Call for Photographers: "Bare Men: The Group Show" is Accepting Submissions

Bare Men: The Group Show 


On October 1, 2019 the male nude in photography will be celebrated.


Submissions are now open for the Bare Men: The Group Show exhibit to be held in New York City.


ENTER BY:
August 10, 2019


Bare Men: The Group Show is a photography exhibition of the male nude curated and presented by Abigail Ekue Photography. This exhibit will showcase photo imagery which celebrates all expressions of the male nude - sensuality, grace, strength, vulnerability and sexuality.


All genres of photography featuring the male nude will be considered -- classical, fine art, self portraits, fashion or glamour, erotic, outdoor/nature or urban, conceptual, dance et al.


Artists at any stage of their career can submit. POC and LGBTQ photographers are encouraged to submit their work.


INFO  +  SUBMIT  WORK: https://www.abigailekuephotography.com/bare-men-group-show


If you have any other questions, please contact for information.

*   *   *

Best Women's Erotica of the Year Book Tour

I have a story included in the newest book in the Best Women's Erotica (BWE) series. To promote the book, authors, the editor and erotica the book tour will make four stops in the coming weeks and I will be at 3 of those events!

At these events, I'll be reading from my erotic story, "Cigarro Tarde", which is included the Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2. This will be the first public reading of this story!


What happens when a 50-year old woman meets with a cigar shop owner to plan a friend's birthday party? 

New York International Auto Show Drives Into Town

*Native Creative Concierge™ approved

Despite ubiquitous yellow cab, NYC may not be considered a driving town. What will all the glorious sidewalks and public transportation it's no wonder that many New Yorkers don't drive.

But the city is full of car drivers and car lovers. And the place to find them is at the New York International Auto Show. This year's event will be held from March 25 to April 3 at its home for the past almost 30 years - The Jacob Javits Convention Center. It's a great way to spend the day, and have the opportunity to meet NYC locals and car enthusiasts. It's a Native Creative Concierge recommended event!

Hours for the New York International Auto Show are 10 am to 10 pm Monday through Saturday and 10 am to 7 pm on Sundays (including Easter Sunday). For security reasons, backpacks are not allowed but cameras are so you can take as many photos as you like. We live in the Instagram Era so share your photos using the Auto show hashtag #NYIAS. I'll be sharing my images using their hashtag and the #NativeCreativeConcierge hashtag so you'll be able to find those here!

I love going to the car show! I started going almost 20 years ago with my brother. I still haven't lost my love for the event. It's exciting to see all these futuristic automobiles (it was the first place I saw gullwing doors in-person!) and my bro finally showed me what all the hype was about the James Bond cars. At the New York International Auto Show was where I saw a Duesenberg up close for the first time and got to sit in a pick-up truck (this was during my "I'm gonna drive cross country in a pick-up truck" phase)!

Read More>>

Bare Men featured at Autumnal: A Group Show

Some of you know about the uphill battle I've faced since starting my male nude series, Bare Men. But I've continued work on the series -- meeting and working with great men along the way and creating wonderful, thoughtful and provoking art.


On October 22, photographs from Bare Men will exhibited at Autumnal: a group show at arthouse.nyc. The opening reception is from 7 to 9 PM.

New York City Firefighters Calendar Launch

NYC Firefighters 2015 Calendar - 20th Anniversary Special Edition

On Wednesday, July 23, I attended the launch of the 2015 NYC Firefighters Calendar -- 20th Anniversary Special Edition. The event was held at Sofia Italian Grill on 48th Street. Some of the firefighters featured in the 2014 and 2015 calendars were on hand to greet attendees and sign copies of the both calendars. Also in attendance was Battman of Battman Studios, the photographer of the Firefighter Calendars since 1996. All donations made that evening went to the Staten Island University Hospital Burn Center.

From Left to Right: FF Andy Guich, FF Christopher Frazzetta, FF Kievon Harper,
FF Conor Moriarty, FF Tom Caruso, FF Jimmy Condit

#seemetakeover Includes Abigail Ekue Photography

This Thursday, July 24, SeeMe takes over 2 of the biggest billboards in Times Square - Express (9000 sq foot LED) and American Eagle (15,000 sq foot LED and 25 stories tall) - for the #seemetakeover.

