New York City

City Parks Foundation presents SummerStage in Brooklyn

FREE Music, Dance, Film and Family programs, Brooklyn Season runs June 3 – June25

May 30, 2014 From City Parks Foundation
Screen Shot 2014-05-30 at 11.41.11 AM.png
Share this:

City Parks Foundation proudly presents the 2014 season of SummerStage, New York’s largest free performing arts festival, bringing over 100 free performances to fourteen parks throughout the five boroughs. With performances ranging from American pop, Latin and World music to dance, comedy and theater, SummerStage fills a vital niche in New York City’s summer arts festival landscape. Since its inception twenty-nine years ago, more than six million people from New York City and around the world have enjoyed SummerStage. 

The festival kicks off in Brooklyn on June 3 and the festival ends August 24.

The complete SummerStage schedule for Brooklyn follows. For the most up-to-date scheduling and line-up for all SummerStage programming, follow SummerStage via the below links and visit www.CityParksFoundation.org for festival information.

SummerStage Artist Information

Tuesday, June 3, 2014 
Ty Dolla $ign 
in association with MeanRed productions 
Red Hook Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Welcome to the omnivorous world of the South Central-raised star born, Tyrone Griffin. Ty has been creating music since he was a three-year old writing lyrics and playing a keyboard. Since then, he’s taught himself how to play the drums, bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitar, the violin, the piano, and the Wurlitzer organ. His inspirations go way deeper than just R&B. Ella Fitzgerald, 2Pac, Prince, Michael Jackson and Nirvana are as important to his conception of sound as Mint Condition and Brian McKnight. So is contemporary electronic music. If anything, Ty Dolla $ign might be heir to DJ Quik’s title of America’s most complete artist. This is why he’s collaborated with everyone from top 40 perennials like Wiz Khalifa and Chris Brown, to West Coast hood stars like Y.G. and Joe Moses. And in the immediate future, Beach House 2 is adding a sundeck, Jacuzzi, and more bad chicks to the cabana.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014 
Mark McGuire / Marissa Nadler / Delicate Steve 
in association with MeanRed productions 
Red Hook Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Playing with a wide variety of instruments and styles on Along the Way, Mark McGuirepresents his unique vision of modern psychedelia. Using electric and acoustic guitars, a Talkbox, drum machines, a mandolin and lots in between, McGuire conducts a sonic exploration of the inner self. “This story is an odyssey through the vast, unknown regions of the mind,” he explains in the liner notes,” The endless unfolding of psychological landscapes, leading to perpetual discoveries and expansions, in a genuinely emergent and infinite world of worlds.” The last few years have found McGuire touring with friends like Ducktails as well as performing as a fifth member of the legendary Afghan Whigs, collaborating with artists like Ponytail’s Dustin Wong and releasing his own R&B influenced Road Chief project. 2014 will bring more touring, more collaborations, more videos and media; expanding horizons that all start with a sound. 

Website: http://www.marissanadler.com/ 
With six albums under her belt and “a voice you would follow straight into Hades,” according to Pitchfork, Marissa Nadler is one of the most popular artists currently on the indie-rock scene. Singing in a mezzo-soprano, Nadler is often accompanied by a variety of instruments and ambient, reverb-laden production. “She has a voice that, in mythological times, could have lured men to their deaths at sea, an intoxicating soprano drenched in gauzy reverb that hits bell-clear heights, lingers, and tapers off like rings of smoke.” The Boston Globe.

Website: http://delicatesteve.com/ 
Delicate Steve is the brainchild of New Jersey-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steve Marion. As NPR has said, “Delicate Steve’s music maintains the capacity to surprise…guitar showcases that don’t shred, dance records that don’t adhere to familiar beats and classic-rock throwbacks that fan out into world music, prog, reggae, surf-rock and more, with the propulsive jitteriness and sideways oddness of Ratatat or Dirty Projectors.”SPIN has called the music “a kaleidoscope of bouncy pan-African polyrhythms and swooping six-string melodies, like the Dirty Projectors with guitars instead of singers.”

