Friday's parting shot

Photo by William Klayer 

A new mural outside Performance Space New York on First Avenue at Ninth Street by Ellery Neon ... created for the 2024 Spring Gala happening TONIGHT...

The East Village Zine Fair is taking place this weekend

The rescheduled East Village Zine Fair (from June 24 on St. Mark's) is taking place this weekend — Saturday and Sunday — at Performance Space New York, 150 First Ave. and Ninth Street. 

Printed Matter/St. Mark's and 8-Ball Community are organizing this third annual Zine Fair that serves as "a celebration of NYC’s zine-makers, independent publishers, and the East Village’s history of DIY culture past and present."

Hours:

• Saturday, July 8 — 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.*

• Sunday, July 9  — 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* According to organizers: "Saturday will begin with two mask-mandatory hours and a reduced visitor capacity to ensure that those who are immunocompromised and/or disabled have a chance to browse the Fair. To ensure entry during this time, register via this link."

The Zine Fair has been rescheduled to July 8

The third-annual Zine Fair, organized by Printed Matter/St. Mark's and 8-Ball Community, has a new date — Saturday, July 8. 

Given the chance of rain tomorrow (June 24), the Zine Fair is moving from St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue to Performance Space 122 at 150 First Ave. and Ninth Street. 

Per the organizers: 

While we are disappointed that the Fair won't take place at its home on St Mark's Place, we cannot imagine a better alternative than Performance Space, a fellow arts nonprofit in the heart of the East Village. We are so grateful for their support and generosity in hosting the EVZF this year.

Printed Matter and 8-Ball Community will provide more specifics about what to expect on July 8 in the days ahead.

About 'Ecosex and the City'

The East Village-based Performance Space New York is presenting a new program, "Exploring the Earth as Lover: Ecosex and the City," featuring Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens — and 100 of their friends.

Via the EVG inbox: 

[This is] the first-ever iteration of their abundant ecosexual gathering on the East Coast. In this (anti) symposium and performance art happening, attendees can participate in forging new relationships with the environment and social justice; engaging in human/non-human collaboration; critiquing calcified ideologies; and creating new sexualities — all through the lens of an environmentalism that is feminist, queer, sensual, sexual, posthuman, materialist, exuberant, and steeped in humor. 

There are performances scheduled for June 15, 16, 17 and 18. Find more details here. (The sidewalk ecosex event originally scheduled for this afternoon is now happening tomorrow.) 

Performance Space New York is at the NE corner of First Avenue at Ninth Street.

A youthful exchange of ideas with Dr. Cornel West at Performance Space New York

Photos and reporting by Daniel Efram 

This past Saturday afternoon, Dr. Cornel West gave an interactive talk with children and their families for Performance Space New York's ongoing "We the Youth — Keith Haring Lecture Series" about ideas and social issues that are often left off of school curriculums.

The kids made profound remarks about wondering how to love during difficult times. 

The professor, activist and philosopher responded with his thoughts on humanity, respect and love — not to mention his weakness for popcorn, which was occasionally fed to him by his generally well-behaved but sometimes restless young audience.

Performance Space New York is at 150 First Ave. at Ninth Street.

About the 'First Mondays' reading series at Performance Space New York

Performance Space New York's series, "First Mondays: Readings of New Works in Progress," continues this fall. 

Here's more about what to expect from the series, organized by writer-historian Sarah Schulman, on Monday, Nov. 7, and Monday, Dec. 5: 

On Nov. 7, in an event Schulman dubbed "House Favorites," First Mondays features what Schulman describes as "a literary cornucopia of writers' writers, for readers who love writers." They include Lambda Literary Award and Arab American Book Award winner Rabih Alameddine ... poet and former director of the Asian-American Writers' Workshop Ken Chen ... and experimental poet, prose writer, and scholar of critical pedagogy and queer theory Sara Jane Stoner... 

And on Dec. 5... 

In an ongoing commitment to presenting alumni of Performance Space, First Mondays features an evening of new work-in-progress by Chris Cochrane — an innovator of improvisational new music and co-creator of THEM with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Dennis Cooper — with his collaborators Viv Corringham and Miguel Frasconi. 

The "First Mondays" readings start at 7 p.m. (a livestream option is also available). Events are free with RSVP ... which you can do here or here.

The readings take place at Open Room, Performance Space New York, 150 First Ave. (at Ninth Street), 4th floor.

A benefit concert for trans housing at Performance Space New York

Performance Space New York, 150 First Ave. at Ninth Street, is hosting a benefit concert for trans housing on April 9. 

Details:

Join us for a night of celebration and fellowship! This will be a special evening to bring together the community as we reflect over the years with our chosen family — our sisters, brothers, and gender non-conforming siblings. All proceeds will go to two benefiting organizations: Black Trans Liberation and Bridges4Life. These organizations were founded and are led by Black trans women.

