#celebratethework
In response to the effects of COVID-19 on the dance and performance world, CPR will highlight and honor our spring season artists on the day of their scheduled performance. Stay tuned as artists share their processes, motivations, and media over the coming weeks and join us as we #celebratethework
Follow us online:
CPRNYC.org // @cprnyc
Postponed/Cancelled Events:
Performance Studio Open House: PSOH March 2020
New Voices in Live Performance: the corpus is exquisite, the equinox is vernal (ceev)
Spring Movement: CPR Spring Movement 2020
Performance Studio Open House: PSOH April 2020
Performance Studio Open House: PSOH May 2020
OPEN DOOR | River L. Ramirez: Healing is Over
River L. Ramirez. Photo by Daniel Rampulla. Courtesy the artist.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Fri, April 18 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
Sat, April 19 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
River L. Ramirez has come to the conclusion that the time for healing is over. No more tarot, astrology, or meditation retreats, there are bills to pay. Healing is Over is a meandering, improvisational set (with drawings and a song) about possession, demons, healing, money, god, and the existential dread of life as a freak in the USA.
Special guest opening acts to-be-announced.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
River L. Ramirez is a NYC-based artist originally from Miami, FL. Working in the mediums of comedy, film, TV, writing, visual art, and music it's easy to forget they are just a little furby with a knife. River’s work explores magick, class consciousness, and liberation through play. Their work has been written about in the New York Times, Forbes, Art in America, SSENSE, and GQ. They teach a class called "How To Be In Front Of People '' at The Brick Aux and just released a single called i remember off their new EP: GIVING. You can also find them in Julio Torres's film PROBLEMISTA.
OPEN DOOR | River L. Ramirez: Healing is Over
River L. Ramirez. Photo by Daniel Rampulla. Courtesy the artist.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Fri, April 18 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
Sat, April 19 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
River L. Ramirez has come to the conclusion that the time for healing is over. No more tarot, astrology, or meditation retreats, there are bills to pay. Healing is Over is a meandering, improvisational set (with drawings and a song) about possession, demons, healing, money, god, and the existential dread of life as a freak in the USA.
Special guest opening acts to-be-announced.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
River L. Ramirez is a NYC-based artist originally from Miami, FL. Working in the mediums of comedy, film, TV, writing, visual art, and music it's easy to forget they are just a little furby with a knife. River’s work explores magick, class consciousness, and liberation through play. Their work has been written about in the New York Times, Forbes, Art in America, SSENSE, and GQ. They teach a class called "How To Be In Front Of People '' at The Brick Aux and just released a single called i remember off their new EP: GIVING. You can also find them in Julio Torres's film PROBLEMISTA.
OPEN DOOR | River L. Ramirez: Healing is Over
River L. Ramirez. Photo by Daniel Rampulla. Courtesy the artist.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Fri, April 18 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
Sat, April 19 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
River L. Ramirez has come to the conclusion that the time for healing is over. No more tarot, astrology, or meditation retreats, there are bills to pay. Healing is Over is a meandering, improvisational set (with drawings and a song) about possession, demons, healing, money, god, and the existential dread of life as a freak in the USA.
Special guest opening acts to-be-announced.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
River L. Ramirez is a NYC-based artist originally from Miami, FL. Working in the mediums of comedy, film, TV, writing, visual art, and music it's easy to forget they are just a little furby with a knife. River’s work explores magick, class consciousness, and liberation through play. Their work has been written about in the New York Times, Forbes, Art in America, SSENSE, and GQ. They teach a class called "How To Be In Front Of People '' at The Brick Aux and just released a single called i remember off their new EP: GIVING. You can also find them in Julio Torres's film PROBLEMISTA.