WWE Wrestlemania 30 Press Conference in New York City

WWE Wrestlemania 30 Press Conference at the Hard Rock Cafe in
New York City

On April 1, in the heart of New York City's Times Square, the WWE held their WrestleMania 30 press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe. The event was hosted by Michael Cole and featured Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon, COO Paul "Triple H" Levesque, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and the host of Wrestlemania 30, "The Immortal" Hulk Hogan.

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan will host WrestleMania 30
in New Orleans, LA on April 6. 

WrestleMania 30 will take place on Sunday, April 6 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA. 

Super Bowl XLVIII Week in NYC

January 27 to February 2 will be affectionately known as Super Bowl Week in New York City. Well, affectionately known to me but to others it'll be known as a traffic-jam, clogged-sidewalk causing nightmare. Either way, it will be a high-energy time in NYC no matter how cold the temperatures may be.


I'll be working with the NY/NJ Super Bowl XLVIII Host Committee at various tourist welcome sites and along Super Bowl Boulevard perimeter. This gig is right up my alley. Need directions? Need help purchasing a metrocard? Need help hailing a taxi? Need help getting to your terminal to catch your flight? Need to know where to go to avoid all the Super Bowl Madness? Need to make sense of the madness that will be Penn Station, Times Square, Grand Central, or the PATH trains (the game will be played in New Jersey)? It's just a small part of what I do as {The} Native Creative Concierge and it's what I'll be doing during Super Bowl with for the Host Committee.

Rising Waters 2.0 Exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York

UPDATE: The Rising Waters 2.0 exhibit has been extended until March 31, 2014!

"Chinatown Eternal Dusk", November 2, 2012

I received the news on Wednesday night. One of the photos that I took during the days following Hurricane Sandy will be included in the special presentation, Rising Waters 2.0. at the Museum of the City of New York. I did my best to contain my excitement that night but believe me, I sent texts with lots of exclamation points and took one of my "leaps of glee" when I got home.



Once the winds died down, I ventured out to Prospect Park, Park Slope, SoHo, LES, Chinatown, Tribeca and the Financial District to see how those neighborhoods were faring without power after Hurricane Sandy. Images from my time in SoHo ended up on seriouseats and ArtINFO and were requested by ABC's The Chew.

4th Annual Mac Off Presented By The Claque

Competitors at the 4th Annual Mac Off presented by the claque

On Sunday, November 17, the claque presented its 4th annual Mac Off, a macaroni and cheese competition. Chefs (amateur, professional and passionate) presented their macaroni and cheese creations at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn. 

Attendees at The Mac Off tasted each entry (some more than once) and cast their ballots for the best mac-n-cheese dish. No cheese was off limits. And as it turned out, many of the add-ins that were once groundbreaking (bacon) were the more "usual" variations. The mac-n-cheese evolution is upon us.

Bacon Mac & Cheese (homemade bacon, Gruyere, mustard seed, caramelized onion)

S'MACdown: S'MAC Mac-n-Cheese Competition

Beginning on May 6, macaroni and cheese lovers, aficionados and self-professed professionals were given the opportunity to share their creations in a S'MACdown sponsored by S'MAC.


Competitors were allowed to create any mac & cheese dish -- no ingredient off limits. 2 out of the 4 finalists choose bacon (the bacon craze doesn't seem to be losing steam just yet).


The live judging event took place on  May 19 at the Murray Hill S'MAC location. The panel of judges included S'MAC owner Sarita Ekya, Barbara Rich, consulting chef for S'MAC, and Tom Birchard, owner of Veselka who tasted and deliberated over the four finalist creations.

Speed Rack USA Women's Finals for Breast Cancer

On May 16, Speed Rack USA held the finals of the women's bartending competition in New York. It was a fundraising event with 100% of the proceeds going to breast cancer research and education. My good friend, Glendaliz Camacho works for SHARE, a beneficiary of the funds raised at the event.

WWE Superstars For Sandy Relief Auction

How would you like to attend a NASCAR event with WWE Superstar John Cena or attend the Sandy Relief Party with The Miz (and ride there with him in a limo) because he's awesome?

The WWE is auctioning these opportunities to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief. Five months later and many people who were affected by the superstorm are still displaced or haven't received any hurricane relief. Proceeds from the auctions will benefit the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief. The auction will run for 2 weeks until Tuesday, April 9, 2013.

Tribeca Film Festival Spotlight

For the past week and a half, the Tribeca Film Festival has been announcing its selections for this year's Spotlight and Midnight sections and the new Storyscapes section to take place from April 17 - April 28.

