Join HONK NYC!, Mambembé and Criss-Cross for very special celebration of music, community and culture in East Harlem! Throughout the evening, Uptown Grand Central plaza will come alive with family activities and music concerts perfect for the whole family.
4:30pm: Family fun activities kick off in the plaza, so arrive early to help prepare for the parade! Activities include a Crafts Table where everyone can create paper plate maracas, paper marching hats, and create wishes for the Wishing Well; a Photo Booth; and the building of the parade float. Crafts continue in the plaza throughout the program.
5:00pm: Performance by Criss-Cross, an ensemble of various sonic, aesthetic, and lived experiences by artists Elijah J. Thomas, Frank London, Kenny Wollesen, and Skyler Hagner. Named after the tune by the trailblazing Thelonious Monk, so expect the unexpected.
5:45pm: Performance by Mambembé, a group that utilizes drums and the beats of samba reggae to value, preserve and expand Afro-Brazilian Percussive music. The group is based in NYC, but includes members from all over the world.
6:00pm: NYC’s street spectacle HONK Family Band leads the “Grandscale Mural Project Art March,” parading through the streets of East Harlem and stopping at murals along the way to meet and hear from some of the artists.
6:30pm: The parade returns to UGC plaza for a rousing finale!
HONK NYC! brings the tradition of global street band music & spectacle to audiences everywhere — in parks, at clubs, in schools, and especially out in the streets. HONK NYC! makes events that reclaim, reuse, and redefine public space. We connect communities through music-making, pageantry, audience participation, and education. We celebrate the power and vitality of street performance, and support the artists and musicians who preserve and transform these global traditions.
Mambembé, a group that uses the drums and the beat of samba reggae, intends to value, preserve and expand Afro-Brazilian Percussive music. It is based in NYC, but with members from all over the world. The group also celebrates the multicultural makeup of this city, in which each member feels the music in their own way. Our intention is to delight people and spread positivity with our beats and dances. Presented in partnership with Belongó (formerly Afro Latin Jazz Alliance)
Criss-Cross: "An ensemble of various sonic, aesthetic, and lived experiences all intersecting at different points and different degrees in time, initially formed by artists Elijah J. Thomas, Frank London, Kenny Wollesen, and Skyler Hagner. Such convergence of various experiences breeds the unexpected and the familiar, the known and yet unheard, in the tradition of forerunner musician Thelonious Monk and his very own tune after which the ensemble is named!"
Uptown Grand Central is a 501c3 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.