OPEN DOOR | River L. Ramirez: Healing is Over
River L. Ramirez. Photo by Daniel Rampulla. Courtesy the artist.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Fri, April 18 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
Sat, April 19 at 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM
River L. Ramirez has come to the conclusion that the time for healing is over. No more tarot, astrology, or meditation retreats, there are bills to pay. Healing is Over is a meandering, improvisational set (with drawings and a song) about possession, demons, healing, money, god, and the existential dread of life as a freak in the USA.
Special guest opening acts to-be-announced.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
River L. Ramirez is a NYC-based artist originally from Miami, FL. Working in the mediums of comedy, film, TV, writing, visual art, and music it's easy to forget they are just a little furby with a knife. River’s work explores magick, class consciousness, and liberation through play. Their work has been written about in the New York Times, Forbes, Art in America, SSENSE, and GQ. They teach a class called "How To Be In Front Of People '' at The Brick Aux and just released a single called i remember off their new EP: GIVING. You can also find them in Julio Torres's film PROBLEMISTA.
OPEN DOOR | Amelia Heintzelman: Comedy Pilates
Photo by Jenna Westra. Courtesy Amelia Heintzelman.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Sun, May 4 at 3PM and 6PM
Mon, May 5 at 7PM
Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.
Comedy Pilates will be a 1-hour class, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available at CPR, and please note that there is limited private changing space.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com
OPEN DOOR | Amelia Heintzelman: Comedy Pilates
Photo by Jenna Westra. Courtesy Amelia Heintzelman.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Sun, May 4 at 3PM and 6PM
Mon, May 5 at 7PM
Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.
Comedy Pilates class will be 1 hour, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available, and please note that CPR has limited private changing space.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com
OPEN DOOR | Amelia Heintzelman: Comedy Pilates
Photo by Jenna Westra. Courtesy Amelia Heintzelman.
Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Sun, May 4 at 3 P.M. and 6 P.M.
Mon, May 5 at 7 P.M.
Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.
Comedy Pilates class will be 1 hour, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available, and please note that CPR has limited private changing space.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com
OPEN DOOR | Yanira Castro / a canary torsi: Exorcism = Liberation (on view)
Digital image by Alejandro Torres Viera and Luis A. Vázquez O’Neill. Courtesy a canary torsi.
On view in the window of CPR’s administrative offices at 361 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn.
Free and open to the public.
Exorcism = Liberation is a public art project by Yanira Castro / a canary torsi that investigates our relationship to land, self-determination, migration, and climate disaster, and utilizes familiar forms of political media campaigns such as stickers, pins, lawn signs, and handmade banners to immerse the public in sonic experiences. Through collective citywide experiences between NYC, Chicago, and the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts, the American public is invited to imagine alternative futures through the lens of Puerto Rican culture and the U.S.' ongoing colonial history. Exorcism = Liberation is an act of intervention, a rehearsal for collective action during a critical American election.
At CPR, handmade banners with the project's slogans "Exorcism = Liberation", "I came here to weep", and "What is your first memory of dirt?" will be on view on rotation in the window of CPR’s street-level offices, inviting the public to interact with each of three distinct sound works via a QR code which engage listeners in various forms of resistance, embodiment, and memory.
On October 25, a companion program OPEN LAB: What is your first memory of dirt?: Aural Archiving with Yanira Castro / a canary torsi will gather participants’ first memories of dirt in an intimate, analog recording session. On November 5, as part of OPEN HOUSE: Election Night with Crackhead Barney, all three banners will be on display and free pins and stickers will be distributed.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yanira Castro's work is rooted in communal construction as a rehearsal for radical democracy. She is an interdisciplinary artist born in Borikén (Puerto Rico), living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn), and working at the intersection of communal practices, performance, installation, and interactive technology. Castro forms iterative, multimodal projects that center land, and the complexity of citizenship and governance in works activated and performed by the public. Since 2009, she’s created and performed with a team of collaborators as a canary torsi. Her recent work includes a performance manual for reckoning, Last Audience, a performance manual; a participatory podcast to rehearse for a collective future, Last Audience: a performance podcast; and a tea ritual created with four teens from NYC Girl Scouts Troop 6000 to enact the ingestion of home/land, TIERRA. Currently, Castro is developing her ongoing interdisciplinary work, I came here to weep, a collective exorcism for territorial possession. Castro has been commissioned and presented by The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York Live Arts, MCA Chicago, The Invisible Dog Art Center, SPACE Gallery, PICA, LMCC, The Bates Dance Festival and ICA/Boston. Her work has recently been supported by Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Dance, 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Art, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, LMCC, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Marble House Project. She has received two New York Dance and Performance (aka Bessie) Awards for Outstanding Production.
