The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will host its 6th Annual Film Fest, Liquid Denial, at community gardens in the East Village Thursday through Sunday.
Tackling the time-sensitive issue of water insecurity, Liquid Denial seeks to raise awareness and promote actions to improve access to clean, safe water and identify water-related threats to the health of humans and the environment.
A special centerpiece of Liquid Denial includes a screening of "The Man Who Fell to Earth," starring David Bowie, at La Plaza Cultural on Saturday, Aug. 18. All films will begin at 8:45 p.m. A limited number of early-bird all-access passes are available at Eventbrite, which will include a complimentary, reusable drinking straw to be redeemed either at MoRUS during regular operating hours or at the Film Fest.
ZINE Launch Party at MoRUS!
Brand new zine "How Not to Get Arrested at a Demonstration" by Bill of Times Up with illustrations by FLY is being launched on Sunday Oct. 1 at 7 PM at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space!
All attendees will get a just-released copy of "How Not to Get Arrested" zine with the latest tactics. This zine is a crucially important read in this current political climate, giving you all the information you need to know in order to decrease your odds of being arrested at a political demonstration.
The zine includes how to prepare for an action, how to scout your location, how to pack, and many more tips that will keep you from getting arrested and eating prison food. This zine will help you stand up for your First Amendment rights and avoid confrontation with the police. Fly will do a slideshow of her illustrations followed by a discussion where you can add your tips on how not to be arrested!
Artist and Bullet Space co-founder Andrew Castrucci discusses the creation of the book "Your House Is Mine."
From the introduction: "This project is a collection of images and texts, defining and expressing the broad and essential issue of housing on the Lower East Side, and is a statement of the underlying force of 'art as a means of resistance.' It is both a documentation and expression of social/political issues in our neighborhood, and on a larger scale to symbolize similar conflicts in other parts of the world."
"Your House Is Mine" included work by Anton Van Dalen, Eric Drooker, Lee Quinones, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong ... and writing by Miguel Algarin, Chris Burden, Allen Ginsberg, Eduardo Galleano and Public Enemy, among others.
This event is part of the exhibition "Taking it to the Streets!" ABC No Rio in Exile at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS). Check out the recent review of the show from The New York Times here.
Taking it to the Streets!
The Art + Design of Posters and Flyers on the Lower East Side in the 80s + 90s
Before Twitter and Facebook people had to use the streets to organize, their messages wheatpaste postered right on a pole. It was the era of 'xeroxcracy' and the streets were the gallery walls. These political posters and fliers raised awareness and helped organize community for grassroots political change. The posters range in subject from defending the squats and community gardens, taking on gentrification and the rich, police brutality, gender equality, environmentalism and anti-nuclear war activism. The floors of the museum will be stenciled to resemble the sidewalks of the past.
OPENING: Thursday, May 4 at 7-9 p.m.
HOURS: Tuesday, Thursday-Sunday 12-7 p.m.
Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space
155 Avenue C, between Ninth Street and 10th Street
Show runs until Thursday, June 29
• Screening of "Before the Flood" and "Time's Up's Greatest Hits" ** Thursday, Dec. 15th, 7 pm
In "Before the Flood" we Join Leonardo DiCaprio as he explores the topic of climate change, and discovers what must be done today to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet.
Before the screening we will have a short video of Time's Up Environmental Group's campaigns that have helped make New York City and beyond more sustainable.
Following the screening will be a discussion of how we continue the growth of our green achievements and deal with the new climate change denying administration. This event is free and open to the public. A $5 donation is always appreciated. More details here.
• MoRUS 4th Anniversary ** Sunday, Dec. 18, 7-10 pm
MORUS is turning 4 years old! Come celebrate with us! :: Stories : Slide Shows : Music : History : Free Pizza : Performing/presenting : Seth Tobocman, Maggie Wrigley, Peter Spagnuolo, Barbara Lee
Hosted by FLY. More details here
Saturday, August 20
Dias Y Flores Community Garden East 13th St. between Ave. A and B
Inhabit and Unbroken Ground
This double-feature focuses on new ways to think about our relationship with the land and the oceans.
Inhabit — Exploring the tools for and promise of meeting human needs while also caring for and regenerating ecosystem health, this 2015 documentary elevates the idea of conscience inhabitance through permaculture.
Runtime: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Unbroken Ground — In this 2016 short film, surfer/director Chris Malloy highlights some of the great chasms in modern food production while offering a potential solution: in this case following the credo of Patagonia Provisions, the sustainable food line and offshoot of the outdoor apparel company, to cause no unnecessary harm to the environment in the harvesting and preparation of food and inspire solutions to the environmental crisis.
