Check out these photos (thanks One Plus Love) of Zuzuka Poderosa rocking Azucar! – A Queer Latin Dance Party‘s 3rd anniversary celebration earlier this month. The packed crowd of sweaty, beautiful lovers dipped and certainly made some #InterracialMusicBabies!
Allow for some emotional and straight-from-the-hip (or heart)-writing right now, will you? If you’re down, read on. And do me a favor and share this? If you’re not down, just continue to ignore and therefore erase me.
So, the crew from Azucar and Papi Juice – PS: learn about founder Oscar Nñ‘s experience growing up Gay and Latino in America via NPR – are teaming up on Saturday, June 14th (RSVP on Facebook) for Brooklyn Pride and MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE! From their mouths to your imagination:
⚛ WE GOT THREE OF DA BADDEST MAMIS GIVING YOU SHOWS ⚛
MALUCA // PRINCESS NOKIA // ZUZUKA PODEROSA
HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THAT A LINE-UP! I have always wanted these ladies to rock the same stage and they have with each other at some points in New York City.
Zuzuka & Wavy Spice (as Princess Nokia was formally known) played Marimacho‘s NYFW runway show after-party in September 2013 and Maluca & Zuzuka both played Remezcla’s “The Spot“ in Summer 2011
But back to HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THAT A LINE-UP for a second. For these particular artists to rock one stage is outright historic and necessary. YEAH I SAID HISTORIC.
YOU WANNA KNOW WHY?
We are living in insanely hostile times to be working New Yorkers and creators/artists who do not align with the STRAIGHT / WHITE / MALE / RICH paradigm.
You see, these women have busted their ASSES carving out important and necessary space in the insanity that is “The Music Business” or as I like to think of it as, the business of culture.
Though each of their music and individual voices are strong, Maluca, Zuzuka & Princess Wavy have struggled – though always fly on a budget – to crack through on a mainstream level.
Writer Alexis Stephens nailed the current state of affairs in this Los Rakas article about the binaries set up for us currently: “…The stringent Latin music & American urban markets.”
This is very important to recognize right now in a time when I’m finding people (SMART POWERFUL EDITORS, FOR EXAMPLE) can not accurately describe what’s happening or let alone, speak truth to power on it.
For example, if another smart journalist who I like and admire asks me: “I just can’t understand why Los Rakas is so slept on?” my head might explode AGAIN, but in the WORST WAY!
WHY? Because it’s important to recognize this very wack binary going on in the business – as artists, advocates, writers and fans of humanity-forward-pushing culture – to consume and support artists of this #NEWCULTURALSPACE — even if you may not understand it yet or it makes you uncomfortable — so that we can SMASH IT!
The I-AM-A-KID-OF-IMMIGRANTS-IN-AMERICA-IN-2014-AND-WHERE-DO-YOU-PLACE-ME struggle is very real. And even worse? All those marketing people and boardrooms have giant dollar signs in their eyes, feasting on us as the Latino population is set to soar. Trust me, I’ve been in many an unsettling meetings — the thir$t is real. But I’ll let that unravel and save it for another post….
By merely existing and surviving, we place ourselves in a world and system NOT BUILT FOR US, YET BUILT OFF THE BACKS OF US (ie Venus X example), OUR PARENTS BACKS/SACRIFICES AND OUR ANCESTORS – American History 101, folks.
Exhibit A
Read DJ False Witness’ account on Remezcla of a recent club debacle in the West Village for new party, Massive. This just about nailed it, but you should read the whole disgusting thing:
“Venues like Up & Down promote this culture-vulture behavior, pushing the originators out while stealing their looks and ideas and marketing them for white consumption. The club owner wants what is boundary-pushing and revolutionary, but only if a consumerist anglo crowd is there for it.”
Exhibit B
Only three women playing all of EDC NY, shout out @DJGINATURNER and Krewella. EDC programmers: do better
— J. Escobedo Shepherd (@jawnita) May 24, 2014
We are in a world right now where huge mainstream festivals like Electric Daisy and many others (let’s not even get started on EDM in general) misrepresent and erase voices of not only women and Queer artists, but fucking DIVERSE expressions! This is a very dangerous thing for not only our generation, but future generations, period.
So, of course leave it to underground outlets to construct and build the ACTUAL world that not only we wanna live in, but a world that’s ACTUALLY HAPPENING THAT WE ARE LIVING THROUGH.
This is called LIVED EXPERIENCE, people. How can we accurately cover these worlds when an overwhelming amount of editors, writers, gatekeepers are…YOU KNOW WHERE I’M GOING WITH THAT ONE! And if you don’t, get the fuck off my website and OPEN YOUR EYES, WAKE UP – like Wiki from Ratking says here:
So, I just want to salute the team of Azucar: A Queer Latin Dance Party and Papi Juice. It’s truly a testament to the idea that “Teamwork makes the Dreamwork.”
To the many masses of people who lay idle and blind to the #NewEverybody of #NewPeople bringing #NewImagination to #NewAmerica and the #NewWorld! …I SAY THIS TO YOU:
You may not WAKE UP, but you sure enough will be WOKEN UP. You should be very afraid! In the best way! This is the actual #TURNUP.
So, be there on June 14th at Friends & Lovers, for this is when we dance to the beat of each other and these fierce mujeres who continue to rumble – and like we have always done – CONTINUE TO BRING LIFE TO THE PARTY!