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Genevieve Simon (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Genevieve Simon. Photo by Julianna McGuirl.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the fourth season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Genevieve Simon: THIS BUG IS GAY
How do you translate your body? Do you secretly know you’re the least favorite child? Why do some words taste so good? How horny was Franz Kafka? What joy can we find by releasing the need to be understood? And how many blueberries can you fit in your mouth at once? All this and more at THIS BUG IS GAY, a solo queer cabaret in German, starring Gregor Samsa from Kakfa’s The Metamorphosis. You disgust me. You’re delightful. Let's be bugs together.
Genevieve Simon (they/them) is an Equity actor and writer who speaks imperfectly fluent German. They're a 2023-24 New Georges Audrey Resident and a 2023 Semi-Finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Genevieve’s work has been supported by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Puffin Foundation, The Brick, The Tank, Arts on Site, Shadowland Stages, and The Parsnip Ship.
Additional Spring 2024 Starr Reading Series programs:
Tues, February 27 at 7 P.M.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott: WHILE WE'RE HERE
Weds, February 28 at 7 P.M.
Aeon Andreas: GODSPUNK
Thurs, February 29 at 7 P.M.
Utkarsh Rajawat: lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
Tues, March 5 at 7 P.M.
Avi Amon: MOTHER/ROAD
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Avi Amon (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Avi Amon. Photo by Jeremy Mauriac.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the fourth season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Avi Amon: MOTHER/ROAD
MOTHER/ROAD is a multimedia musical meditation on grief, memory, and borders, using the cassette tapes my parents brought when they immigrated to this country... as keys to other dimensions. Examining that journey from Istanbul to the U.S. as the nexus between past and future generations, this piece seeks to dissect what things we carry with us; what fragments of identity we barely remember; and the weight of what is left behind. And hopefully, we’ll create pathways for our daughter to sing with her ancestors.
Avi Amon is an award-winning, Turkish-American composer and sound artist. Recent work includes music, songs, and sound design for projects at: Ars Nova, Disney, HBO, Hulu, The Kennedy Center, NYTW, Oregon Shakespeare, PAC, The Public, Target Margin, and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project and teaches at NYU.
Additional Spring 2024 Starr Reading Series programs:
Tues, February 27 at 7 P.M.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott: WHILE WE'RE HERE
Weds, February 28 at 7 P.M.
Aeon Andreas: GODSPUNK
Thurs, February 29 at 7 P.M.
Utkarsh Rajawat: lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
Weds, March 6 at 7 P.M.
Genevieve Simon: THIS BUG IS GAY
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Utkarsh Rajawat (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Utkarsh Rajawat. Photo by Matt Caron.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the fourth season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Utkarsh Rajawat: lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
welcome to daycare!!! don't fckng kill anyone!!!!!
*Content warning: Contains graphic violence, murder/death, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, racism/fatphobia/bigotry.
Utkarsh Rajawat is following the call of Rasha Abdulhadi, who they know of through “Notes on Craft” by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, to use their bio to uplift resistance efforts against the US-sponsored, Israeli genocide of Palestinians. You can contribute to the movement by donating food baskets, e-Sims, endorsing PACBI, attending an action, engaging in BDS, calling your representatives. I hope more institutions are moved to full-throated support, with their words, their resources, their (divestment from Israeli) money, as Palestinian people like those of The Freedom Theatre have been asking for. You can contact PACBI@wawog.org if you have questions or concerns, including legal ones, about your cultural or academic organization’s commitment. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Additional Spring 2024 Starr Reading Series programs:
Tues, February 27 at 7 P.M.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott: WHILE WE'RE HERE
Weds, February 28 at 7 P.M.
