Phoebe Legere, Neighborhood Treasure
Phoebe Legere
Words and photographs by Melissa Ditmore
Multi-disciplinary artist Phoebe Legere is a living treasure of the East Village. Legere’s music has been compared to “Edith Piaf, Jerry Lee Lewis and Maria Callas” (NY Times) and Frank Zappa (Billboard). Studs Terkel, during a radio broadcast profile of Phoebe on National Public Radio said it best: “She is an American Original.” And she has been busy this summer! She hosted this year’s Acker Awards in June, and had two shows of her paintings in June, one on Fifth Avenue, while people who wanted an overview of her career could see 45 paintings in Binghamton. She is known for her angelic voice and playing the accordion and piano at the same time. She described her performances as “jazz piano played by a punk who has been suppressed, marginalized, ignored, ripped off, and buried alive in the dustbin of history.”
Phoebe Legere leading the Lower East Side Children's Chorus in her family-friendly version of the Ramone's song Blitzkreig Bop, "Neighborhood Bop."
Phoebe Legere says, “I nurture Lower East Side Visionary artists of tomorrow!” She teaches art and music to neighborhood kids, including the Lower East Side Children's Chorus in the Ramone's song Blitzkreig Bop, which she rewrote as "Neighborhood Bop." She makes a point of teaching local songs by composers that live or have lived in the neighborhood. She hosts the educational children's TV show that features many of our most beloved Lower East Side artists at www.tiktok.com/thecolorwheel.
Tamir Hargana
Most recently, she curated and emceed the Festival of Possibilities at the July 16 and 17 at the Clemente Soto Velez Center. The weekend included music, painting and dance. Legere wore her Abenaki regalia to introduce Saturday night’s performers, featuring Latin rhythms from Maria Raquel, throat singing and horse-head fiddle by Tamir Hargana, and griot Salieu Suso on the giant calabash kora. The Climax of the Festival de la Posibilidad was the pan-Latin dance orchestra The Rumberos featuring Paul Nieta. Legere is the director of the Foundation for New American Art, which won a Challenge America Grant from the NEA for the festival.
New York is not easy, and Legere explained, “As long as NYC has got a few teeth I'll walk proudly down her Fentanyl streets, filling my heart with eternity, and gorging my eyes on the ever renewing acres of young flesh longing to get popped open by the New York night.”
Visit phoebelegere.com
www.instagram.com/phoebelegere
www.facebook.com/phoebelegeremusic
www.youtube.com/phoebelegere to learn more!
