Summer Sway

JUL 15 – AUG 27, 2022
DJs, dancing, and drinks, outdoors on The Shed’s Plaza, on Friday and select Saturday evenings

About this program

Summer Sway takes over The Shed’s outdoor, public Plaza on Friday and select Saturday evenings, July 15 through August 27. Inspired by the rich history and the vibrant presence of Black social dance in our city and beyond, we invite you to join as we celebrate the beauty, healing power, joy, and liberation that these dance traditions give us.

Show off your moves and pick up new ones! New York’s fiercest DJs will open the dance floor from 5 pm to sunset on Friday evenings. Every other Saturday, bring your family and friends for dance cyphers, battles, sessions, and parties led by some of the most renowned choreographers and companies who continue to reinterpret styles of house, hip hop, bomba, Bruk Up, the Philly Bop, the hustle, and more.

Enjoy specialty cocktails from Cedric’s, The Shed’s bar. The Plaza stays open throughout the week, so make the space your own to gather, relax, and celebrate the season with your friends.

Learn more about a site-specific installation, designed by WIP Collaborative for Summer Sway.

Artists

A portrait of DJ L3NI kneeling in front of a colorful wall with a rectangular color block design. She wears a jumpsuit with black and white vertical stripes.
Courtesy Soul in the Horn.
L3NI (Soul in the Horn)
A portrait of DJ Jennifly in a vibrant blue jumpsuit and headscarf posing in front of a background showing the moon. She holds a light blue fan spread in front of the side of her face.
Courtesy Soul in the Horn.
Jennifly (Soul in the Horn)
A Black dancer points upward while mid-split on a stage.
Courtesy Rennie Harris Puremovement.
Rennie Harris Puremovement
A portrait of DJ Bembona, a Black woman wearing a sheer red-orange skirt over a white dress. She wears a pair of Nike sneakers and stands against a white background.
Photo: Pegah Farahmand.
Bembona
A portrait of DJ Donwill. Donwill is a Black man who wears a backward baseball cap with a straight bill, rectangular glasses, and a t-shirt with a red undershirt visible just under the neck.
Courtesy Donwill.
Donwill
Photo of man leaning on a balcony.
Photo: Manchester Sodium Films.
Reggie ‘Reg Roc’ Gray
A portrait of DJ Kamala looking over her shoulder. She has curly shoulder-length brown hair and wears a peach-colored shirt.
Courtesy DJ Kamala.
DJ Kamala
A portrait of DJ April Hunt, a Black woman wearing a white blouse with a garden scene printed on it. She wears rose-tinted glasses and stands against a white wall.
Courtesy April Hunt.
DJ April Hunt
A black-and-white portait of DJ Reborn at a turntable. She is a Black woman wearing a jacket with lapels and holds a a pair of headphones around her neck with one hand.
Courtesy DJ Reborn.
DJ Reborn
A group of people in casual athletic wear dancing together in a dance studio, led by an instructor dancing in front of them.
Courtesy Camille A. Brown & Dancers.
Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ Every Body Move
A portrait of DJ Rick Medina sitting with hands between his knees in front of a wall of vinyl records on shelves.
Photo: Malcolm Williams. Courtesy Rich Medina.
Rich Medina
The dancers of Ladies of Hip Hop on stage. They all wear tie-dyed shirts and jean shorts, and hold one hand up in a fist.
Photo: Loreto Jamling. Courtesy the artists.
Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective
L3NI (Soul in the Horn)
July 15

L3NI’s passion for music has led her to work as a musician, DJ, and credited mixing and mastering engineer. She has played to thousands of fans across the globe, performing on the stages of SXSW, Coachella, EDC, and Bonnaroo, opening for acts like Lizzo, Foushee, Hiatus Kaiyote, Beats Antique, Talib Kweli, and Soulive. She has also DJ’d corporate events for HBO, Baltimore Ravens, Footlocker, Lincoln Center, Baltimore’s National Aquarium, Sotheby’s, MSG, Brooklyn Museum, and Central Park’s Wollman Rink in NYC.