Aeon Andreas: GODSPUNK
Tues, March 5 at 7 P.M.
Avi Amon: MOTHER/ROAD
Weds, March 6 at 7 P.M.
Genevieve Simon: THIS BUG IS GAY
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Aeon Andreas (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Aeon Andreas. Photo by Sharkey Weinberg.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the fourth season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Aeon Andreas: GODSPUNK
GODSPUNK is a maximalist, experimental, transgender, transexual, gay, gothic farce. Our host is having a party! They didn’t know we were going to have a party. But as it turns out, we’re having one, whether you like it or not. This party has everything: uninvited guests, fabulous dancing, lots of gin, a tart, a pimple, a mysterious and strange mechanic (he was invited), a telephone with sentience, and abject faggotry. All we can do is wait for it all to spiral.
Aeon Wade Andreas (they/he) is a trans-masculine, trans-disciplinary, maximalist director/performer working in the fields of theater, film, dance, and drag. As a director and drag artist (named God Complex), most of their work focuses on queer transformation. Through the use of Presence, performed ritual, and faggotry, Aeon attempts to hold opulent darkness and abject joy in the same hand. Culturebot calls Aeon "Always Rapturous." Friends call them "hot and difficult."
Additional Spring 2024 Starr Reading Series programs:
Tues, February 27 at 7 P.M.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott: WHILE WE'RE HERE
Thurs, February 29 at 7 P.M.
Utkarsh Rajawat: lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
Tues, March 5 at 7 P.M.
Avi Amon: MOTHER/ROAD
Weds, March 6 at 7 P.M.
Genevieve Simon: THIS BUG IS GAY
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Deneen Reynolds-Knott (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Deneen Reynolds-Knott. Image courtesy the artist.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the fourth season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott: WHILE WE'RE HERE
When the Hummingbird Triangle, a field in a small town, transforms into an anonymously donated rain garden, a chorus of detractors emerge to commence a stealth mission to reveal the secret donor. WHILE WE'RE HERE is an exploration of suburban paranoia, the privatization of good deeds and the uniting properties of negativity.
Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s plays include SHOEBOX PICNIC ROAD SIDE: ROUTE ONE, (World Premiere at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Fall 2021), BABES IN HO-LLAND (2020 BAPF, Upcoming 2024 Production, Shotgun Players), and PARTICULARLY MEDDLESOME ANCESTORS ( 2023 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist, 2022 Ingram New Works Festival, Nashville Rep).
Additional Spring 2024 Starr Reading Series programs:
Weds, February 28 at 7 P.M.
Aeon Andreas: GODSPUNK
Thurs, February 29 at 7 P.M.
Utkarsh Rajawat: lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
Tues, March 5 at 7 P.M.
Avi Amon: MOTHER/ROAD
Weds, March 6 at 7 P.M.
Genevieve Simon: THIS BUG IS GAY
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: lily gonzales (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
lily gonzales. Photo by Borna Barzin.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the third season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
lily gonzales: I must belong somewhere
I must belong somewhere is a classroom presentation and archival practice for my childhood. A story that is true, I think mostly true. A queer collage that dissects identity formation, violence, and memory.
lily gonzales (they/them) is a writer from Texas, based in NYC. Their work has been supported by The John F. Kennedy Center, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theater, Colt Coeur, and Latinx Playwrights Circle, among others. Currently, they are a resident with AlterTheater Ensemble in San Rafael, CA. They received a B.A from The University of Texas at Austin in Theater and Dance, and English.
