One by one, the artists arrived at the podium in the bright corner of the brewery to receive their plaques. There were handshakes, there was applause, there were sheepish smiles and gestures of tha…
The elevator pitch might make an entertainment executive blanch. Singers dressed like zombies in the middle of a park in a residential neighborhood? Performing opera? With sets and costumes designe…
Mussab Ali, we learned, used to play the flute. As a student in the Jersey City schools, he told us, his musical education taught him self-confidence. Christina Freeman sang in the youth choir of h…
If you’re approaching Mana Contemporary (888 Newark Ave.) from the west, it’s impossible to miss. A long concrete wall on the north side of the street has come alive with fresh color. It’s a new mu…
No matter where you live in Jersey City, Meredith Burns will be on your ballot in November. Members of the Jersey City arts community can be forgiven a moment of cognitive dissonance. We are unaccu…
Everybody knows what happens in Romeo & Juliet. Most people are aware of the broad outlines of Macbeth, too. The gist of The Taming of the Shrew is right there in the title. Hamlet is a d…
So our inaugural poet laureate wants to rock, huh? Rashad Wright certainly has the presence to front a band. His verses crackle with cadences familiar from American popular music: hip-hop and conte…
Tranquil it wasn’t. Justin Garcia found a cluster of notes on his fretboard, and bassist Brendan Daily answered with a tense passage of his own. Drummer Ray Carega matched the bottom-string growl o…
The founder was feisty. A fight was coming, John Gomez told the crowd gathered at Barrow Mansion (83 Wayne St.) on Thursday night, and he wanted to ensure that preservationists were properly girded…
The Jersey City Poet Laureate position, her predecessors told her, could be whatever she wanted to make of it. This is what Melida Rodas has made of it: a three-day event devoted to writing, spoken…
Like many recurring Jersey City events, the Hudson West Music Fest (September 13, 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.) was born out of necessity. Frustrated with the lack of opportunities for folk mu…
A good case could be made that Eddie Palmieri is the single most influential piano player in the world. Echoes of his frisky, percussive style are audible in house and club music, hip-hop, rock en …
The Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund may be better known. But Hudson County also gives out awards to select cultural institutions — and their grant-giving season is officially open. The Coun…
James Solomon has often spoken enthusiastically about the pleasures and benefits of life in a creative city. But as his seven-point program for the arts in Jersey City shows, he thinks we’ve got a …
It was an unexpectedly fiery speech. At her first address to local arts leaders as the steward of the Jersey City Art and Studio Tour, Atim Annette Oton, director of the The Creative Side, br…
WFMU doesn’t usually intervene in contemporary political debates. Many dedicated listeners don’t even realize that the legendary free-form radio station broadcasts from Downtown Jersey City. So whe…
The Jersey City Theater Center is best known for its audacious shows, but it’s also been a great place to discover new music. During its time in the wide commercial building near the pedestrian pla…
In the United States, every month is Black Music Month. (Or it ought to be, anyway.) But June is the time when we formally recognize African American contributions to the ongoing story of popular s…
A woman sat on a long bench. Instead of a dress, she wore a long purple tube of fabric that stretched from her ankles to the top of her head. She kept her arms tucked inside the sheath and her head…
At six o’clock, dark clouds gathered in the west. The air was heavy and sticky. Thunder over Jersey City was audible. It looked as if the second JC Fridays event of 2025 was about to be doused. But…