New York, NY -
On Sunday, August 26th Whole Wave hosted their inaugural charity benefit, Chop It Up!, The Ultimate Food Fight in effort to help support continuous growth of local food and to make it more feasible to everyone. Several celebrity chefs, musicians, and talented poets also took part in making this event a success.
Chop It Up! was hosted at the exquisite Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) where many guests got to enjoy delectable dishes, great drinks, and causal conversations. Jennifer Johns, a songstress and artist herself opened up the evening with a soulful song that caught the attention of everyone and changed the atmosphere almost simultaneously. As she emceed the event, she delivered both passion and humor between sets.
Chef Michel Nischan, CEO, Founder, and President of Wholesome Wave took the stage to speak a few words about the purpose and importance of local agriculture and the sustainable food movement.
Shortly after it was time to start slamming on stage. Jennifer explained that each chef had been given a poet to partner with and through inspiration and creativity they had to come up with their “flow”. To my dismay, I thought we would be eating some of the chef’s creations but not long afterwards Chef JJ and Vanessa Hidary took stage and he reassured us that he had prepared a lobster salad that was being passed around. Whew!
The poetry slam continued with the rhymes of poetic pairs Stephen Colman and Chef Michel Nischan, Kelly Zen-Yie and Chef Evan Hanczor, and lastly Mahogany Browne and Chef Ty-Lor Boring who delivered a provocative yet tasteful slam that left most blushing. By no surprise, they had the honor of winning the contest.
As I thought the evening couldn’t get any better, R&B songstress Goapele took stage, suddenly the room got darker, the lights got warmer, and it all felt very intimate. She sung several soulful classics as well as some of her own from her new album, “Break of Dawn”. An awesome closeout to soulful, artsy evening indeed. I look forward to next year’s Chop It Up!, a food fight I’ll never forget.
Photo Credits: Kate Hess Photography
Isaiah Kelsey
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