Additional Fall 2023 Starr Reading Series programs:
Weds, December 6 at 7 P.M.
Nia Calloway: Earth is Not One of Your Lil Friends
Tues, December 12 at 7 P.M.
Michael Oluokun: Have You Ever Thought About…
Five additional writers – Avi Amon, Aeon Andreas, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Utkarsh Rajawat, and Genevieve Simon – will share work as part of the Starr Reading Series in Spring 2024, also co-presented with The Bushwick Starr at CPR. More details to be announced.
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Michael Oluokun (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Michael Oluokon. Photo by Emily Akers. Image courtesy the artist.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the third season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Michael Oluokun: Have You Ever Thought About…
Comedian and Professor Emeritus in Bisexual Studies, Michael Oluokun, welcomes you to a comedic crash course in the portentous power of proliferous pondering. Come thru!
Michael Oluokun (any pronouns) is a writer, comedian, actor, and featherless biped who performs all around New York City.
Additional Fall 2023 Starr Reading Series programs:
Weds, December 6 at 7 P.M.
Nia Calloway: Earth is Not One of Your Lil Friends
Weds, December 13 at 7 P.M.
lily gonzales: I must belong somewhere
Five additional writers – Avi Amon, Aeon Andreas, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Utkarsh Rajawat, and Genevieve Simon – will share work as part of the Starr Reading Series in Spring 2024, also co-presented with The Bushwick Starr at CPR. More details to be announced.
OPEN DOOR | Starr Reading Series: Nia Calloway (Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr)
Nia Calloway. Photo by Sub/Urban Photography.
Free with RSVP
Tickets
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators – currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, William Burke, and Machel Ross – the selected playwrights receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, CPR is partnering for the third season to co-present this program, which unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Nia Calloway: Earth is Not One of Your Lil Friends
Earth is Not One of Your Lil Friends is a reclamation of body, space, and pleasure told from an eco-feminist point of view by way of poetry, music, soundscapes, and dance.
Nia Calloway (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and astrologer who traverses the worlds of theater, poetry, music, dance, and the healing arts. Through the combination of written word, sound experimentation, and explorative movement, she aims to create spaces of healing and introspection for her audience. Driven by the desire to relate the natural world and the cosmos to our bodies, Nia’s art serves to heal and reorient our collective stories around female bodies, QBIPOC bodies, and especially Black femme bodies.
Additional Fall 2023 Starr Reading Series programs:
Tues, December 12 at 7 P.M.
Michael Oluokun: Have You Ever Thought About…
Weds, December 13 at 7 P.M.
lily gonzales: I must belong somewhere
Five additional writers – Avi Amon, Aeon Andreas, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Utkarsh Rajawat, and Genevieve Simon – will share work as part of the Starr Reading Series in Spring 2024, also co-presented with The Bushwick Starr at CPR. More details to be announced.
*DATE CHANGE* OPEN DOOR | An Evening with Psychic Wormhole (Stacy Lynn Smith and Alex Romania)
Film still from RECKONING (in development), a Psychic Wormhole Film (Stacy Lynn Smith and Alex Romania). Image of Nia Joseph-Donnelly. Courtesy the artists.
*** This program was originally scheduled for Thurs, October 26 at 7pm, but has been rescheduled due to COVID-19.
Tickets $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
In addition to your ticket, or if you are unable to attend the event, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Psychic Wormhole between $25-$1,000 (or more!) to support the work of Psychic Wormhole.
CPR presents a special evening with Psychic Wormhole – the creative partnership of Stacy Lynn Smith and 2023 Artist-in-Residence Alex Romania. The evening will feature an invited work-in-progress screening of Psychic Wormhole’s film, RECKONING, a conversation with the film’s cast and co-creators, a performance by Speaker Music aka DeForrest Brown, Jr., and celebration.