L3NI combines her background in piano, vocal performance, and composition with music technology to enhance her skills in mastering and audio engineering. She most recently mixed Natasha Diggs’s remix of Khruagnbin’s “First Class.” She has mastered records by rock guitar legend Stephen Stills, folk icon Judy Collins, vocalist Lee Taylor, internationally recognized composer Theo Croker, and hip-hop artist NFROMTHEWAVE, which underscores her ability to meet the demands of a broad range of world-class artists. She is also releasing exclusive DJ edits and remixes on Soul in the Horn.

Jennifly (Soul in the Horn)
July 15

London-born, New York–based DJ Jennifly brings her eclectic music taste and cool girl vibe to the hottest dance floors from downtown NYC to London and beyond. Growing up on a rich musical diet of ‘80s rare groove soul, '80s pop, post punk, hip hop, dancehall, and underground UK dance music, has equipped Jennifly with a diverse and impressive collection of music she can dig deep into, to rock the dance floor.

Her signature sound is a seamless, fun-and-funky mix of disco edits, deep house, RnB, hip hop and future bounce. So hot that Refinery 29 gave her the thumbs up, “Jennifly reaches for the avant garde—from nu-disco to post-punk.”

Jennifly has played at some of the hottest lounges and clubs in the city like Le Bain, Et Al, and Public Hotel. In addition to night life DJing, Jennifly regularly spins for top brands that have included, Land Rover, Converse, City Harvest, Anna Sui, G-Shock, Venmo, and Samsung to name a few. Jennifly’s versatility works well with a variety of settings and making her a regular fixture at private events and fashion shows.

Rennie Harris Puremovement
July 16

Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM), founded by Rennie Harris in 1992, preserves and disseminates hip-hop dance and culture (including national Indigenous street dance styles/movement) globally, performing for the Queen of England, the Princess of Monaco, and US hip-hop ambassadors (President Reagan American Embassy Tour, 1986; President Obama Dance Motion USA, 2012).

Harris introduced street dance to concert stages, coined the term “street dance theater,“ and pioneered the dance style globally as a powerful teacher/spokesperson for the significance of “street” origins in any dance style. Recognized as a leading ambassador for hip-hop dance art (US Department of Education), Harris’s work encompasses African American traditions of the past, while presenting new generational voices through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance.

Harris has been awarded the 2011 Creative Ambassador of Philadelphia; 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship; 2007 US Artists Rose Fellowship; 2005 Master of African American Choreography Medal (Kennedy Center, DC); Five Alvin Ailey Black Choreography Awards; three Bessie Awards; the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts Award; Pennsylvania Artist of the Year 2007; a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and honorary doctorate degrees (1st Street/Hip-hop Dancer, Bates College 2010; Chicago’s Columbia College 2013). Harris was voted one of the most influential people in the last 100 years in Philadelphia history and featured in many publications. These included Rose Eichenbaum’s Masters of Movement: Portraits of America’s Great Choreographers. Harris’s RHPM has and continues to bring people together in community, across diverse identities and dance backgrounds, to engage, share, inform, create, and witness universal stories through street dance.

Bembona
July 22
With her community-oriented and Afro-diasporic approach, Brooklyn-born and -raised, Puerto Rican-Panamanian DJ BEMBONA has established herself as a singular voice in the landscape of New York City nightlife and beyond. In 2021 alone she had the honor to perform opening sets for La India, Mr. Eazi, DJ Blass, and more. She has also performed sets for companies like YouTube, HBO Pa'lante, and Snapchat, and has been included in Latinx-focused campaigns for Nike and Buchanan’s Whisky. Recognized as a mainstay in this musical panorama, Bembona’s musical practice is rooted in healing and self-love, with an emphasis on educating her followers about the politics of Black Latinidad. In an era where much of mainstream Latinx music is whitewashed, Bembona is adamant about empowering and visibilizing those who look like her. Her mission is to continue to celebrate, empower, and unite the Black diaspora.
Donwill
July 29

Donwill is a Brooklyn-based DJ and multidisciplinary creative whose tenure in the game includes dropping an album revered as an underground classic and music production for culturally groundbreaking TV shows. The most important fact however is that he knows how to expertly curate music, keep dance floors moving, and read rooms.

