Known for his musical artistry and LGBT affirming lyrics, award winning Caribbean soul artist Nhojj will kick off the festivities at a special “Out and Proud” Target First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum on January 7, 2012.  Seating is limited, and people are advised to arrive 30 minutes early for Nhojj’s 5 p.m. show.

Thousands of visitors enjoy free programs of art and entertainment each month from 5 to 11 p.m. at Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturdays.

Along with Nhojj other featured performers, artists, and writers will include drag queen Peppermint,  OMA winner Ariel Aparicio,  artist Lyle Ashton Harris, folk rock singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick, Hide/Seek curator Jonathan Katz, DJ Tikka Masala, author Charles Rice-Gonzalez, and Experimental punk band Three Teens Kill Four.

The Nhojj “Out and Proud” performance coincides with HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the first major museum exhibition to explore how gender and sexual identity have shaped the creation of American portraiture.  The special exhibition will be on display at the museum through February 12, 2012.  During his performance, Nhojj will perform his latest singles ”Adam & Steve” and “He & Him.”

“I’m really excited about being apart of this historic Brooklyn Museum Out & Proud First Saturday, we’ve got excellent musicians, a great set, and a few surprises… I can’t wait to share it”

“I’m really excited about being apart of this historic Brooklyn Museum Out & Proud First Saturday, we’ve got excellent musicians, a great set, and a few surprises… I can’t wait to share it” Nhojj explains. His band will include John Legend drummer – Swiss Chris, Keith Sweat keyboardist John F Adams, Clark Dark on Bass, and longtime guitarist Marcelo Cardozo. 3 background singers will complete Nhojj’s band for the show.

Nhojj made OUTMusic Awards history in 2009 when his ballad “Love” was voted Outstanding R&B/Soul Song of the Year by the Alliance of LGBT Recording Artists & Performers.  It marked the first time an African American male had won an OMA.  In 2010 Nhojj broke yet another barrier when his “Love” music video climbed to the #1 position on MTV Music – the first time a gay music video topped the mainstream MTV Music chart.

Son of a church minister, Nhojj grew up in Guyana.  When he was 5 he began singing in his father’s church with his older sister accompanying him on piano.  In an effort to share God’s unconditional love for all, last Easter Nhojj released the groundbreaking Marriage Equality “Amazing Grace.” It portrays a male inter-racial couple exchanging wedding vows and living in a committed loving relationship.

Both “Love” and “Amazing Grace” music videos have been selected for screening at the 1^st Annual Out in the Desert International LGBT Film Festival to be held in February, 2012 in Tucson, Arizona.

“I’m so proud of Brooklyn Museum for honoring these artists and acknowledging the importance their work.  Art whatever form it takes is speaks to who we are and we all affect and influence this world.”

I’m excited about kicking off the evening with a 50 minute set of your favorites and some surprises. So if you are in NYC, come on over and enjoy some live music. I go on at 5 pm – seating is limited, so get there early. I’ve rounded up a super band:

Marcelo Cardozo – Guitar
John F. Adams – Keys (played with Keith Sweat)
Clark Dark – Bass
Swiss Chris – Drums (played with John Legend)

Ishmael Jeffers, Cameron Bernard Jones, David Williams – Background Vocals

Come the Brooklyn Museum on January 7 at 4:30 pm and bring your friends… Its FREE and I intend to be fabulous:)

I was going through my youtube videos and came across this one, its one of my favorites – one of those magical performances when everything aligns just right. Watch and enjoy…

Remember how we used to touch…
Remember how we used to kiss…
Before we fell this far apart…

BEAR ALL: Four Sensuous Men Singing Steamy Sweaty Songs!

featuring
Dylan Rice, Tim’m West, Nhojj, and host Scott Free
@
Touché 6412 N Clark St. Chicago IL 60660
Saturday, Oct 22nd
10pm

Four singer/songwriters from the Bear community join forces for a fascinating evening of acoustic entertainment. From Dylan Rice’s passionate, folk-rock to Tim’m West’s profound rap stylings to Scott Free’s touching songs of gay life to Nhojj’s soulful anthems, there will be a wealth of musical talents on stage at Touché October 22nd.

Come here four of our best queer musicians Bear All!

This performance is in loving memory of Blair, who performed at the previous Bear All concert, and died in the summer of 2011. He will be greatly missed.

DYLAN RICE

There are few singers in today’s multitudes of rock acts with a voice as distinctive, layered, and emotionally exposed as Dylan Rice. In late-90′s Chicago, Dylan quickly emerged as a passionate live performer with a knack for writing memorable hooks combined with smart, character-driven storytelling. But it was the release of his debut “Wandering Eyes”—a playful homage to the world of scorned lovers—that really put him on the indie rock map. The CD captured critical praise in local and national media, making The Advocate’s “Top 10 Indie CD’s” list and winning an Outmusic Award for “Best Debut Recording.” Dylan eventually caught the attention of Columbia Records, which chose his song “The Lie” for the “Music With A Twist: Revolutions” (2007) compilation.

