MARCH 2013 GUIDE TO NEW YORK

March in New York is full of incredible events, which is not unrelated to March being Women's History Month. As I'm headed to the UK for the month, I'll be ingesting culture elsewhere. I wanted to share all the goodness I'll be missing so that you can attend for me!

image via Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College Annual Women's History Month Conference ::: March 1 & 2

This year, SLC honors fallen women's historians Amy Swerdlow and Gerda Lerner, both former directors of the Women's History graduate program, in their annual conference, themed "Activism and Scholarship." Lerner is a cofounder of the program, the first of its kind, established in 1972. Full itinerary here.

Related: some of the work I've done with Sarah Lawrence, and a review I did of the 12th annual plenary panel.

image via Barnard

Barnard College Scholar & Feminist Conference: Utopia ::: March 1 & 2

Ah, the competing scholarly feminist conference! This one also sounds fantastic, with a focus on utopias that suits my interest in safer spaces: "Creating a space outside of what society makes available can be an act of survival in a culture that selectively grants and withholds the designation of full humanity." With panels ranging from prison abolition to food justice, "Utopia" promises to be innovative. Full itinerary here.

image via wolfbat

Wolfbat's Ark at House of Vans ::: March 9

Ultimate printmaker Dennis McNett (of Wolfbat Studio) has been posting some amazing imagery from past Wolfbat live events to his Instagram feed. One of New York's punk printmaking darlings, this event will probably include giant wolf heads and possibly, fire. So far, it is simply described as "An interactive performance of the Wolfbat tribe slaying the demons and storm surge sent by Hurricane Sandy."

RSVP on Facebook--but you must also RSVP by emailing rsvptovans@gmail.com for admission to this event.

Printed Matter Sandy Benefit with Live Auction ::: March 9

Pretty self-explanatory, but in case you were unawares: one of the best places to see and purchase book arts in New York is Printed Matter, Inc. Unfortunately, they were saddled with over $200,000 worth of damages during Hurricane Sandy. This is a live auction to benefit Printed Matter. Tickets available here.

image via Hyperallergic

The World's First Tumblr Art Symposium! ::: March 9

Tumblr and Hyperallergic have teamed up to bring you the world's first Tumblr art symposium, and it's hosted in our beloved borough of Brooklyn! The symposium will be part discussion and part exhibition, and registration is filling up quick. More info here.

image via A.I.R.

A.I.R. Gallery's 40th Birthday Party ::: March 19

The first "artist-run gallery for women" has just turned 40! Rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy devastation, the party will coincide with the gallery's 40th anniversary exhibition. Stellar participants include Martha Wilson, Carolee Schneeman, and Ana Mendieta, plus attendees receive a commemorative poster by the Guerrilla Girls. More details and registration here.

Are you seeing a theme here? Yes, Hurricane Sandy relief is still needed. There are still people without heat, hot water, and homes. There are repairs to be made, mold to be removed, art projects to be restored.

I subscribe to the Hurricane Relief Resources list on Facebook which has pretty regular updates about ways to help. While there are less hubs, Occupy Sandy is still up and running.

Stay involved. Be a good neighbor. And enjoy your March.

AT THE BROOKLYN NIGHT BAZAAR

Hyperallergic will have a booth at this month's Brooklyn Night Bazaar, starting tonight at 5pm and going until Saturday (for more details, see this post). I just whipped up a batch of International Girl Gang Underground zines to peddle at the event! So get yr copy while it's hot. In a way, it's like my zine is opening for Fucked Up?

Note: Check out Hyperallergic's follow-up post on the Bazaar here! Can you spot IGGU?

OCCUPYING & OBSERVING

Foley Square, November 17, 2011

Yesterday I marched in lower Manhattan (starting at Zuccotti Park) for World AIDS Day, with my friend Roz. After the march stopped and the civil disobedience group was arrested, we made our way back to Zuccotti to see if anything else was going on. To our surprise, Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins and Jackson Browne were scheduled to play a free show. We stayed until our toes nearly froze off. I was tweeting the events and the New York Observer posted one of my photos:

On a related note, I recently wrote a piece for Hyperallergic about OCCUPIED: Occupy Wall Street Art Show at Bluesetockings. The piece was also about my personal experience with the movement and my respect for the fact that it disrupts business as usual. Originally called "Occupying Business as Usual," the title didn't make it through the editing process.

The general vibe I’ve been hearing from a lot of people is “I don’t totally agree with the OWS protesters but … ” and then some message of, well, agreement. I have been feeling the same way, but deeply passionate about the space OWS has opened up for dialogue: political, social, economic and artistic.

As cultural critic Jay Smooth said, “It’s just specific enough to catch that basic sentiment that so many people share, and it’s just vague enough to let many people come to it with many different shades of that sentiment.” The OCCUPIED art show is a little like that. 

