#Newsflash | Huge, Multi-Genre Show Kicks Off Queens Rising on Saturday
BY QEDC It's In Queens
First up is the fantastic kick-off. Then, things just get more and more fantastic!
The Queens Rising Opening Show will fill Queens Night Market with music, color, costumes, rhythm, and dance on Saturday, June 4, starting at around 5 pm. (It’s free and registration is not required.)
The wildly popular, all-women Brazilian Samba Reggae drum line band Fogo Azul highlights the program. Expect these fun-loving musicians to snake around the market, bringing the beats to food vendors and shaking it with the people waiting on lines.
They’re in good company. Here’s the evening’s lineup.
5 pm, DJ Greg Kaz, who mixes every genre but has an affinity for Brazilian sounds;
6:30 pm, Gamelan Yowana Sari, a performing Balinese art ensemble in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College;
7:15 pm, Welcoming remarks by Queens Rising organizers and QNM officials;
7:30 pm, Dance with Na Pua Mai Ka Lani Nuioka, a Forest Hills group that practices traditional and modern hula, and Springfield Gardens-based FANIKE! African Dance Troupe;
8 pm, La Flor De Lis, a Jackson Heights band whose repertoire is based on cumbias, valses, boleros, and son;
8:45 pm, More from Na Pua Mai Ka Lani Nuioka and FANIKE! African Dance Troupe;
9:15 pm, Fogo Azul; and
10 pm, DJ Rekha, who helped bring Bhangra music to North America via Basement Bhangra, one of NYC’s longest-running club nights (1997-2017).
And at all times, several dozen vendors will sell everything from Peruvian Ceviche to Jamaican Jerk Chicken to Cambodian Fish Amok.
Wow. This sounds like a wonderful time. What’s the occasion?
Queens Rising is a multi-disciplinary arts celebration that will highlight the borough’s culture and creative diversity for the entire month of June. With Northwell Health as the lead sponsor, organizers have partnered with arts organizations, multi-purpose venues, and galleries. Participants will simply do their things – i.e. art, dance, film, music, photography — to highlight the borough’s uniqueness and celebrate its resiliency.
“We were at the epicenter of COVID and came through it with the help of our community more resilient than ever,” stated Lorraine Chambers Lewis, PA, Executive Director of Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, part of Northwell Health. “That’s why we’re so thrilled to be part of Queens Rising NYC to celebrate the rich tapestry of arts, culinary, and creative communities that make our borough so unique.”
Click here for more information or click here to learn about QNM, which operates behind the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Julia del Palacio, a member of Queens Rising’s Planning Committee who is also Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development at Queens College’s Kupferberg Center for the Arts, added: “The Queens Night Market draws thousands of people from all over Queens and the metro area, and we hope by showing them with a wonderful roster of Queens talent tonight [June 4], we can pique their interest in our borough’s other phenomenal cultural venues, events and artists.”
Top image: Michael Appleton, NYC Mayor Office; bottom image: Rob MacKay