On Thursday, August 14, 2026, Splendor & Misery Fest 2026 took place at Knockdown Center in Maspeth, NY. The festival, curated by Los Angeles’ clipping., shares the name of their second album, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. As Daveed Diggs shared during the night, the bill was comprised of acts the trio find influential with clipping. closing out the show themselves.

Queens’ Knockdown Center hosted two stages, with the smaller stage (called Texas Stage) featuring sets by Maria Chavez, evicshen, and Fatboi Sharif with the main stage featuring Ted Byrnes, Michael Foster, Webb Crawford, Sharon Udoh, and Nate Wooley performing a set together, followed by ELUCID, Shabazz Palaces, and SPELLLING before clipping.

I missed the joint set by Byrnes, Foster, Crawford, Udoh and Wooley which began at 6:45PM as I arrived an hour after their set began, so the first set I witnessed was by NYC’s ELUCID. The rapper was joined by two musicians: drummer Mekala Session and guitarist Braxton Marbury, and recently performed at NPR’s Tiny Desk with Armand Hammer (Session played drums on this performance as well). For the remaining acts in the bill, I captured all the sets except for evicshen (I figured it might be difficult to get close to her performance on the floor since her set and Shabazz Palaces overlapped). Fatboi Sharif, who closed the Texas Stage was backed by DJ Boogaveli and brought out special guests Kohai, 89 the Brainchild, and GDP.

Shabazz Palaces closed their set with a brand new song (“Jheri Curl Jump”) from their forthcoming album It’s a Style Sport that will be released on October 23rd. Before performing the track, Ishmael Butler declared that “the style is juicy like the Jheri curl.” During the penultimate set of the night by Fatboi Sharif, the New Jersey rapper was backed by DJ Boogaveli, and brought out Kohai, 89 the Brainchild, and GDP to perform with him. Sharif and GDP performed “Luchador Mask” from their Endocrine release, which I have been dying to hear live since it samples part of a song by The Murder City Devils.

Before the members of clipping. took the stage, their community manager gave a short speech to the audience about Splendor & Misery and the group starting their set at 11PM. Kicking off their set with “The Breach” off Splendor, the group ventured into older songs (“Wriggle”) from their catalog through their 2025 album, Dead Channel Sky ("Run It," and "Dominator”). About midway in clipping.’s set, Sharon Udoh (who performs as Counterfeit Madison) joined Daveed, Jonathan Snipes, and William Hutson on stage to contribute keys and vocals, with Diggs effusively stating “I’ve been saying that she’s the best thing to happen to the band since Jonathan Snipes.”

Splendor & Misery Fest was described by Diggs to the audience as “a way to say thank you for letting us make whatever the fuck we want” and that they’ve been discussing using this show as a test run to see if they should do this again someday. I’m hopeful that they are able to do this again. My first clipping. set took place 14 years ago when they were a part of a Red Bull Music Academy show called “Hardcore Activity in Progress,” and performed in a small room at Knockdown Center (where the Texas Stage was if memory serves correctly). It was truly wonderful to see them graduate to the main stage and curate their very own massive show named after their sophomore album over a decade later.

On Saturday, August 8, 2026, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! celebrated the Brooklyn born artist Aaliyah with the first ever Aaliyah Day in Prospect Park. The free show featured speakers Ralph McDaniels, April Walker, Taja Cheek (who also directed the music for the show), and LaChelle Chrysanne. A live band composed of Tariq Al-Sabir (who also sang), Evan Lawrence, Dillon Treacy, Key Hutchinson, KAYANA, and Natalie Louis-Charles supported vocalists Res, serpentwithfeet, Halima, Anajah, and Motherboard. There were also DJ sets from albertoreyes and Honey Bun. Attendees were encouraged to wear Aaliyah inspired looks and could enter a contest to win clothing from Karl Kani.

I captured the event as a house photographer for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! and some of that work can be found in the above gallery and in a BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Instagram post.

Performing in NYC for the first time in thirteen years, Tomahawk headlined a sold out show at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Joining the group on their tour titled, “A Huge Waste of Your Time and Money,” was Melvins, who were joined by Tomahawk’s Trevor Dunn on the final song of their set.

I captured both acts’ set for BrooklynVegan and the full gallery is now live on their website. Photos from Tomahawk’s 2013 show at Best Buy Theater can be found on my Flickr.

On Saturday, July 25, 2026, the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn, NY was renamed ODB Jones Way in honor of the late rapper who was born Russell Tyrone Jones, who was better known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan. The effort to rename the street was led by his family (his daughter Taniqua Jones in particular) and they found a partner in NYC City Council Member Chi Ossé, who represents the district, and announced the event on Instagram.