Thursday, June 5, 2014 
Pro Era in association with Lyricist Lounge 
Red Hook Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Website: http://theproera.com/ 
Pro Era is the Brooklyn collective of Joey Bada$$, CJ Fly, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, A La Sole, Dessy Hinds, and Dirty $anchez. The young MCs have a developed a cult-like following with fans embracing their music & lifestyle…”That OG $wank.” Fans can look forward to a new Pro Era EP this Spring, and Joey Bada$$’s debut album, ‘B4.DA.$$’ this Fall. WORLD DOMINATION!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 
Duck Down BBQ w/ Boot Camp Clik & Friends 
Betsy Head Park, BK 
6:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Website: http://www.duckdown.com 
Join Duck Down Music and Boot Camp Clik as they kick off summer with a free neighborhood BBQ featuring special performances by Buckshot, Smif N Wessun, Sean Price & Rock of Heltah Skeltah, Masta Ace, CJ Fly of Pro Era & more! Duck Down Music is an 18-year old independent music label based in NY, NY, co-founded by Dru Ha & Buckshot. The company has sold over 3.5 million records. Over the last few years they’ve released titles from the likes of Sean Price, Talib Kweli, Statik Selektah, 9th Wonder & Buckshot, Pete Rock & Smif N Wessun, Skyzoo & Pharoahe Monch.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 
Sisqo 
Betsy Head Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Sisqó is an R&B singer, one of the five members of Dru Hill. After the group disbanded in 1999, Sisqó embarked on his solo career, releasing Unleash the Dragon, on Def Soul Records in November 1999. Two singles from the album were major hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, with the “Thong Song” making it to number-three, and “Incomplete” going to number-one. Although plans for a Dru Hill reunion in 2000 never panned out, Sisqó branched out into television and film, hosting the dance competition program, Sisqó’s Shakedown on MTV, and taking on supporting roles in the films Get Over It (2001) with Kirsten Dunst, and Snow Dogs, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. Sisqó’s second LP, Return of Dragon, released in June 2001, eventually went platinum.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 
Salute to Hip Hop with DJ Bent Roc, Chubb Rock, Dana Dane, and Special Ed 
in association with WBLS 
Herbert Von King Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
DJ Bent Roc is the premiere mix master on New York City’s 107.5 WBLS. Besides spinning for all the station’s events, he spins weekly on Saturdays for his own show, Classic Flavors alongside his partner, legendary rapper, Chubb Rock. With his weekly show, DJ Bent Roc gives respect and attention to the pioneers of hip-hop culture. With over 20 years of DJ experience, along with the Billboard “R&B / Hip Hop Radio Show of the Year” award under his belt, DJ Bent Roc will rock your world!

Artist Website: http://www.myspace.com/chubbrocklegend1 
Chubb Rock, often compared to a Hip-Hop Barry White, dropped out of pre-med at Brown University to pursue his musical career. Regarded as one of the East Coast’s most dexterous rappers, he first appeared on the national Rap scene with his self-titled debut, Chubb Rock. His 1991 release, The One, reached #13 on Billboard’s Top Hip-Hop/R&B chart that year. Three singles from that release made it to #1 on Billboard’s Top Rap Single chart list that same year including, the classic song, “Treat Em Right,” “Just the Two of Us” and “Lost in the Storm.”

Artist Website: http://www.danadane.com 
New York-born rapper Dana Dane first displayed his talents as a member of a rap group, Kangol Crew, which he formed with classmate Slick Rick. Launching his solo career after graduating, his debut single “Nightmare,” offered hints of his talents. Known for his humorous rhymes and his eclectic fashion sense, Dane broke through commercially with his first full-length album, Dana Dane with Fame. The success of the album, established him as a powerful rapper and one of early Hip-Hop’s biggest personalities.

