harlem
Michael Bivins Joins Harlem Festival of Culture As Creative Director
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Paras Griffin / Getty The eagerly anticipated Harlem Festival of Culture has just gotten a big boost, as the iconic Michael Bivins has been tapped to be its creative director. On Tuesday (April 26th), news broke that one of the founding members of New Edition and a highly respected industry executive would be joining the group behind the Harlem Festival of Culture in the role of creative director. Bivins, who has been lauded as a community ambassador, spoke about the new role as he was being interviewed for an upcoming documentary on his life and career, The Hustle of @617MikeBiv. Bivins issued a statement about his new role, saying: “My role as Creative Director of the Harlem Festival of Culture came about because I work closely with Yvonne McNair, CEO o...
Annual Harlem Festival of Culture Launches In 2023 After Questlove’s ‘Summer Of Soul’ Oscar Win
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: CBS Photo Archive / Getty The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival was the backdrop for Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson‘s Oscar-winning documentary, Summer of Soul, and a reimagining of the original format was announced this week. Titled the Harlem Festival of Culture, the annual event will kick off in 2023. The Harlem Cultural Festival began in 1967 as a series of music concerts held in the famed New York borough and in 1969 the event, also known as “Black Woodstock,” would emerge as the most notable of these events. The 1969 concert was the focus of Thompson’s documentary and the film displayed the wide scope of musicianship and artistry that was the hallmark of the times. On April 13, organizers of the Harlem Festival of Culture (HFC) made the official announcemen...
Harlem Man Arrested For Murder Of Alpo Martinez
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: ED JONES / Getty A Harlem man has been arrested and charged for the murder of infamous drug kingpin Alberto “Alpo” Martinez. According to the New York Daily News, Shakeem Parker, 27, was pinched and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the authorities. Parker was already imprisoned on Rikers Island due to a previous gun case but investigators allegedly obtained information that he was the shooter. Despite being in the federal witness protection program, Alpo, 55, was back in Harlem on Halloween night in 2021 when he was gunned down while driving a Dodge Ram on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 147th St. around 3am. He was reportedly shot six times in his arm and once in his chest and succumbed to his injuries after being t...
‘NY Times’ Examines Alpo Martinez’s Double Life In Witness Protection
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Hugh Brown / Getty Alpo Martinez has been dead for months and his story continues to get more interesting. A new article explores his double life as a member of the witness protection program. This week The New York Times printed an in depth piece that examined Albert “Alpo” Martinez’s life after being released from prison in 2015 after serving 35-year sentence for 14 counts of murder. He would be then relocated to Lewiston, Maine under the alias Abraham Rodriguez and worked as a construction worker. Writer Ali Watkins spoke to several individuals who knew him as an easy going fellow. “He was the nicest neighbor,” said Marissa Ritchey. “He was always polite, nice with the dog. You never would have thought anything. He was one of the decent ones. He’d...
Bronx Drill Rapper Kay Flock Arrested For Barbershop Murder
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: NYPD / NYPD Kay Flock, a rising teen rapper in the New York drill scene, was arrested on Christmas Eve for the Dec. 16 murder of a 24-year-old man outside of a Harlem barbershop. Flock, real name Kevin Perez, allegedly shot Oscar Hernandez after arguing with him in the neck and back and authorities believe the shooting is connected to gang activity. The New York Daily News reports that the 18-year-old Flock was walking by a barbershop on Amsterdam Ave. at W. 151st St. around 10 AM local time when he entered the shop and confronted Hernandez. The man followed Perez outside the store and the pair argued. Perez reportedly walked away and but turned around to open fire, fatally wounding Hernandez. According to sources speaking with police, Hernandez was...
Bronx Drill Rapper Kay Flock Arrested For Barbershop Murder
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: NYPD / NYPD Kay Flock, a rising teen rapper in the New York drill scene, was arrested on Christmas Eve for the Dec. 16 murder of a 24-year-old man outside of a Harlem barbershop. Flock, real name Kevin Perez, allegedly shot Oscar Hernandez after arguing with him in the neck and back and authorities believe the shooting is connected to gang activity. The New York Daily News reports that the 18-year-old Flock was walking by a barbershop on Amsterdam Ave. at W. 151st St. around 10 AM local time when he entered the shop and confronted Hernandez. The man followed Perez outside the store and the pair argued. Perez reportedly walked away and but turned around to open fire, fatally wounding Hernandez. According to sources speaking with police, Hernandez was...