The ceremony mostly took place a block away on Claver Place between Jefferson Street and Putnam Avenue where friends, family, and fans gathered on a block closed to traffic. There was a DJ set by J.Period followed by speeches by family members (ODB’s daughter Taniqua, widow Icelene, CM Ossé, ODB’s manager and friend Sophia Chang, sons (Allah McCall who raps as Weather Park, and Barsun Jones, a.k.a. Young Dirty Bastard who has performed with Wu-Tang Clan in his father’s place, including their show at Madison Square Garden last summer), and mother and brother (Cherry Jones spoke briefly and allowed her other son, musician Ramsey Jones address the audience at length). After the speeches ended, attendees walked over to Franklin and Putnam for the unveiling of the ODB Jones Way street sign after the audience counted down from 5 down to zero.

On Friday, July 24, 2026, Jazz at the Bandshell took place at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! at Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY. The evening featured performances by Cindy Blackman Santana Group, Patricia Brennan Septet, and Lucía, a 24-year-old vocalist who won the 2022 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

I captured all three sets as a house photographer for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! and some of that work can be found in the above gallery and on Instagram.

Punk band Downtown Boys celebrated the release of their newest album, Public Luxury with a late night show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, July 23, 2026. Taking the stage at 10:30PM was Ratas En Zelo, an accordion punk band who are from NYC and also embody rats.

Downtown Boys kicked off their set about 11:20PM and performed tracks from the newest album along with songs from their older releases, Full Communism and Cost of Living. During their set, two members of UMAW came on stage to ask for support for striking workers and Victoria Ruiz read text from her essay that is featured in Judith A. Peraino’s book, We’re Having Much More Fun, which was available for sale at the merch area.

Downtown Boys performed a one song encore, a cover of “New York City Cops” by The Strokes (video of that can be found below), and their tour continues tonight in Somerville, MA.

New York City’s Lip Critic headlined Music Hall of Williamsburg for a sold out show as a part of their “Theft Destiny” tour in support of their album, Theft World, which was released by Partisan Records back on May 1st. The quartet was joined by two other local bands, fantasy of a broken heart and Public Circuit. Lip Critic also brought out a special guest during their song “My Wife and The Goblin,” a person on stilts wearing a top hat who remained on stage for the rest of their set.

I covered the show for Bowery Presents’ “The House List” and images of Lip Critic can now be found on their website here.

Photos of the two opening acts can be found below.

In celebration of Ronen Givony’s book called Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York (2004-2014) a group photo show will take place at Selva in Brooklyn, NY featuring images created during this time period in New York City. I’m very eager to show work from my archives alongside many other music photographers.

The exhibition, which will be on view for one week: Thursday, August 20th through Thursday, August 27th. The above flyer was designed by Brock Stephens.

Selva is located at 1329 Willoughby Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I’m attending the reception at 7PM on Thursday, August 20th before I head to Baby’s All Right for this show, and looking forward to seeing everyone!

Thanks very much to Ryan Muir to coordinating this photo show.

On Wednesday, July 8, 2026, a fantastic indie rock evening took place in Central Park. Thanks to Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage a free concert of one name acts: Spoon (of Austin, TX), Ratboys (Chicago, IL), and Bodega (New York City) graced the stage at Rumsey Playfield during the 40th season of SummerStage. Bodega closed their set with a Spoon cover (and brought out their frontperson, Britt Daniel), Britt Daniel shared effusive praise for both opening acts, and had Hamilton Leithauser join them for two songs.

I covered the show for Impose Magazine and the full gallery is now available on their website.

On Sunday, July 12, 2026, Giglio Sunday took place outside Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The afternoon and early evening event featured the dancing of the Giglio and boat, where the former is a massive statue and requires hundreds of men to lift. Both structures feature a live band on top of the lifters, and a capo who directs the movement of each lift. At one point, both the boat and Giglio were directly across from each other on Havemeyer Street in front of the church and were lifted simultaneously. The attendees on the steps and sidewalk (myself included) were showered with confetti during the joint lift.

Images I captured earlier today can be found in the above gallery. There will be a children’s lift on Tuesday (July 14th), a night lift on Wednesday (July 15th), and additional Giglio and boat lifts on Sunday (July 19th) for Old Timer’s Day. The remaining schedule is available on the OLMC Feast website.

