Another Thursday night in NYC, and yes, another fully-catered art event to attend – and of course, another chance to mingle with Gotham’s elite, indie and cool kid population. Sometimes us New Yorkers tend to forget how good our lives really are; not to trample on the nightlife scene of other cities, but in NYC, it’s truly an embarrassment of riches.
On this particular evening, the spot is the Red Bull event space, and the reason for the gathering is the 2nd Annual Gold Rush Awards. It’s a yearly bash thrown by the Rush Philanthropic Art Foundation, which was founded by the Simmons brother (Russell aka Mr. Def Jam, Rev Run and Danny). The award show is an event to recognize those individuals who have played major roles in progressing the foundation’s missions of opening up the art world to emerging artists and bringing the art experience to minority kids in lower income brackets.
The 2010 honorees included established journalist, critic and lecturer Elvis Mitchell and internationally renowned urban photographer Jamel Shabazz. In addition, there was a silent auction featuring over 30 upcoming talented artists. DJ Cassidy, no stranger to hip NYC affairs, held court behind the 1’s and 2’s, and the special occasion was hosted by MTV’s Sway Calloway. There were ‘nuff celebrities in the house too – guys like Dame Dash, Russell Simmons and this weird, extremely limber dude in a shiny, colorful fencing outfit (face concealed and everything) whose job was to dance like a crazy grasshopper the whole night. Not sure whether the last dancing guy was a celeb, but he should be – some of his dance moves were pretty sick.
The best part of the night came in the closing moments when Sway brought out Salt-N-Pepa to perform three of their top hits: “What a Man,” “Shoop,” and “Push It.” The first two songs were received well enough, but when “Push It” started, people completely flipped their wigs and danced like inebriated banshees. It was quite wild, and it was good to see that the old-school rhyming duo could still deliver the goods.
So there it was … another night of flowing liquor, delicious h’ors d’oeuvres, appealing art and good music – all for a good cause too. There’s truly no city like NYC; the days might get a little stressful, but every night, there’s always a party going down to chase the demons away.
Words by Geo Hagan
