On Aug. 22th, for one night only, I was blessed to present my debut photo exhibit to about 100 guests. Despite the stress and drama related to organizing this event, it turned out to be more successful than I could ever hope it to be. The love and support I received from all in attendance damn near moved me to tears and resulted in one of the best birthday presents I could ever receive.

I presented about 100 photos via slideshow, of which I chose 25 to physically display on the walls of a beautiful show space called Coolture, in the heart of Manhattan. All the photos were performance shots, taken from some of the countless shows I've covered so far this year. I chose to focus my exhibit on some of the rising stars of this fine city (sprinkled in with some of the more seasoned artists that I love and respect). All of these artists are dope in their various domains (hip hop, soul, rock, art and spoken word, as well as the ones you can't quite fit into a box).

I created a photo album of all the photos from the exhibit; please check it out, especially if you weren't able to be in attendance. The photos featured are of the following:

?uestlove
5FT (Black Moon)
8THW1
Amanda Diva
Brokn English
Chynablak
Common
Conscious
Davina
DJ Getlive
Dwele
Eric Roberson
Estelle
Fly Lady Di
Fresh Daily
Heavy
Hollywood Holt
Homeboy Sandman
J Logic
Janelle Monae
Kesed (Writers Block)
Little Jackie
Lupe Fiasco
Madafi
Manchildblack
Matthew Santos
Mickey Factz
Mint Condition
Nola Darling
P. Casso
Proton
Rahbi
Raheem DeVaughn
Raye 6
RIPMC (Writers Block)
Riz22 (Old Soulz)
Sam the Kid
Stalley
Theophilus London
Wale
Wax Machine
Yung Squad

I'll update this blog later on with all of their MySpace pages so you can check them out for yourself...Trust me, they're dope! All of the photos that were on display are for sale (hit me up for prices if you're interested).

My infinite gratitude goes out to Charles Anthony (for planting the seed for this exhibit many months ago), to Jina/Jintrovert (for holding me down with organizing this event and for sharing in the celebration - go Virgos!), to Cynthia St. Juste for holding down the door, to Martha Banks (for continuing to promote my event from CALIFORNIA! and for the projector and for being there in spirit), to the ladies who helped out with the bar and setting up the space, to DJ Evil Dee and DJ Juice E for providing the music (extra special thanks to Juice E - we never even met until that night!), to Jahream for saving the day with the sound system, to Chris for saving the day with a microphone, to Jessica for saving the day by bringing my photos down while I was stuck at the salon (LOL), to Yasin Abdur, Majesty and D. Cross for providing the entertainment, to Kevin Hunt's mom for the yummy food, to my Unk Yves for being the photographer for the evening, to Fresh Daily, Homeboy Sandman, 8THW1 and P. Casso for coming back to perform after their show at Knitting Factory that night (even though they didn't get to rock, the fact that they even came back a second time meant more to me than anything else), to Shanae for hooking up a dope flyer, to Mashonda and Marc Rashad Jones for hosting the event and getting me a cake, to the ladies who offered me flip-flops when my feet were killing me, to Steaz, The Bloom Effect, SOB's, Sweet Cheeba, GGS Entertainment and Scheme Mag for sponsoring the event, to Kai for driving me from the Bronx to Manhattan so I wouldn't be later than I was already, and to all my guests...Can't wait for the next one!