On Friday, July 3, 2026, Welsh band The Bug Club (Sam Willmet, Tilly Harris, and drummer Gavin Jenkins) performed and signed records at Rough Trade Below, the downstairs location of Rough Trade NYC. The band scheduled a show two nights prior at Elsewhere Rooftop* (when NYC was experiencing a heat wave) and I was grateful to attend a free performance of theirs inside with air conditioning. Their current tour is in support of their newest record, Every Single Muscle, which was available for sale at Rough Trade. Their performance was scheduled to begin at 6, but I showed up very early to secure a spot up front and I happened to hear their loud soundcheck that also drew in tourists who happened to be nearby in the concourse level of Rockefeller Center. The trio soundchecked “A Bit Like James Bond,” which didn’t make their actual setlist, so I am happy I showed up a lot earlier than was necessary as I love that song. The band also played a bit of The Troggs’ “Love Is All Around” during soundcheck as well that was a fun moment to hear while waiting for the show to start.

Their live set at Rough Trade comprised of songs from Every Single Muscle, naturally, such as “Miss Wales 2012",” “Pretty as a Magazine,” “Semi-Automatic,” “A Good Day for Dying,” (described as angsty by Harris), “It’s Our Manager David,” “All My Clothes Fell Off,” “Shiny and Wet,” “Make It Count,” (introduced by Tilly as being about awkward sex) and “Watching the Omnibus.”

After their performance, the trio signed records and chatted with fans who braved the heat for their free show. I showed up with my five Bug Club albums on vinyl and got them all signed. Some photos of their fun performance can be found in the above gallery.

*I bought a ticket to their rooftop show when it went on sale but I gave it away because I knew I could not deal with the oppressive heat. I’ve fainted during a heatwave during an outdoor show on July 4, 1999** and make an effort to not repeat that. I was hoping Elsewhere would move the event inside but they unfortunately didn’t.
**It was Luscious Jackson, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Mixmaster Mike at SummerStage in Central Park. Amusingly, I was in the act of purchasing water after JSBX’s set when I passed out.

On Wednesday, June 24, 2026, The Breeders returned to New York City for a show at The Rooftop at Pier 17 in lower Manhattan. The band was joined by Violet Grohl, who recently released her album called, Be Sweet To Me, for an opening set.

Attendees were blessed with great weather in a scenic location while enjoying both acts. I covered the show for Impose Magazine and the full gallery can be found on their website.

On Friday, June 26, 2026, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! held their first benefit show of their 47th season featuring performances by Patti LaBelle, Lady Wray, and DJ sets from MORERNBPLEASE (a.k.a. MORESOUPPLEASE and MIKE NASTY). Ms. LaBelle previously performed on the same stage in 2019 and there was much excitement for her return to Lena Horne Bandshell.

I covered the show as a house photographer for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! on Friday night and some photos from the evening are available in the above gallery. Two more benefit shows remain for this season: Royel Otis with Ax and the Hatchetmen on July 18th and Liz Phair & Sleater-Kinney on September 19th. The season continues on in July and the full schedule is available here.

Also, an article featuring one of my images of Patti LaBelle can be found on The Grio here.

Earlier this month, Dylan Green interviewed New York City rapper Wiki ahead of the release of his new album, Ancient History. Naturally, since his single “Park,” mentioned NYC parks, we met up at one of the oldest ones in the city, Seward Park, and walked around afterwards.

My portraits of Wiki are now available in Green’s piece for Hearing Things, titled “A Day in the Park with Wiki” is now available on their website.

Hearing Things is a wonderful worker-owned music publication (please subscribe!), and I am so grateful that they thought of me to make photos for this piece. Wiki’s album, Ancient History, is out now on Warp Records.

On July 15th, the piece republished on another worker-owned website, Hell Gate, and can be found on their website here.

On Friday, June 19, 2026, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! commemorated the Juneteenth holiday with a free show at Lena Horne Bandshell in Brooklyn, NY. The lineup was a family affair with a bill featuring Infinity Song (a band with siblings), Annie and the Caldwells (matriarch Annie Caldwell, with her daughters), and Victory Boyd (who is the sister of the members of Infinity Song). The event featured DJ sets from DJ Duane in between acts and great weather.

The above gallery features images I made for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, and the season continues with a benefit show featuring Patti LaBelle on Friday, June 26th.

Brighton, UK’s Lambrini Girls returned to Brooklyn, NY for a sold-out headlining show at Warsaw in Greenpoint on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. The band was scheduled to perform earlier this year but had to postpone all dates due to Phoebe Lunny’s injury.

The band was supported by NYC’s Big Girl, whose frontperson, Kaitlin Pelkey, toured with Lambrini Girls when she filled in for Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez last year.

Photos from the extremely fun show are now live on Impose Magazine.

