OF NOTE- People In The News: Friday, January 10

January 10, 2020 Editorial Staff

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This Sunday, roughly 2,000 bare legged bon vivants are expected to take part in the 19th annual No Pants Subway Ride. The event was started in 2001 by a group of seven friends as part of Improv Everywhere, a New York City-based comedy collective that stages unexpected performances in public spaces. Now stripped-down straphangers in at least 19 cities worldwide take part in the No Pants Subway Ride each year, in what Improv Everywhere founder CHARLIE TODD calls a “celebration of silliness.” This year’s participants will meet at Foley Square in Manhattan at 3 p.m. and make their way, pants-free, to Union Square, where an after party will be held at Bar 13.

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***Crown Heights-raised musician Taja Cheek, aka L’Rain. Photo via thecreativeindependent.com***

A long-running New York City jazz festival is expanding into Brooklyn next weekend. The Winter Jazz Fest, founded in 2004 by jazz aficionado and Fort Greene resident BRICE ROSENBLOOM, will host live music performances Jan. 17 at several venues in Williamsburg and Bushwick. Leading up to the musical festival, organizers will host marathons in Manhattan Jan. 10 and 11 and panel discussions with artists on the social issues affecting the city’s jazz community. Plenty of Brooklyn-based musical talent, including popular jazz five-piece Phony Ppl and Crown Heights-raised experimental artist L’Rain (aka TAJA CHEEK), will take part on Brooklyn stages. The Winter Jazz Fest is Jan. 17 from 6 pm to 1 am. For tickets and info, visit winterjazzfest.com.

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ANNA “ACE” ACEVEDO, a senior softball pitcher at Fontbonne Hall Academy in Bay Ridge, just committed to Pace University, where she’ll attend on an athletic scholarship at the Westchester campus in Pleasantville. A number of schools attempted to recruit the star player, but Acevedo says she fell in love with Pace’s campus, academic offerings and athletics program. “This is a dream come true for me,” Acevedo told the Brooklyn Reporter. Fontbonne Head Coach FRANK MARINELLO called the four-year Varsity player who averaged eight to 10 strikeouts per game “one of the best in the league,” adding, “She worked hard at her craft and really deserves this.”

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The Trump administration may have put the initiative to replace Andrew Jackson on $20 bills with Harriet Tubman on hold until after the president leaves office, but one Brooklyn-based artist is taking matters into her own hands. DENA COOPER, a Bay Ridge-based illustrator, has started marking hundreds of $20 bills with a stamp of Tubman, the famous abolitionist who helped approximately 70 enslaved people escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. “Andrew Jackson really wasn’t a great president,” Cooper told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Why do we have a man like that glorified on our currency when this woman was a spy in the Civil War for the Union?” According to the artist, roughly 350 bills bearing Tubman’s face are currently in circulation.

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***BAM Archivist Louie Fleck. Photo via Twitter***

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, the oldest performing arts center in the United States, is now offering a special behind-the-scenes tour of the institution’s extensive archives. Led by BAM’s archive manager LOUIE FLECK, the once-monthly tours will take visitors through the former Studebaker building, where they’ll learn about the social history of Brooklyn, the history of performing arts in the United States and the stories of the people and communities that made BAM what it is today, from the institution’s founding in 1861 to present day. For more info, visit bam.org.

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***Brooklyn Bleu Vintage owner Tenisha Light-Caba. Photo via hellobeautiful.com***

A Brooklyn-based fashionista is bringing vintage looks straight from the runways of the 1990s to the streets of New York. TENISHA LIGHT-CABA has built a collection of iconic pieces and accessories, including those worn by the likes of Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Elle McPherson, and established a business that reflects her passion for fashion, Brooklyn Bleu Vintage. “I started by collecting in Brooklyn and going to all these antique shops,” Caba told ESSENCE magazine. “About 10 years ago on every other block, you would have all these incredible people of color with antique businesses.” Now CABA is keeping that tradition alive beyond her flagship Brooklyn shop with a personalized stylist service and ecommerce business.