From political posters of all sorts to handmade signs (like those seen at Zuccotti and in the streets) to more traditional art pieces, OCCUPIED was clearly the result of an open call for submissions, which is, obviously, appropriate.

You can read the full article here.

I also want to mention to my fellow writers -- especially zine authors and editors -- you can add your names to the Occupy Writers list. While I am a contributing writer at Hyperallergic, I was curious to see if my editing International Girl Gang Underground would be appropriate for this list, and I got an emphatic yes as a response. Occupy Writers is encouraging anyone on the list to write original material about the movement.

RETURN TO SENDER

You know what's super exciting to me? That I get to write about my guitar-hero of a friend, Marissa Paternoster, in a way that highlights one of her other major talents. She's a rad artist, in case you've been under a rock for the past two years. Her work with Doodle Drag and otherwise has been popping up in my posts at Hyperallergic of late.

It’s been nearly a month since we dismantled our mail art show, Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, here at Hyperallergic. The show was a first in a lot of ways: me and Hrag’s first collaboration, Hrag’s first zine-making experience and my first time curating a show outside of my own initiatives.

Hrag and I responded to the temporality of mail art by placing a rule on our exhibition catalogue/zine: patrons were not able to receive the zine in person, they had to get it through the post. We sent out our entire first edition within a week of the show opening, which sold-out quite fast. We even sent our copies of the zines to each other.

Read the full story here.

IMPORTANT QUEENS DIY VENUE REBUILDS AFTER BURGLARY

Wham City at Silent Barn, photo courtesy of SleepDeadNYC on Flickr.
Post reblogged from Hyperallergic.

Late Monday night, word quickly got around that the beloved DIY arts and music venue on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, Silent Barn, had been burglarized. $15,000 of musical equipment, handmade art and valuables was taken from the venue, and the place was violently trashed. New York indie media outlets reacted rapidly, passing on the information and waiting for updates, but rarely did I find a post that really tapped into the heartbreak felt community-wide after hearing the damage. 

Silent Barn, located in neighborhood Ridgewood, Queens, was founded in 2004. Launching the career of notable bands like Vivian Girls and Dan Deacon, Silent Barn has always maintained a rabidly all-ages show policy. Art covered the walls, it was rigged with sound equipment to capture some of the live music performances, and bands played in the kitchen. They housed a zine collection, one of a few in the area, boasting over 700 titles, in addition to their experimental video game arcade, Babycastles. I’ve had the pleasure to play among dirty dishes on a few occasions; most of my friends and colleagues can say the same.

Read the full story at Hyperallergic. I also recently wrote about Doodle Drag's subway drawing party.

REDEFINING FEMININE IDENTITIES

Reposted from Hyperallergic

Following the passage of the same-sex marriage bill in New York and a recent weekend of LGBT pride, it just felt right to attend curator Bradford Nordeen’s “Dirty Looks.”  The series is a monthly platform for experimental queer film and video that Nordeen affectionately describes as “roaming”—June’s event was held at P.P.O.W. Gallery in Chelsea, though it takes place in various venues across the city. 

The feeling at P.P.O.W. was exciting; perhaps everyone was riding the high of the past weekend’s victories. With a full house, Nordeen introduced “Female Trouble: A Genderfuck Program,” a series of works exploring queer and feminine identities from drag queens to the hyper-femininity of Narcissister. Featuring works from 1967 to the present, Nordeen’s lineup created a discussion about gender bending (or, in his own words, “genderfucking”) throughout history.

Read the full story here.

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN ON CULTURE, CATS, & ROAD RAGE

Reposted from Hyperallergic

Tuesday night, I ventured to the beloved St. Mark’s Bookshop to see pioneering feminist artist Carolee Schneemann read from her recent book of letters, Correspondence Course: An Epistolary History of Carolee Schneemann and Her Circle. Schneemann entered the crowded section of folding chairs and standing and sitting bodies slowly and eerily, wearing her infamous devil mask.

Prefacing the talk, Schneemann warned the audience of how “brutal” the world of academic publishing is, driving the point home that this text was truly a labor of love. Describing Correspondence Course as “a book about different types of practical and aesthetic survival,” Schneemann piqued the audience’s intrigue, despite her attesting that “all the sex and fucking is not in this book … the sexy stuff is in my diaries.”

Read the full story here.

NORTHSIDE OPEN STUDIOS: "PRESENTS" + BRAIN WAVES

Crossposted with For the Birds.

After an eventful Bushwick Open Studios the other week, today commences Northside Open Studios, a festival of art shows, artists' open studios, and events in North Brooklyn.

I've been working with Hrag Vartanian to co-curate Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, a show of over 100 artists and widely varying mediums, that will debut tomorrow, Friday June 17, at Hyperallergic HQ. I am thrilled about the opening as I've been writing for Hyperallergic on the subject and living/working among these entries for a month now. L Magazine named the show a "must-see event" during Northside Open Studios. For more information, check out Hyperallergic.

