Brooklyn Arts Council will open the summer season of the yearlong initiative, Black Brooklyn Renaissance, with the Black Brooklyn Drum Call, a FREE event on Saturday, June 5, 2010 from 2 to 5:30pm.  The drum call will be a gathering of Brooklyn musicians practicing the art of drumming from many African, Afro-Caribbean, African American and Hispanic diasporic communities including Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The artists will take over Grand Army Plaza, performing and uniting ten distinct styles of drumming, demonstrating the role drums have played in the history of various cultures as well as the complexity of African drumming practiced in the borough.

The drum call will have drumming demos and drum-making workshops followed by a symposium on the history of African drumming in Brooklyn moderated by Neil Clarke who has played with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Miriam Mekeba. 

Typically a means of announcement or a call to action in many African cultures, this Drum Call signifies the commencement of a summer series of Brooklyn festivals celebrating African diaspora, such as the West Indian American Labor Day Carnival. 

This free event is intended to be an interactive community event so they are encouraging the public to bring their drums and have a good time!

For more information on the Brooklyn Arts council, the Black Brooklyn Drum Call or to see the full summer calendar for Black Brooklyn Renaissance, please click here.

People seem to be obsessed with zombies these days.  There are some that say that the zombies are going to rise up and slowly take over the world.  People have actually written survival guides on how to survive a zombie attack, created social media groups about the zombies coming and even joined gyms that have zombie survival boot camp.  A while back I even did a post about a Zombie Lurch in Austin, Texas.  I think that we can all agree that the best way to survive a Zombie take over is by taking a look back at the history of zombie Attacks via zombie movies of the past!

BAM is celebrating the release of horror maestro George A. Romero’s newest zombie gore-fest, Survival of the Dead, with a mini-retrospective weekend of his creepiest work this Saturday. You could win a pair of tickets and dinner for 2 and a special invitation to the Q/A afterwards with George Romero!

Here are the rules:

Encore will be showing a new Romero clip every day throughout the week and posting a trivia question on our twitter and Facebook sites. By answering as many questions correctly, Encore Insiders can win a pair of tickets and dinner for 2. You must sign up to be an Encore Insider to participate. There’s no cost to signing up or participating in the contest. Sign up to be an Encore insider here.

Here is the link to the first video: http://encoremag.com/media

The first question that you must answer is: The first to die is  ‘Johnny’ or his girlfriend?

Please send all answers for this contest to promo@encoremag.com

Sign up to be an Encore insider and be sure to check Encore’s Twitter and Facebook for the next video and triva question! Good luck! Hopefully the zombies won’t come before the event!

Encore’s March issue featured the indie rock band The Vivian Girls styled in American Appearl, Brooklyn Industries and Hayden-Harnett!  The shoot was done at Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn, New York and fun was had by all.

The girls looked amazing in the clothes, especially in Hayden-Harnett.  We are thrilled that HH feels the same!  The Brooklyn-based clothng company was happy that their clothes were on The Vivian Girls and in the mag.  Check out what they said!

Thanks for the shout-out Hayden-Harnett!  You are our new best friend, text us every five minutes!