The Spotlight section will feature 33 films -- 23 of them making their world premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF). They are a mix of narrative films and documentaries that blur the lines of indie and mainstream filmmaking. According to Genna Terranova, Director of Programming, the features in the Spotlight section explore fresh takes on unconventional relationships. I'm sold. Given my penchant for writing about and studying relationships, I'm looking forward to quite a few of this years films at the Tribeca Film Festival's Spotlight section co-sponsored by Cadillac and JetBlue.

NY Post "Subway Death Cover" Should Not Have Been Published

My first thought upon seeing the cover of the NY Post on December 4 was "whoa". I peered deeper at the image trying to get a look at the face of the train operator, physically empathizing for what Ki Suk Han must've been feeling, wishing it were merely a scene from a movie in which at the last second the man would hoist himself up on the tracks narrowly missing his real fate.


And I was disturbed that the NY Post chose to publish that image on it's cover (not to mention it's choice of headline). R. Umar Abbasi, freelance photographer, took the photo. I heard the story on WCBS 880 yesterday before I saw the image -- onlookers screamed and ran from the scene as the photographer tried to use his camera flash to warn the train operator. I can see the logic behind his decision -- a split second panic-driven decision perhaps (Malcolm Gladwell explains this well in blink). But what remains is that photo ended up on the cover of the NY Post.

Lower Manhattan, NY Post-Hurricane Sandy

CAAAV Hurricane Sandy relief effort in Chinatown, NY

 

On Friday, November 2, what turned out to be hours before power was restored to most of Lower Manhattan, I took a second trip to see what was going on and how residents were managing in the New York neighborhoods of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, TriBeCa, Battery Park and the Financial District 5 days after Con Ed had cut power below 34th Street.

Residents search through donated clothing

Talk to me about Shame

A solo performance by Juilan Goldhagen

A few weeks ago, I attended the solo performance, Talk to me about Shame, by Julian Goldhagen. He's a great storyteller; he brought us to speed on not wanting to go to a friend's birthday party, losing his virginity and never having sex with that sex again and copping a squat on an African mountaintop for the ultimate release. Goldhagen's vulnerability and courage are magnetic. 

 

Gallery Crawl

Photo by: Mia Berg

I attended the evening reception of Mia Berg's WOMAN : CAMERA at Gallery 151 on Thursday evening. The nudity, self-portraits and Spencer Tunick got me through the door. After studying the images and the exchange of opinions, my friend and I headed to Chelsea for an impromptu gallery crawl.

A Marathon Of Inspiration

ING NYC Marathon 

After drinks and a PG-13 rated sleepover, we woke to sunshine and cheers from along 4th Avenue. My sleep haze cleared instantly as I rushed to his living room window. The wheelchair racers whizzed by on their hand bikes.


I've always had a connection with the ING NYC Marathon--maybe because it takes place in November, maybe because it's a "NY thing", maybe it's the athleticism of the event but I watch it every year. One year, I watched from the Columbus Circle entrance of Central Park. I was really depressed that year and the marathon was quite the morale booster.

Elite Women (lead pack)

Occupy Wall Street - My Two Cents

I'm reporting to you live from home. Not from Zuccotti Park or Washington Square Park or a holding cell. I haven't been down to the protest site. Me, Miss Rebel Rouser. I most certainly have reason to. I am part of the 99%. Don't have a job to call out from to join Occupy Wall Street (one of the reasons I'm in the 99%). Yet, the protest, the movement, doesn't feel organic. Would I be more inclined to participate if there was tear gas involved? If I had the opportunity to hold hands with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson? If they were burning effigies? For a protest, there seems to be a lot of rules and regulations and scheduling. Are they simply trying to bait the NYPD into committing brutality?


When they said Occupy Wall Street, that's what I thought they'd do. Block entrances to buildings, camp out in the lobby of 60 Pine Street, clog the Wall Street subway stations. Granted, many of the workers on Wall Street can work from home but maneuvers like that would make the "corporate bigwigs" think twice about coming to work. The protesters are in a park providing walking lanes for commuters. I've read their "list of demands"; there's that tiny sliver of haves that need to realize that the have-nots are pissed. We need to go Robin Hood on them. As result, I haven't ventured to Occupy Wall Street. I've viewed some photos online. Barely sat through 30 seconds of coverage on livestream.


I guess I expected more of this:

Instead of this:

Photo Credit: Ijeoma D. Iheanacho

Those are my current feelings. They are subject to change.

*   *   *