On Thursday, June 18, 2026, New York City celebrated the championship win by the New York Knicks with a parade down the Canyon of Heroes along Broadway to City Hall where Mayor Mamdani awarded the team a key to the city.

The team defeated the San Antonio Spurs, the same team who the Knicks faced in the finals back in 1999. The Knicks won their first championship since 1973, and today’s parade was the first one held by the city. Per Hell Gate, Mayor John Lindsay gave the team back then diamond jubilee pendants instead of a parade, so this ended up being the first ever parade for the team.

I was stationed outside of the Bowling Green subway station by Battery Park with other members of the press before and during the parade. Ahead of arriving in that area, I captured photos of the fans that flooded downtown Manhattan and again after the parade ended. The entry points along the route on Broadway opened at 6AM and closed two hours later as they had reached capacity. That didn’t stop many Knicks fans from staying in the area to celebrate their team’s win even though they wouldn’t be able to see the parade themselves.

I watched four out of the five NBA finals games at home, and watched game 4 at a funeral home in Brooklyn. I also captured the parade for the New York Liberty’s championship two years ago on the same route.

On Saturday, June 13, 2026, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! continued their 47th season with a free Family Day event. The event featured family friendly activities, a live reading by Katie Yamasaki accompanied by the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and a live performance by Antibalas.

I documented the afternoon and early evening as a house photographer for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn and some of my images can be found in the above gallery. There’s also an Instagram post by BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn with photos by myself and Ellen Qbertplaya here.

On Friday, June 12, 2026, the tour featuring The Avett Brothers and Mike Patton came to Brooklyn, NY for a show at Kings Theatre in Flatbush. The collaboration celebrated the release of their album, AVTT/PTTN, and performed a two hour set.

I captured some images for Chad Berndtson’s review for Bowery Presents’ “The House List” and the piece is now available on their site.

Recently, I came across an Instagram post where someone shared that a funeral home was planning a watch party for the fourth game of the 2026 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. For all of the finals games so far, I’ve been watching them on my couch at home but I became extremely interested in this event: how could I miss New Yorkers gathering together in a space familiar with loss to cheer on their hometown team, who are attempting to win their first championship since 1973?

Hosting a watch party at Sparrow Funeral Home was the idea of founder Erica Hill, who was interviewed by The City Reporter before the fourth game took place at Madison Square Garden. New York Knicks Center, Karl-Anthony Towns, has spoken openly about his mother’s presence after her death six years ago from complications of COVID-19. Once I saw their Instagram post advertising the event and requesting an RSVP, I messaged the account and signed up myself and my husband, Eric, because I knew it would be more fun watching the game with others than in our apartment alone. Besides, it was only a mile away from our place and I figured it would be fun to get some photos. The follow up post was also great.

I arrived shortly after 7:30 and gave my name to someone working the door before going inside. After claiming seats for myself and Eric in the first room, I decided to walk around and was pleasantly surprised to find that Sparrow truly planned a watch party adorned with basketball plates, snacks, candy, red wine, soda, and beer in coolers in front of the second room. Both rooms projected the games on a wall and provided pretty great sound.

Unsurprisingly, due to the watch party going viral, many media outlets were present such as The New York Times, NBC New York, News 12, and the New York Post. The Knicks were losing in the first half of the game, and pretty much all of the media left at the half. And so did a few people who were attending the event. But for those who stuck around, there was a halftime remembrance for lost loved ones, plus we all got to witness the unbelievable comeback by the Knicks who cut their 29 point deficit to the Spurs and managed to win by one point in the final seconds of the game. There was so much screaming, hugging, and collective joy at Sparrow last night when we realized the Knicks won. I texted multiple people “Screaming! at the Funeral Home” (a reference to this band name, naturally) when we realized that the Knicks might actually pull off this incredible comeback.

Before Eric and I departed Sparrow, we thanked Erica for hosting such a memorable event. We probably would have given up on the game and went to bed if we hadn’t attended the watch party and spent the mile long walk back to our apartment cheering with other New Yorkers who were out and excited by the win. We ran into Diane, who sat in a row in front of us at the funeral home, who made the mistake of leaving early. She rode a CitiBike back to East Williamsburg from Greenpoint and heard people screaming, so she docked her bike and joined the people watching at Carmine’s on Graham Avenue and continued watching Game 4 there.

The above gallery is from the one (and only) finals watch party at Sparrow Funeral Home. Many thanks to Erica Hill and the staff at Sparrow for their hospitality and creating a memorable event that many of us will be talking about for a very long time.

The New York Knicks face off against the Spurs again on Saturday, June 13th, and New York City is hopeful they’ll come home with their first championship in over five decades.