Thursday, May 25, 2023
Thursday's parting shot
On 10th and A, Deer Gallery debuts with some 'Crispy Critters'
EVG photo from early 2023
On Tuesday, we gave you a look inside The Joyce Theater's new arts venue on the NW corner of Avenue A and 10th Street.
As noted, The Joyce has made available a handful of studios at subsidized rates for dance artists. There are also studios open for local dance companies and businesses to hold rehearsals, auditions classes, workshops ... or other gallery-arts uses.
And one of these studios is now home to Deer Gallery, whose inaugural exhibit debuts this evening (May 25!) from 6-8 with "Steven Hirsch: Crispy Critters."
The show features nearly 40 paintings and drawings that Hirsch, a longtime East Village resident, created from 2020-2023. (We got a sneak preview of some of these here.)
Per the gallery:
The exhibit is up through July 1. After tonight's opening, hours are Saturday 12-5 p.m. and by appointment.
In frenzied images that illustrate dreamlike escapades, coupled with memories of waking hours witnessing the violence and antisocial behavior of our times, Steven Hirsch renders his biography and life's experiences in high color and surreal compositions.
Find the gallery's website at this link.
Previously on EV Grieve:
I saw Andy Warhol at the Brant Foundation
As a reminder about the show:
... the survey spans the entirety of Warhol's illustrious career, from his early drawings and intimate Polaroids to instantly recognizable silkscreens and sculptures. "Thirty Are Better Than One" pulls in large part from the Brant Collections, which includes an expansive and coherent selection of Warhol's work. It is curated by Peter M. Brant, founder of The Brant Foundation and an early patron, collaborator, and close friend of the artist.
Tickets for the show are $20 ... there are discounts for students and folks 65-plus ... and tickets for East Village residents are $15. (Proof of residency includes naming three of Allen Ginsberg's EV apartment addresses.) And just announced: Tickets between 4:30-5:30 on Thursdays are $5. Details here.
Exhibit hours: Wednesday-Friday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a 5:30 p.m. close Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the space the other day (this is simply an FYI and not a review of the show) ...
The Brant Foundation features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors. Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.
Soft openings: Spicy Moon on the Bowery
This is the third (and largest) location for the vegan Szechuan restaurant with outposts in both the East Village (Sixth Street) and West Village. This spot features some sidewalk tables ... interior art by Free Humanity. The outdoor murals are by Praxis.
As previously reported, ownership received approval in February from Community Board 3 for a liquor license for the ambitious new project. The owners plan to use the brewing equipment left behind by the former two tenants — Belse (closed in late 2022) and Paulaner (closed in early 2018).
We'll add the hours of operation as soon as we track them down. They'll eventually add a breakfast service (no alcohol served for the morning hours), per their CB3 presentation.
'An Empire in Decline' at Village Works
"An Empire in Decline" features works by Al Diaz and Jilly Ballistic...
The opening is tonight from 6-9 at the gallery, bookstore and artist space between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.
You can read our previous posts for more background.
To Eat Sushi on 10th Street
Presumably patrons will be able to eat sushi here.
After nearly five years of serving a variety of Taiwanese street food, the Braised Shop closed here in late April. In making the announcement, the owners promised a new concept, though they didn't specify where. Maybe this is it.
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Wednesday's parting shot (aka May 24)
Check out this free screening of 'Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square' tomorrow night
The documentary tells the story that led to the creation of the Cooper Square Community Land Trust:
A trailblazing housing organizer and her diverse working-class neighbors fight Robert Moses, the real-estate industry and five mayors to create the first Community Land Trust in New York City — an oasis of permanently low-income housing in the heart of the rapidly gentrifying Lower East Side.
Read more about the film here.
There's a pre-film discussion starting at 7:45... with "Rabble Rousers" starting at 8:30 p.m.
Goldin died in May 2020 at age 95.
The mystery of papier-mâché man — solved!
Thanks to an EVG reader, we have learned more about papier-mâché man.
For starters, his name is/was Mister M, a creation of the late East Village-based multimedia artist Hanne Lauridsen, aka Hanne H7L.
The journey began the other day outside 517 E. 11th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B "under rather suspicious circumstances." (Lauridsen lived at the address.)
How Mister M made it over to First Avenue is not immediately known. (Or his whereabouts now.)
Lauridsen died in late January 2022. She was 84.
This afternoon at 4, there will be a small, informal ceremony and a sprinkling of ashes outside No. 517 in her honor.
And we hope that Mister M is still out there somewhere, having an adventure.
Top photo via an EVG reader
Is this the skinniest smoke shop in NYC?
Just another *******Pizza place
We're not sure if this is the actual name of the pizzeria... or if the seven asterisks are a mistake. Or a placeholder?
Anyway! This space has been vacant since Toasted Deli went dark at the end of 2022 after nearly 18 months in business.