Edward Archer, aka Special Ed, is Brooklyn rapper best known for the songs “I Got It Made” and “I’m The Magnificent”, produced by “Hitman” Howie Tee and released in 1989 on the Youngest in Charge album, recorded when Ed was 16 years old. He was later a member of Crooklyn Dodgers, an ad hoc group who came together to perform for the Spike Lee films Clockers and Crooklyn, and he performed “Crooklyn” with Shillz on the 2003 compilation album MuskaBeatz. Ed released a third solo album, Revelations, with the single “Neva Go Back” in 1995, with the track “Freaky Flow” receiving a remix by DJ Premier. In 2004, Ed released the album Still Got It Made on his own label “Semi.” 

Thursday, June 19, 2014 
Algebra in association with WBLS 
Herbert Von King Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Born Algebra Felicia Blessett and hailing from the R&B hotbed of Atlanta, Algebra has already earned a reputation as one of her hometown’s most exciting new talents. Having already won widespread acclaim with her solo debut Purpose, and for her work as collaborator with the likes of Monica, Bilal, India.Arie, Esperanza Spalding and Anthony David, Algebra offers a fresh, expansive creative vision on Recovery, on which she worked with three of today’s hottest urban producers: Bryan-Michael Cox, Kwamé Holland and Shannon Sanders. Such indelible new self-penned tunes as “Nobody But You,” “Right Next to You” and the pointed “Writer’s Block” demonstrate Algebra’s uncanny ability to spin insightful scenarios that are rooted in personal experience and crafted to convey maximum musical and emotional impact. Whether she’s delivering infectious pop, swaggering funk or sensitive balladry, there are no gimmicks here, just timelessly soulful, effortlessly accessible music that draws upon the varied musical skills that Blessett has developed through a lifetime of creative curiosity. 

Friday, June 20, 2014 
Jason Samuels Smith 
Herbert Von King Park, BK 
7:00 PM – All Levels Open Dance Master Class by: Jamal Jackson 
8:00 PM – Performances 
Award-winning tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith collaborates with renowned musician/singer/composer Owen “Fiidla” Brown to present an original composition of a highly anticipated musical response to the critically acclaimed film 12 Years A Slave. The piece was commissioned by The Charles & Joan Gross Family Foundation and debuted to a packed crowd at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on Mardi Gras earlier this year. The work, entitled “Transformation: Rhythm’s Roots,” is a celebration of the instrumentation and the natural musical evolution that transpired alongside the African-American experience in America. All ages will enjoy this musical journey…Rhythm is what connects us after all! 

Jason Samuels Smith won an Emmy and American Choreography Award for his tribute to Gregory Hines and has performed and/or contributed choreography for Black Nativity, Idlewild, So You Think You Can Dance, Bring in Da’Noise, Bring in Da’Funk on Broadway, and Psych. Owen “Fiidla” Brown is a 26-year veteran of the Sun Ra Arkestra who has appeared alongside Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, George Clinton, Babatundi Olatunji (father of African drumming), Gil Scot Heron and more. Tyrone Brown (bassist) has worked with the likes of Max Roach, Grover Washington Jr, Dizzy Gillespie, and Pat Martino to name a few. Bill Meek (pianist) has played and recorded with world-renowned drummer, Philly Jo Jones, toured with Grover Washington Jr. and performed with Max Roach, Donald Byrd, Stanley Clarke, Cecil Bridgewater, John Blake, Gerald Veasley, Odean Pope, and is currently a member of the Grover Washington Jr. Tribute Band among others. Harry “Butch” Reed (drums) has toured with several well-known musicians including John Blake, The Onus, The Andrew Neu Group and The Electric Mingus Project. 

