FRANKIE BEVERLY, BOXER SHANNON BRIGGS & MY FAVORITE NIGHTCLUB
A poem, a plea for help and a night club memory
In the wake of Frankie Beverly’s death two videos surfaced that deeply touched me. One was of the Maze lead singer talking with Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers backstage after a show. The mutual respect and love between these two old soul men was genuine, an acknowledgement that they were part of a long line of performers who’d played the same stages and traveled the same roads. The other video was of a Patti LaBelle performance that Beverly attended. The diva asked Beverly to come down to the stage and they shared a moment. Much like the backstage moment with Isley, it was an testament to the shared experience of working in a world, and championing a soul aesthetic, that is dwindling away. It was love. It was melancholy. So I wrote a piece about Beverly and its lineage he and his peers represent.
DEATH OF THE WIZARDS
My old friend documentary director and film instructor Samson Styles told me that ex-heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs was trying to open a boxing gym in Brownsville and I had to come by. All three of us are from this tough, poverty stricken area of Brooklyn, a place notorious for crime and celebrated for boxers. Shannon gave me a tour of the possible locationa and then we recorded this piece with more details about Shannon’s dream. He’s got a GoFundMe page for the Brownsville Boxing Academy and if you’re interested in supporting this effort, please do.
I’ve been doing these short Follow the Sound posts since July and this memory of Nell’s on 14th Street near Eighth Avenue has been one the most popular. During its nearly twenty year run it was the favorite nightspot of Prince, Mike Tyson, Andy Warhol and more supermodels than could fit on the cover of Vogue. It was absolutely my favorite night spot ever. The video shares more details of why Nell’s was so special for so many people.