Waga is closing on St. Mark's Place
Photo by Steven
The shop sells handmade goods — from jewelry to bags and leather belts — primarily from West Africa.
Waga seems like it has been here longer than its 2001 debut... and is one of those unique places that gave this block a little charm.
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Inside the new home of The Joyce, which aims to be a hub for the performing arts in the East Village
Photos by Stacie Joy
News arrived in February that the Chelsea-based Joyce Theater signed a one-year lease for the former Boys' Club of New York, the 7-story building at 287 E. 10th St. and Avenue A.
The nonprofit organization was soon in a soft-open mode. The Joyce has made available a handful of studios at subsidized rates for dance artists, including space specifically for tap and percussive artists. There are also studios open for local dance companies and businesses to hold rehearsals, auditions classes, workshops ... or other gallery-arts uses. (Deer Gallery unveils its inaugural exhibit on Thursday featuring work by East Village-based photographer-artist Steven Hirsch.)
As Joyce Foundation officials announced in February:
The Joyce aims to continue offering community services and amenities with an emphasis on the performing arts and especially dance. Eventually, The Joyce Theater Foundation hopes to make the Tompkins Square Park-adjacent building a hub for local and international artists and companies alike as they create works that will reach audiences across the city and around the world.
EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently toured the 58,000-square-foot building ...
... with Lou Albruzzese, director of operations at The Joyce...
Here's a look inside, starting in a Joyce office... 
... Stacie also had permission to visit a few of the rehearsal spaces ...
After this first-year lease, The Joyce "intends to purchase the building to share this valuable arts-community resource on a permanent basis."
According to a statement earlier this year from Joyce officials:
The purchase, facilitated by real-estate adviser Paul Wolf of Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, is contingent upon the success of fundraising efforts over the course of the coming year. These additional funds are vital in supporting the renovation of the building, completing its transformation into an extraordinary — and much-needed — destination for the performing arts.
As we first reported in June 2018, the Boys' Club put the building on the sales market. At the time, Stephen Tosh, BCNY's executive director and CEO, said the sale of the East Village building would allow the organization to start new programs in other neighborhoods needing its services.
In August 2019, Crain's first reported that Aaron Sosnick, an East Village resident and founder of the investment fund A.R.T. Advisors LLC, was the new owner of the Harriman Clubhouse. He bought it for $31.725 million and reportedly planned to sell the property, "potentially at a substantial loss," to a nonprofit that would maintain its civic use.
E.H. Harriman founded the Boy's Club in 1876. The Harriman Clubhouse on 10th Street and Avenue A opened in 1901.
[Updated] A grassroots movement to access the main lawn in Tompkins Square Park
Well, if you've been in the Park on any pleasant day since then, you've seen how well people are minding the signage and locked gates... (thanks to Joe for this photo from May 14)...
Now, someone has taken it a step further — literally... there's a step on the western side of the lawn to make it easier to navigate the fence...
The Park is currently short on open space with the start of the field house reconstruction. For the next 18 months, the space behind the field house — dubbed the Slocum area as it includes the Slocum Memorial Fountain — is also closed to the public, taking some picnic tables and the spray showers out of commission.
There's now an extra step to make navigating the fence even easier...
Top and bottom photos by Steven
This East Village outpost of Blank Street coffee will be a barista training lab
Photos by Steven
The Blank Street outpost on the NE corner of First Avenue at 13th Street is now closed to the public. (Thanks to the EVG commenter who pointed this out yesterday.)
According to the door signage, this space will become a "training + innovation lab" for the fast-growing brand.
And the small print: "Over the coming months we will also open the door to anyone who wants to come try some of the fun things we are working on. See you soon!"
Blank Streeters can still hit up the other two EV locations on Avenue A and Third Avenue.
The First Avenue Blank Street opened last summer.
As previously noted, not everyone is a fan of the company. Per the Times last year: "When word got out that Blank Street is not an independent chain like Variety or Bean & Bean, but an enterprise with global ambitions backed by private equity financing, many became curious — and sometimes suspicious."
Monday, May 22, 2023
Report of a fire in an abandoned curbside dining structure on St. Mark's Place
Firefighters immediately extinguished the blaze. It was not immediately known if the man had been living inside the structure ... his whereabouts were also not known after the fire...
Last Wednesday, the Department of Transportation issued a "Termination" notice for this dining structure outside Compilation Coffee, which closed one week after the streetery arrived last November.
Meanwhile, city officials are still debating the future of outdoor dining. Part of a proposed bill "would allow 'streeteries' — aka the dining sheds on the streets — to stay up from April through November each year," NBC New York reported on Friday.
Reader-submitted photos
Today in Citi Bike docking station news
Thanks to Vinny & O for the photo!
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