Enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and stunning views of the City from The Penthouse at The Standard, East Village. Try your luck in a raffle and silent auction, and shake a tail feather to speakeasy-themed live music.
FABnyc is proud to be an active leader helping to cultivate the dynamic, creative community of the Lower East Side. We provide year-round support to our 28 member organizations, connect local partners to one another, and ignite lasting relationships that help make our community and City better.
The Blind Pig will not only be a celebration of this, but will also help us kick-off (in style) another year of innovation and community building.
Thursday, May 30
El Museo del Barrio and El Barrio community sites
11:00am – 7:00pm
Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts (NOCD) New York invites you, members of the LES community, to join in on a citywide forum to “develop a vision for NYC that is grounded in the cultural vitality and social networks that make our communities strong.”
The all day event will include a lunch hosted by one of El Barrio’s network of community sites, including Art for Change, Hip Hop Theater Festival, Manhattan Neighborhood Network Firehouse and others, roundtable discussions on community health and sustainability, innovative uses of urban space, community resilience and renewal, and equitable development and there WILL be a closing party.
cutlog NY at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center
cutlog, a Parisian exhibition of “emerging, under-represented and off the grid artists,” has crossed the Atlantic straight into the Lower East Side’s Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center to bring you: cutlog NY. Focusing on “cutting-edge and established galleries that promote the work of contemporary artists,” cutlog NY hopes to foster a “creative labratory” with art from Beijing, Dakar, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Miami, Milan, Montpellier, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia, New York, Santiago, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Saint Petersburg and Vancouver…whew. Obviously, the most exciting part is that it’s all happening at our member’s house (i.e. the CSV Center)! Expect a total takeover of the former public school, from classrooms to the parking lot. Take a look at cutlog NY’s site, and start getting excited for world-class exhibition in the middle of our neighborhood. Open for five days only, starting today at 5pm. And tickets range from only $4-$15. steal.
Duo Multicultural Arts Center presents: Confessions of a Cuban Sex Addict
A Performative Exhibition by Michelangelo Alasa’ - May 10 – June 21, Fridays at 8PM
Artist Reception & Talkback: Friday, May 17, 2013, 9:30 PM
For years, artist Michelangelo Alasa’ has brought artists from across genres to incubate and present innovative artworks in historic Duo Theater.
Now, Alasa’ shares his personal journey through Confessions, a snapshot of his queer coming-of-age experience during the 1960s. Cathartic in nature, this performative exhibition reminds us of our deepest secrets, darkest longings, and biggest triumphs.
Attendees will be invited to write their own “confessions” on a gallery wall.
The time for the New Museum‘s IDEAS CITY is here! And it’s growing presence is popping up more and more around the neighborhood. In fact, FAB had the pleasure of connecting artist Terry Smith to public art space for his project Capital Revisited, commissioned by The Drawing Center as part of IDEAS CITY. In turn, La MaMa E.T.C. is also lending their basement as Smith’s impromptu studio (as well as being another exhibition site). Capital Revisited is a “a series of wall and window drawings of an architectural capital,” branching from Smith’s 1995 piece Capital at the British Museum – continuing the conversation of tapping “untapped capital,” the focus of this year’s IDEAS CITY festival.
Extra Place, cement sidewalk blocks: alley off East 1st Street (between Bowery and 2nd Ave) First Street Green, 33 East 1st Street (at East Houston and 2nd Ave) Ideal Glass, gallery facade: 22 East 2nd Street (between Bowery and 2nd Ave) La MaMa Backwall Arcade, 17 East 3rd Street (between Bowery and 2nd Ave) La MaMa Basement space: 66-68 East 4th Street (between Bowery and 2nd Ave) L’Apicio, restaurant windows: 13 East First Street(between Bowery and 2nd Ave)
Join The Ukrainian Museumthis weekend in celebrating independent film in the post-Soviet region.