Website: http://www.jamaljacksondancecompany.org/ 
Jamal Jackson was born in Brooklyn, New York and began his formal studies of movement with the Harlem based Batoto Yetu Dance Company. His pursuit of dance led him to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he received the Weston Award for his contribution to the Fusion Dance Company and New Works/World Traditions African Dance Company from 1996-2000. Jamal studied with Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Seydou Coulibaly, and Fred Benjami and worked under M’ba Coulibaly, Salimata Soumare from Kelete Dance Theatre, and Ba Issa Diallo, director of Troupe District du Bamako in Mali, West Africa. Jamal choreographed for the New York Arts Festival and Inaya Day in 2002, marking the beginning of his African based, modern style of movement. Jamal performed with Ballet International Africans for two seasons as a principal dancer and in 2004 he founded the Jamal Jackson Dance Company, which debuted Images of the Union at University Settlement in New York and at Westport Hall in Connecticut. Jamal Jackson Dance Company has established a strong presence in and out of New York City, performing year round in festivals, self-produced shows, community outreach programs and private events. The company has presented work at venues including: Mark Morris Dance Center, Jacob’s Pillow, SummerStage, DanceNow Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, Battery Downtown Dance Festival, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Brown University, Equality Now’s 20th Anniversary, Big Range Festival in Austin, TX, The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, and Performance Spaces for the 21st Century in Chatham, NY. Jamal has also created work for the Diversity in Dance Project at The Yard alongside the Urban Bush Women and the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company.

Saturday, June 21, 2014 
ChoreoQuest 
Herbert Von King Park, BK 
7:00 PM – All Levels Open Dance Master Class by: Jamel Gaines 
8:00 PM – Performances 
ChoreoQuest is the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza- Center for Arts and Culture dance residency program. Established in 2001 CQ provides a home for a diverse array of Brooklyn based emerging and accomplished choreographers the opportunity to create, develop and present new works while providing master-level instruction and mentorship to Youth Arts Academy dance students and studio showcases for the general public. 2014 Artist includes; James Atkinson, Germaul Barnes, Ronald K. Brown, Nadia Joseph, Jeannie Mitchell & Samirat Rivers, Nathan Trice, Chris White, Royce Zachary, and Andre Zachery. Lead by Lindia Dugué-Artistic Director and Germaul Barnes-Associate Artistic Director.

Jamel Gaines is the artistic director and founder of Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn. His work has been staged by the Actors Theater Workshop, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Paramount Theatre and The Martha Graham School. He has worked with such distinguished artists as Jennifer Holiday, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, George Fasion, Ornette Coleman, Ossie Davis, Olatunje Babatunde, Max Roach, and Rick James, and has even been a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance. Over the past sixteen years Mr. Gaines has choreographed and staged over 25 repertory and concert productions. In 2004, Jamel appeared on Public Television’s American Talent in which he was presented The Teacher Recognition Award, during the Presidential Scholars in the Arts Committee at The Kennedy Center, and has been featured in publications such as Essence Magazine and The New York Times. Gaines has founded St. Paul’s Eldad Medad Danced Ministry, which seeks to find a spiritual path through movement. His work at St. Paul’s includes “He Got Up”, the commemoration of the African Holocaust, MAAFA and the acclaimed “Black Nativity” for which him and his team won an Obie Award. Jamel Gaines is dedicated to asserting the prominence of the arts in America and committed to promoting the significance of dance seen through the lens of the African American experience, as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and boldly reaching into the future.

Saturday, June 21-Sunday, June 22, 2014 
Brooklyn Family Day: Barolosolo Cirkus Company 
in association with Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy 
** Part of The International Contemporary Circus Festival** 
Brooklyn Bridge Park, BK 
3:00 PM & 7:00 PM (two performances/day) 
SummerStage Kids presented by Disney presents Brooklyn Family Day, featuring France’s acclaimed Barolosolo Cirkus Company as they premiere the anything but ordinary work, “île O.” Watch as this intrepid team creates a delightful mash-up of modern physical theater around their kiosk-pool, moving from comic to absurd in a universe filled with aquatic poetry and music.

