"East of Broadway: A Benefit for Fourth Arts Block" is a compilation CD that will go to raise funds to renovate six cultural buildings on East 4th Street's theater row in Manhattan, benefiting more than a dozen non-profit cultural and community organizations.
The CD includes a great, eclectic mix of 18 alternative, lo fi, electronic and jazz songs totaling 78 minutes of music. The impressive array of recording artists on the CD are Moby, Ani DiFranco, Yo La Tengo, Luna, Philip Glass, The Jazz Passengers (with Deborah Harry), East River Pipe, Spacehog, Last Forever, Rachelle Garniez, Matt Munisteri and BROCKMUMFORD, Warren Smith, Freedom Art Quartet, the John Tank Group, Burt Eckoff, Deanna Kirk, Gina Young and Malevo. Most of the artists are based in Lower Manhattan or have a personal connection to one of the cultural/community groups on the block.
The East 4th Street cultural buildings house 8 theaters and 2 dance companies as well as a couple of community development groups. Among FAB's member groups are New York Theater Workshop, La MaMa ETC, Rod Rodgers Dance Co., WOW Cafe Theatre, Millennium Film Workshop, Duo Theatre, Teatro Circulo, Downtown Art, Alpha Omega Dance Co., Choices Theater, Teatro IATI, Cooper Square Committee and Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association.
Dick Connette, of Last Forever, expressed his reasons for participating in the benefit CD this way. "It's only fitting, I suppose, that Last Forever's first performance was at the Club at LaMaMa, a Fourth Arts Block member group. Over the years I've bounced all around lower Manhattan, but I've always felt that the better part of my nature was tuned to the East Village. Somehow, through bust and boom, from Mayor to Mayor, amidst the unending oscillations of hip, fashion, and the avant garde, the neighborhood has managed to maintain a gritty, vital integrity. The Fourth Arts Block will help keep that spirit alive and I'm proud to be part of the project."
Go to www.fab.nyc to find out more about Fourth Arts Block (FAB) and the East 4th Street Cultural District.
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