Eric Drooker, a native of Manhattan's East Side, will give a slide lecture about the neighborhood's changing landscape. He will struggle to answer the question: "Can an artist survive in the 21st Century?"Drooker, renowned for his dozens of covers for The New Yorker, has released his latest book, "NAKED CITY: A Graphic Novel." Join us for a special May Day Cartoon Concert on Thursday, May 1, at 8 p.m. at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street. This event is free and open to the public!
Monday, April 28, 2025
Eric Drooker brings ‘Naked City’ to life with cartoon concert on May Day
Saturday, September 21, 2024
The Anarchist Switchboard retrospective exhibit opens today at MoRUS
The Anarchist Switchboard was a political organizing space on the Lower East Side from late 1983 to 1989. It was located at 324 E. Ninth St. and was started by activists associated with The Libertarian Book Club, Alchemical Theatre, Freespace and The Living Theatre.After the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Police Riots, it was taken over by a new generation of activists. Due to several incendiary factors, the Switchboard was contentiously shut down in the summer of 1989. Some regulars decided to immediately open a new space, which they turned into an Anarchist Bookstore.The exhibition of Switchboard-related flyers and documents specifically chronicles the years 1983 to 1987. It opens during the Anarchist Bookfair today (Sept. 21). There will be a presentation/talk/moderated group discussion featuring several people who organized at the Switchboard throughout the years. Event seats at 5 p.m.; discussion at 5:30 p.m.The exhibit stays up through Oct. 5.Additional exhibit hours:• Sept. 21: noon – 7 p.m.• Sept. 22: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.• Sept. 28: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.• Sept. 29: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.• Oct. 5: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.Sales and proceeds will benefit the War Resisters League/A.J. Muste Institute.
MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
The 12th annual MoRUS Film Festival coming to a community garden near you
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Masato Okano's punk poster exhibit at MoRUS ends this weekend
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Check out the hand-painted punk posters of Masato Okano
Saturday, November 18, 2023
'Here & Now' this weekend
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
A photo exhibition of the Italian hardcore punk scene at C-Squat
This photo show was initially set up in Berlin back in June. It debuted in New York as part of the Anarchist Bookfair, and after this weekend, it will be shipped back to travel across Italy.The photo selection is based on the 370-page Negazione photo book by DeeMo. It primarily focuses on the community surrounding the band Negazione, but there are also photos of other iconic Italian hardcore punk bands like Raw Power, Wretched, Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers, and Bedboys.
- Thursday: 5-7 p.m.
- Friday: 4-6:30 p.m.
- Saturday: Noon-7 p.m.
- Sunday: Noon-3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Details on the 11th annual MoRUS Film Festival, taking place in community gardens near you
Friday, June 23, 2023
At MoRUS, a new exhibit explores the network of community fridges in NYC
"Fridge Street" dives into the network of community fridges across New York City as they work toward food security, community building and sustainable practices.With primary and secondary data gathered from volunteering, field trips, questionnaires, interviews, and literature over the past six months, "Fridge Street" archives the network of community fridges across New York City.
Through visual representations, individual narratives, and interactive displays, the exhibit showcases the resilience and resourcefulness of communities, providing visitors with an understanding of mutual aid within this grassroots movement.Ultimately, "Fridge Street" hopes to call attention to food insecurity as a systemic problem and inspire action that helps build more just and inclusive food systems.
Here are a few photos from the opening last Saturday...
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Details about an art show to benefit Ukraine this weekend at C-Squat
This is a traveling exhibit, which was first shown in New York at the First Presbyterian Church on 12th Street and then again at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island. The show is now making its way to the Lower East Side.
This art show includes artists holding many different political and philosophical beliefs, working in different styles, from graphic novels to photojournalism, from Fusionism to fashion design, and more abstract pieces. The artists come from many different countries including Ukraine, Russia, Italy, France, the UK, the USA, Israel, and Palestine.All are united on one point: The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a catastrophe with repercussions felt far outside of Ukraine. The only resolution is for the Russian military to leave Ukraine completely, to return illegally occupied territories, answer for crimes they continue to commit, and pay reparations for the damage they continue to cause. This — and only this — will end the violence and suffering.The purpose of the show is to demonstrate that all over the world, people of good conscience condemn this invasion.
Saturday, October 1, 2022
A photo exhibition of hardcore, punk and metal at C-Squat
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space turns 10
To celebrate this landmark year, MoRUS, along with partners The Anarchist Book Fair, The Emma Goldman Film Festival, Green Oasis Community Garden/Gilbert’s Garden, La Plaza Cultural Community Garden, Nublu, and Time's Up, is set to present a four-day slate of events revisiting some of the museum's most gripping films, in-demand workshops, beloved walking tours and dynamic speakers.
There are a lot of events. You can find more info at this link.
Originally slated to open in mid-November 2012, MoRUS was forced to push back its grand opening date by a month due to flood damage from Hurricane Sandy. In the days following the storm, MoRUS created a cell phone charging station for the community using a bike generator lent to the museum by Time's Up!
