CJM’s Enterprise Ltd. will host the second annual MissInkAmerica.com Beauty Pageant on Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Chelsea hotel in Atlantic City. The stunning red carpet affair is set to begin at 7pm, with the pageant starting at 9pm.

The MissInkAmerica.com Pageant will feature some of the country’s most beautiful women with body art competing for the title of MissInkAmerica.com. Contestants will compete in a variety of presentations including club wear, lingerie and formal attire. During their walks down the runway, each young lady will discuss her individual platform and provide answers to randomly selected questions. Contestants will be judged in a number of categories including overall beauty, brains, and body art, along with many others.

(more…)

Dan Fogel

Margate resident and jazz organist Dan Fogel is back by popular demand to perform at the 11th annual Chicken Bone Beach Concert Series. The free weekly concert series takes place at Kennedy Plaza on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, located between Mississippi and Georgia avenues (adjacent to Boardwalk Hall). Fogel and his quartet, which includes Fogel on Hammond B3 organ, Pete Chavez on tenor sax, O’Donel Levy on guitar and Webb Thomas on drums, will perform Thursday, Aug. 11, starting at 7pm.
(more…)

Leavander Johnson

Lifelong Atlantic City resident Leavander Johnson, who honed his boxing skills at the Atlantic City Police Athletic League and earned an IBF lightweight boxing world championship, will be honored Wednesday, Sept. 22, on the fifth anniversary of his passing.

In partnership with the City of Atlantic City and the Leavander Johnson Foundation — a non-profit, community-based empowerment organization designed to improve the quality and circumstances of life for present and future generations — a statue honoring Johnson will be commissioned by classically trained master sculptor Brian Hanlon. A media event and artistic rendering of the statue will unveiled on Friday, July 9, at 10am at Center City Park, Atlantic and North Carolina avenues in A.C. Attending the ceremony will be Bill Johnson, Craig Johnson (Leavander’s brother and manager), Floyd Williams (CEO of the Leavander Johnson Foundation), Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford, A.C. Second Ward Councilman Marty Small, and Hanlon.
“This is a fitting tribute to someone that made the entire city proud,” said Langford in a media release. “World Champions come far and few between, and Leavander has represented himself, his family, and the community very well. I am proud of him.”
Johnson tragically lost his life in the ring, at the pinnacle of his career and doing the job he loved, defending his championship belt and representing the city in which he was raised. Johnson compiled a professional career record of 34-5-2, with 26 knockouts, and was trained at the PAL by his father, Bill Johnson, who continues today to coach young boxers in after-school programs and provide them with the life skills needed to be successful in and out of the ring.
(more…)

The Ocean City Fine Arts League is hosting its seventh annual Battle of the Bands fundraiser to support the classes, art educational events and gallery of the Ocean City Fine Arts League — a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. The event will take place at the Ocean City Music Pier on Saturday April 10, at 6pm, with professional musician Wayne Gallagher serving as emcee.  Performing are some of the hottest bands from the Philadelphia and southern New Jersey areas, including PBL, 1.2.3. Draw, Band of Ghost, Kill the Kid, Kickin’ Bear and the ChARTer Tech Band. Two of the bands are up-and-coming entertainers from the Ocean City High School and the ChARTer Tech School in Somers Point. Judges for this event are Tom Watkins — head of a regional music management business — and Herb “Bubba” Birch — musician and head of the Bubba Mac Blues Band from Ocean City.
Admission to the event is $10. Advance tickets are available at the Ocean City Fine Arts League, 608 Asbury Ave. in Ocean City, or at the City Hall Annex at 901 Asbury Ave., in O.C. Tickets will also be available at the door. — Kelley Anne Essinger

A group exhibition featuring outdoor sculpture inspired by nature and architecture is taking place through April 23. The South Jersey Shore Clay Tour (SJSCT) will consist of 11 venues with a total of 14 exhibitions throughout a six-county area of southern New Jersey. The tour is a pre-conference event in conjunction with the 2010 National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts conference in Philadelphia March 31-April 3.

All the venues on the tour will be hosting an exhibition or have an open clay studio. The tour will stop at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey’s Arts and Sciences Building Monday through Wednesday, March 29-31, and makes its final stop in Surf City’s M.T. Burton Gallery and Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. It also makes a stop at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville.
Artists participating include Matt Burton, Bruce Dehnert, Elaine Lorenz, Heather E. Miller, Fred Spaulding, Joan Turbek and Mark Walnock. The event is free and open to the public. For directions to Stockton, go here.
The SJSCT mission is to attract national and local attention to the ceramic/art scene in southern New Jersey, as well as like-minded art institutions, artists, art collectors and clay enthusiasts together. The objective is to create a better network among institutions for better serving the community as well as to help strengthen current existing systems and create more opportunities for visual arts during these difficult economic times.
For more information, call (609) 494-0006 or go here.

Word on the street has it that a new entity will soon be taking over leadership of Atlantic City’s performing arts jewel Dante Hall, which has been closed for several months during a “restructuring process.”

A source says the entity in question, “wants to do good things for the performing arts venue as well as the surrounding community.”

Look for more about this news soon inside Atlantic City Weekly.

Come join the Tony Day Ensemble (left) at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville on Saturday, Feb. 6, from 2:30-4:30pm for an afternoon of jazz, blues and poetry in celebration of African American History Month.  The group’s creative approach will entertain, encourage dancing and provide an overall fun time.
This year’s ensemble features eight locally and nationally recognized musicians including guitarist Teddy Royal, organist Kyle Kohler, tenor saxophonist Larry Unthank, vocalists Angela Burton, Harvey Drew Dawson and Tim Norman, and poet Joann Peoples. The bandleader, Day, will show his skill on drums and percussion. He has toured extensively throughout the world as a working professional musician, and his performances range in genre from jazz, country, rock, blues, Top 40, R&B and Latin. He has performed headliner acts in Las Vegas and Atlantic City showrooms, at the Cape May and Somers Point Jazz festivals and the NCL Cruise Ship lines. He enjoys great musical diversity by playing with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, the Platters, and the South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble. He is also the bandleader for the Across the Globe Jazz Group, and is the drummer for the Denise Black Big Band. The cost for Noyes Museum members is $7 and $10 for non-members, which includes refreshments and desserts by caterer Harvey Dawson. Reservations are strongly suggested.
—    Kelley Anne Essinger

"Jamestown Island, Virginia," 1996 Silver gelatin print by William E. Williams

An exhibit entitled “Unsung Heroes: African American Soldiers in the Civil War,” featuring
the photography of William Earle Williams, will be on display at Richard Stockton College in Pomona through Feb. 19.

The exhibit is described as a “comprehensive pictorial record of prominent sites where black troops Presented by the Visual Arts Faculty, School of Arts and Humanities, the exhibit will feature a contributed to the final Union victory with distinction and valor.”

According to Williams, the Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in the Humanities and Curator of Photography at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, “These sites dispel the myth that blacks were given their citizenship and rights after the Civil War without having fought for and earned them.”

The free exhibit will be in the Stockton Art Gallery (room H113). On Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 2:30pm, (in AS102), Williams will be giving a slide lecture entitled  “The African American Civil War Experience: Photographs Celebrating Unsung Heroes and Places.” Following the lecture, from 4-5pm, Williams will be available in the art gallery for conversation (and refreshments).

There will also be a catalog available (limited quantities) for $10.

The gallery hours are: (Monday-Friday) 11:30am-4pm with late night hours on Tuesdays until 8pm; (Saturday) noon-4pm or by appointment by emailing denise.mcgarvey@stockton.edu.

William J. Marino, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey (HFNJ), announced on Tuesday, Dec. 29, that more than $1.9 million in grants was awarded to 96 organizations in 2009, including 38 organizations in the fourth quarter.
Among those receiving fourth-quarter grants from the HFNJ were the South Jersey AIDS Alliance in Atlantic City, which received $15,000 to support its Healthy Relationships Plus Program, and the South Jersey Cultural Alliance in Pleasantville, which received $7,500 to support its Arts for Students Project. The Healthy Relationships Plus Program uses intervention in a small group environment to help build the skills needed to disclose HIV status to family, friends and partners, and also teaches safe sexual behaviors. The Arts for Students Project provides disadvantaged students in Southern New Jersey with quality arts experiences, enabling students in grades K-12 to attend symphony concerts, theatre, dance performances, arts and cultural exhibitions.
“I am proud to announce that since the Foundation’s inception in 2004, it has awarded nearly 500 grants totaling over $18 million to charitable organizations across the state,” says Marino in a release to the media.

The Atlantic City Ballet

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, at Sofia’s Restaurant in Margate will host a wine-tasting event that will be donating proceeds to the Atlantic City Ballet.

The event is part of a monthly series that takes place the first Tuesday of every month, from 5:30-7:30pm, and will pair an exquisite selection of wines with special hors d’ouevers for $25 per person.

Representatives of the fine wines will be on hand to answer questions. To make reservations, call 822-9111.