His hip hop group, Tanya Morgan, dropped the seminal album Brooklynati, and as a solo artist he has composed music for Last Week Tonight With Jon Oliver, Ziwe, and Slate’s Slow Burn podcast. He also served as music supervisor on Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas and continues to release studio albums at a steady clip.

Donwill hasn’t found a room he couldn’t rock, and be it a nightclub, wedding, or Twitch stream he’s known to get the party jumping. He’s also a well-known house DJ for several comedians and shows including Michelle Buteau, Ziwe’s Pop Show, Butterboy with Jo Firestone, Aparna Nancherla, and Maeve Higgins, and 2 Dope Queens with Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams. His role onstage isn’t limited to just playing music, however, as he riffs alongside the acts becoming a hybrid of what Ed McMahon was to Johnny Carson and what the Roots are to Jimmy Fallon.

Reggie ‘Reg Roc’ Gray
July 30
The American dancer, director, and choreographer Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the innovators of a new hybrid dance form, Flexn: a combination of various styles such as bone breaking, get-low, connecting, hat tricks, and pauzing, the style he evolutionized. He produced his first major choreography at the Park Avenue Armory with FLEXN (2015) and FLEXN EVOLUTION (2017) and has toured both productions around the world. In July 2019, he premiered his most recent work Maze at The Shed; it was performed in an architectural maze of light and explored the puzzles and poetry of human coexistence. Recently, he created a new production, Flex Ave, that has toured nationally since January 2020. Known for his choreographic works rooted in social justice themes, Gray will continue to inspire the world through the expression of Flexn and his dance company, The D.R.E.A.M. Ring Inc. (Dance Rules Everything Around Me).
DJ Stormin’ Norman’s Sundae Sermon
August 5
Stormin’ Norman originally hails from East London and is now a resident of Harlem. In the ’90s, he was part of a groundbreaking DJ collective who brought The Thunderstorm Mix on WBLS 107.5FM in NYC. This introduced live mixing to the daytime radio setting, a new precedent in national radio and the future of music as we know it today. For over 20 years, he’s played major New York clubs, exclusive and elite private events, sports events, TV, fashion shows, and world tours. He is resident DJ at Red Rooster in Harlem and a regular DJ for Summer Stage Festivals in NYC. He is widely known throughout the tri-state area as the DJ, founder, and executive producer of Harlem’s most anticipated summer festival, The Sundae Sermon Music Festival.
DJ Kamala
August 5

DJ Kamala has professionally provided sounds for over two decades with experience playing to many of New York’s top venues, underground parties, and special events. Of Note, Kamala has been featured at the top nightclubs House of Yes and Public Records. For three years, Kamala was a weekly resident DJ of one of Manhattan’s most exclusive venues, Top Of The Standard (a.k.a. Boom Boom Room), and has played events with many of the world’s most renowned and legendary DJS including Louie Vega, Jellybean Benitez, QTIP, Todd Terry, Questlove, Red Alert, Timmy Regisford, Sting International, Quentin Harris, Merlin Bobb, DJ Spinna, Rich Medina, Ron Trent, Ruben Toro, Tony Touch, Stretch Armstrong, Pete Rock, DJ Skratch & VooDoo Ray, DJ Rashida, and more. In 2017, Kamala became part of the New York cityscape as the subject of a five-story mural painted by UK artist Richard Wilson that has garnered international attention as part of a global city series. Kamala produces, mixes, and curates music for a variety of private events and commercial ventures. Kamala also produces, markets, and promotes events and has a background in fashion and graphic design.