Find ticket info here.

Performance Space New York is now a rest stop for protestors; donations needed

Performance Space New York on First Avenue at Ninth Street is now offering protestors water and other supplies as well as use of their restrooms ...



And they are the latest East Village theater space to do this as part of the Open Your Lobby campaign... we mentioned yesterday that both the Public Theater and the New York Theatre Workshop are providing similar services in the afternoon and early evening hours.

The artists will run Performance Space New York in 2020

[EVG file photo]

Leadership at Performance Space New York has announced a new, artist-run model for 2020 at the nonprofit arts organization on First Avenue and Ninth Street.

Here's part of the letter we received from choreographer Sarah Michelson and Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka that explains the yearlong project called 02020.

For the year of 2020 a group of NYC-based artists and collectives have been given the mandate to run the organization together with our staff, board and leadership. The artists have received keys to the spaces, have moved into our business offices, and will move into our theaters next month.

They have full transparency into the organization’s inner workings and full artistic control of our programming, including oversight of the website. Our total annual production budget is at the artists’ full disposal to pay themselves a wage and develop their programmatic platforms. The only requirement of their tenure is that the spaces must be utilized.

Shifting our model is shifting our future: toward new institutional structures, new coalitions, new partnerships, new priorities. We know artistic practice is changing, that the world is changing, and that we need to be ready to adjust. We are betting on an artist-recalibrated institutional mission as a catalyst for futurist art practice

The cohort of artists will announce their initial plans via the Performance Space New York website in the middle of February.

Last week, Performance Space New York (formerly P.S. 122), now entering its 40th year, unveiled a new partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation. Moving forward, their main space will be known as the Keith Haring Theatre.

Performance Space New York introduces the Keith Haring Theatre on 1st Avenue

Performance Space New York (formerly P.S. 122) is entering its 40th year... and on this occasion, the nonprofit arts organization, housed at 150 First Ave., unveiled a new partnership with the Keith Haring Foundation. Moving forward, their main space will be known as the Keith Haring Theatre.

Performance Space shared the following information yesterday:

In 1980, Keith Haring received a studio residency within P.S. 122’s building (above), where he developed his iconic painting style. He fluidly engaged a variety of disciplines — as seen in his curating of performance, “Acts of Live Art” two blocks from here at Club 57 — and in his street art, exhibitions, and collaborations combined a playful sensibility with trenchant social commentary and, in the late 1980s, HIV/AIDS activism. We share and draw inspiration from Haring’s drive to bring together diverse voices and artistic media to create a body of work that captures the spirit of our time.

In addition to naming the theatre, the grant will also fund an annual, free-to-the-public Keith Haring Lecture Series, as well as the Keith Haring Curatorial Fellowship.

This opportunity considers what’s ahead through those artists who, in our vital past, looked at the alternative futures art and activism could imagine and catalyze. We feel immense gratitude to everyone who has supported us over the last 40 years and made this moment possible.

The rebranded Performance Space New York returned to a refurbished building at the northeast corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street in January 2018 after a few years away at alternative venues.

Photo of Keith Haring in his studio at P.S. 122 from 1980 by John P. Cavanaugh.

Butch Judy's pops up behind Performance Space 122 on 1st Avenue

Butch Judy's is ready for another weekend behind Performance Space 122 on First Avenue at Ninth Street.

Here's more about the pop-up venue, which arrived here on Oct. 4...

Butch Judy's is a Brooklyn-based Queer-owned bar concept with a passion for natural wine. Our focus is on creating a more accessible and inclusive space to enjoy good wine and good company.

Owners Katie Zanin and Cassidy Gardner say they'll be here until the first sign of snow.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by last Saturday afternoon for a look at the space ...








[Co-owner Cassidy Gardner]

Butch Judy's serves several natural wines as well as a few specialty beers ... including Gay Beer and the Butch Judy's canned cider collaboration called LoverBoi ...





There are also French fries...


[Butch and Judy's bartender Kat Lopez]

Butch Judy's is open Friday from 2-10 p.m., Saturday from noon-10 p.m. and Sunday noon-8 p.m. ...



This piece at Time Out has more background on the owners, who aspire to open their own bar called Butch Judy's in Brooklyn one of these days.

Posthuman league: Fall season getting underway at Performance Space New York

The fall season at Performance Space New York starts tomorrow (Thursday!) night with the Posthuman Series.

First up is Annie Dorsen’s "meditation on deadpan comedy and melancholy in a virtual sex chat room, and Mette Ingvartsen’s tireless quest to reconcile thinking, dancing, and feeling."

Performers during the Posthuman Series the next three months include:

American Artist, Caitlin Cherry, Nora N. Khan, and Sondra Perry.
Underground Resistance
Che Gossett
Carolee Schneemann
keyon gaskin and sidony o'neal
Donna Haraway
Ron Athey

Find more details and ticket info at the Performance Space New York website.

