By Led Black
January 19 – January 24
Thousands of journalists, auto industry personnel, influencers and car lovers from all over the world converged on Detroit for the 2015 North American International Auto Show earlier this month. This show is an immense production, the NYC auto show, which I attend every year, seems to pale in comparison. The North American International Auto Show is something akin to a Valhalla for auto enthusiasts. Please check out our site for my recap of the 2015 North American International Auto Show.
Much love goes to Ibeyi and their record label, XL Recordings, for a simply masterful campaign in advance of their forthcoming debut album, which drops February 17th. After releasing really creative visuals for songs Mama Says, Oya, River, and Ghosts they follow up with an expansive and well-executed mixtape that includes some of their music alongside and blended with tunes from such artists as Lauren Hill, Nina Simone, Jay Electronica, Kendrick Lamar and James Blake among many others. This mixtape is the perfect precursor to world domination. Like I said before, this is Neo-Diasporan Soul Music. Get used to it. By the way, the twins will be heading out on their North American tour and will be in our neck of the woods in March at the NY Music Hall of Williamsburg. You know I already purchased my tickets.
Our newest contributor, Mercy G, returns to our pages with another piece of verse entitled Goodbye My Dear. Mercy G’s poem about a love that is no longer is paired with a great picture by our very own Emmanuel Abreu.
Uptown’s own Mike Diaz AKA Juan Bago and Jaime Fernandez have a must listen podcast, The Translators Podcast. For this week’s episode they interviewed actor JW Cortes of the very popular Gotham TV show on Fox.
Have you heard the good news? Indiegogo has extended Word Up Books’ crowd-funding campaign until January 30th! It’s gets better. An anonymous donor issued a challenge, pledging to match every dollar that comes in beyond $23,000! That’s right —every donation contributed from now through January 30th will be doubled! So if you have been procrastinating there is no better time than now to support our very own community, volunteer ran, bookstore. Spread Love it’s the Uptown Way!
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.
