The People's Ball

Thank you all for your interest in the People’s Ball, a night by, for and of the people! Because of overwhelming demand, we can no longer accept advanced registrations for The People’s Ball. If you weren’t able to RSVP, we invite you to dress up, come to the library, and join a standby line. We will look forward to allowing entry for guests as capacity allows.

The People’s Ball is a celebration of style, imagination, freedom, and you! Dress up in the clothes that make you feel your most beautiful and authentic and walk the runway in the iconic lobby of Central Library. In contrast to the elite galas that pop up across the city in the spring, The People’s Ball is a free, inclusive event that eschews elitism and honors the colors, textures, and styles that comprise the city’s urban runway. Come celebrate and be celebrated by your friends and neighbors as you dance, party and pose.

Co-hosted by actress Delissa Reynolds and arts leader Rob Fields, featuring stunning performances by singer Cunio and DJ sets by Rimarkable. Special guests include visual artist Mickalene Thomas, fashion curator Souleo, and five People’s Heroes whose work has changed the culture.

Doors at 6:30 pm. Food and drink specials to be announced. 

#THEPEOPLESBALL
Twitter @BPL_Presents
Instagram @BPLPRESENTS
Facebook FB.COM/BPLPRESENTS 

                     

Hyperallergic is a media partner of The People’s Ball 2023.

BPL Presents programs are mad possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

---

Participants

Cunio, described as the "spawn of Freddie Mercury & Janis Joplin" has performed all over the world as a featured vocalist/MC for Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. His debut collaboration was a Queen inspired cover of The Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star which has received over a million views on YouTube. He gained national attention as the "electrifying wailer" in PBS retro-rock group Under the Streetlamp and his "gloriously gritty" solo album Back Alley Soul debuted at #6 on iTunes R&B/Soul charts.
In 2019 Cunio joined popular circus Teatro ZinZanni as their first male "chanteuse" filling a role previously held by musical icons including Ann Wilson, Liv Warfield, Joan Baez & Thelma Houston. He's a resident vocalist for Drama Desk Award winning dance company Company XIV, most recently as The White Rabbit in their record breaking production Queen of Hearts and semi annually as Droselmeyer in Nutcracker Rouge. Stage roles include Pilate/Jesus Christ Superstar (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Tommy DeVito/Jersey Boys (Nat'l Tour), Corny Collins/Hairspray (Broadway) and he is an Ovation Award winner for Reefer Madness (World Premiere). Regionally, he's starred at American Repertory Theater, Arkansas Rep, North Shore Music Theatre and The Kennedy Center. Cunio is also sought after MC and a fixture of NYC's Burlesque & nightlife scene, regularly appearing at Duane Park, The Box, The Slipper Room, House of Yes and with Dances of Vice.

Delissa Reynolds is an established New York actress who is currently featured in the critically acclaimed film A Thousand and One. Her recent television work includes a recurring role on Hulu’s WU TANG: An American Saga. CBS's The Good Fight and FBI: Most Wanted, NBC's Manifest, HBO’s Divorce, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and Luke Cage and CBS’ Madam Secretary. She has also appeared on NBC’s Law and Order, The Beat, and Deadline and in films including director A.V. Rockwell's A Thousand and One, Brian Silverman's Two Lives in Pittsburgh, and Halle Berry’s feature directorial debut BRUISED.
In New York, she has performed at both LAMama Experimental Theatre and The Actor’s Studio and in Joe Pintaro’s Raft of the Medusa at the 10th Annual Planet Connections Theatre Festivity for which she won Best Actress in a Featured Role 2018.  Her regional theatre credits include Milwaukee Rep's 2022 production of Dale Orlandersmith's New Age, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird at Bangor’s Penobscot Theatre and Romulus Linny’s adaptation of A Lesson Before Dying at Buffalo’s Studio Arena and Rochester’s Geva Theatres. Ms. Reynolds is a 2022 recipient of the American Theatre Hall of Fame "Emerging Theatre Artist" fellowship and is lifetime member and Board member of the Actor’s Studio.
Ms. Reynolds, a long-time resident of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is also a businesswoman and community activist. In 2003, she established Bar Sepia to fill a need for local meeting place and operated the popular and critically praised destination for 14 years catering to Brooklyn residents and visitors alike. Ms. Reynolds won, among others, the 2015 1010 WINS Top 50 Small Business Award, the 2013 NYC Neighborhood Achievement Award: Brooklyn Small Business of the Year and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Extraordinary Woman award. As a vocal advocate for brick and mortar “true” small businesses and creating legislation to protect legacy businesses, her activism efforts include supporting landmark preservation in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn with CuRBA, a local block association that works to preserve the area’s architecture and protect the uniqueness of the neighborhood. She has also volunteered her time and resources for such causes as the American Cancer Society’s Pink and Black Tie Gala, Justice Works Community, a Brooklyn based organization that advocates for women ex-prisoners, as well as various other local and national charity organizations.  