The gathering also serves as the launch of Psychic Wormhole’s fundraising campaign, as the duo works towards the film’s premiere in 2024/2025, with proceeds from the event supporting the project.
In RECKONING, co-created by Smith and Romania, we journey through Smith’s abstract memoir, featuring an incredible intergenerational cast including the legendary Charles Dennis and rising phenom Nia Joseph-Donnelly. Through poetic visual storytelling in stunning locations across New York and New England, the film excavates Smith’s experiences of trauma and somatic memory as a means to reclaim embodiment.
RECKONING
Fragments of the Self journey through the
curvatures of time, holding space for
each Other as They mine shame,
extending lifelines to the Exiles.
Out in the swamps, strange bodied flares
give way to undoing visions.
Reckoning with trauma is a full time job.
View the Program
Psychic Wormhole (Stacy Lynn Smith and Alex Romania) embraces a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to filmmaking informed by dance forms – improvisation, somatics and butoh – melded with experimental visual design and object creation filtered through genres of Horror, Afro-futurism and Arthouse Cinema.
Stacy Lynn Smith is a neurodivergent, mixed race/Black performing artist, choreographer, director and Green Circle Keeper at Hidden Water (by and for those affected by childhood sexual abuse (CSA)), whose fifteen-year professional practice incorporates a lifetime of diverse movement training; especially synthesizing various lineages of improvisational forms, somatics, experimental theater and butoh. Fiercely dedicated to collaboration, Smith creates, devises, improvises and performs across disciplines and genres with an array of talented artists including: DeForrest Brown Jr., Anna Homler, Karen Bernard, Thaddeus O’Neil, Rakia Seaborn, Vangeline Theater (2008-2017), Michael Freeman (2010-2016), Saints of an Unnamed Country, Salome Asega, GENG, Bradley Bailey, Donna Costello, Michele Beck, Jasmine Hearn, thinkdance, mayfield brooks, Kathy Westwater, Josephine Decker, Emily Johnson, Peter Born, Okwui Okpokwasili and more. Member of jill sigman’s artist/activist cohort, Body Politic. Selected by Eva Yaa Asantewaa as part of the curatorial board for Black Womxn Summit. Smith is a 2022-24 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence.
Alex Romania is a multidisciplinary filmmaker, performing artist, and improviser. A 2023 CPR Artist-in-Residence, Romania has also held residencies with MacDowell, Djerassi, Movement Research, Old Furnace, Tofte Lake Center, Chez Bushwick, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Romania’s upcoming projects include Face Eaters premiering at the Chocolate Factory Theater in May 2024, (co-directorship of) the experimental documentary Patch the Sky with Five Colored Stones conceived by choreographer Daria Faïn, a short film with Daniela Fabrizi and the Re Hecho community in the LES, and the film The Philosophy of Whatever featuring their father Arthur Romania. In addition to creating original work which has been presented internationally at spaces such as Grace Exhibition Space, Abrons Arts Center, Encuentro, Casa Viva, UV Estudios, and Sub Rosa Space, Romania has performed in works by Kathy Westwater since 2013, has been featured in the work of Simone Forti, Éva Mag, Eddie Peake, Andy de Groat, Catherine Galasso, and danced early on with George Russell and De Facto Dance who extended practices of the improvisational choreographer Richard Bull. Romania has had several designs featured within the works of Antonio Ramos, and has worked in various filmmaking roles with Marin Media Labs, TAAMAS / Sarah Riggs, Trixie Films / Therese Shechter, Christopher “Unpezverde” Nuñez, Martita Abril, and Sarah White-Ayòn. Romania received a B.F.A. from Tisch School of the Arts in 2013.
DeForrest Brown, Jr. is an Alabama-raised, Ex-American rhythmanalyst, writer, and curator. As Speaker Music, he has released three albums on Planet Mu; 'Of Desire, Longing' (2019), 'Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry' (2020) and 'Techxodus' (2023). His written work explores the links between the Black experience in industrialized labor systems and Black innovation in electronic music. Brown's debut book 'Assembling a Black Counter Culture' was released on Primary Information in 2022.
