Tokyo meets NYC
This Sunday, September 27th, TRACE magazine is proud to present the Japanese theater based, all-female music group AKB48, live at Webster Hall. First appearing internationally in Paris this past July, this one of a kind New York City show will be the first United States performance for AKB48. Created by famed songwriter/producer Yasushi Akimoto in 2005, the girls are known for great live performance. Doors open at 4pm, and the show starts at 5pm. Best of all, this event is FREE if you RSVP here.
SOLE II SOLE: Topshop
Wanda Raised Wedge Platform, $135.00 (£85)
It’s no secret the UK based clothier provides wares that are high on style and low in price . And it is no secret that these platforms are the sublime. -J.Dwayne Joseph
NEUE: FROM PARIS to NYC
NEUE, a multi-talented duo from Paris consisting of Nicolas Choyé and Esteban Gonzalez recently released their first mixtape simply entitled, “NEUE MIXTAPE.”
“We wanted to SHARE our PROJECT and SPREAD LOVE to everybody for free. So we put our POWER, GOOD VIBES, and COLLABORATED with GOOD PEOPLE on this RECORD”
“NEUE MIXTAPE” is a solid exploration of sheets of sound with the bump of J Dilla.
NEUE solicited the help of Jimmy Whoo, Analogue Jay & The Big Loubensky to put the extra bump in this tape.
Click here to download “NEUE MIXTAPE”
You can check out NEUE’s photo work at http://neuepicture.blogspot.com
- Courtesy of Selah Says
L’Altruist + TRACE presents ELAEIS
This Thursday, September 24th, TRACE magazine invites you to join a chic benefit party for All for Africa, an organization which helps to secure the long-term sustainability of important community level initiatives in health, education, clean water, micro-financing, community development and skills training on the continent of Africa.
Put on by none other than the “fun-raisers” themselves, L’Altruist, this is an event you don’t want to miss. Established in 2007 by five friends, L’Altruist serves to bridge the gap between the diverse, young professional community and non-for-profit choice causes. In this particular case, L’Altuist is teaming up with All for Africa in order to raise money for International Palm Out Poverty Week (September 21st-28th). The goal is to raise $500,000, which will be used to plant 25,000 palm oil trees in Ghana under All Africa’s Palm Out Poverty Initiative. Once these oil palm trees mature, in 3 years, revenues from sales of palm oil will be used to provide long term operational funding of $30,000 per year for 30 years to 17 Africa-based NGOs and community organizations.
Held at Manhattan’s prime venue, Cain Luxe, the event will feature music by DJ mOma, drum and dance performances, hors d’oeuvres by Ark Restaurants and Le Grand Dakar, as well as raffle prizes and the opportunity to connect with other young, diverse professionals who are committed to having fun and doing good.
Check out more details below, and don’t forget to purchase your advanced ticket here !
TRACE is so excited to be a part of this one-of-a-kind event. See you there!
An African in Greenland Comes to NY
Once upon a time a little eight-year-old boy in Togo came across a book about Greenland, dreamt about Eskimos and polar bears and decided to run away there one day.
An African in Greenland is Tété-Michel Kpomassie’s story: the fruit of a chance encounter with a picture book, the memoir of a ten year odyssey from humid jungles to frozen wastes and a naively sharp insight into European and Inuit culture. First published in 1981, it still resonates, free from not only ingrained prejudice but also a western worldview, an attitude (as well as a contradiction in terms) still insidious today.
TRACE met Tété at the opening for the exhibition An Artic Book Club which runs till the 24th of October at the EFA Project Space. Organised by Flux Factory, it showcases the responses of more than ten artists, writers and creators who discussed the book together over a period of several months, bringing to life and celebrating a remarkable story.
