~ A SNAPSHOT OF NEW YORK’S LATIN AND CARIBBEAN PARTY PEOPLE ~

FILM PHOTOGRAPHY BY CIRO MEDINA

To assign a definitive beginning and end to any cultural movement in New York City is an inherently flawed enterprise. 24-7, 365, the city that never sleeps is constantly churning and reinventing itself, as grassroots movements grow into trees that shed leaves and fertilize the next nascent shoots. The environment is rigorous: dark and light constantly tussle in the dusky trenches of the city and in the arcane policies of the municipal machine, a duck-and-weave fought by borough businesses that struggle for life as they fuel and feed each generation’s escapism. Despite this temporal turbulence, or perhaps because of it, documentation of eras is possible, even crucial.

When Names You Can Trust first started pressing records in 2007, the fringes of the city in which we operated constituted a completely different landscape than we see now. But throughout it all, apparent to the closest observers, the roots — the music that sustained the previous decades — are vibrant and alive just under the surface; fresh, exciting and firmly tied to the city’s miraculous melting pot. It may be true that we’ve experienced a record renaissance in the last decade, but that belies the relentless, obsessive caretaking and support undertaken by disc-jocks, dancers and musicians through the previous eras, thriving despite the odds.

Latin and Caribbean music has been a pillar of NYC’s nightlife in one shape or another long before we started, and will continue to be so, long after we finish. It’s the sound of the immigrant communities of deepest Brooklyn and Queens, our home, and, like the city itself, has never rested. That’s why the documentation by our talented friend, collaborator, and photographer Ciro Medina, is so essential. Capturing fluid movement and crystallized moments of the past decade, spurred on by a beautiful community of creative artists, players and participants who form an integral part of the city’s timeless, cultural resistance. It’s a story worth celebrating. La lucha continúa — para siempre.

NAMES YOU CAN TRUST LIBRARY COLLECTION 01
PREMIER EDITION

100-PAGE FULL COLOR PERFECT BOUND BOOK (6X9)
1st PRINTING LIMITED TO 100 COPIES