Where They At February 11, 2010

***Opening Reception on Feb 11 from 6-9pm will feature bounce DJ Lefty Parker and bounce musician Vockah Redu***

The Abrons Arts Center is proud to announce Where They At, an exhibition that portrays the founders, architects, and players in the regional rap known as bounce music, a phenomenon born out of New Orleans housing projects. Mardi Gras Indian chants, brass band beats, and call-and-response routines equally inform bounce music, which almost invariably samples the Showboys’ “Drag Rap” (a.k.a. “Triggerman”). Its lyrical patterns focus on sex, parties, and dancing, and invites — even demands — audience participation by calling out dance steps or prompting replies. Photographs, oral histories, and video footage compiled by Aubrey Edwards and Alison Fensterstock document the passing of seminal beats from New Orleans music traditions to a new generation in the late 1980’s and the creation of this new voice in Southern roots music. Where They At features portraits culled from the larger archive of bounce artists to focus on women and the gay and transgendered men in early New Orleans hip-hop and Sissy bounce, such as Mia X, Magnolia Shorty, Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby. The exhibit draws a line to the present-day diaspora, as Hurricane Katrina has scattered a once tight-knit bounce community whose music only existed at home — a home that has been redefined physically and culturally.

Official Website: http://www.abronsartscenter.org