“Kinofest NYC, featuring independent film from Ukraine and the broader post-Soviet region for the 4th year in a row, is finally here! This year’s festival includes ten screening sessions, more than 30 films ‒ documentary and narrative, shorts and feature length ‒ by filmmakers from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
Watch the event trailer below:
Kinofest NYC will be screening films until Sunday, April 7th.
In 2004, I was making a new work when one of my dancers, Daudet, from the Centre for Care for Survivors of Torture, who has appealed for asylum in Ireland, received a Deportation Order from the Irish Justice Department. I watched helplessly as all his support systems abandoned him and his removal from the state and return to his country of birth and almost certain death, awaited him. I was made horribly aware of the difficulties of the asylum process. I also realized that unless I did something, Daudet was dead. I contacted a legal acquaintance and I went to the Irish high court, taking an injunction against the minister for Justice, preventing Daudet’s Deportation. It was a happy ending but a horrific journey. I was totally out of my depth.
Other dancers came to me with their problems, asylum problems, racism issues, fear of police, of immigration officials. I had to read files about torture, imprisonment, body scars, medical reports, psychiatric evaluations, which made me shudder and cry and be angry and want to vomit but which were not enough to move an archaic and unrelenting asylum process to address urgent, terrifying personal situations.
I was in the studio with two of my regular dancers: Cheryl Therrien, from Merce Cunningham and Philip Connaughton, developing dance phrases, then running to courtrooms and legal offices. I felt soiled by the horrible facts I was dealing in and the loss of privacy of the people I was helping. The choreographic tasks became a mechanism for one body covering another, hiding another, protecting.
My one thought, when approaching rehearsal was wiping out, dissolving, hiding. Since I began teaching dance at the Centre for Care for Survivors of Torture, I had learned so much and been given so much love and joy. This feeling of love helped us all to rise above the frightening reality and fears of Deportation. In my workshops we began to improvise about Love. Also, think about ‘Me’, ‘Identity’ for people without passports, citizenship, civic rights. What was happening became an essential survival tool for all the participants. We also had to show this in our performance. I began fusing the different dance backgrounds, physical backgrounds of the cast. We call this work The White Piece as an act of purification, of healing. In my research, we learned a white piece of cloth has the power to “heal bodies, placate spirits and metaphorically transcend the world of humans” in both Cuban culture and African Yoruban culture’. It seemed futile and escapist and unreal, taking people in fear for their lives, grieving their lost lives, families, and rehearsing a dance piece while they were going through the terror that is the asylum process in the west. Amazingly we have found that the dance heals and has done more than therapy. This is our reflection to our lives.
At Load OUT!, enjoy an afternoon of repurposing and recycling activities that showcase creative thinking about sustainability and the arts!
GET: Take home all the donated costumes, props, and furniture you can carry (bring bags and carts to transport your findings if necessary). The general public will be charged a $5 entrance fee to participate. Artists are invited to participate for free.
Whatever you decide to take away with you is FREE of charge.
GIVE: Drop off clothing, textile and e-waste at community collections – all open and free for everyone. A full list of accepted donations is available here. Call 212-228-4670 ASAP to schedule an early donation. RSVP on Facebook!
The Cooper Union is holding a series of lectures presenting “an integrated view of cities from an ecological perspective” featuring Dr. Steward Pickett, past President of the Ecological Society of America and a plant ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.
The next lecture on Mar. 11 is titled “Ecology for Urban Design” and will be looking at the ways that “the ethics of sustainability shape ecological application in cities.” This lecture series is a great way to continue the conversation SUSTAINnyc presented last week with the Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design at the Convening for Understanding Urban Sustainability: One Block At A Time and there’s only two left, so get moving!
What does sustainability mean to you?” was one of the main questions raised at FABnyc’s Convening for Understanding Urban Sustainability: One Block At A Time on Saturday, February 23 at Cooper Union. Hosted by Fourth Arts Block (FAB) collaboration with the Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design, the Convening brought together artists, activists, architects, city officials and members of the community to discuss the ways in which sustainable initiatives can be implemented in the East 4th Street Cultural District and beyond.
