Green Shoots: Summer Concerts Are On Their Way!

<p> The full listings aren’t up yet, but after a quiet 2020, summer in New York in 2021 is going to ring to the sounds of outdoor concerts. </p> <figure><iframe loading="lazy" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cBcuSUfuVnU" allowfullscreen="" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0"></iframe></figure> <p><br> The <a href="https://www.bricartsmedia.org/bric-celebrate-brooklyn-festival%20">BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn Festival series</a> has so far only announced its kick-off concert, Ari Lennox with Kamauu and Nesta on July 31, and will also offer a digitally streamed version of concerts via YouTube. <br> </p> <p><a href="https://cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage/">Central Park SummerStage</a> is trickling out its schedule, notably still-not-retired George Clinton leading Parliament Funkadelic <a href="https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/george-clinton-2021-matinee/?date=20210627">bring their space-age funk to the park on June 27</a>. In August, <a href="https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/lake-street-dive-2021/" target="_blank">Allison Russell, Native Daughter and Bird of Chicago, open for Lake Street Dive</a>. There’s also a sort of Lilith Fair Lite when Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls play, but that’s a bit outside our wheelhouse. <br> </p> <p><a href="https://www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home">Lincoln Center</a>, which runs a few different outdoor series, is leading strong with <a href="https://www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/eddie-palmieri-847">a June 5th Eddie Palmieri concert at Damrosch Park</a>, which should attract dancers and listeners alike; he’ll have his absolutely dynamite band with him. They also have <a href="https://www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/coming-together-a-juneteenth-celebration-852">a promising children’s concert</a> and <a href="https://www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/i-dream-a-dream-that-dreams-back-at-meandnbspa-juneteenth-celebration-901">celebration for Juneteenth</a>.<br> </p> <p>But <a href="https://www.carnegiehall.org/Events/Citywide">Carnegie Hall’s Citywide series</a> so far has the most thorough schedule online at this point, with a <a href="https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2021/06/12/carnegie-hall-citywide-los-hacheros-0500pm">Los Hacheros concert on June 12</a> at Denny Ferrell Riverbank State Park—an adapted sewage treatment plant in the Hudson—and the Afro-Colombian outfit <a href="https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2021/07/01/carnegie-hall-citywide-grupo-rebolu-0500pm">Grupo Rebolu</a> in the Queens Botanical Garden July 1. <a href="https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2021/07/09/carnegie-hall-citywide-toshi-reagon-and-biglovely-0700pm">Toshi Reagon</a> plays a free show in Bryant Park on July 9.<br> </p> <p>We’ll be keeping an eye out for more upcoming free concerts, as well as the in-person gigs that are popping up like dandelions, all listed on Afropop.org, so keep an eye on the site. </p> <p>It’s a good feeling—a plucky Knick squad is in the playoffs, there is music on the horizon—New York’s back, baby. </p>