Defying categorization, Maria “Ri Ri'' Garcia aka Rimarkable is a child of funk, jazz, gospel, rock and soul, and her selections as a DJ and broadcaster fuse all of these sounds “wrapped into a house and techno package.” Growing up heavily influenced by Black gospel music, her mother a classically trained pianist and music minister in a Pentecostal church, Rimarkable’s childhood summers in Chicago also gave her an introduction to house music, during the genre’s explosive infancy. An Afro-Latina from Detroit, she’s first-generation Puerto Rican, and the Afro-Carribean sound continues to have a huge impact on her sonic leanings, alongside the unmistakable ear-training of the city’s techno legacy. Rimarkable started professionally DJing private events in 1997 then clubs in the early 2000s and has since played around the world alongside Roger Sanchez, Honey Dijon, Francois K, Pete Tong and Gene Farris. She started producing in 2006, after she grew tired of working with male producers; her first release as a producer was in 2011 on E-man's Liberate Recordings label, a track called "Peace Lives Here" ft. Valerie Troutt.  In addition to producing a series of successful, long-running nightlife events in NYC, SF Bay Area, Detroit, and beyond over the past 20 years, in early 2021 Maria signed to UK house music institution Defected including the Defected Music publishing arm and stepped up as a presenter for the weekly Defected Radio show.
Rimarkable believes in DJing and producing as a spiritual practice, exploring alchemy through the DJ art form as well as African spiritualism, healing, mental health and self-care. Manifested a lecture and classroom series called ‘The Alchemy of DJing’, taught in Nairobi and Berlin, and US institutions such as Yale and Queens Museum, this philosophy is a means for her to creatively engage in social justice and empower women and youth.

Souleo has been hailed as an “Icon of Harlem” (Ruth Millington, art historian and author of Muse) and “Harlem’s Heart & Soul” (NY Daily News). An acclaimed creative, curator, impresario, consultant, and muse he seamlessly merges the worlds of art, fashion, literature, media, and music to document and amplify the stories of the emerging and underrepresented via exhibitions, events, and writing. Souleo has collaborated with noteworthy institutions and brands, including New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Brooklyn Public Library/Center for Brooklyn History, Museum of Arts and Design, Columbia University, Barnard College, Newark Museum of Art, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Nordstrom, and AARP. Souleo's work has been widely covered in outlets including the Associated Press, NY Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine/The Cut, ESSENCE, EBONY, and NBC. For more information: Souleouniverse.com or IG: @souleouniverse Photo credit NayMarie.com.

Rob Fields is an arts leader, marketer, and community builder.  He is the former director of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling. Prior to Sugar Hill, Rob was the president and executive director of Weeksville Heritage Center, and led that organization’s turnaround and secured its designation as the first new member of the NYC Cultural Institutions Group in over 20 years.  From 2007-2017, Rob published Bold As Love, an online magazine that covered left-of-center music and culture.  In 2011, he produced the NBI Festival, a TED-inspired celebration of the Black people and ideas that are driving culture forward.  Over the course of his career, he’s been a marketer for big brands, cultural institutions, and indie artists; a cultural programmer; and has written about the connection between marketing, business, and contemporary culture for Forbes.com and the Huffington Post, among the several outlets where his work has been published. Fun fact: His first photograph was published in The NY Times in 2020.
Rob currently serves on the Board of Trustees for UnionDocs.  He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, author and filmmaker Bridgett M. Davis, and their two children. Photo credit Kolin Mendez