As attendees arrived, they were encouraged to interact with colorful info graphic survey posters—made by FAB’s own Phoebe Stern—on which they marked their gender, occupation, and where they live (among other questions) with stickers. Other walls were covered with posters made by Cooper Union’s Martha Giannakopoulou, presenting the block from different vantage points: block profiles, building profiles, and unit profiles. Infrared scans documented the ways in which each building on the block retains and loses energy, while drawings and photos illustrated the very diverse structures and people that make up our block.
These posters ultimately depicted the highly complex relationships that occur between the street, people, and the buildings on East 4th Street, relationships that should enhance the way that sustainability is discussed in terms of this block (and most blocks in NYC).
Betsy Imershein, Director of SUSTAIN, opened the convening with a compelling discussion about the difficult task of changing people’s relationships to their trash and environment. “According to research,” Imershein said, “there exists an enormous gap between what people report is important to them in terms of sustainable behaviors, practices and purchases and what they actually do—with 80% identifying their importance and only 50% actually taking action.”
Armed with markers, sticky notes, and posters with a plan of the block, attendees were given the task of discussing this issue amongst others, lead by four fearless group leaders: Giannakopoulou, who led a table on “Streetscape & Public Engagement”; CUISD Professor Lydia Kallipoliti, who led a table on “Reimagining the Urban Form & Sustainable Block Ecology”; CUISD Professor Kevin Bone, who led a table on “Life of the Block: Building Envelop & Retrofitting the Built Environment”; and FAB Executive Director Tamara Greendfield, who led a table on “Actions, Learning & Behavior Change for Culturals & Businesses.” These breakout groups bounced around questions, problems, and potential solutions when dealing with the issue of engaging and effective initiatives that promote sustainability.
The groups brainstormed for one hour before breaking for lunch. Although the day was halfway done, there was still much work to do, and all were pleasantly surprised by the two guests that dropped by during lunch appeared. First came Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, who flashed his distinctive smile, and exclaimed that East 4th Street would soon be “the most sustainable block in Manhattan!” Next New York City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, stopped by to express her support for FAB and SUSTAIN, closing off the day’s speeches on a distinguished note.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer & Tamara Greenfield
As the convening slowly came to a close, the groups reunited to share their findings and present their posters. Although many questions were raised and creative ideas were proposed, there were several notable themes that were raised throughout the convening:
-What are people’s ethics towards their trash and relationship to the environment?
-What is the role of the community in changing these ethics?
-Can the government be relied upon to make change happen quickly and effectively?
-What is the role of the arts in sustainability initiatives?
-How can different groups (architects, activists, government officials, artists) work together to effectively create change?
-Can the ideas and initiatives for East 4th Street be implemented in other areas of NYC and the country?
At the end of the day, attendees were buzzing with ideas and eager to continue discussing these issues outside of the convening. Although much was accomplished that day, ultimately there was a feeling of “what’s next” that lingered as attendees filtered out of Cooper Union. What is the next step to create actual change? Activists encouraged immediate action, while architects talked about design plans and others discussed grants and city reform.
What I learned from the convening is that sustainability is a BIG issue that needs to be discussed at every level: from making recycling easier, to building “lighter” buildings. FAB has and will keep the conversation going, and it is important that others do as well. It is amazing to see how much work went into talking about sustainability on ONE block! Imagine all the work that needs to be done when taking on a whole city and (eventually) country. So let’s get working!
What are your thoughts on sustainability? Let us know at info@fabnyc.org.
This blog is produced by FABnyc, a leader of arts and culture in the East Village & Lower East Side. Through this blog, FABnyc is making available a wealth of information about culture in our community, from performance art and classes to local food and shops. FABnyc hopes this forum will foster dialogue. Contact us if you want to contribute!
Duo Multicultural Arts Center presents: Confessions of a Cuban Sex Addict 
Load OUT! A Reuse & Repurposing RIOT
