RED means GO!

Summer is here and its time to cut loose and dance. Be it for fun or for purpose dance is an art form we can all share in. It binds and ties cultures together. Being a New Yorker I get to see all factions of dance and its various personifications and practitioners. Monroe Monroe is a practitioner of this age old art of dance and has a performance piece coming up called RED.

Kaos Blac: Who Are You?

I AM MONROE!!!! I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist/student/learner/scholar/used-to be muslim/Gary, Indiana Hailing straight of Jackson 5-vill, Newark New Jersey-home of the Fugees/Naughty-By-Nature, afro-punk/glam used-ta-be, newly discovered swag, and a dreamer. I am a person who believes in equality for all people, and beings. I am eradicating my need of destruction, and learning about positive production. I am pro-active, I am ashamed, I am happy, I am me.

Kaos Blac: What is behind this performance?

MONROE: Mankind is behind this experimental performance-art piece. This piece is about us, this piece is about humanity, and specifically New York humanity. For those of us who are not NYC natives, we have to adapt to this city. We have to learn a new edge, a new toughness, a new strength, and through that experience is where the phrase "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere" comes from. I am convinced there is no other place like the humanity in New York, be it good or bad. The diversity, the angst, the pure stimulation and rush of it all is amazing. So this piece is about that ride through NYC for me,-that journey, and spiritually, it symbolizes my cross over into the present, into the now. Into strength. RED is my birth color. It means everything from the EXTREME of Love to the EXTREME of hate, -rage, and in my experiences in New York,-I have encountered incidents of rage, and of love, ... and of everything in between.

Kaos Blac: So what would you suggest to people interested in coming to NYC to invest their time in doing are partaking in as activities for the body and mind.

MONROE: Well when you say body and mind, i automatically go into spiritual mode, so spiritually if i can sum up NYC: Yoga to the People -cause its cheap as hell, anything DUMBO, and you have to walk Brooklyn Bridge... just once.. I mean those things are kind of touristy, but at the heart of it, those views capture a moment like no other, it's just grand... it's what New York is..

Kaos Blac: Your donating a portion of the fund from the performance to the Center to end AIDS. Why is that an important initiative for you?

MONROE: The Donation: It is important foremost for me to look after the welfare of my community, my brothers on the corners, my sisters with the carriages, my brothers rockin stiletto's, my sisters rockin braids, and this is one of many outlets i plan to donate to this year. HIV/AIDS has ravished NYC, and has taken out allot of our pioneering leaders, and artist, and continues to spread,-for reasons that it would take me a book to explain. Campaign 2 End Aids (c2ea.org) is an organization of action, and they understand the importance of addressing the issue from a communal, and political approach, so this is my way of giving back, in honor of the Legends and Icons who have come before me, raising awareness, and strengthening my community. Simply watching out for mankind,... this is a new me we're dealing with here... and it feels good.

RED takes place May 14, 2010 @ The Flux Factory (www.fluxfactory.org) in Long Island City.