OPEN DOOR | BINT: Solve et Coagula → عيب, Stage II: تبييض (The Whitening) (Co-Presented with ISSUE Project Room)
BINT. Photo by Nathan Tucker.
Free
RSVP
* General Admission tickets for this performance are SOLD OUT. Final RSVPs are still available for ISSUE Members — please contact sylver@issueprojectroom.org to join the standby list.
Interdisciplinary artist and musician BINT presents her second program as an ISSUE Artist-in-Residence. This next iteration of عيب:Solve et Coagula is co-presented with CPR – Center for Performance Research in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has been partnering with ISSUE to support the work of its Artists-In-Residence since 2021.
عيب:Solve et Coagula began with the collection of shame experiences from people of the MENASA (Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian) diaspora. The processing of these shared experiences through ritualistic sound has been the focus of BINT’s 2023 residency at ISSUE Project Room. Spending spring and summer of her residency focused on a bare-bones approach, BINT has been deeply inspired by minimalist and drone pioneers Halim El-Dabh, Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela – finding form and methods of transportation within the loops of the simplest of drones and minimal arrangements.
Over the course of the year, BINT presents three programs mirroring the primary stages of (Arabic) alchemical transmutation. The three programs function as immersive audio-visual ritual; wherein the collected shame stories are transmuted through sound and direct audience experience. The programs are loosely based upon the structure and setting of Sufi sem’a, a traditional Sufi gathering in which a third communal space is created (often underground, hidden from orthodox authorities) for the purposes of deep listening, chanting, movement, as well as participatory acts of devotion.
Notes from BINT on Solve et Coagula → عيب, Stage II: تبييض (The Whitening):
As the transmutation process continues to unfold, we have moved into the second stage known as ‘The Whitening’ (تبييض), an inversion and growing from the dissolution encountered in 'Stage I: تسويد (The Blackening).' Through this inverse we remain amidst a-void; the white in many cultures still signifying death and mourning as we often equate with black. Here we find the naked bone, only white remaining after processes of decay. Here we find the ash of a long forgotten flame.
Alchemically, it is in this stage where silver metal is produced. To form silver requires a stripping down, a focus–a refinement of the fertile chaos in the prior stage. Silver, in its association with the moon, is a unique metal in its ability to be polished, receive and reflect an image.
Fitting to this, themes of soul polishing and repetition of holy words of power known as dhikr (translates to remembrance) are central to sem’a practices. In this, BINT will use voice, field recordings and cassette tape loops to emulate these alchemical processes of polishing and repetition, using these analog methods of memory looping as a means of receiving and reflecting collective experiences for the gathering.
BINT is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn. Working across visual, performance and sound art, BINT applies contemporary methods to the traditional multicultural technologies of her ancestries (Pakistani, Egyptian, American, etc). With a focus on inherited metaphysical tech, her work is interested in the perennial role of the artist-mystic in cultural preservation and liberation work. As a musician, BINT turns to a palette of dissonance, distortion, long-form drones and noise to access corresponding emotional states in herself and listeners–most known for her unusual approach to processed harmonium and multilingual vocals, through tape, analog synthesis and pedals.
In 2019, BINT released Katabasis: Act I, an EP applying dark ambient power electronics and Arabic mother tongue to her classical Hindustani vocal training. She has shown work internationally including performance art commissions for Black Sabbath, the Copro Gallery, Atelier de Mélusine and visual work at Coachella Music and Arts Festival. BINT is founder of The Barzakh, a podcast and educational platform focused on the revival and reclamation of Islam’s rich heritage of the occult and metaphysics. BINT is an ISSUE Project Room 2023 Artist-In-Residence. Their first program "عيب:Solve et Coagula Stage I: تسويد (The Blackening)” was presented at MITU580 in March 2023.