Longtime East Village activist John Penley has organized a memorial this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park for two longtime friends and Park regulars who died this year — Faith Laugier and Roger White.
The event, to be held in the center of the Park, is also a response to the recent sweep of Seventh Street, in which city officials removed the makeshift housing that had been between Avenue A and Avenue B in recent months.
Penley, who now lives in Las Vegas, is putting this together via Facebook. Per the invite:
It looks like the Prime time to go is all afternoon and early evening on Saturday ... please bring FLOWERS, CANDLES and FOOD for Houseless people and warm clothes too. Leave them in the Park. Peace and Love to all.
White, a local musician, and artist, died on Nov. 8. He was 50 or 51, according to friends. An official cause of death was not released. You can read more about Laugier here.
The former sinkhole has been receiving ample attention in the past week. (Thanks Eden for the initial tip!)
The intersection here at Rite Aid Way now has steel plates covering the new subterranean cavern. Goggla shared the top pic today, still life with a shovel and leaves but no workers or utility vehicles in sight...
In September, Howl Arts debuted a 7,000 square-foot facility at 250 Bowery. (Howl! Happening, which opened in 2015 at 6 E. First St., will remain in use as a gallery.)
The new space goes by Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive, which "expands upon Howl! Happening's innovative exhibitions and public programs and focuses on the thriving multi-dimensional artistry and history of the East Village/Lower East Side."
Earlier this fall, EVG contributor stopped by the space between Houston and Stanton for a look around... courtesy of Jane Friedman, Howl Art's founder and executive director ...
East Village-based artist Scooter LaForge was also on hand...
The space includes three exhibition galleries, a library as well as screening and reading rooms. It also serves as the headquarters for Howl Arts, which purchased the commercial space here in 2018.
Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can check out their website for a list of exhibitions and other info.
The full Beaver Moon of November 2021 passed through Earth's shadow in a partial lunar eclipse overnight on Nov. 18-19 in what was the longest eclipse of its kind in 580 years.
He reports that the event here was almost rained out (ed note: stupid rain):
After a long, cold and drizzly night, the clouds over 2nd Avenue finally parted, revealing a slow eclipse of the Moon that was already in progress. Three or four times from 3:15 to 4:30 a.m., the Moon disappeared behind the clouds, and came back out, and each time I had to reset the (icy cold!) telescope ... and take a few photos.
And props to Amy for coming out and helping Felton get the telescope back inside.
I’m L-training it to Brooklyn to catch hypnotic neon punk band cumgirl8’s EP release show at the Knitting Factory.
Also on the bill this October night, close collaborators GirlDick...
East Village performer and godmother of modern-day shock art Kembra Pfahler ...
... and dancer Bobbie Hondo (on the right) ...
I arrive in time to catch some of the load-in and soundcheck, with Veronica Vilim on guitar and percussive drill, Lida Fox on bass and synth, Chase Noelle with the powerhouse drumming, and featuring Avishag Cohen Rodrigues for additional firepower on guitar.
There is some last-minute crafting of signage/decor backstage, scribbling out of setlists, adjusting clothing — lots of I.AM.GIA and cumgirl8 fashion designs and accessories styled by Jordane Stawecki — and a quickie trip to nab some preshow food at Caracas Arepa Bar, a former East Village favorite still up and running in Williamsburg.
The show itself is chaotic, loud, pleasurable — cusping off the pandemic, people are eager to celebrate, and the venue is filled with dancing and fans singing along...
After the show, I chat with the three core members about the band’s history, creativity during a pandemic, censorship, and normalizing female sexuality.
What were the common interests that led you to initially form a band beyond just jamming with friends?
Lida Fox: It really began as an outlet to express frustrations we faced in our lives and work and to vent toxicity from relationships. It was basically a healing/empowerment mechanism. We all have backgrounds in dance, art, and performing, so when we get together, it’s basically freeform pent-up energy, sometimes verging on insanity.
Before we started this, I faced so many blocks in the way I thought I could express myself, but now I feel almost anything is possible. We all have pretty varying tastes in music, art, film, etc., but they complement each other in amazing ways.
Some of the band members live/work in the Lower East Side or East Village. How do local events and shows — such as your fashion week show at Cafe Forgot and performances at the Flower Shop — differ from audiences in Brooklyn like at Baby’s All Right or tonight’s Knitting Factory show?
