One of my favorite things about NYC is the free summer concerts. Every spring, I make a list of about ten shows I want to see—but I usually only actually make it to one or two of them.
Some of the best (or at least most memorable) concerts I’ve been to have been the free ones: the Roots on Pier 54 in July 2005, one of the best nights of my first summer in New York; Little Brother in Fort Greene Park in 2006, where they said hello to me before the show on my way to the bathroom, but I was too shy to respond; Cafe Tacuba in Central Park in 2007, where I was knocked around in a humid, smelly, dusty mosh pit; Girlyman at Madison Square Park in 2007, when we took awkward pictures with Ty and found out that Doris used to be a camp counselor of someone my girlfriend knew from college; Lauryn Hill at Wingate Park in 2007, even though she showed up three hours late, looked and sounded almost unrecognizable (and, well, not that great); Jean Grae, 9th Wonder, and Talib Kweli at Fat Beats in 2008, where I stood five feet from the Jeanius herself.
Here are some I might make it to this summer:
- June 20 at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park: Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival featuring Dead Prez, Smif n Wessun, Pharoahe Monch, etc. ($10 suggested donation)
- July 9 at Herbert Von King Park: MC Lyte
- July 18 at Central Park: Q-Tip
- July 22 at Crotona Park: KRS-One
- July 31 at Prospect Park: Soulive
- August 12 at Brower Park: Black Moon and Smif N Wessun with live band
Tags: brooklyn, free concerts, hip hop, manhattan, parks, summer
DJ Jojo 
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