The venue is at 150 First Ave. and Ninth Street.

Performance Space New York unveils fall season

[Image via Instagram]

The fall season at Performance Space New York is titled the Posthuman Series.

Here's what to expect, in part, at the former PS 122 on First Avenue at Ninth Street starting later next month:

For the next three months you are invited to join artists in exploring worlds that extend beyond human perspective, disrupting traditional conceptions of humanity. Rather than positioning human consciousness as the primary source and content of all art making, the contributions to the Posthuman Series often blur distinction between ‘the human’ and its other: namely nature, technology, animals, and gods.

In light of dramatic technological and scientific developments such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, the idea of an autonomous human being with agency over the world is rapidly becoming obsolete. Are you really more in charge of your communication than the algorithms and language programs in your smartphone? Is the artificial organ that keeps you alive not a part of your body?

The season begins on Sept. 27 with Annie Dorsen and "The Slow Room." This link takes you to the full schedule and more details about the Posthuman Series.

Avant-Garde-Arama at Performance Space grand re-opening

[Alexandra Tatarsky]

Photos and text by Dan Efram

Performance Space New York — formerly PS 122 — celebrated its grand reopening with a free night of their longest-running program "Avant-Garde-Arama" on Sunday night.

The multi-stage show welcomed hundreds of people to check out the wonderful renovated venues in the building on First Avenue at Ninth Street and kick off its new season in earnest. You can find the full list of performers here.


[Pharmakon]


[Cornelius Loy]


[Pat Oleszko and Brooks Leslie]


[Murray Hill backstage]


[Charles Dennis]


[Salley May]


[The audience]

Performance Space is hosting an East Village Series through June. Find that schedule here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue

PS122 is now Performance Space New York, returns to 1st Avenue starting tonight

[Photo from Dec. 1 by Steven]

Performance Space 122 (PS 122) has changed its name to Performance Space New York as it returns to its its newly renovated home on First Avenue and Ninth Street for the inaugural performances in the refurbished space.

The announcement came yesterday in a series of posts on Instagram...

Heart of East Village, 150 First Avenue, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10009

A post shared by Performance Space New York (@performancespacenewyork) on Jan 9, 2018 at 12:46pm PST

Unveiling Performance Space New York. Jenny Schlenzka, artistic and executive director of @PerformanceSpaceNewYork Read more in today’s @nytimes

A post shared by Performance Space New York (@performancespacenewyork) on Jan 9, 2018 at 1:02pm PST

It’s a big day. The first performances in our newly renovated home at 150 First Avenue and the first day that we will be known as Performance Space New York. This moment represents the beginning of the next chapter and we believe that #PerformanceSpaceNewYork communicates our ambition to be New York’s performance space—one representing, and inclusive of, all of New York—while also honoring our singular history. While we very much look forward to talking to you on this channel, we do hope you’ll join us for #Coil18 + The East Village Series because doing it live is simply the best.

A post shared by Performance Space New York (@performancespacenewyork) on Jan 9, 2018 at 12:27pm PST

The New York Times has a preview of the new space in this article.

The rebranding process, as the new name indicates, involves an effort to make Performance Space more welcoming to a wider audience. In its grungier former life, which began in 1980 when a group of artists took over an abandoned schoolhouse on First Avenue, the space fostered a certain sense of community, but it didn’t quite scream “come in.”

And some thoughts from new executive artistic director Jenny Schlenzka...

"If our audience could be a representation of the city, that would be a huge success," she said, noting that downtown dance and theater audiences tend to be predominantly white. But the idea of separate audience-building initiatives doesn’t interest her. "I've been in these meetings about 'Oh, we need to diversify our audience,' and it’s always, 'Let's do a side program' or 'Let's do a community day.' But I don’t want a community day. I want the community to be the main program."

Performance Space New York hosts its first show here tonight with the start of the annual (and last) Coil festival. Find that program here.

The East Village Series runs from Feb. 17 to June 30, and "will examine the history of Performance Space and its neighborhood, reflecting on forces that have shaped them: gentrification, the AIDS epidemic, and punk and club culture."

Ms. Schlenzka likened it to “the way that in psychoanalysis, you have to know your past to free yourself to conquer the future.”

Nostalgia, she added, is off limits: “We have this amazing past that in my opinion not enough people know about. But it can drag us down, and that’s a fine line to navigate.”

Find more about the East Village Series here.

Aside from Performance Space New York, the 122 Community Center will house the Alliance for Positive Change, Mabou Mines, Painting Space 122, and a fifth tenant to be announced.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's the sidewalk bridge-free corner of 9th Street and 1st Avenue — and the 122 Community Center

Come along on a tour of the under-renovation 122 Community Center on 1st Avenue