LIVE: The Romance Movement w/ Melo X, Mara Hruby & Jesse Boykins III at Water St. Project

Photos: Corey Thompson/Photoleer Photgraphy & Victoria Ford/Sneakshot (Hipstamatic shots)

The Water St. Project, a pop-up art space and gallery created by No Kings Collective located in the Georgetown area in Washington served as the melting pot for The Romantic Movement.  With art work by Dafna Steinberg, Brandon Hill and Hamilton Riley to name a few. This was the perfect place to hold this edition of The Romantic Movement which was curated by Street Etiquette and presented by MDLN Ventures.

The Romantic Movement is a collaborative effort between culture/style aficionados  Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs of the blog Street Etiquette, Jesse Boykins III, Mara Hruby, Melo-X, and more effortlessly merge hip-hop, jazz, soul and spoken word that is captivating to the mind, body and spirit. DJ Spinster Tracy supplied the tunes while the fashion forward crowd patiently waited for the show to start.  After a few minor glitches, and some opening remarks from Kissi and Gumbs, Baltimore spoken word artist Trae Harris -who resembles a young Ruby Dee introduced Melo-X .  Who started his set with "The Highest" which is Sampled from Maxwell's “Bad Habits”.

After a few dope tracks and a couple of crazy antics Melo-X’s set was over.  Then Mara Hruby, the lovely chanteuse from the west coast wooed the audience with a her sweet renditions of Yasiin Bey’s “The Panties” to Jamiroquai’s jam “Alright” as well as a few new originals that will appear on her upcoming album.  Closing out the night was Mr. Schwaza himself, Jesse Boykins III who had the Romantic Movement on his back—no literally, he was rocking a Romantic Movement letterman jacket.  Boykins, knows how to work his sensuality be it asking the ladies to come closer, letting his hair fall where it may to his direct eye contact with the women in the audience, to which I am certain I heard at least 10 pairs of panties fall to the floor.

I can say that the Romantic Movement kept its word about bringing the melody, soul, and style both reflective and progressive in two most universal languages, Sound and Sight; Melody and Style.