{"id":22385,"date":"2024-08-21T04:31:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T08:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?p=22385"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:26","slug":"22385-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/22385-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Art and Music Fusion: Nikki Williams Brings Retro Soul from Sugar Hill to Bed-Stuy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: C. Zawadi Morris<\/a><\/p>\n

Nikki Williams<\/a>\u00a0grew up in the section of Harlem known as \u201cSugar Hill\u201d during the 60s and 70s, joyfully dancing with neighbors outside her public housing complex to the music of Smokey Robinson, James Brown and the Jackson Five.<\/p>\n

For nearly 60 years since that time, she has managed to hold onto all of those 45 RPM vinyl records of her childhood, carefully preserving them and carrying them through the ups and downs of her life journey until today.<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s bringing back the soul and sounds of that time to\u00a0Macon Branch Library<\/a>\u00a0in Bedford-Stuyvesant, on August 22 and August 29, from 6:0pm – 7:30pm,\u00a0as part of a travelling art show and workshop series called “Spreadin\u2019 Joy, Jam & Jive\u2013 A Sweet R&B Ride on the Soul of my 45s<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\n
\"flier3-pass-the-ps-like-they-use-to-say-poetry-prose-and-performance-celebrating-soul-music-of-the-1960s-and-1970s-macon-branch-library-brooklyn\"
Photo: Supplied\/ Nikki Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMarvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, the youthful and effervescent Jackson Five, and the gospel tongue of Aretha Franklin \u2026 those 45 records spun our hopes and our dreams,\u201d said Williams, a playwright, poet and visual artist. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of the music of my era\u2013 the time when Blacks were into Blackness, and a time when I believed I could fly. I\u2019m bringing it back for those people who were also impacted by this music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPass the Peas,\u201d the title of a 1972 funk instrumental by the JB\u2019s, is also the name of the literary workshop she will lead, which will include prose, poetry and performances celebrating the music of that era.<\/p>\n

Williams took photographs of her collection of more than two hundred 45 vinyl records, interspersing them with photos she\u2019s been taking of Black people in NY as a collage she displays as art:\u00a0 \u201cLord knows how they\u2019ve sustained my many moves over the years,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they made it! So spirit placed it in me to create art work using the images.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Williams has 70 pieces of artwork, some of which will be displayed in the window of 5Myles Gallery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us that are seniors from that generation, we may not remember what we did yesterday. But when I throw out a title like, \u2018Stop the Love you Save,\u2019 it just opens a grin, because it was such a joyful time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAnd even if you weren\u2019t born then, you remember your mother or father or your grandparents playing the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"sistahs-in-song-by-nikki-williams-copyright-2023-spiritalkinyahoo\"
“Sing a Song of Sistahood” Photo: Supplied\/ Nikki Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Although she is still Harlem-based, she said it was during her time working\u00a0in Brooklyn that she got the inspiration and encouragement to re-engage her artistic side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, Brooklyn has so much creativity going on right now,\u201d she said. \u201cI see an arts renaissance going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams acknowledges she\u2019s of a certain age and generation where technology isn\u2019t necessarily \u201cher thing. But she refuses to retreat from life\u2013 from the joy she experienced when music was the soundtrack to a simpler time; a time when people gathered outside, in-person to sing, dance, create and heal from life\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

\n
\"spreadin-jam-joy-jive-by-nikki-williams-copyright-2024-spiritalkinyahoocom\"
“Spreadin Jam, Joy and Jive” Photo: Supplied\/ Nikki Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

And on Thursday, September 8, at the Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park, located at 679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street in Harlem, from 6:00pm – 7:00pm, Williams will host a \u201cSoul-a-Thon,\u201d where she is inviting anyone from any generation to come out and share a narrative story of what the music of the 60s and 70s evokes for them, followed by a sunset dance party.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ministry is to uplift artists of color who need recognition and self-repair,\u201d said Williams. \u201cIt\u2019s mandatory that we repair ourselves as artists. And I see this as another way for us to come together in joy and love and repair ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: C. Zawadi Morris Nikki Williams\u00a0grew up in the section of Harlem known as \u201cSugar Hill\u201d during the 60s and 70s, joyfully dancing with neighbors outside her public housing complex to the music of Smokey Robinson, James Brown and the Jackson Five. For nearly 60 years since that time, she has managed to hold onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5904,"featured_media":22386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,45,522,524,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-arts","category-brooklyn-people","category-brooklyn-events","category-whats-buzzin"],"yoast_head":"\nArt and Music Fusion: Nikki Williams Brings Retro Soul from Sugar Hill to Bed-Stuy - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/22385-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art and Music Fusion: Nikki Williams Brings Retro Soul from Sugar Hill to Bed-Stuy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: C. Zawadi Morris Nikki Williams\u00a0grew up in the section of Harlem known as \u201cSugar Hill\u201d during the 60s and 70s, joyfully dancing with neighbors outside her public housing complex to the music of Smokey Robinson, James Brown and the Jackson Five. 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