Riding on the creative momentum of “Wandering Eyes,” Dylan has teamed up again with producer Blaise Barton (Bob Dylan, Liz Phair) for the follow-up CD, “Electric Grids & Concrete Towers,” which traverses a range of literal and emotional landscapes. Some are real, some fantastic, but all are rife with sexual and religious tension. “Electric Grids” will secure Dylan’s reputation in the rock world as one of its most promising and illuminating singer-songwriters, and will turn plenty of heads. Let the buzz begin.
http://www.dylanrice.com

TIM’M WEST

Black, gay-identified, feminist, POZ, and working class, Tim’m T. West has embraced all of who he is and, with laser-beam precision, harnessed the power of his truth to illuminate, celebrate, inspire, provoke, and bear witness. Indeed, that Tim’m has been interviewed by such dizzying array of media outlets from Newsweek to the New York Times is a testament to his importance to the spirit and history of the times as a foundational maverick among black, multi-disciplinary artists.

Creatively, it was in 1999 while still juggling arts and graduate studies at Stanford that Tim’m co-founded the now disbanded, critically acclaimed rap group DDC. Widely published and anthologized in both academia and the mainstream press, Tim’m occupies a unique position among the provocative voices and critics of the contemporary Hip-Hop landscape. He is featured prominently as one of the critical voices in the acclaimed 2005 Hip Hop documentary, “Pick Up the Mic”. Tim’m has a vast history in HIV/AIDS Advocacy and Community Mobilization, with his work over multiple years with NAPWA’s Positive Youth Institute, and his graduation as a distinguished Fellow of Black AIDS Institute’s African-American HIV University’s Community Mobilization College.

As a solo Hip Hop artist, Tim’m released “Songs from Red Dirt” on Cellular Records in 2004. The critically acclaimed solo debut provided a musical complement to his first book, 2002′s “Red Dirt Revival: a poetic memoir in 6 Breaths.” In January 2009, Tim’m released his third solo rap project “In Security: The Golden Error”, and after a two-year hiatus, the critically acclaimed “Fly Brotha”, an Independence Day 2011 release which is being praised as his most polished project to date. Nationally, Tim’m has continued to host the ‘Front Porch’ series, a Spoken Word/Hip-Hop/Soul showcase that has mobilized performance artists, musicians, and poets in DC, Chicago, Oakland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Dallas, Houstonand at various colleges and universities. Tim’m is selectively touring with his one-man show “Ready, Set, Grow: a coming of age story”.
http://www.reddirt.biz

Nhojj

Nhojj, the neo-Soul “genius of joy” whose essence is as breezy, yet magically mysterious as the sound of his singular moniker. Always blazing trails, Nhojj was the first gay Indie artist to reach #1 on the MTV Music chart with his same gender loving video, “Love.” Subsequently, The Advocate wrote, “Congratulations on making history.” The music video was featured in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Queer Lounge and premiered on LOGO‘s NewNowNext Poplab. Nhojj’s self-penned “Love” appears on his “Love Songs” compilation CD and the 2x Velocity Award-nominated “Soul Comfort,” his most popular and critically-acclaimed CD to date. In late 2009, Nhojj opened doors when he became the 1st Black male to win an OUTMusic Award. The Alliance of LGBT Recording Artists & Performers voted “Love” OUTStanding R&B/Soul Song of the Year.

Nhojj has released 6 CDs, 9 singles and an “Unplugged Live” DVD filmed by Emmy-nominated director Bill Cote. His 2003 release “Someday Peace, Love and Freedom” won Best Musical Performance at the Fresh Fruit Festival. Over the years Nhojj has donated his gift of song to humanitarian causes including MTV’s Pos or Not Campaign, Lifebeat, the Gay by God Campaign, and has performed at various September 11th memorial concerts. Most recently he donated the proceeds from his OUTMusic Award winning, #1 Reggae CDBaby, single, “The Gay Warrior Song,” to The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), an LGBT Rights Organization in Guyana. Putting love for his fans in every harmonic note of every genre he embraces, it’s no wonder Nhojj, the “genius of joy” is destined for greater heights in his soul-stirring musical and personal evolution.

SCOTT FREE

Scott Free, the queer-rock singer/songwriter extraordinaire, is one of America’s leading openly-gay male artists. His sometimes humorous, sometimes angry, always touching songs of queer life have gained him acclaim in both gay and straight media across the globe. In 2010, he was inducted into the City of Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame. He has twice been named Outmusician of the Year by the OUTMusic Awards – in 2005 and 2009. He also won Out Song of The Year in 2005 at the OMAs for his song ‘Another Day of The Cruelty’. His music video ‘Happy Again’ was in the Top10 Videos of 2009 on LOGOs ‘The Click List’. He has appeared on Black Entertainment Television, NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’, and Canada’s MuchMusic station. His CDs have received glowing reviews in The Advocate, OUT magazine, and numerous gay publications around the country. He was a featured artist in Unzipped magazine in 2005, and Bear Magazine in 2010. He received two Stonewall Society Pride in the Arts Awards in 2005 – Song of the Year and Producer of the Year – and was inducted into the Stonewall Society’s GLBT Hall Of Fame in 2005. He won Outmusicin of the Year at the OMAs in 2009, and his latest album ‘Pink Album (A Pop Opera)’ was the #1 CD of 2009 at Outvoice.net. He started this ALT Q festival eleven years ago, and is the host and curator of the bimonthly ‘Homolatte’ , the longest running queer performance series in the country.
http://www.scottfree.net

This acoustic version is different from the recorded version – its slower and more quiet, but the spirit is the same… and it definitely heals my soul. Watch now and leave a comment below and share your thoughts and feelings:)

Press the play button and hear the original recorded version of He & Him… Relax and breath and let everything else roll away into Love…