Arts & Entertainment
Watch: Grace Jones, 67, Hula Hoops Topless in Fire Brooklyn Set (NSFW)
Not safe for work, but definitely worth a stealth under-desk viewing.

Screenshot via thomasfitz/YouTube.
In the days leading up to this year’s Afropunk Festival in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Lauryn Hill may have been the most talked-about performer on the 2015 lineup — but Day One headliner Grace Jones, 67, quickly reclaimed the bulk of the buzz.
Jones performed her electric Saturday-night set at Commodore Barry Park in “a succession of wraps, gowns, science-fiction headdresses and a skull mask,” reported New York Times reviewer Ben Ratliff. But for the set’s instantly iconic finale, Ratliff wrote, she removed all but “an under-bust corset, sheer tights and white body paint in stripes and patterns.”
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Oh, and a hula hoop.
“Only Grace Jones could end a perfect set with a flawless rendition of Slave To The Rhythm... while hula hooping!” tweeted the music news site OkayAfrica, alongside a video of the performance that has since gone semi-viral.
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According to the Times, Jones kept hooping throughout the entire rendition of “Slave to the Rhythm,” and then some — “ through its symphonic swells and its negative spaces, through her deep, severe long-tones and incidental muttering, through introductions of band members and a reference to her forthcoming autobiography.”
Dozens of gleeful photos and videos from audience members and reactions from fans around the world lit up social media in the hours that followed.
The Times compared Jones’ “extreme but relaxed” confidence and her “bold, honest, provocative and peaceful” overall enterprise to the Afropunk Festival itself.
Now in its 11th year, the two-day festival was born of “underground energies” but has “inevitably moved toward the center,” Ratliff wrote.
This recent mainstreaming can perhaps best be summed up by a headline that ran on the fashion site Refinery 29 on Sunday: ”40 Afropunk Street Style Looks To Copy Now.”
Still, no matter how we try to emulate the fire vibes of this year’s Afropunk Fest, let’s face it: We’re never going to look as good as topless Grace Jones in a hula hoop at going-on-70.
Below, her NSFW performance in full.
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