The staple NYC summer block party is typically a low-key community affair, populated with the faces you see every day at your corner bodega, in the halls of your apartment building, and on the subway platform.
But last Saturday, two cultural forerunners held huge block parties with bigger ambitions: to not only celebrate the Latin communities of uptown with those who actually live there, but to also draw the creative crowd associated with downtown and Brooklyn scenes into upper Manhattan.
The events – one held in Washington Heights and the other in Spanish Harlem – were completely unrelated, yet they had many parallels. For starters, the men behind them share a name: José Morales, a weird but somehow fitting coincidence. After all, both men are proprietors of venues that are changing the landscape of the nightlife and creative culture in their respective communities: Washington Heights’ Apt 78 and Santurce’s La Respuesta. Both block parties also shared a Caribbean undercurrent, shaped in some form by the two islands – the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico – that have made the biggest impact on the northern tip of our island of Manhattan. Finally, both parties managed to lure crowds uptown who rarely hang out above 14th St. – no small feat, considering last weekend’s more established competing events, like Afropunk.
I was among the BK-dwellers who headed uptown to check out what felt like a watershed moment for the alternative cultural movement that has been bourgeoning there. Fortified with a few energy drinks (and later nutcrackers), my afternoon of curiosity turned into eleven consecutive hours of partying – and I left more convinced than ever that something special, raw and, frankly, sabroso is happening in Upper Manhattan. Don’t sleep on it.
Apt 78 has spent the last three years carving out a niche for itself as the middle ground between the swanky bottle service-only lounges and dingy dive bars that dominate the Heights. With an official capacity of just 107, the space makes you feel like you’re at a house party, and its laid back vibe, combined with the roster of hip-hop heavyweight DJs that regularly come through, quickly made it a hub for Upper Manhattan’s creative community.
It was this past spring, however, that Apt 78 really began to make waves outside of Washington Heights, based on the runaway success of its Brunch Bounce parties. A monthly event that began around March, Brunch Bounce spread like wildfire through social media – the instagram hashtag #BrunchBounce brings up over 4,000 posts – and it wasn’t long before crowds of attractive, United Colors of Benneton-esque folks were lining up out the door from noon till 10pm. Soon, the party outgrew Apt 78’s limited capacity, migrating first to La Marina, and now gearing up to travel to Miami for a guest stint at The Clevelander.
Building on this momentum, Apt 78’s owner José Morales teamed up with Tony Peralta of the Peralta Project to put together last Saturday’s Block Party, which was the culmination of Apt 78’s third annual Summer Series.
The event was a first for the neighborhood, drawing nearly 1500 party-goers who enjoyed a mix of local vendors and talent – like Dyckman Beer Company, Bodega Bamz, Audubon and Juan Bago – alongside rising stars like Brooklyn-based singer Jarina de Marco. These emerging performers were bolstered by headliner and hip-hop icon Q Tip, who, in a nod to the multicultural vibe, hit the stage to the tune of Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón’s La Murga de Panama and even busted out a few salsa moves before he got on the decks.
In many ways the event’s line-up, which Peralta called “the recipe that has made Apt 78 work,” perfectly encapsulated the ambiance that makes the nightlife scene in WaHi so appealing. It managed to merge authentic cultural staples – like the OGs playing dominoes and eating piraguas – with some of the most innovative talents in the Dominican community, striking the perfect balance between the gritty feel of a bygone NYC and the new NYC Latin youth culture. To wit, the party-goers spanned the gamut: families with young children, doñas surveying the scene from their balconies, guys in fitteds rolling blunts (several pleas were issued from the stage to take the weed to the park across the street), and mobs of cool kids snapping photos non-stop on their fancy DSLRs (prompting Remezcla’s Francisco Outon to observe that “Dominicanos son los Japoneses del caribe”).
Also in attendance was a who’s who of NYC-based Dominican artists and tastemakers. DJ Venus X, who has made a name for herself downtown through her Ghe20 G0th1k parties (awarded Village Voice’s Best Dance Night of 2011), grew up two blocks away from the block party’s Dongan Pl. location. After hearing about the event through instagram – a testament to Apt 78’s social media draw – she came through to support the community and Peralta: “He’s like the Godfather of the Dominican creative community right now.”
Speaking about the changes that Apt 78 has been spearheading uptown, she said:
“I’m very excited to see what creativity is birthed from the new businesses that are cropping up here and creating platforms for people to throw parties, to DJ, to sing, and perform. We’re unlocking the doors for people who have never been – at least not by our families and our surrounding community – encouraged to do arts. Nobody in my family has pursued arts professionally, and that’s typical of the average Dominican. We do things that make money and we pay the bills [because] we haven’t had the luxury of being leisure artists. And so now, this is a time when you see a lot of people embracing basically a punk kind of culture – making t-shirts, making hats, making buttons, making all kinds of shit and just selling it to get by because we don’t want to function in the 9-5 anymore. The purpose of human life is not to be a corporate slave! So yeah, I’m excited for the next 10, 15 years [uptown]. I think the seeds now are planted and the trees are gonna grow.”
Actress Laura Gomez, who has recently gained attention for her scene-stealing role as Blanca Flores on Netflix hit Orange is the New Black, spoke about the sense of community and support amongst artists of the Dominican diaspora. “I am connected to A LOT of Dominican artists here in New York – not only actors but photographers, writers, etc. The island connects us somehow. Even if we met in New York, most of the time it’s because someone from Santo Domingo connected us. Like, I know [block party host] Juan Bago. I don’t know how I know him, but we know each other. And it’s because of environments like this. I know Jarina de Marco because my friend from Santo Domingo, Pablo Lozano, directed one of her music videos. So there’s always a connection.”
It wasn’t just Dominican artists who turned up to support. I spotted several familiar faces from the Latin creative community, including people I know primarily live/work/play in Brooklyn. Everybody came through to see Uptown do it big. And despite 150 complaints made to the cops, the fact that the bodega on the corner sold out basically its entire beer stock, and the occasional cloud of bud smoke floating by, the party remained incident-free. Not even a single stop and frisk! (that I heard of, at least). Incidentally, props to Q-Tip for shouting “No more Stop & Frisk!” into the mic during the festivities – a moment which was only topped by his performance of Tribe classic “Bonita Applebum,” to close out the party.
After seeing that performance, I thought nothing else in my day would top it. But that’s because I hadn’t yet arrived at the second block party of my epic Saturday, La Respuesta’s closing party for the week-long international urban arts festival Los Muros Hablan. The night was just beginning…
