Movers and Shakers: The 40 Most Exciting Soulful Artists of 2003

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James
De La Vega
sidewalk picasso
James De La Vega has appropriated the pavement in El Barrio as a canvas for his chalk drawings, treating passersby to a surprising and ever-changing gallery of images: a skeleton on a bicycle, Christ on the cross, a Picasso, or a tribute to Jose Torres, the barrio-born boxing champion. So when diabetes prevention specialists at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Spanish Harlem wanted to conduct a public education campaign, they looked no further than the neighborhood sidewalks. Commissioned to spread the public health message, De La Vega chose to depict his mother, a diabetic former two-pack-a-day smoker, with a cigarette in one hand and an apple in the other. Exhortations to stop smoking, eat good food, and get eyes, kidneys, and blood checked accompanied the drawing.
The 30-year-old Cornell graduate has used the power of chalk to denounce domestic violence and celebrate Puerto Rican history. He often adds text to his images, usually Bible verses or his own maxims, such as ?Beauty magazines make my
girlfriend feel ugly? or ?Become your dream.? And De La Vega?s mother appears so often in his work that he calls her ?my tag.?
www.pixelpixie.net/vega/
?JACQUELINE WHITE

Gabrielle Roth ECSTATIC DANCER
Imagine a collection of bodies swooping and swaying to a staccato drumbeat. Then imagine that these same moving bodies are not dancing, but meditating. Welcome to the Lower East Side Manhattan studio of ecstatic dancer and composer Gabrielle Roth. In her 35 years of teaching movement classes, Roth has developed a series of rhythms through which she leads her students on a dancing path of self-realization.
Roth?s version of ecstatic dance is equal parts trance, experimental theater, and primal movement. How does it work? ?When you move the body, the heart starts to move,? she says. ?All our emotional energies start to move. If we?re physically stuck, movement unleashes that. If we?re emotionally stuck, or mentally stuck, stuck in our beliefs about ourselves or others in the world, well, movement unleashes that.? To hear samples of Roth?s trance music, visit her record company Web site at www.ravenrecording.com.
?ELIZABETH LARSEN

Lo? Jo tribe of troubadors
Listening to Lo? Jo is like discovering the ultimate nightclub band in an exotic yet vaguely familiar city. Rustic French sounds, gypsy airs, whiffs of Arabia, and hints of Africa come from the bandstand, while the night is thick with the mingling accents of the whole world. Not surprising, since Lo? Jo is a French-based collective that once traveled Europe with a street theater ensemble. After three decades together, they retain a tribal vibe evident in their easy, joyous interplay: Denis P?an?s husky lead vocals are sweetened by backup singers Nadia and Yamina Nid El Mourid amid darting flute, saxophone, accordion, and congas. It?s a world-music mix that goes beyond the trendy to the transcendent. Au Cabaret Sauvage (World Village) ?KEITH GOETZMAN

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