Dear Reader
It’s a holiday weekend — Memorial Day in the US — but I’m still popping into your inbox with my daily newsletter. Well, actually, from this week it’ll become a twice-weekly newsletter, out on Mondays and Thursdays.
On Saturday, I took myself off on a rainy run to Times Square and back. While on 5th Avenue, I saw a sign someone had spray-painted onto a boarded wall that said, “We’ll be aight NYC. Patience and Fortitude.” And a list of thank yous. I continued down 5th Avenue and passed the Bryant Park branch of the New York Public Library, where I saw the lions that guard the building, Patience and Fortitude. I also saw a wedding taking place on the front steps. It made me anxious because it was more than 10 mask-less people, and New York is still under a shelter-in-place order. I know people are eager to get back out and about doing things together — believe me, so am I — but as we teeter on the edge of “opening up,” I find myself concerned about that, and how to move back in the world again, when some things have changed but others haven’t. As always, the run teaches: stay calm, breathe, take in what’s happening around you, renew courage — share it with others. To quote lyrics off of Jason Isbell’s new record, Reunions, “it gets easier but it never gets easy.” Patience and fortitude.
Here’s your selection of entertainment options for Monday-Wednesday:
1. It’s Africa Day today! In a special Africa Day event the likes of Burna Boy, Angelique Kidjo, Sho Madjozi, Yemi Alade and Stonebwoy will play the Africa Day Benefit Concert: At Home on the MTV BASE Africa YouTube page at 6pm CAT / 9am PST / 12pm EST. The Roots is also hosting a 24-hour event of DJ sessions, conversations and performances, kicking off with Naomi Campbell, and running until the end of the day in the US, with Questlove (who else?!) on the ones-and-twos. Plus, if you haven’t seen Blitz Bazawule’s wonderful movie The Burial of Kojo, now is the time. It’ll be streaming on Vimeo for free with subtitles in 10 different languages.
2. Jason Mraz, Goo Goo Dolls, Andy Grammer, The Head and the Heart, Caroline Jones, The Revivalists and more acts are set to perform during the Save the Children music festival hosted today on YouTube from 6 pm to 9:30pm EST. Donations raised during the live stream benefit Save the Children, the humanitarian aid organization for children that's delivering life-saving supplies, information and care to families and healthcare workers.
3. A Q&A featuring Terrence Blanchard discussing the documentary film Up From the Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music will begin at 6pm PST / 9:00pm EST on Eventive today. Michael Murphy, the film's producer, and Ben Jaffe, creative director of Preservation Hall, will also be on hand to answer questions.
4. On Tuesday, supper club, Feinstein’s/54 Below, offers a one-night only broadcast of its 2018 group show that spotlights performers who took their first Broadway bows in the season before—including Once on This Island’s Isaac Powell and Hailey Kilgore, Frozen’s Jelani Alladin and The Band’s Visit’s Ari’el Stachel (who won a Tony a month later), plus more. 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EDT / 11:30pm BST (live only).
5. Tuesday’s edition of Stars in the House shifts from the series’s usual theatrical focus to space with its Star Trek Voyager reunion, that includes Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips and Garret Wong. 5pm PST/ 8pm EDT / 1am BST.
See you on Thursday!
Stay safe, stay sane
Your neighbour
Nadia