secret project robot

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The Photographer Documenting DIY Culture in Brooklyn and Beyond

La Rhaata on the subway, New York City 2017 (photo: Walter Wlodarczyk)

Those who proclaim the spirit of New York City is dead would be wise to look away from the fresh horror that is the CBGB Target and instead fix their eyes on the work of photographer Walter Wlodarczyk. There, you’ll find a vibrant collection of musicians, performance artists, dancers, and other experimental creative types. As Wlodarczyk’s solo exhibition There Is Only One Of You demonstrates in an impressive 160 or so photos, thriving artistry is still alive and well here. More →

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A Very Fragrant V-Day, Noise + Drag, and More Performance Picks

WEDNESDAY

(flyer via Secret Project Robot / Facebook)

Valentine’s Day with SSION
Wednesday, February 14 at Secret Project Robot, 8 pm: $15

If you somehow haven’t made Valentine’s Day plans yet (and yes, I count staying home and groveling as ‘plans’), consider attending this sensorial sensation of a show at Secret Project Robot tonight. In addition to serving as home for the high-energy SSION’s first Brooklyn performance, you can also expect a hefty spritz of performance art, installations, and even perfume. The multi-talented Ziemba will not only be performing some new “boudoir songs” from her soon-to-be-released album ARDIS (which, might I say, doubles as a “feminist sci-fi fragrant musical”), she has also created a new fragrance specifically for tonight. On top of all that, Ziemba and SSION will be joined by performance art vixens Caitlin Baucom and Pauli Cakes, and they’ll be doing their thing in an installation created by Monica Mirabile that was once likened to a “modern Brooklyn dollhouse.” Plus, if you wear Valentine’s colors, you could score a free beverage. So, open your heart (and your nose) and get to SPR. More →

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Performance Picks: MTA Love Poems, Jeb Bush Meets Sam Shepard, and More

WEDNESDAY

(flyer by Alex Farr)

Holding: A Queer Black Love Story
Wednesday, July 12 at Secret Project Robot, 9 pm: FREE (donation suggested)

This performance is presented as part of queer, trans, POC-centric collective BUFU’s month of community programming, available in full on their website. Created and performed by Alex Farr and Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence, Holding explores the ways one can tell a queer black love story in 2017, particularly in these more precarious political times. Prioritizing the powerful nature of being soft and kind to others, the show states, “We name our tenderness as an act of resistance—intimate resistance that should be celebrated, protected, and cared for.”

After the performance, the artists will stick around for a talkback discussion, unlike a certain David Mamet who recently said he would fine artistic groups $25,000 if they dared to publicly discuss his work after a production of it.  More →

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Messy Comedy, Final Macaulay, Royal Karaoke, and More Performance Picks

WEDNESDAY

(image via Ground Floor Comedy)

Ground Floor Live
Wednesday, June 7 at Brooklyn Bazaar, 9 pm: FREE

Ground Floor Comedy, an online space for comedic videos and newsletter listing IRL comedy shows in Brooklyn and beyond, will be putting on their first live show tonight at Greenpoint’s Brooklyn Bazaar. There’ll be sketch, improv, and other absurdities from a silly group of comics and performers, many of which will be familiar faces if you’ve ever been to the Annoyance or new weekly series RUDE at South 4th Bar.

The whole affair is guest hosted by Mo Fry Pasic and Tim Platt, who always bring a special something to shows. If you come early at 8pm, there will be a “meat themed variety show” to spotlight new voices in the comedy scene, and I love a good themed show.

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Secret Project Robot Will Return, Rewind Time to When ‘All Parties Used to Be Art Parties’

(Via Secret Project Robot Art Experiment/ Facebook)

(Via Secret Project Robot Art Experiment/ Facebook)

No matter how much you love your favorite DIY venue, there’s no sense in getting too attached– as anyone who’s been in the game for a while will tell you. But having lost seemingly countless art caverns and show spaces in the last year, we’ve reached a certain moment where posi vibes and healthy acceptance of the city’s natural ebb and flow, suddenly feel less like rational bits of wisdom and more like things we say to make ourselves feel better because everything is terrible right now.