Runtime: 26 minutes
Sunday, August 21
Hemp Night — Bringing it Home
La Plaza Community Garden Corner of 9th St. and Ave. C
An evening devoted to the past, present and future of hemp, a panel of speakers will precede a screening of Bringing it Home, a 2013 documentary that follows a father’s search to find the healthiest building materials leading to the completion of the nation’s first hemp house. Hemp with lime is a non-toxic, energy efficient, mildew, fire and pest resistant building material. The drawback — although research is legal in some states, hemp remains off-limits to almost all U.S. farmers.
"The True Cost" sets a fitting backdrop for MoRUS’s participation in Loisaida Center’s Community Summer Program, “Garbagia Island,” a dystopian representation of the Island of Puerto Rico and its current economical and political situation.
The program will present workshops open to the public and held at the Loisaida Center and La Plaza Cultural Community Garden where participants will learn, among other activities, how to create fashion, masks and costumes with recycled materials. A culmination of these community workshops will manifest in a up-cycled fashion and costume presentation at La Plaza on Saturday, July 30 at 4 p.m.
To learn more about these free, pirate-themed events visit the Loisaida website.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will bring cinema to the people every third Thursday of the month with Movies @ MoRUS, a series of films highlighting such themes as social justice, political reform, environmental activism and Lower East Side history.
Each screening will be followed by a talk back and discussion. The first of the Movies @ MoRUS series will be held on Feb. 18. In observance of Black History Month, the first film screened will be "Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal" directed by Stephen Vittoria. The film is an in-depth examination of the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist on death-row whose conviction in the case of the 1981 murder of a policeman in Philadelphia continues to raise questions about the death penalty, the judicial system and race in America.
Upcoming Movies @ MoRUS include:
• Thursday, March 17 — "1971," dir. Johanna Hamilton, 2014, 80 min.
The second film is "1971," a documentary exploring the infamous activist burglary of a FBI office. The heist in 1971 led to the exposure of unlawful measures the Bureau had underwent in surveillancing anti-war activists, and continues to provoke thought on the ethics of our government’s intentions.
• Thursday, April 21 — "Garbage Warrior," dir. Oliver Hodge, 2007, 86 min.
In honor of Earth Day, our third film is "Garbage Warrior," about U.S. architect Michael Reynolds and his mission to introduce radical sustainable housing to the masses.
• Thursday, May 19 — "Food Inc.," dir. Robert Kenner, 2008, 94 min.
The documentary examines how big corporations heavily influence all aspects of food production in the U.S.
Movies @ Morus is free to the public but a suggested donation of $5 is always appreciated. Showtime is 7 PM at MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets.
Due to increasing levels of interest from the public about Adam and the history of community gardens, MoRUS will extend The Adam Purple Memorial Show, which includes rare photos of The Garden of Eden, memorabilia and rare footage of the garden and Adam appearing in his Purple attire on several talk shows, including "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee," through Sunday, Oct. 25.
Among special events tied-in with the Purple pop-up include a screening of the award-winning documentary, "Dirt," shot and produced by David Evans, Maria Liedholm Holter and Catherine Williamson Duncumb in the mid-1990s. When "Dirt" was recognized by the International Documentary Association in 1998 and the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1999, it launched global awareness of what the East Village had known for years: community gardens breathe life and pump vitality into marginalized neighborhoods.
"Dirt" will screen at MoRUS on Thursday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.
MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. The suggested donation for the screening is $5, but no one will be turned away. Donations will support the preservation of Adam's history through photographs, videos and other artifacts.
Building on the popular appeal of its two previous summer outdoor film festivals, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), an East Village history museum with a mission to archive the social activism of the neighborhood, will partner with local activist and grassroots organizations to present its Third Annual Film Fest — I ❤NRCHY: Advocacy & Anarchy Shaping a City.
This series of shorts, documentaries and features will focus on New York City and each night feature a different theme, current and historical, to explore movements on such issues as Reviewing Renewal (hosted by 596 Acres); Sustainability (hosted by 350NYC); Bio-Terror, Manufactured Fear, and State Repression (hosted by ABC No Rio); Work & Rebellion (hosted by the Tenement Museum); Community and the Arts as Resistance (hosted by Interference Archive); Bicycle Activism (hosted by Times Up!) and more to be announced.
The festival will run Aug. 1-8 with screening times at 8 p.m. in various outdoor garden locations in the East Village. A limited supply of all-inclusive passes for $20 will be on sale here or by visiting MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets during hours of operation. Admission to each individual screening will otherwise require a suggested donation of $5.
