DJ Abbie Debut (Recap)

Ten days removed from my DJing debut. I've since come down off the high to the point that I haven't listened to music since. Which is astonishing for me. But I guess, subconsciously, my body and brain knew a detox was needed. I had a lot of fun controlling a room with music. In the weeks leading up to it, I organized most of my "world" music onto one playlist to make it easy. Then I organized them based on their sound or the mood they set. It's all about mood for me.

A Random Moment with Damali Abrams

Damali Abrams, interdisciplinary artist

We met at the opening reception of her exhibit at A.I.R. Gallery in DUMBO. In person she was quiet and humble, on the video screens we viewed 365 of her characters. Summer of 2011, I watched a video she exhibited addressing the hot button issue at that time - unattractive Black women destined for lifelong singlehood - at an event at Bluestockings book store organized by her sister, Abiola Abrams. On July 18, Columbus Circle was under the deluge of a summer thunderstorm storm so we took refuge in the Time Warner Center for this interview.

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My name is Damali Abrams. I’m an interdisciplinary artist but I work mostly right now in video and performance but I also do collage and mixed media.

How long have you been involved in the arts?

Well, I’ve pretty much been involved in the arts all my life; I studied dance growing up, I’ve written poetry since I was a little girl and then I started getting into more visual art as I got older.