Whether by force of landlord, party police, or unnatural disaster, we’ve lost some of the greats– Palisades is gone (for good), Market Hotel (indefinitely, save for some vegan markets here and there) maybe too, and Secret Project Robot went away as well. Since the beginning, the duo behind the latter, Rachel Nelson and Erik Zajaceskowski, have vowed to return in one form or another, and now good things are finally happening. “Secret Project Robot just signed a new lease!!” they announced on social media last week. “the art zombie rises!!!”

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Secret Project Robot Says Goodbye Cruel World With ‘Rainbow Hugs and Kisses’

(Image via Secret Project Robot)

(Image via Secret Project Robot)

The name says it all– at Rainbow Hugs and Kisses: a Doomsday Celebration, Secret Project Robot will start saying their goodbyes to the neighborhood they’ve called home for the last five years. On Wednesday, July 13 (7 pm to 10 pm) the DIY venue will open the final art show at its current location with festivities and hopefully some booty-shaking to coronate what the SPR community’s calling a “magical realm.”

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This Week: Silly Shows Of All Sorts and An Experimental Theater BBQ

(via Facebook)

(via Facebook)

WEDNESDAY

Snippets From Sparkleberry

At The Annoyance, 367 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg. 8:30pm. $10. More info here

A ragtag gang of particularly zany folk come together to present this supposedly long-awaited public showing of some of the citizens of Sparkleberry’s theatrical creations, a town full of kindred spirits who also happen to be incredibly dumb. Needless to say, such a combination will probably make for some engaging material. The production features Eliza Hurwitz (who has also created a show that is dedicated to her love of Duane Reade), Steven DeSiena (the Music Man in recurring cartoon/puppet/sketch show Cartoon Monsoon), and Bardia Salimi (who I meant to see in a backyard comedy show in May but he spent too long getting an ice cream.) With a team like that, what could go wrong?

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Summer Spells ‘Doomsday’ at Secret Project Robot’s Last Hurrah

The saddest rainbows in the world (Photo via Secret Project Robot)

The saddest rainbows in the world (Photo via Secret Project Robot)

In less than two weeks, Rainbow Hugs and Kisses: a Doomsday Celebration, the final closing ceremony/bye-bye art show at Secret Project Robot, will open as a “greatest hits” celebration of the last five years at their current space, 389 Melrose Street in Bushwick. Rachel Nelson, who co-directs the long-running DIY art and music venue with her partner Erik Zajaceskowski are moving on to their fourth (to be determined) location since the couple started an underground party place in Williamsburg known as Mighty Robot way, way back in 1998.

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Performance: A Decapitation, Circus Maximus, and Female Serial Killers

(photo: Maxine Nienow)

(photo: Maxine Nienow)

THURSDAY

Circus Revue: Love, Trust, and Partnerships
House of Yes, 2 Wyckoff Ave, Bushwick. 7pm doors, 8pm show. Also on Friday. Tickets are $15. More info here
In a special edition of House of Yes’s recurring circus revue, this show is totally devoted to the magic number two. Yes, each act in this high-flying variety show will be a partnered one, so instead of the singular dazzling aerial, burlesque, dance, and circus acts you’re used to this glitzy venue delivering, you’ll be seeing double. In the spirit of deux, this show will be going on for two nights instead of its usual one, so there’s no excuse not to check it out. Plus, there’s a free dance party afterward, where you can probably unsuccessfully attempt some of the moves you saw.

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Secret Project Robot Is Closing But 'Not Giving Up,' Co-Founder Says

Happyfun Hideaway (Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)

Happyfun Hideaway (Photo: Lauren Carol Smith)

The secret is out: beloved Bushwick art/party space Secret Project Robot, which has featured tons of art and hosted dozens of good shows and parties, will be closing its doors at the end of the summer. Although the news was posted just a week and a half ago, co-director Rachel Nelson doesn’t seem too broken up about it.
“The thing is we just can’t afford to stay there,” Nelson said. “That’s it.”
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