February 11 – February 16
On Monday, February 11th the Tony Award-winning musical, In The Heights, came home for a one-night only performance on the 5-year anniversary of its Broadway debut. In The Heights put our neighborhood on the map all those years ago and here it was, actually playing in our community with the original cast members as the icing on the proverbial cake. It was a night of pure magic. The audience and the performers sang together, laughed together and even cried together.
Our Monday Mood Music post featured the vibrant mixtape Midnight In Uptown by Hip-Hop artist G.D.A. A big shout out is in order to MTV for giving the UC an exclusive video sneak peak of Reyna’s Debut Performance. Speaking of MTV’s Washington Heights, this week also saw the release of a poem by the very talented Frankie Reese. On the poetry front, we featured another elegant piece of verse, entitled Robot, courtesy of one of our newest contributors, Pierina Medina.
We kicked off Valentine’s Day with the latest video from the dynamic duo of Juan Bago & O. Ladies, Juan Bago & O have a gift for you that you probably don’t want. We supplemented our Valentine’s Day coverage with a simply sublime guide to surviving Valentine’s Day by our newest contributor, Brenda Nuñez.
Uptown Fashion Week went down at the Triangle Building (530 w. 166th St.) on Thursday, February 14th and it was an incredible night. We featured a Q&A With Albania Rosario, who is the organizer of the event. We also posted an awesome interview with Uptown’s own Miss Nunez. Miss Nunez who is the co-founder of Wierdo Ink, which was one of the collections featured on the runway of Uptown Fashion Week.
The Reel Life with Jane blog featured an interview with Trouble In The Heights Filmmaker Jonathan Ullman. By the way folks, Trouble In The Heights is available on iTunes, Amazon, Redbox as well as select On Demand and Video On Demand retailers. We ended the week with another installment of The Best of the Boogie Down by Jenni Ruiza featuring the very popular Bronx Beer Hall. Don’t forget folks, if you are into Hip-Hop music, the groundbreaking Hip-Hop showcase, WHIN By Any Means, returns on February 28th at Negro Claro (3805 10th Ave).
Keep checking us out at www.uptowncollective.com.
Led Black
Editor-in-Chief
The Uptown Collective The UC’s mission is to become “the” definitive, transformative and community-based force impacting the arts, culture, business and New York City’s overall perception of Upper Manhattan. Its objective is to reset, reboot and positively redefine Uptown’s artistic, political, cultural and business spheres via the online space as well the collective’s initiatives and functions.
