Gallery of Delights

curatorial

Harlem Artists Salon

In 1999, I founded, in my garden-level West 132nd Street apartment, The Harlem Artists Salon. Self-curated, hosted and financed, the gatherings provided a forum for emerging and established artists and scholars to showcase their interests and talent in a supportive salon-like environment.

Selected Events

Crave Radiance Poet Elizabeth Alexander Literary Salon

South African Filmmaker Rehad Desai and Guests

An Evening with Jazz Pianist Yayoi Ikawa

Poet Trapeta Mayson’s Mazeya: Mobile African Boutique

M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A   Poet A.Van Jordan Book Party & Reception

The Maverick Room Poet Thomas Sayers Ellis Book Party & Reception

American Sublime   Poet Elizabeth Alexander  Reading & Reception

Pianist, Singer Dr. Nina Simone Annual Birthday Tribute (1999-present)

Harlem Artists Salon Annual Fall Premiere (1999-present)

What Yellow Sounds Like  Poet Linda Susan Jackson Book Party & Reception

“Eyes Hear Smells: The Art of Chiapanecan painter Enrique Diaz”   Solo Exhibit

Violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain

Nina Simone is my muse. She was my muse during her lifetime.

2pm

57 East 57th Street

I bet you a sumo wrestler’s siesta,

someone got her second-order right:

Armand de Brignac Blanc de Blancs, 

de-stemmed strawberries,

honey dew,

kale & mustard greens,

champignon soup,

basmati rice,

Vertamae Grosvenor’s fried chicken.

Suite Talk—

I’m ready, light my cigarette.       

Cayenne & honey in the Darjeeling, please.

They told Bobby Womack he wasn’t

‘commercial, commercial, commercial,

no you’re not commercial.’

 

My set-lists are mine & not set—

to hell with commercial.

 

Excerpt from 2 June 2001: Before What Happened, Miss Simone?