Diddy’s Harlem Charter School Lands Historic Location
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Paras Griffin / Getty Diddy‘s charter school has officially found a new home in Harlem. According to published reports, Diddy’s Capital Prep Harlem will move to the Church Of All Saints and School after the Bad Boy hitmaker decided he wanted to accept more students. “The kids of Harlem should have access to opportunity and a quality education and deserve to learn on a campus that reflects the level of excellence we aspire for them to achieve,” Diddy said in a statement. “This new campus for Capital Prep Harlem reflects my commitment to empowering as many children as I can and creating spaces for the next generation of leaders to thrive in every aspect of their lives.” Related Stories The new historic new location holds a maximum capacity of 700 students, ...
Alpo Martinez Lived A Quiet Life As An Unassuming Construction Worker In Maine
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: YouTube / Youtube Even in his afterlife, Alpo’s name continues to ring bells. A new article details his low profile life in Maine under an alias. Recently The Sun Journal dug deeper into the Harlem, New York native’s second life in The Pine Tree State as a member of the witness protection program. Not only does the feature confirm that he was released from prison in 2015, but it also goes into depth about his day to day as Abraham Rodriguez. The news outlet reports that he held various jobs including as a Pepsi fulfillment center employee and most recently as a construction worker. The accounts from his neighbors show that while he didn’t share much he still had a love for the fast life. “He kept to himself a lot,” said Harold Hanlon, but “he’d do an...
What We Know About The Alpo Martinez Murder Thus Far
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: YouTube / Youtube More details about Alpo Martinez’s murder are now starting to come to the light. In an in-depth interview his son gives the public some more insight on his passing. As spotted in The Daily News the brutal killing of the notorious drug kingpin turned government cooperator is still a hot topic throughout Hip-Hop culture and more throughout the Harlem area of New York City. In an exclusive interview with the periodical his son Randy Harvey, AKA Papparazzi Po, shares more details about what happened. Related Stories “It was like a student and a teacher, you know?” he said when explaining their father-son relationship. “The stuff that he wanted to teach me when I was little, but he wasn’t there. He told me how to be safe. It’s making me wonde...
Infamous Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Reportedly Shot & Killed In Harlem
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: YouTube / Youtube Alpo Martinez, the infamous Harlem drug kingpin, was reportedly shot and killed on Saturday night, early Sunday morning (October 30). Born Alberto Geddis Martinez, a report about the shooting doesn’t yet mention him by name but the word on the street is starting to get out. Reported the New York Daily News: A 55-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting on a Harlem street corner early Sunday. The victim was struck multiple times in the chest in a hail of bullets fired from a passing vehicle on W. 147th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. just after 3:20 a.m., cops said. EMS rushed him to Harlem Hospital but he couldn’t be saved. His name was not immediately released. According to the New York Post, the victim in the described shooting...
Uptown’s Finest: New Art Exhibit Chronicles Harlem’s Fashion Legacy
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Photo by and in the private collection of Beau McCall / Photo by and in the private collection of Beau McCall There is no street style without Harlem. A new exhibit details the iconic neighborhood’s contribution to American style and more. As spotted on Cool Hunting the upper Manhattan area is about to get some long-overdue credit. Lois K Alexander Lane (1916 – 2007) was a fashion designer and Harlem resident. In 1979 she founded the Black Fashion Museum as a hub to showcase the countless contributions by individuals of color to the fashion industry. During her early years she struggled to acquire pieces for the collection. Since then the institution would go on to house over 2,000 garments that were designed, fabricated or worn by African-Ameri...
Harlem Protests Kick Off After Punks Brutally Attacked & Bit Black Woman
Source: kali9 / Getty An unnamed woman in New York has garnered the support of her community after she was brutally attacked outside a Harlem liquor store. Now, the whole neighborhood is on the lookout for the criminals and a rally was helped in support of the woman as well. By way of interviews with local CBS and NBC news outlets, the 31-year-old victim and mother said last Monday (Jan. 18), she walked into a liquor store at West 128th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue around 6 p.m. local time. While attempting to purchase a bottle of wine, one of the alleged assailants asked if he could buy her wine but she politely declined. The woman then says that after rejecting the offer, she was followed by the men with one of them saying out loud that the woman thought herself superior to them. In an...
