If today I were presented with two young kittens I would name them Aperçu and Silhouette -- for which they surely would punish me for all their days . . . .
. . . . Yesterday's late afternoon, evening and night were perfect June light and weather.
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| Toshi Reagon |
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| Reagon's band, Big Lovely - Central Park Summer Stage June 3, 2017 |
We were at Central Park for the reception prior to the opening show for the annual Summer Stage program. The sky didn't go completely dark in the west until about 9 PM. The June-leafed out trees of the park were silhouetted against the brilliant sunset colors.
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| Mavis Staples took us there! |
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| The one and only Nona Hendryx! Singer, songwriter, actress, LBGT activist. |
The music was provided by two kickass women and their big bands -- Toshi Reagon and Mavis Staples. Among the great performers who got up to join Mavis and Toshi in the Big Bands' grand finale, was the splendid Nona Hendryx! We were right up there front and center for it.
The audience was New Yorkers almost all, as Summer Stage is too localized a system to attract that many tourists. As with everything here these days there were many moments during which the audience registered its dislike for the current policies emitted in D.C. that concern the city and her residents. Recall who these women are: Mavis as she gleefully pointed out, was with Dr. King at Selma and -- I am still here! Toshi's mother is Bernice Johnson Reagon, song leader, composer, scholar, and social activist, who was a founding member of the SNCC Freedom Singers in the Albany Movement (Albany, Georgia, desegregation 1961 - 1962).
Yah, one of those nights that again tell us are why we are all in this city and why we love it -- and why those others hate us and it.
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