Aimee Lusty, newly-named curator at Booklyn will be hosting a zine and print fair on the street below Booklyn's own space in Greenpoint. Aimee is one of my favorite local art-makers and creative idea-havers so I am excited to see what she comes up with for Booklyn. She recently debuted MASTER OF REALITY, a group show featuring Milano Chow, Cynthia Daignault, Gary Kachadourian and STO, which will also have open hours during the zine and print fair. BRAIN WAVES, Storefront's zine and print collection (as well as my curatorial baby) will be tabling during the fair, along with For the Birds' own Lauren Denitzio. More information is available at Booklyn.

We hope to see you out this weekend!

Presents: 3 Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ

Reposted from Hyperallergic.

We are excited to announce the details for Hyperallergic’s very first mail art show! 

The exhibition, titled Presents: Three Months of Mail Art for Hyperallergic HQ, will include mail art in the form of sculpture, installation, video and works on paper. The show’s catalogue will be in the form of a ‘zine.

Co-curated by Kate Wadkins and Hrag Vartanian, Presents will draw on the 100+ mail art works that have been sent to Hyperallergic since our initial request for submissions to our Mail Art Bulletin in March 2011. The show will include everything from practical jokes to prayer/envelope flags. They represent a range of materials and subject matter all emphasizing the tangible communication from one individual to another. 

Please join us for our opening party Friday, June 17 from 6pm to 9pm at Hyperallergic HQ. We will also have gallery hours during Northside Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday June 18 and 19 from 12 noon to 6pm. 

Hyperallergic HQ is located at 181 N 11th Street, Suite 302, Brooklyn, NY 11211.
You can RSVP to the show on Facebook. 

Image: A work by Bernard Klevickas for the Mail Art Bulletin.

P.S. Here's our listing on the Northside Open Studios site, as well as the opening.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOREVER

I feel like I've been thrown in to summer with no warning.



Ta-da! All of a sudden I'm a Master. How did that happen?

Anyway, I started interning at Hyperallergic last Friday and the first day was great. I started an inventory of all of the mail art we've received and wrote an article about the history of mail art & Ray Johnson for the site, based on three of the letters sent to HQ. A perfect project for a recently graduated historian.

BOLDNESS, JOY, SLEEP, & GRATITUDE

Those are the things that Arianna Huffington told myself and my graduating class to be sure to use more of in our future ventures, and I concur with her. The idea of living and producing with more JOY is not something I had thought much of until I saw Karen Finley perform at Barnes & Noble last month. Joy is a central part of her artistic practice, which she emphasized to the audience. She even signed my book, "With Joy, Karen Finley." The idea doesn't really come naturally to me, so I will keep it in mind.

ANNOUNCING: MAIL ART SHOW AT HYPERALLERGIC

Photo courtesy of Hyperallergic

In tandem with Northside Open Studios, Hyperallergic will be curating a Mail Art show from June 16-19, 2011. Hyperallergic HQ will be in the midst of the action during the four-day event, and the Mail Art show will be displayed in our space.  We want YOU to submit your mail art to be featured in the show and of course, we will also be pulling from the submissions we have already received.

We are looking for a wide range of submissions, so be as creative as possible! Mail art as a medium has the potential to include layers of meaning and performance, due to its temporal qualities. Consider all the different piecesthat make up mail visually and manually: stamps, envelopes, paper, and/or non-traditional contents and containers; plus the acts of opening, unfolding and reading.

I will be curating this show at Hyperallergic HQ and can't think of a better way to kick off the summer! Submissions are due June 8th, read the full story here.

NOTE: To clarify, your piece becomes mail art as you submit it to Hyperallergic via the postal service. You do not need to dig up older mail art works / the work does not require having been sent to another recipient aside from Hyperallergic.

PEN MEETS PICK: SCREAMING FEMALES & DOODLE DRAG

Last month I ventured to Hoboken to check out the Screaming Females & Doodle Drag show. I wrote about it for Hyperallergic, and the piece went live this morning!

When the time came to start the show, Screaming Females squeezed onto the relatively small stage at Maxwell’s, just to the right of a blank sheet on the wall, which served as a projection screen. “We’re Screaming Females!” Paternoster squeaked out, and as the lights went down, she introduced the first artist: Tiffany Cheng, who illustrated the song “Wild,” off of the band’s latest LP,Castle Talk. The work projected onto the sheet ranged from photograph-based and stop-motion animations to felt pen drawings, grotesque and beautiful all at once. The artwork suited the music — dark, jubilant, fun, neurotic — visual and audio codes that we forget to interpret because we’re so busy enjoying it.

read the full article here.

I'm really excited to have something up at Hyperallergic, I am a fan of the work they do. Here are some photo outtakes from the evening.