Success! (Live, From Planet Earth: Brooklyn #002)

The second Live From Planet Earth Brooklyn party was dope! However, like all things, I do think there is room for improvement. Here are some observations on the night.

A brother named Bless came in after hearing the music walking down Utica Ave and asked if he could run back to the crib and grab his keyboard so he could perform. After going home and grabbing his Casio, he blessed the mic with a song he's been working on at home. The performance was a bit rough around the edges but that's what the event is all about to me and him coming through was a refreshing manifestation of that intention.

The thing with our community is that we are a diverse people. And when you set out doing anything with the intention of bringing those diverse people together, it is going to be a challenge. You run the risk of being too Kum-Ba-Yah and alienting people who think that's corny, as well as being too "real" and alienating people who think that's unhealthy (Dave Chappelle has taught us that keeping it real can and does go wrong sometimes). The ideal, as with most things in life, is balance. And I think that's what we have to continue to aim for, above ANYTHING else. Hopefully, we can expand and attract more and more artistic people and people from the community who just want to have a good time.

Aaron Mingo came all the way from Philly and ripped his set. I've heard dude on Myspace but hearing his tracks live was crazy. Often times I hear music that is intended to make you feel good but often is just not good quality music. Aaron was in there merging the lines between classic hip hop and gospel and doing it in a way that was magnificent. KRS-One's Spiritual Minded album got nothing on Aaron.

Junauda killed em with some CRAZY delicious cookies. Electric Lady and Renee came through with some delicious tuna and veggie wraps. The popcorn was flowing again. BYOB was the policy this time around also, since The Stratosphere was denied a one day liquor permit. Whomp whomp. Call the NYPD and tell them we're a safe space! Eder Muniz (can someone tell me his website?) and Valerie Caesar's arwork had the space looking incredible with their respective visual art on the walls. Support them! Don Brodie and Danielle Scruggs have some photos from the event up on the Liberator flickr page at www.flickr.com/liberator. Ron Brodie and Tius Blak will both hopefully have some video of the event up soon as well, as both of them were roaming all night with their DV cams.

Tius Blak from The Blak Experiment, Messiah and Masauko all dropped respective jewels. Tius Blak kicking his set in Public Service Announcement style over a low volume soulful track. Messiah dropping the song of the night in my opinion, In The AM. The joint sent chills down my spine. And Masauko had the crowd chanting in unison and was accompanied by a sister performing interpretive dance to several of his songs.

After Masauko performed, DJ Don Cuco rocked the crowd for a dope set filled with latin funk, soul disco, and of course some Michael Jackson that got folks moving.

But after Don Cuco ripped it, the night turned a little awkward.

Let me provide some context: A sister named Meka (aka The Diva) asked to perform a dance to Aaliyah's More Than A Woman early in the night. The dance was cool, especially because the space was warming up still and people were still arriving. It was early in the night.

Now, later in the night there was a long interlude (a little too long) after DJ Don Cuco's set where attendees were invited up to share their talents with the crowd. I think this is a great element because it brings people closer and lets people market their talents and skills to an audience of people who are likely to want to connect with each other outside of the party.

BUT, taking a 30 minute interlude is a bad idea I think. Especially after people have just gotten into the dance mood. Instead, I think we should invite one person up after each performance. Spreading that out will prevent a big gap of time being spent on this and will enable us to avoid bringing the mood of the party down, right when it's getting nice.

After the long interlude, Meka came back on stage and danced again, this time to TLC's Diggin' On You. The crowd, especially some folks who had kids with them, looked very uncomfortable during her performance, due to its sexual nature.

In the future, I think we might consider not having dance be a part of the performance schedule. We should also save spontaneous musical performances for the beginning of the night and later in the night, rather than having them close together with the performers. Once the DJ starts the afterparty, we should do as little as possible to mess with the vibe the DJ is creating. Drawing out an agenda before the party is something we should be more intentional about as well. At the first party we were much better about that.

There were bright spots even during the awkward part of the night, when Nicholas Ryan Gant and Indigo both stepped onto the stage and dropped a song each. Indigo ripped an a'capella rhyme and Nicholas Ryan Gant performed a few songs off of his EP, Border Breaker.

The only other downside to the night was that the party ended early at around 1:45am instead of going until the planned ending of 3am. I definitely think if we want to keep folks coming out we're going to need to go to 3am. I think part of what makes it worthwhile for people to come out on a Saturday night is the fact that they know they are going to be able to have a space to dance and get their groove on later in the night. The free party is just as much of a draw as the free performances. In fact for some people, the free party is all they want to participate in, so we don't want to lose those folks.

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