Veronika Vilim: I haven’t noticed too much difference in audiences, but I would say there is more of a younger crowd at shows in Brooklyn [Williamsburg/Bushwick] than shows in Manhattan. Having the fashion show during the day and it being a fashion show event, more people were interested in fashion. People like my mom and dad, for example, come to the daytime shows (fashion shows and music shows) in Manhattan rather than the show at the Knitting Factory, because it was not only at night but also because it was in Brooklyn.
How have you seen/heard your sound evolve from the early days of the band?
Chase Noelle: In the early days, we were learning how to communicate with each other. Our first EP is fucking insane, impulsive, id-driven. We got a lot of comparisons to punk bands like the Desperate Bicycles and Flipper.
We’re influenced by ballet and opera and club music, truly all over the place, and that’s why we sound so weird. Now our sound is more focused — it’s still shameless, but our musicality is showcased now and more directed. We really want to make people dance without feeling self-conscious. Our single “BUGS” is inside of that. We still sound fucking insane, especially live, but there’s a laser focus that cuts through it all.
And how about your live performances? Do you feel more confident with each show?
Vilim: Yes! I feel like every show we play, we evolve together and become more of a team. We understand how to perform more and really embrace this character/world we have been developing! Watching videos from our live shows from the beginning until now, you can really see a difference in our performance. Also, now with the audience knowing our music more, there’s really a vibe with the crowd and that makes such a difference as well ’cause everyone really vibes together.
What’s your take on NYC right now as being a welcoming environment for a creative spirit?
Fox: I think there’s a welcoming creative environment now more than ever. [At least] in the last 12 years I’ve been here. The pandemic sucked, but it made everyone realize what a privilege it is to perform or be in the same room with a group of people dancing/jumping/going crazy together, watching a movie, appreciating art, etc. There’s so much more appreciative energy now, and people don’t hold back; they aren’t as jaded.
Also, I feel that the creative community has gotten closer, I mean literally smaller, but also tighter and more support amongst the people who are still here. It’s still insanely expensive to try to survive and make art in NYC, though.
You just released your second EP, RIPcumgirl8. That’s an ominous title. Do you have plans to continue with cumgirl8? What else is on the horizon — perhaps another clothing collection?
Noelle: RIPcumgirl8 is two-fold, but on the surface, it’s an homage to our Instagram that was deleted. We’ve been heavily censored, our YouTube got taken down and — believe it — even our website started garnishing our sales because they’re...fascists?
Don’t get me started. But yeah, that’s the first layer. Our identity is entrenched in internet culture, especially chatroom vibes from when we were coming of age. “Cumgirl8” is a screen name. It was really fitting when, after all of this feminist, sex-positive, youth outreach work we did, we ultimately got censored and then deleted.
The whole point is to push and push and move the needle, so people eventually stop feeling shocked when they see the words “cum” and “girl” together. So it’s par for the course, perhaps. They deleted us right before we hit 10,000 followers, right after we released our first EP.
Thankfully, we got our old handle back, but we had to start over. There’s a second, dissociative meaning to “RIPcumgirl8” that’s a lot more personal to us, but you can uncover that in the lyrics.
Random Accessories, the well-stocked gift shop at 77 E. Fourth St., celebrates its 25th anniversary this weekend.
"I must admit, I wasn't sure we would make it to 25," owner Lynn Freidus said in an email, "and in these times, we feel it is especially important to celebrate."
And so to celebrate, on Saturday and Sunday (noon to 7:30 p.m.), customers will receive a 20-percent discount on the entire stock (with 5 percent of the profits going to Meals-on-Wheels).
There's also a free gift for every $10 purchase; a tote bag with a $75 tally.
... the shop has an extensive selection of baby gifts...
... not to mention celebrity prayer candles...
Random Accessories is between Second Avenue and the Bowery. Visit the shop's website or Instagram for more info.
As previously noted, the new venture from the Endless Hospitality team (The Wayland, Goodnight Sonny, the Wild Son, Pop's Eat Rite) takes "inspiration from French and Mexican culinary traditions."
Per a Bar Lulu rep:
This is a passion project from executive chef Luigi Petrocelli, chef Ricardo Arias and partner and beverage director Julio Xoxocotla.
Chefs Petrocelli and Arias wanted to combine their knowledge of French technique with their love of Mexican ingredients to create something new and vibrant. Most of the menu's dishes are smaller and meant for sharing...
