Everyone in the train car looked up in comic bewilderment as the E train glided past the platform of Roosevelt Island Station. “Due to police activity, the E train will not stop at this station,” the conductor announced. Confused and in a futile, panicked hurry, the passengers rushed out at the next stop to beat the growing crowd to the opposite platform; they would try again. It was already 3:36pm, and the Roosevelt Island Cherry Blossom Festival was well underway.
Drama gripped Museum Mile this month with heightened debates about the Sackler family’s contributions to the Met, Guggenheim…and the opioid epidemic. This weekend, the American Museum of Natural History made controversial news of its own when it was discovered that the museum had rented space to a nonprofit planning to honor Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, nicknamed “The Trump of the Tropics,” with its Person of the Year Award.
The Hester Street Fair entered its 10th season in lovely, spring-weather style this past weekend, filling its familiar home in Seward Park with artisans, herbalists, designers, CBD pushers, vintage clothing fanciers, ceramists, queer activists, and, of course, the sweet, sweet smoke from open grills cooking up large plates of good, cheap food for the locals. Because even after all these years, the Hester Street Fair remains very much a community-oriented event, with plenty of room for the odd, the passionately niche, the delightfully DIY.
Anahita Bradberry’s neon works have never been out under the sun at the Hester Street Fair before, but they’ve stood, bright and mysterious, under lots of other light sources: fluorescent gallery overheads, soft reading lamps, the natural afternoon rays that peek through windows. She began constructing glass neon sculptures a few years ago, a bit by accident. She had been assisting an artist in DC, watching him work with luminescent bulbs, when she became enamored with his chosen form.
She came up with the idea to barter: she’d do his paperwork in exchange for lessons. He taught her the art of blowing glass, bending it, and filling it with high-voltage electrified gas (it’s a rarefied medium, difficult to break into without direct mentorship like this). The rest is well-lit history. Her work—which tends toward the minimal, sleek lines and curves of illuminated color—has been shown in DC galleries and now in her new home borough of Brooklyn, where, for six months, she’s been running Studio Sour. The Greenpoint space serves as both a workroom for her and as a storefront for customers, those drawn in off the street by the glow.
The Favourites Friday, April 12 at Club Cumming, 8 pm: FREE
Most people with an awareness of pop culture have at least heard of The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos’s recent feature film that facilitated, among other things, a frequent (and queer) call for actress Rachel Weisz to take control of them in every which way. WithThe Favourites, a new queer comedy show from Tessa Skara and Jes Tom, perhaps you’ll find a new object of affection to request bodily harm from. Described as “part safe space, part dyke party, part comics to watch showcase at a liberal arts college,” the kickoff show features Becca Blackwell, Kiko Soirée, Mila Myles, Spike Einbinder, Jess Salomon, and Eman El-Husseini—plus, of course, some obligatory Weisz fawning.More →
Opening Thursday, April 11 at Unix Gallery. On view through May 18.
Though many people still deny it, climate change is here to stay, and it will only get worse as time goes on. It’s even commonplace to hear people casually joke about how nothing matters because climate change is going to kill us all soon enough anyway! While it’s not quite as darkly humorous as such quips, the latest crop of work by painter Ellen de Meijer comments on the type of elite who think that sure, global warming is a thing, but I can just keep living my fancy life and everything will be fine, we’ll just adapt. Feast your eyes upon a lanky, formally-dressed man furnished with a pout and arm floaties, another large-eyed man with a hat made of newspaper, and more, and remember that global warming has no income bracket.
A raucous crowd marched in Harlem last night, demanding Albany legislators follow through on promises to not just renew but strengthen the state’s tenant protections.
Hidden on a residential street in Bushwick is a white building with black lettering that reads “Peephole Cinema,” with an arrow pointing south towards a small viewfinder. When you look inside, a visually stimulating world is exposed. Short animated films play on loop; they have no clear narrative or sound, and are full of whimsy and imagination. More →
Sure, Monday’s brief spike into warmer weather only lasted a day, but Industry City has dropped another much-needed reminder that good climes and good times are right on the horizon. The Sunset Park work-play complex just announced the lineup for its summer series of concerts and parties, and this year is going to be a doozy thanks to Antibalas, Blonde Redhead, Guided by Voices, Frankie Cosmos, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and more.
The DJ lineup is just as impressive as the schedule of live shows, what with some of our favorite selectors—including Soul Clap, Wolf + Lamb, and Greenpoint’s own The Lot Radio—in the mix. More →
Definitions around gender have shifted dramatically in recent years. Grammar aficionados have duked it out over the singular they and dictionaries have made space for words like “trans*” and “Mx.”
“Women’s Work: Art & Activism in the 21st Century,” which opens this Wednesday at Pen + Brush, takes the idea of definitions as a starting place, but goes much further.
