Event Info
Doors 6:00pm/Show 7:00pm
NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! 2022 are teaming up to host a first-of-its-kind joint showcase! On June 18, the Tiny Desk Contest On The Road Tour culminates with its last concert at Lena Horne Bandshell at Prospect Park!
Inaugural NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner Fantastic Negrito headlines this night of musical discovery. His new album White Jesus Black Problems is a deeply personal excavation of his family history dating back to slavery, which he’ll showcase with accompanying projections. The night will start off with sets by first year contest standout Seratones, 2020 contest winner Linda Diaz, and this year’s Tiny Desk Contest winner Alisa Amador!
*Please Note: Chairs will be available at this show, but you are also permitted to bring your own.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, by now much has been made of Fantastic Negrito’s own unique story—his early years growing up in an orthodox Muslim household, the doomed major label deal that turned him off of the music industry altogether, the near-fatal car cash that permanently damaged his guitar playing hand—as well as the remarkable redemption arc that began in 2015, when he won the first ever NPR Tiny Desk Contest. In the years that followed, Negrito would go on to take home three consecutive GRAMMY Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album; tour with everyone from Sturgill Simpson to Chris Cornell; collaborate in the studio with the likes of Sting and E-40; launch his own Storefront Records label; perform at Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Newport Folk, Bryon Bay Blues, and nearly every other major festival on the map; and found the Revolution Plantation, an urban farm aimed at youth education and empowerment. But the events on White Jesus Black Problems pre-date all of that by more than two centuries, and the story here isn’t so much Negrito’s as it is America’s.
Seratones are known for their powerhouse live shows, most recently performing a number of stellar live shows at SXSW. They have also previously toured with the likes of Charles Bradley, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Black Pumas, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and are set for a number of headline shows and tour dates with Fitz and The Tantrums and St. Paul & The Broken Bones in the coming months. For a taste of their live show, you can watch their recent performances via NPR Music from Nashville’s Live at WNXP’s Sonic Cathedral (watch here) and Philadelphia’s WXPN Free At Noon Concert (watch “Good Day” and “Gotta Get To Know Ya”). Love & Algorhythms follows Seratones’ breakout debut and sophomore records, which found the band performing on CBS Saturday Morning, NPR Music’s Tiny Desk, and more. Now, Seratones dive into the joyful struggle to find pleasure in a world designed to destroy you on Love & Algorhythms, which was produced by Paul Butler at Sonic Ranch Studios in Texas. With this album, Seratones urge you to move joyfully in the moment, and parsing that movement through astrology, Black feminism, and Afrofuturism proved redemptive for Haynes.
Linda Diaz is a singer and songwriter from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Her dreamy R&B music is anchored by her poetic lyricism and gentle yet soulful tone. In 2020, Linda won the NPR Tiny Desk Contest with her original song, “Green Tea Ice Cream.” With over 6,000 submissions from across the country, her entry garnered early recognition from the contest judges, including NPR Tiny Desk Creator Bob Boilen and Grammy Award Winning Artist Brittany Howard. Linda is also a co-host of the PBS musical education series Sound Field. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Hailing from Boston, Mass., Alisa Amador is a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice whose music explores jazz, funk and folk styles, all rooted in the spirit of the Latin music she grew up with. Amador impressed the Tiny Desk Contest judges with her tender performance of “Milonga accidental,” which she calls “an ode to in-between-ness – to having several identities at once, to feeling split between cultures and languages.”
ABOUT NPR MUSIC:
For more than a decade, NPR Music’s robust music journalism had engaged millions of music fans from all genres with feature stories, live performances, cultural analysis and interviews. Projects include the Tiny Desk concert series, the cross-platform Turning Tables project and the programs All Songs Considered, Alt.Latino, Louder Than A Riot and Jazz Night in America. NPR Music collaborates with NPR’s news magazines, public radio member stations and a passionate listener community to celebrate exceptional music and discover emerging artists. Visit NPRMusic.org and connect with NPR Music on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Please note: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Entry is first come first served, but RSVPs help you stay up-to-date on show information. See you at #CelebrateBrooklyn!