By Grace Weber
As an artist living and working among other artists, I find myself being a "frand" to many of my peers. A "frand" is a friend fan, something that I either just made up or already exists on urbandictionary.com, but either way is a term I am honored to be able to call myself. The amount of talent that flows in and out of New York City is as raw, vibrant, and overwhelming as the Nile. At times it almost feels dangerous to dip your toes into the water, for fear of getting lost among the masses of driven survivalists as we all fight to swim upstream, of getting swallowed by the big ones, or for fear of sinking to the bottom when desperation in the midst of so much potential finally weighs too heavy. Most times though, being able to jump into this insane river of talent is invigorating, electric, and If you can hook into the current, will take you places you could never imagine reaching as an artist.
The best part about swimming in this beautiful current though, is getting to be true friends with other artists you couldn't admire more. To stand by as a proud frand while your fellow cohort owns the stage and touches other lives with just a few notes on their guitar. This was my experience last month at the YoungArts New York Singer/Songwriter showcase. Watching my fellow peers on stage reminded me of why I am so deeply proud to call myself a YoungArts alumni and so proud to live in this crazy city. As I watched each performer, I felt so honored to wear this badge of "YoungArts" and of "New York" and be able to say, "yeah, I'm one of those fishies."
For this particular performance, I not only got to be a performer and stand by as a proud frand, I also was the proud curator of the event. Here's some play by play of each performer: