NYE x Birthday Bash

Diane Varnie, known to most as Shabazz and now DJ Auntie Spice, is a first-generation Liberian-American based in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orange, California. She is a multi-hyphenate creative with over a decade of experience in the music industry, specializing in marketing, communications, event production, and artist/project management.

Acknowledged by Rolling Stone as NYC’s “go-to for tapping into cutting-edge talent,” SHABAZZ has presented groundbreaking debut performance events for Billboard Hot 100 artists such as Migos, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone, Rae Sremmurd, and more. These events left a lasting cultural impact in the city, garnering high-profile press coverage in The New York Times, Billboard, The FADER, and others.

While Shabazz is a cultural virtuoso and creative luminary who currently works full-time as an Executive Project Manager at Saint Heron, all other times she’s DJ Auntie Spice, working to illuminate obscure nostalgic treasures, crafting a rich, diverse auditory experience of soul, funk, jazz and beyond with her sound art initiative, Auntie·ism.

Follow on IG: @_KingShabazz_

Maria “Ri Ri” Garcia, known worldwide as Rimarkable, is not just a DJ, producer, and vocalist. She is a cultural architect, an Afro-Puerto Rican powerhouse who has been shaping the sound and spirit of dance music for more than two decades. Brought up in Detroit, sharpened during childhood summers in Chicago, and thriving in New YorkCity, Rimarkable embodies the full spectrum of the Black diasporic tradition—gospel, funk, soul, jazz, house, and techno, all transformed into electrifying soundscapes that ignite dance floors across the globe. Her story begins in the sanctified heat of a Pentecostal church, where her mother, a classically trained pianist and music minister, saturated her childhood with gospel harmonies and discipline. Summers in Chicago exposed her to the earliest pulse of house music, embedding in her DNA a rhythm that would later define her life.

By 1997 she was on the decks, and by 2006, frustrated with the industry’s barriers and biases, she became her own producer, turning resistance into innovation and claiming complete autonomy over her craft. Since then, Rimarkable has built a singular career that bridges worlds. She has shared stages with legends including George Clinton, Madonna, Erykah Badu, Louie Vega, Honey Dijon, Roger Sanchez, Pete Tong, and Francois K,

while simultaneously cultivating underground spaces that honor community, authenticity, and radical joy. Her long-running events in Detroit, New York, and San Francisco have become touchstones for dancers and DJs alike, curating nights that areas spiritual as they are explosive. In 2021 she joined the storied Defected Records family, cementing her place among global house music royalty. As a host of the weekly Defected Radio Show, she now reaches millions of listeners across more than 170 FM stations worldwide, bringing her distinctive voice and impeccable taste to an international audience. Beyond the booth, Rimarkable is a celebrated educator andthought leader. She serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, and instructor at Waajeed’s Underground Music Academy, where she teaches her groundbreaking course series, “The Alchemy of DJing.” This work frames DJing as both art and ritual, blending technique, history, spirituality, and cultural analysis into a visionary curriculum, with raw truth and resources for navigating the scene as a business. She has presented versions of this lecture and workshop in Nairobi, Berlin, Yale, and the Queens Museum, underscoring her mission to expand dance music’s roleas a vehicle for healing, liberation, and collective power. Rimarkable’s artistry is rooted in more than beats. It is about presence, justice, and transformation.

Whether unleashing a thunderous techno set, layering vocals over soulful house grooves, or leading students through the metaphysics of rhythm, she approaches every arena with the same intent: to elevate. To remind us that music is ceremony. Top reserve the roots of dance music while pushing it fearlessly forward. With releases on labels including Classic Music Company, Big Love, Club Bad, and her forthcoming imprint Betty Jean’s Dream, Rimarkable continues to expand her sonic universe. Each project is a testament to her philosophy that excellence, dignity, and artistry are notoptional but essential. Detroit is her foundation, New York is her canvas, and the worldis her stage. To experience Rimarkable is to step into a revolution of rhythm, where every beat is an invitation, every set is a sermon, and every dance floor becomes asanctuary. This is more than music. This is Rimarkable.

Follow on IG: @IamRimarkable

Run P. is a multi-hyphenated audiophile – DJ, music supervisor, producer, and conceptual artist who creates unique sonic experiences for art, fashion, lifestyle, and nightlife.

As a cultural producer, Run P. champions a progressive + soulful blend of electronic sounds and heavy bass lines (house, R&B, hip-hop, electronic, funk, dancehall, Afrobeat, and more) that meet at the intersection of the global Black electronic music scene and NYC’s celebrated dance movement. Enter QUENCH, his monthly NYC dance party launched in 2015. Ten years later, QUENCH continues to sit at the forefront of the nightlife scene with its timeless tagline: More Bass, More Soul, More Dance. Having featured the most sought-after DJs the international dance movement has to offer including DJ Tunez, DJ Lag, Jubilee, Bambii, Foreigner, Uproot Andy, ShyOne, and countless others. In 2018 Run P. launched QUENCH Presents…. to deliver a portfolio of events that span the breadth of Black electronic music + club culture.

As a live music events and music programming universe, QUENCH Presents… produces and delivers a monthly electronic dance-party called QUENCH; a monthly retro-themed (disco, boogie, and rare grooves) club

night called Fried Dynamite; a monthly flavorful AfroLatin meets Caribbean dance party, Algo Riddim, and the annual NY-to-London Carnival celebration, NYLON.

As a music supervisor Run has worked on various projects, including for the Comedy Central-cum-HBO show South Side. He is also the Director of Live Events, Music + Audio programs at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and is the Programming Director at the Brooklyn-based music venue, Friends and Lovers. Run P. was born, bred, and currently lives in New York City, and performs + produces special musical projects worldwide.

Follow on IG: @Run_P

Johnny Nelson is a sculptor, jeweler, and Brooklyn native whose namesake brand, Johnny Nelson Jewelry, was officially founded in 2017 but brought to life long before its inception. His jewelry journey began in 2014 while on tour, when he sought to look as good as he felt while performing. The solution was jewelry: his first piece, an attention-grabbing three-finger ring of stone and wire, was brought to life with the help of his mother. This sparked not only a passion but also the realization of his innate talent and creative vision.

Proudly crafted in New York City, Johnny Nelson Jewelry creates heritage and heirloom pieces in brass, sterling silver, 14K and 18K gold, wax, resin, sandstone, and precious stones, including diamonds, emeralds, and garnets. His bold designs merge punk, hip-hop, and spirituality, drawing from diverse cultural influences, fine art, and the neighborhood jewelers who defined hip-hop style in the 1980s and 1990s. His work pays homage to pioneers, icons, and symbolism from popular culture, Black communities, and urban landscapes; often in the form of conversation-sparking statement pieces.

Nelson has collaborated with award-winning visionaries such as Lena Waithe, Spike Lee, and the Jean-Michel Basquiat estate, and has presented sculptural hair beads, earrings, and necklaces at New York Fashion Week, honoring twenty-one influential women and musicians of color. His artistry has also earned recognition in the fine art world, with pieces displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and sold in numerous Sotheby’s auctions.

Beyond creating collector’s pieces, Johnny Nelson Jewelry serves as a platform to unite Black and Brown creatives, foster community, and celebrate the essence of life.

Follow on IG: @JohnnyNelsonJewelry

Vibe curator-in-chief, Farima K. Kito is a New York-based Burkinabe artist, curator, and cultural producer whose work revolves around her love and obsession with global Black cultures. Recognizing art as an effective attention-grabbing strategy for inciting change, Farima has dedicated her practice to pursuing and facilitating its access from all corners of global Africa.

Holding subaltern cultures as focal points of exploration in her curatorial practice, Farima pays particular attention to African and Diasporic arts and histories. Through her research and study of the multi-african gaze, Farima has interviewed and worked with film and music legends like Baloji, Thandiswa Mazwai, Oumou Sangare, Souleyman Cisse, Aya Nakamura, amongst others. When she is not researching or writing about emerging cultural movements, she can be found turning looks on runways or on a glam poster in your nearest Sephora.

Farima’s personal artistic practice begins with recognizing art as a compass —a way to Sankofa, “go back and fetch it”. Recognizing that the tools needed to make impactful change can only be accessed through intentional, consistent communion and questioning of our artistic

practices, Farima writes, dances, makes films, produces events, and supports other culture workers with an energy of infectious urgency.

As the founder of Petite Monsieur Agency, a one-stop boutique creative agency providing trend intelligence and communication strategies for brands in the cultural and creative sector, Farima has developed and managed projects with organizations such as NPR, The Apollo Theater, The Africa Center, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Villa Albertine, Lincoln Center, Warner Music France, and more. If you’re looking for a place to be supported in tangibly manifesting your talents, tap in with @PetiteMonsieur_ (www.Petitemonsieur.com).

Follow on IG: @FarimaKKito

He is not your average Master of Ceremony. He’s The Hostess with the Mostest. The guy who’s the most fly & with the words most sly…. His name is Specks “Funky Johnson”, aka the Love Doctor, but you can also call him Mr.BLACKTASTIC. He’s a goofy, stylish, Afrocentric dude who landed on Mother Earth to put a pep in your step, a glide in your stride, and a dip in your hip. His soul purpose is to get you out of your seat & on your feet.

Voice actor, model, fashion aficionado, and vintage collector, this guy thinks it’s 1976 every day. As the host of two MoCADA Radio podcasts (Fried Dynamite and The Love Doctor) and our resident visitor services lead, this soul brother is a playa from the Himalayas who has the gift to speak to those who can’t hear and give sight to those who can’t see. You’re in for a treat when he’s on the mic. His style is tight and his mack is right. So when you see him, you better know it’s going down.

Follow on IG: @SpeckstheAllmighty1

Peaches is a classic New York neighborhood restaurant created by BCRG. The restaurant takes its culinary cues from the timeless dishes and preparations of the American south where Marietta Cade, also known as Peaches Lewis, was born and raised. With four locations including Peaches, Peaches Hot House, Peaches Grand, and Peaches Prime.

Follow on IG: @peachesbrooklyn