For more information: http://www.efanyc.org/
SOLE II SOLE: UBIQ
Founded in 2001, Japanese sneaker brand Ubiq in recent years has managed to gain a following stateside from sneaker heads obsessed with exclusivity and those just concerned with silhouette and balance. Created by Tokyo based designer Kosaka, the shoes are inspired by concepts and novels. Add that with his dedication to quality and you have a sole stirring product. (Available online: www.ubiqlife.com)—J. Dwayne Joseph
Above: Fall 2009 Fatima suede (in three colorways) , $120.00
Kandinsky Colours
Trace went to the Kandinsky preview at the Guggenheim Museum yesterday.
A blockbuster of a show, the exhibition comprises of almost a hundred of the painter’s most important canvases, reuniting colourful palettes from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Stadtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau in Munich. Snaking up the white spiral of the Guggenheim, they chart the progression in chronological order of the master from his more figurative works to later abstraction.
Kandinsky was truly a transcultural visionary. Born in Moscow in 1866, he ended his days in Paris in 1944, having lived through two World Wars and the Russian Revolution. He lived in Berlin and travelled all over Europe and Tunisia. Originally trained in law and economics, it was only at the relatively late age of thirty that he started painting and producing theoretical tracts examining the relationship between music, emotion and colour.
Set to run till mid January, the show will be accompanied by dance and performance art from the Works & Process team and the infamous First Fridays. The nights will start up again in October, running side by side the indie rock series of concerts It Came From Brooklyn.
For more information visit the Guggenheim site.
Bling bling and business as usual at Baby Phat Show
The runway gleamed with gold glitter, a carpet of gold, and the music pounded so loud, ribcages shook. Anticipation mounted, schmoozing subsided and the seat next to Amber Rose remained resolutely empty.
Trace took a front row seat at Kimora Lee Simmon’s fashion spectacular on Wednesday night at the packed Roseland Ballroom which was streamed live to Times Square.
Amanda Lepore, Serena Williams, Alan Cummings, Kim Kardashian, that guy from America’s next top model and that girl who got kicked out of Destiny’s Child were all present. And no one was there for the clothes. When Trace asked their next door neighbour whether he was a fan of Baby Phat, he looked like someone had just vomited in his lap.
But Baby Phat did the job. Fun, fabulous and flirty… and we wouldn’t be seen dead in it. But Moroccan prints, cut-out swimsuits, bright orange and lycra hotpants are hardly funeral wear.
The show finished with a thumping MJ tribute as four models came out wearing Baby Phat T-Shirts, tight tight jeans and one sparkly glove. It may not have been haute couture but it was a lot of hot fun.
Performa 09 Preview
Set to run through November, Performa 09 promises to be quite a show. This time round, the visual art performance festival will be staging events around the whole of New York and involving more than 150 international artists including Guy Ben-Ner, Wangechi Mutu and Saya Woolfalk.
TRACE attended the sneak press preview on Tuesday.
It was held in the Judson Memorial Church: hallowed halls for performance artists ever since the hospitality of the enlightened pastor Bob Spike during the early sixties. The church has been a haven for artists such as Claes Oldenberg and Yoko Ono and witnessed the arrests of visionary ministers, most notably those during the infamous Flag Show of 1970.
This Performa 09 is certainly ambitious, promising to break all rules and ignore all boundaries. Visual art, music, poetry, dance, fashion, architecture, graphic design and dancing ponies are all featured in the line-up of events, many of which are still in the tantalising TBA stage.
Rumours abound though. There are promises of the last footage of the choreographer Merce Cunningham and his troop in Tacita Dean’s work and a gastronomical journey set up by Jennifer Rubell through the former DIA building in Chelsea. A ton of ribs, a liquor elevator and concealed cutlery are all on the menu.
For more information, visit: http://www.performa-arts.org/
Duckie Brown S.S 2010
1). Celebration of the male form. 2). High waisted swimwear. 3). Inspired by the Cukor film “Gods and Monsters”4. Chiffon shirting [gender-bending?] 5). Shoes: Duckie Brown + Florsheim= Brilliant! 6). SHEER! SHEER! SHEER!—J. Dwayne Joseph Read more