Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden is excited to present a fun-filled day of live music with the Emmy-nominated bluegrass/hip hop fusion band Gangstagrass, previously seen on America’s Got Talent. The event takes place on Saturday, April 29 from 1:00 PM - 5:30 PM on the South Meadow of Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden at 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301. Admission is $40.00 and children under 5 are free. More information, including the schedule of events and tickets, is at https://snug-harbor.org/event/gangstagrass2023/
Kicking off the festivities will be MakerPark Radio DJ Tom Ferrie at 1:00 PM and Staten Island’s own Jazztronauts at 2:00 PM, with Gangstagrass taking the stage at 4:00 PM. In addition to entertainment, food trucks and vendors will be onsite, including Valducci’s Pizza Truck, Melts & Soups, Egger’s Ice Cream, Celebrate at Snug Harbor, and Pig Island NYC. Drinks are sponsored by Kills Boro Brewing Company, who will also be pouring their unique signature beers at the event. This program is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. All the proceeds benefit the Heritage Farm at Snug Harbor.
“Snug Harbor is pumped up to bring Gangstagrass to Staten Island to perform on our outdoor South Meadow Stage. In the same way that Snug Harbor offers our visitors a blend of contemporary cultural events inside of classically historic architecture, Gangstagrass fuses together the sounds of bluegrass and hip-hop into an unexpected and energetic sound that creates a fantastically fun experience for concertgoers!” said Jessica Baker Vodoor, President & CEO of Snug Harbor. “And as a bonus: by purchasing a ticket to the concert, you’ll be directly helping our Heritage Farm inspire Staten Island’s community. Concert proceeds will go towards underwriting Heritage Farm hands-on workshops, growing experiences, and healthy eating opportunities.”
"There's no shortage of reasons justifying our participation in an event supporting Snug Harbor, and its various projects,” said Sean Torres, co-owner of Kills Boro Brewing Company based in Staten Island. “We've collaborated with the Heritage Farm at Snug Harbor on a handful of different brews, and some of us are customers of its awesome CSA program. Staten Island benefits greatly from having this amazing farm. As a business in the community, and the farm's next-door neighbor, we feel it's important to make sure that program continues to grow. Pun intended."
"The Heritage Farm at Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden is a special NYC treasure,” said Jimmy Carbone, founder and producer of Pig Island NYC, an annual food festival which will be at Snug Harbor in September 2023 for the fourth year in a row. “Our chefs work closely with the farm in order to source all the vegetables for our event, including collard greens and shishito peppers! We’re happy to support this special event, and look forward to being back.”
Gangstagrass is a band combining great American traditions of bluegrass, hip-hop, and beyond to create a whole new musical genre that is more than the sum of its parts. Known for the Emmy-nominated theme song “Long Hard Times to Come” from the FX television show Justified, they’ve developed a whole new genre. Their latest album “No Time for Enemies” climbed to #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart. Gangstagrass takes so much of what’s amazing in this country, and distills it into a message of common ground in the form of original songs that have everyone up and dancing!
The Jazztronauts are Nutone Recording’s funkiest fusion band, hailing from Staten Island, NY. Focusing on improvisational performances that incorporate their love of jazz, funk, hip hop, and electronic music, their sounds have been dubbed future jazz by listeners and their shows have quickly become a gathering place for music lovers and nightlife aficionados.
About the Heritage Farm at Snug Harbor
Snug Harbor’s Heritage Farm was established in October of 2011 to help feed, inspire, and educate the local community. The Heritage Farm is a 2.5-acre production farm that uses sustainable, low-till farming practices that focus on building soil health through the use of compost, crop rotation, intercropping, and cover cropping. The goal is to provide the Staten Island and NYC community with hands-on growing experiences, insights into NYC’s food systems, and access to fresh and local produce for years to come.
The Heritage Farm references a farm that was collectively managed by the residents of Sailors’ Snug Harbor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At its peak between 1880 and 1910, Sailors’ Snug Harbor was a self-sustaining community, producing fresh vegetables through its working farm. One hundred years later, Snug Harbor is trying to accomplish a similar task of encouraging its local community towards self-sustainability- by growing culturally relevant produce for diverse communities and focusing on creating inspiring educational experiences for all. Every year, the Heritage Farm hosts hundreds of young adults from local high schools, SYEP, and the Department of Probation’s YouthWRAP program. Many more community members and volunteers help grow and support the farm’s efforts.
Prior to 2020, the farm’s main revenue source was from selling distinct, locally grown produce to high-end restaurants in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, establishing partnerships with culinary heavy hitters such as Per Se and French Louie. However, in March 2020, the Farm shifted its primary focus from restaurants to the community, establishing its first Community Supported Agriculture program and establishing regular farm stands selling produce directly to the community. The farm aims to inspire discourse around how communities can come together to create a more equitable food system and alleviate food insecurity among neighbors in need. In 2021, the Heritage Farm grew over 22,000 pounds of produce in its fields, high tunnel, and two poly houses. It donated around 4,000 lbs of produce to local community partners and 10% of farm stand sales and CSA purchases were made using SNAP/EBT and P-EBT. Looking forward into 2023, the Heritage Farm will continue this community focus and plans to grow education and workforce development opportunities through programs like Con Edison’s Young Farm Engineers.
About Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden offers dynamic programming in the arts, horticulture, and agriculture for diverse communities and all ages, on our historic 83-acre campus. We envision being a locally impactful, globally renowned destination, true to our values of artistic vibrancy and community, inclusion and discovery, stewardship and conservation.
Snug Harbor is the result of more than four decades of restoration and development to convert a 19th-century charitable rest home for sailors into a regional arts center, botanical gardens and public park. One of the largest ongoing adaptive reuse projects in America, Snug Harbor encompasses 26 historic structures, 14 botanical gardens, a 2.5-acre urban farm, wetlands, forests and park land on a free, open campus. Snug Harbor is a proud Smithsonian Affiliate organization. Learn more at snug-harbor.org.
