Dijon

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The City Section baseball and state track championships produced plenty of memorable moments with one week to go in the 2022-23 sports season.Goodbye Dijon Stanley (left) of Granada Hills and Rodrick Pleasant of Gardena Serra have a friendly embrace after Pleasant wins the 200 at state championships.(Nick Koza) It’s off to college for Rodrick Pleasant and Dijon Stanley, two of the best two-sport athletes in the nation. They’ve…

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s football awards time. The Los Angeles Times announces its All-Star team.Speed matters Dijon Stanley of Granada Hills prepares to take off behind the blocking of Phyllip Hamburg-Martinez.(Craig Weston) It’s not every football game that fans begin to realize whenever one player has the ball in his hands, a touchdown could be coming. Dijon Stanley of Granada Hills High was that player this season.He was so electrifying that…

Witnessing the Chicago DJ Honey Dijon behind the decks can be as close to a spiritual experience as you can get on the dancefloor. Trading in the four-to-the-floor kick drum that provides the aortic pulse to house music, Dijon’s mid-tempo sets conduct her crowds perfectly from tantalising buildups to scattered breakdowns and communal euphoria as her soaring melodies kick in. Her debut album, 2017’s Best of Both Worlds, played as a rousing microcosm of these multihour sets, and in the years since its release, Dijon has…

House is truly the genre that celebrates itself. What other music is so obsessed with describing the moment of its enjoyment – the bodies, dancefloors, drugs, love, communion? In the wrong hands, an “up in the club / together we are one” lyric can feel trite, but in the manicured talons of Honey Dijon, the meta-mood of house becomes monumental.The artwork for Honey Dijon: Black Girl MagicIn the past decade the Chicago-born, New York-sculpted DJ has ascended from fashion party favourite to Ibiza resident to Lady Gaga…

In spite of its origins in Black and queer working-class communities, dance music has long been co-opted and whitewashed. As evidence, see producer Kaytranada being the first Black artist to win best dance/electronic album at the Grammys as late as 2021, or the recent surprise at Drake and Beyoncé putting out work rooted in house music, in spite of its origins in Black and queer working-class communities. “I have a word for it,” offers internationally renowned DJ and producer Honey Dijon, with a wry but assertive laugh:…