As a daughter of legendary jazz musician Carter Jefferson, who toured with Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Art Blakey, Mongo Santamaria, Woody Shaw and Fort Apache Band, Kamala was endowed with a rich and prolific musical origin. A fourth generation Chelsea-Manhattan native of Indigenous and African American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban roots, Kamala’s multicultural upbringing provided an early introduction to downtown culture and led her into New York’s vibrant nightlife community, which laid the foundation for her musical expertise and flavorful edge. Specializing in music spanning the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s to the present, and including many genres, most notably soulful house music, disco, soul, classic hip hop, contemporary, and more, Kamala masterfully mixes and weaves her sets together with passion and grace, conjuring moods that speak to her musical journey.

DJ April Hunt
August 12
April Hunt is a DJ and community-builder who activates music and her platform, Mixtape, as a tool for recognition and celebration. Since her time as director of communications and marketing at MoMA PS1 and the founding of her agency sparkplugPR, she has been at the nexus of a widely connected and powerful community. For over a decade she has nurtured this community of creatives and entities, with an emphasis on celebrating Black and brown creatives.
DJ Reborn
August 12

DJ Reborn is a trailblazing international DJ, sound collage artist, and arts educator. Born in Chicago and based in New York, Reborn’s diverse career spans decades of electrifying audiences across continents. This sought-after phenom has opened shows for artists ranging from The Roots, Erykah Badu, and John Legend to Jack White. Her dynamic style has been embraced across mediums by artists like Kara Walker, Wangechi Mutu, Carrie Mae Weems, Julie Mehretu, and Sanford Biggers. She has rocked the decks on BET, the NAACP Image Awards, and prestigious stages and festivals including Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House, Glastonbury, Camp Flog Gnaw, The Kennedy Center, and The Apollo. She is the resident DJ for the iconic Ms. Lauryn Hill’s world tour. Most recently, Reborn dazzled at the historic 2022 Academy Awards Governor’s Ball alongside the incomparable DJ D Nice.

Reborn is an active arts educator and mentor, partnering with Urban Word NYC, Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Lower Eastside Girls Club, and more. She is also the founder of DJs for Justice, a coalition of DJs using their platforms in service of racial, social, and economic justice. She is currently developing an international performance piece centered around archiving the stories of women in the DJ world.

DJ Reborn’s uncanny ability to impact crowds from festivals to galas to weddings sets her apart in her field. Her love for music is palpable.

Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ Every Body Move
August 13

Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD) is a Bessie Award–winning, NYC-based dance company advancing the artistic vision of Camille A. Brown. Founded in 2006, inviting audiences into stories and dialogues about race, culture, and identity, CABD is known for an introspective approach to cultural themes through visceral movement and sociopolitical dialogues.

Every Body Move (EBM) is Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ multifaceted dance education and community engagement program that celebrates the legacy and heritage of social dance from the African diaspora and catalyzes this knowledge to nurture the confidence and creative potential of Black and Brown people with little access to the arts.

Comprised of curriculum-based sequential workshops, EBM provides Black and Brown children, adolescents, and adults with activities that explore the historical, social and cultural context of African American and Afro-Caribbean dance. EBM participants gain awareness of and make connections between themselves and their culture, which enrich their creativity, inspire curiosity and amplify their unique voices.