You can find the menu here. And you can check up the new-look interior Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The Irish breakfast is once again available at St. Dymphna's at 117 Avenue A.
This was a popular menu item at the pub during its 24-year run at 118 St. Mark's Place. SD1 closed on St. Mark's in the fall of 2018, reopening in its new home around the corner in August 2019.
For whatever reason, the popular dish wasn't available until now (or yesterday)... SD introduced several other new menu items as well... they open for lunch now at noon...
"If Death Ever Learn," produced by Brittni Ann Harvey, is the first exhibition to show in Someday, an engaging new space joining the Walker Street gallery gang. Excitement can be felt merely in the space's infancy, let alone how much Harvey's work sets such a bold precedent for every show to come.
Harvey's show immediately suggests the artist is well-versed and extremely literate in her research. Creating objects that curve, hang and twine, Harvey sets up a debate between man-made and digital intervention on a very symbolic scale.
Harvey leads us through an array of problem-solving artifacts that relate to the contractual marriage between artificial intelligence and industry. Her dogs are adorned with architectural soft sculpture, preluding an identifiable canine cuteness that contrasts with the terrifying idea that manufactured four-legged robots could be weaponized.
Through military-driven initiatives that Harvey extrapolates in "If Death Ever Learn," the audience is exposed to the slippage between the industrial revolution's residual downpour and technology's constant responsibility to be used for the greater good.
Through her paintings, tapestries, braided bronze, and dog-like sculptures, Harvey toys with mass engineering and the advancement in bio-tech through an effeminate showcasing of corporal colors, sculptures and decor.
I asked Someday Gallery Director Rosie Motley for her thoughts:
The show brings together new oil on burlap paintings, embroidered collages, and three free-standing bronze sculptures that are loosely based on robotic dogs, the most familiar of which are produced by the Massachussettes based company Boston Dynamics.
In all of the works, Brittni combines both analog and digital processes — first sketching by hand and then scanning her drawings and manipulating them in a computer program to produce digital embroideries and jacquard-woven fabrics.
While Brittni Ann Harvey's show ends Saturday at Someday Gallery, keep an eye on this new space for more exhibits in the future.
For more information, visit the gallery's website here. Someday is open Thursday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Clare Gemima is a visual artist from New Zealand. New-ish to the East Village, she spends her time as an artist assistant and gallery go-er, hungry to explore what's happening in her local art world. You can find her work here: claregemima.com
Photo by Steven yesterday at the 6th & B Community Garden
• ICYMI: A nonprofit sued the city for allegedly not including enough minority- and women-owned businesses in the construction contract for the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (NY1)
• A higher waterfront and a lower FDR may be on tap for Lower Manhattan (The City)
• The debate continues over outdoor dining (The New York Times) ... while the City Planning Commission voted unanimously for a zoning text amendment (Gothamist)
• Opinion: The East Village needs more Citi Bike docking stations (amNY)
• An unnamed, pro-Eric Adams labor source alleges the next mayor's inner circle is running a campaign to block Carlina Rivera from becoming City Council speaker "because she's a former dues-paying socialist who voted to defund the NYPD" (The Post)
As usual, you can expect the Carolers of Olde New York from Theater for the New City... music from the Mandel & Lydon Trio ...refreshments via Veselka and C&B ... and 457 EVG posts on the topic.
Albert Fabozzi started the event in 1992. He planted the tree in memory of Park advocate Glenn Barnett, "and each of our neighbors whom we have lost to AIDS."
Workers yesterday started erecting a sidewalk bridge outside the now-vacant former shops at 250 E. Houston St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. (Thank you to the EVG reader for the photos!)
And as we've been noting, there's been a storefront shuffle along this renovated retail stretch. Kapri Cleaners and the FedEx Office Print & Ship Center moved from the unrenovated spaces a few doorways down East Houston. Other businesses, such as Dunkin'/Baskin-Robbins, Subway (sandwich shop) and China Town, closed.
The old section of this one-level strip — starting at the former Mattress Firm — will eventually come down to make way to an unspecified residential development. There's nothing new on this front to note just yet.
That's a wrap... a plywood wrap anyway... Stacie Joy shared these photos... the old spaces are now boarded up (and no full-on sidewalk bridge — yet?)...
