2nd Annual Learn to Love Yourself: Silent Disco & Portrait Series
3 Saturdays to Celebrate!
Uptown Grand Central Plaza
(125th Street & Park Avenue)
Time: 3 – 6 pm
Aug 19th – Sept 2, 2023
A community-oriented event that brings art to Harlem.
Our 2nd Annual Learn to Love Yourself (LTLY) event series celebrates female-identifying DJs and photographers who are creating a sonic, transformative journey for our community to learn, love, and heal themselves.
Included are free portraits by notable photographers, Ayesha Kazim, Floradis Espinal, and Maria J Hackett, and musical stylings of Cry$cross, Dent, Duneska, Poison Ivy, and Rimarkable.
To round out the creative offering, we’re releasing never-before-heard archival audio, called “Chants of Liberation,”recorded by The Liberators, the original leaders and powerhouse voices of NBT.
Curated and creatively driven by Nabii Faison, these chants will allow community members to listen to seminal text that helped to “Keep The Soul Alive” at NBT for over half a century.
It’s a festive party with free slushies and bubbles to keep us moving to the groove.
How do you defy all odds?
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How do you defy all odds? ⋆
Explore the Archive
Check out all the love and beauty captured in these portraits!
Portraits by Maria j hackett
Date: August 19, 2023
Maria J Hackett is a Brooklyn based artist with work revolving around portraiture, movement and documentary. While heavily focused on her photography and dance throughout NYC, she completed her studies in photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Maria has also worked on a number of photo productions including those not limited to Netflix and New York Times. Currently, she continues working with various publications, dancers and companies such as GALLIM for dance and portrait work.
Portraits by Flordalis Espinal
Date: August 26, 2023
Flordalis Espinal is a photographer from the Bronx, NY. Her work focuses on amplifying the beauty of her hometown’s rawness and culture through her timeless film portraits. Flordalis’ calm approach has allowed her to form genuine connections with her subjects, capturing them in their most authentic state. She is the Founder of Girls Who Shoot, a community organization dedicated to highlighting, educating, and providing spaces for black and brown women in the visual arts world.
Portraits by Ayesha Kazim
Date: September 2, 2023
Ayesha Kazim is a photographer working between New York City, Cape Town, and London. She utilizes analog and digital mediums to capture the intimate, transient moments of everyday life. Her British, Nigerian, and South African background influences her desire to create nuanced portraits that speak to a wide range of audiences and communities. Ayesha’s creative practice balances introspection and curiosity as she photographs subjects exuding resilience, power, and quiet confidence.
DJ LINE UP
cry$cross
Date: August 19, 2023
NYC-based DJ cry$cross’ genre-bending sound bridges the past and present to create a sonic new future. She pulls together nostalgic influence with New York city tempo club and techno to create a contemporary new sound.
Dent
Date: August 19, 2023
Guyanese Dj/Rapper/Producer DENT melds the deepest of cuts with club favorites and just the outright strange. Their sonic exploration of all corners of the diaspora creates utterly unique pairings between genres. Challenging listeners and orchestrating memorable nightlife experiences.
Duneska
Date: August 19, 2023
DUNESKA is a NY native DJ, Artist, Educator, and Curator with African-Dominican ancestry whose range stretches as wide as their curiosity.
Poison Ivy
Date: August 26, 2023
Dj Poison Ivy is a Native of Grenada West Indies started djing at age 14. She has DJ music in some of the hottest clubs in the US. In NYC Stage 48, Ganesvoort, The Plaza hotel, Rainbow Room, Dream Hotel, Taj, the Harbor, the Delancey, Cantina Rooftop, The DL Rooftop, Club Slate. In Miami Club Space and Club Liv. In LA the Abbey. In Washington DC the Rosebar and the Park. In Jamaica the Hedonism II resort. DJ Poison Ivy currently djs for celebrity private events and for the hottest promoters in the LGBTQ night life scene. Her goal is to not to just play music but to create unforgettable party experiences around the world.
Rimarkable
Date: September 2, 2023
With leagues of experience operating across the Detroit and NYC scenes, Rimarkable is known for her unwavering knowledge of where electronic music comes from and where it is going. An AfroLatina who grew up heavily influenced by Black gospel music, her selections as a DJ, producer and broadcaster bring together a wider understanding of funk, jazz, rock, gospel and soul that is unlike any other in the biz... And this Defected Records starlight brings the party every single time.
Check Out Last Year’s
OUR PARTNERS
Uptown Grand Central is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming East 125th Street into a thriving corridor by delivering programs that put advocacy into action through collaborations with businesses, residents and neighborhood organizations across East Harlem. Since 2013, we have brightened hopes for the community via programs that include organizing our small businesses. Efforts include hiring formerly homeless individuals, sponsoring street festivals and promotions including Solstice Soul Train and Party On Park, and so much more.
Turnout NYC is being led by Design Trust for Public Space, a nonprofit organization dedicated to activating and transforming shared public spaces to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable city, and SITU, an architectural practice centered on social and creative impact. Guided by an Advisory Committee of NYC cultural leaders, the venture designs and prototypes flexible and semi-permanent outdoor venues—one in each borough— in collaboration with cultural partners from within each community.
HELP US BUILD OUR FUTURE!
Join us in continuing to invest in a cultural and creative hub for collective healing, radical imagination of Black artists, and fearless creativity! With each gift, NBT can awaken our theory of change and create the space for human transformation.