Families will also have the opportunity to participate in interactive workshops of circus arts, face painting and more!

Sunday, June 22, 2014 
Whistle!: A Tribute to Frankie Knuckles / Screening: Hands to the Sky 
in association with ImageNation Cinema Foundation 
Herbert Von King Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:30PM 
Website: www.imagenation.us 
In homage to the late Frankie Knuckles, SummerStage, ImageNation and guest curator Injoy Enterprises present Whistle!: A Tribute to Frankie Knuckles featuring the Soul Summit DJs, DJ Kervyn Mark, DJ Stormin’ Norman, with vocalists Kenny Bobien, Lynn Lockamy and others! The evening will end with screening of the new, never-before-seen director’s cut of HANDS TO THE SKY, a documentary on the outdoor house music scene.

Hands to the Sky, explores the uplifting and spirited experience of the outdoor House Music scene. A testament to the movement spearheaded by Chicago pioneers like Frankie Knuckles, the film follows this music out of the clubs and house parties and into the parks and beaches where an estimated 100,000 House Music fans gather to dance, commune and rejoice in the summer heat. Executive Produced by Domingo Canate and Directed by Angelo Boyke.

With a scorching original music score composed by noted writer/arranger Erik Talbert, Hands to the Sky features such House Music progressives as pioneering House Music vocalist Carolyn Harding; the legendary Frankie Knuckles; British-born founder of Harlem’s Sundae Sermon dance party DJ Stormin’ Norman; record executive Wayne Williams, noted for bringing disco to Chicago’s South Side and founder of Chicago’s Chosen Few Picnic and Rican Vargas, a.k.a, “The Commander in Chief” of The Coney Island Dancers, a volunteer organization whose mission includes promoting tourism to Coney Island.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 
The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series 
Amber Wagner (soprano), Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), and Russell Thomas (tenor), accompanied by pianist Dan Saunders 
Brooklyn Bridge Park, BK 
7:00 PM – 9:00PM 
Website: metopera.org/summer 
An enchanting evening of favorite opera arias and duets featuring Metropolitan Opera stars.

Amber Wagner (soprano) is a winner of the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions and was featured in the documentary about that competition, The Audition, which opened in movie theaters nationwide in 2009. She made her Met debut in the 2011–12 season as Anna in Nabucco and returned the following season as Amelia in a new production of Un Ballo in Maschera. She is a recent winner the Liederkranz Foundation Competition, Richard Tucker Career Grant Award, and Kirsten Flagstad Award with the George London Foundation as well as being the recipient of a Sullivan Foundation Career Grant.

Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano) was the winner of both the Main and the Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She made her Met debut in the 2009–10 season as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte and this past fall triumphed as Adalgisa in Norma. An avid recitalist, Barton has appeared with the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall with tenor Russell Thomas as well as in a solo recital with the “On Wings of Song” series. She made her debut at Clayton State Uiniversity’s Spivey Hall singing Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, which was also broadcast on NPR.

Russell Thomas (tenor) is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He is establishing himself as one of the most exciting talents on the international opera and concert scene, most recently as winner of the Viñas Competition in Barcelona (First Prize, Audience Favorite, and Best Tenor) and at the Competizione dell’Opera in Dresden. He made his Met debut in the 2004–05 season as the Herald in Don Carlo and has since sung principal roles in Fidelio, a new production of Macbeth, Die Zauberflöte, the Met premiere of Attila, Der Fliegende Holländer, Wozzeck, and La Clemenza di Tito.

Dan Saunders is increasingly well known to audiences around the world as an accomplished conductor and pianist. An assistant conductor to James Levine and Seiji Ozawa and a recitalist with many of the world’s finest soloists, he served as the associate conductor of the Virginia Opera from 2000 until 2006 and is currently an assistant conductor with the Met. This past season, he served on the music staff for Met productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, and Arabella.

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment