Sometimes it feels like it. The month of May may have been named for Maia, the Roman earth goddess and wife of Vulcan. Much more to follow, but we will start out with this event:
Ashes to Ashes b-boy-b-girl Event May 1-6. Portland is not a hotbed of hip hop music for a variety of reasons including strong discouragement by the police and the liquor control agency. Every so often though, Portland busts out something suprising in hip hop including this event.
May 1-2
Ashes to Ashes 3 is the place to be for bboys and bgirls. Monday and Tuesday Remind and Poe 1 from Cali lay down a style elements 'shop on the nice floor at Nocturnal. Moves aint nothin witout style - itz an art. Workshop 5-7PM $20 each day Nocturnal is 1800 E. Burnside
May 3-4
Wednesday and Thursday itz skilz and methodz from Abstrakt and Teknyc at Nocturnal. Workshop 5-7PM $20 each day. Nocturnal is 1800 E. Burnside
Later Thursday, Ashes to Ashes lays down a benefit show for Ethos www.ethos-inc.org, who connect kids to music year round. The line-up is: Sleep (Old Dominion), Clockwerk (Sand Peoples), Kurious George, The City, Def Minds and EPP SAHEED. This show is all ages w/ a bar for 21+ kidz 07:30 PM - Hawthorne Theater 1507 SE 39TH AVE $7.00
May 5
Friday warm up at the Killafornia Powermove Master Workshop taught by Ronnie Ruen at Nocturnal. 5-7PM $10. Nocturnal is
1800 E. Burnside
The Ashes 2 Ashes: Round Three Competition begins Friday with 5 on 5 battles. The winning crew of b-girls-b-boys takes home $2500 cash money. Judges are Leanski (Floorlords MA), Poe 1 (Style Elements CA) and Remind (Style Elements - CA)
Doors open @ 6:00pm Battles start @ 7:00pm Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell
May 6
Saturday itz the top four crews from day one and a mad crew exhibition by King of the Hill (10-Man): Lil DVS (X-Fienz - NY) D-Rock (Renegades - CA) Lilou (Pokemon – France) Jeromeskee (Massive Monkees – WA) Do Knock (Battle Monkeys – CA) El Nino (Floorlords – MA) Nemesis (Breaks Cru – NY) Cico (Spinkings – Italy) Machine (Rockforce Crew – CA) Casper had to cancel to do some film work. Here come da judge, or judges: Alieness (Zulu Kings – NY) Poe 1 (Style Elements – CA) Leanski (Floorlords – MA) - this aint no joke - the exhibition battle prize is $1000. DJ's include Skeme Richards (Section 31), CPS Diablo (Rebel Alliance/Bboyworld), Trunks (Rebel Alliance), Mando (Rebel Alliance), Magneto (Innernational) and Day (Innernational) Saturday's event is at Portland State University Peter Stott Center 903 SW Hall Doors 5:30, battles 7.
Cypher circles at the Ashes to Ashes after party wit an exhibition battle - Miracles (Furious Styles) vs. Tim the Pitt (Massive Monkees). Soundz by Day and Magneto 10:30pm – 2:30am Wonder Ballroom $7.00 all ages situation 128 NE Russell
The Friday and Saturday shows are $20/both days advance; $14 general admission at the door; $7 for students with a valid Oregon ID. Advance tickets at the PSU box office or the Wonder Ballroom ticket office.
They are not allowing camcorders or cameras, but you can buy DVD's of Ashes to Ashes One and Two at the shows. All events are all ages.
More details at: http://www.myspace.com/ashesbattle
Also on May 1, the PSU art lecture series continues with artist Kathryn Van Dyke who showed last month at Pulliam Deffenbaugh. This might be a very serious talk as she has a BA in political economy from Berkeley, a BFA in painting from CCA and a MFA from Yale. She is also a former Headlands resident. PSU 5th Avenue Cinema Room 92, 510 SW Hall 7PM Free.
