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Imogene Strauss grew up thinking that she wanted to be the complete opposite of her creative parents. As the daughter of a DJ father and a screenwriter/actress mother, her initial plan was to build a career on the opposite end of the spectrum, “I think my rebellious — and probably somewhat fearful — self pushed me to think I wanted a career in science, as far away from what my parents did as possible,” she recalls.Her conscious pull away from a creative career ended up having an opposite effect, so much so that her official job title as a creative director and stage designer comes with an asterisk that details everything else that she is: a show director, video director, interior designer, scenic designer and more. Some of the biggest highlights in Strauss’ portfolio include directing visu...

Few artists are able to turn the complexity of Brazil into poetry.Brazil is a continental-sized country filled with complex social problems and widespread differences in faith, regional characteristics, and art. Since 1988 only one group could unite all peripheries of the country through the three pillars mentioned above: Racionais MC’s.Formed by Mano Brown, Ice Blue, Edi Rock and DJ KL Jay, the quartet has seen and experienced plenty of historic political, social and cultural moments.Alive and kicking, they continue to portray the desires and fears of the favelas like no one else. Even with these regional differences, Racionais MC’s instinctively knew how to turn the struggles that united every societal group that makes up Brazil into beautiful, timeless music. Jef DelgadoIn 34 years on t...

Call it what you want – a club, a concert hall, a multi-purpose artistic space – Elsewhere is all of the above, and then some. It’s a music venue at its core, but to define it as such feels reductive to the amorphous identity of the sprawling three-story venue, which prides itself on a stacked calendar of D.I.Y. acts from vinyl-spinning DJs to underground hyperpop producers. A quick spin through February’s lineup, for instance, posits a show from the Swedish rock band Viagra Boys just a few hours before a set from DJ Chaotic Ugly, the alias of the Long Island-hailing electronic punk duo Machine Girl.An amorphous identity as a venue is exactly what’s caused Elsewhere to be regarded as a modern-day cultural institution — despite its opening only five years ago. A sprawling three-story wareho...