drums), Al Maddy (keyboards, guitar), James Mastro (guitar), Tony Shanahan (bass), Fred Smith (bass).

Sugar Nation … a Message From Ivan : https://youtu.be/7JXgREAUi0E

Waiting List for “Heart of Fire” can be found here: http://www.citywinery.com/newyork/tickets/heart-on-fire-concert-for-ivan-julian-feat-debbie-harry-richard-hell-vernon-reid-living-colour-ian-hunter-garland-jeffreys-willie-nile-the-bush-tetras-more-5-4.html

Donations for Ivan Julian can be made here.  https://www.gofundme.com/IvanJulianFund