Saturday, June 4, 2022
A 'Grave New World' at MoRUS
"GRAVE NEW WORLD: Death. Destruction. Decay. Dystopia."With work by Kelly Boehmer, Anastasia Clarke, Alexis Karl + Adam Torkel, Kristen Leonard, Caitlin McCormack, Kit Mills, Tom Prinsell, and Kate Stone.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Last 2 days for the 'Rotten to the Apple' NYC punk photo show at C-Squat
... lots of great work here, including EVG friend Walter Wlodarczyk...
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Take a look at the 'Rotten to the Apple' NYC punk photo show at C-Squat
Saturday, March 19, 2022
New at MoRUS: 'Fighting Words: Political Pictures (New Voices in Comix)'
MoRUS celebrates the subversive power of comics with a group show of works by artists who participated in ABC No Rio’s Comix as Political Expression course at the museum. "Fighting Words: Political Pictures (New Voices in Comix)" will open on Saturday, March 19 with a reception beginning at 4 pm. The show will be available for viewing through Sunday, April 3 on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., or by appointment.Participating artists are Yasmeen Abdallah, Mark He, Annabelle Heckler, Vanessa Glynn, Sam Johnston, Ariel Kleinberg, Adi Talwar, Seth Tobocman and Tamara Wyndham.
Varying in focus and medium, the works were created during the ABC No Rio course led by Tobocman at MoRUS in the fall of 2021. The exhibited works grapple with and uplift contemporary social and political struggles from the climate crisis, police brutality and worker organizing to emotional and physical health and social isolation.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
The 9th annual MoRUS Film Festival arrives in community gardens tomorrow evening
Thursday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m."Steal These Walls: Graffiti and the Fight for Free Expression"Green Oasis/Gilbert’s Community Garden, 370 E. Eighth St. b/t Avenue C and Avenue DThis night explores the cultural complexities of graffiti and the use or occupation of public walls, spaces and structures to create a space for alternative communities and foster the rise of new art forms, from graffiti to murals to hip-hop.• "Graffiti/Post-Graffiti" (1985, 30 minutes). Directors: Marc Miller and Paul TschinkelThis documentary captures a key moment in the evolution of graffiti from illegal street art to rarified commodity exhibited in high-profile galleries.• "Girl Power" (2016, 92 minutes). Directors: Sany and Jan ZajíčekFollowing female graffiti writers from 15 cities — from New York to Prague to Cape Town and all the way back to New York, the documentary illuminates their paths as they navigate this predominantly male world where men often share the view that graffiti is not for girls.
Just added! "We have the honor to host the esteemed "first lady of graffiti," Lady Pink, and SoHo Renaissance Factory co-founder Konstance Patton in a panel for our opening night." (Thursday's rain date: MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.)
Friday, December 18, 2020
A holiday market this weekend at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on Avenue C
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Take 2: the MoRUS film festival is THIS weekend

After a brief tussle with the NYC Parks GreenThumb, the entity overseeing community gardens, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is excited to (once again) present their eighth annual film festival.
It started last night — sorry! I only received this info at the last minute! Via the EVG inbox:
This year's festival — Reel Ecologies: Films for a Sustainable City — focuses on small-scale sustainable agriculture in urban environments, topics range from community-compost programs to community gardens to roof-top farms and more.Reel Ecologies: Films for a Sustainable City is presented in conjunction with our collaborative exhibition How Green Is My City? with the Green Map System, on display at MoRUS through the end of the year.Please join us, for free, on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Green Oasis Garden, in partnership with Reclaimed Organics, for a kid-friendly Adopt-a-Worm program offering an opportunity to drop off your compost scraps and learn about the important work earthworms do!Ticket proceeds will benefit Sixth Street Community Center's emergency food distribution efforts.Check our our website for more details.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
City nixes MoRUS Film Festival this weekend at the Peachtree Community Garden

Updated 2 p.m.: Green Thumb now says that MoRUS can complete the last three nights of the festival on Oct. 2-4.
The four-night MoRUS Film Festival is now down to one evening.
According to a MoRUS spokesperson, the NYC Parks GreenThumb, citing COVID-19 concerns, are now prohibiting the screenings Friday through Sunday at the Peachtree Community Garden on Second Street.
MoRUS is refunding tickets for those nights.
Tonight's screenings at Le Petit Versailles on Second Street near Avenue C are still a go:
• Thursday, Sept. 10: "InSects & FlowerSex (The Birds & The Bees)"
Le Petit Versailles, 247 E. 2nd Street, 8 p.m.
A lively, living mixed-media series of shorts featuring films from 1930s to 1970s. In keeping with Le Petit Versailles' legacy of creative disruption, the evening will include avant garde movies such as "Killers of the Insect World" and "Woody Woodpecker & The Termites from Mars" with live sound by LeLe Dai aka Lullady, a radio collage soundtrack by Jeanne Liotta and live soundtrack performances by Pinc Louds and by Richard Sylvarnes.
The viewing for these screenings will be on the sidewalk outside the space.
This was the eighth annual Film Festival for the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, which archives urban activism from 155 Avenue C.