DJ Run P.
August 13
Soul Summit Music
August 19
Soul Summit Music is a trio of Brooklyn based DJs: Jeffrey Mendoza, Sadiq Bellamy, and Tabu. They collaborated 20 years ago to create events around soulful dance music. Those parties turned into a movement that draws huge crowds and fills dance floors for a series of revolving events that have become the most anticipated in New York City and beyond.
Rich Medina
August 26
Rich Medina is an elite international DJ who, in the 30-plus years since he spun his first record, has turned his young love for music into a celebrated career as a platinum-selling record producer, recording artist, poet, journalist, and Ivy League lecturer. From the legendary nine-year run of his Lil’ Ricky’s Rib Shack party at APT in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, to his globe-spanning, consciousness-raising, dance-floor-shaking party Jump-N-Funk, a sonic tribute to Afrobeat and its iconic creator Fela Kuti, Rich stands without peer as a contemporary DJ of diverse range and taste. A sonic storyteller par excellence, his art pushes past those boundaries. As a respected spoken word artist, he has performed on stages around the world, and his sonorous voice has been utilized by everyone from EA Sports to Nike. He’s an intellectual and public speaker who has lectured at TEDXPhilly and his alma mater Cornell amongst others. And he’s a producer of note, crafting work with a range of artists, including Jill Scott, J Dilla, Bobbito Garcia, and Phil Asher. In short, Rich Medina is the modern-day renaissance man—an artist and visionary who has built a compelling narrative on his own terms. And his journey continues.
Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective
August 27
Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective (LDC) is an all female intergenerational dance collective that creates dance works illuminating the strength, power and diversity of women in hip hop. Ever-present in the work are the freestyle, cypher, and call-and-response aspects of the origins of street and club dance culture, while the work also explores the space of proscenium performance. Led by director and choreographer Michele Byrd-McPhee, LDC creates work that celebrates and centers feminist narratives examining the intersections of gender, race, and resistance.

Schedule

All Summer Sway events begin at 5 pm and end at sunset, except for Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective on August 27, which begins at 5:30 pm.

Friday DJs

Soul in the Horn featuring L3NI and Jennifly
July 15

Bembona
July 22

Donwill
July 29

DJ Stormin’ Norman’s Sundae Sermon with special guest DJ Kamala
August 5

DJ April Hunt + DJ Reborn
August 12

Soul Summit Music
August 19

DJ Rich Medina
August 26

Saturday Dance Workshops

Rennie Harris Puremovement
July 16

Reggie ‘Reg Roc’ Gray and The D.R.E.A.M. Ring
July 30

Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ Every Body Move and DJ Run P.
August 13

Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective
August 27

A schematic diagram of The Shed's Plaza as seen from above for Summer Sway. Angular blue-green shapes represent the sculptural installation Tidal Shift. At the top and bottom of the diagram are the words In Front of Itself. They are a permanent artwork by Lawrence Weiner set in the Plaza's paving stones.

On The Plaza: Tidal Shift

Summer Sway includes a site-specific installation, called Tidal Shift, by WIP Collaborative, a shared feminist practice of independent design professionals focused on engaging communities and the public realm. The design responds to the angular geometry of The Shed’s façade and offers sculptural platforms, created with Nike Grind, for sitting, lounging, performing, and gathering.

In contrast to the monumental towers and vast public spaces of Hudson Yards, the installation supports the scale of human bodies through inclined planes and stepped surfaces that invite play, rest, and social connection. Its blue-green colors and undulating forms are celebrations of movement and action on The Plaza, as well as expressions of solidarity with the “Green Wave” of feminist activism that has gained global momentum with recent hard-fought victories for women’s healthcare rights in Latin America. Through its forms, colors, and responses to context, the project calls for a tidal shift in the liberation and care of diverse embodied experiences.

About the Designers

WIP Collaborative is a shared feminist practice of independent design professionals focused on research and design projects that engage communities and the public realm. Distinct from a traditional firm built around a singular identity and authorship, WIP is centered around co-creation and adaptable ways of working together. The founding members of WIP Collaborative are Abby Coover, Bryony Roberts, Elsa Ponce, Lindsay Harkema, Ryan Brooke Thomas, Sera Ghadaki, and Sonya Gimon. WIP Collaborative is based in Brooklyn.

Illustration courtesy WIP Collaborative. Fabrication by Konduit NYC.

In The Works

Shed Program Team

Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer
Solana Chehtman, Director of Creative Practice and Social Impact
Frank Butler, Director of Production
Monique Martin, Associate Producer, Summer Sway
Sarah Pier, Production Manager

Thank you to our partner

Nike and The Shed partner to expand human potential through sport and art.