In 2010, FABnyc noticed that local theaters were “loading out” sets and materials directly into dumpsters after productions ended their runs. Not only were the materials being disposed of inefficiently and unsustainably, but were often of great value to other artists.

Photo by Whitney Browne

As a creative response, FABnyc initiated “Load OUT!” inviting neighborhood arts and cultural groups, non-profits, and community members to donate sets, costumes, props and office equipment they no longer needed, to be made available to other artists. The program has grown, now including textile and e-waste collection for the entire community. Hundreds of artists and residents have benefited, either through collecting the lightly used materials or by donating items they no longer need or want, and thus far nearly 46 tons of materials have been diverted from the waste stream.

This Fall, Load OUT! will take place Saturday, November 2, 2013 from 12-3PM at 11 East 3rd Street, Between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. Admission to Load OUT! is FREE  for artists and art students, and $5 for the general public.

As of now, our list of donations for the taking includes: large fabric bolts, padded stools, plastic molded chairs, metal garden chairs, filing cabinets, floor board, children’s toys, paired shoes, belts, lamps, metal lunch box, gently used hand bags, and more. We hope you can make it!

As you may know, FABnyc is a big supporter of sustainability and the arts. We’re always looking for ways to both increase sustainable best practices in our artistic community, and also to engage artists in developing new ways to facilitate sustainable behaviors.

So, in preparation for Load OUT! (11/2), our biannual recycling and reuse extravaganza, we had two super creative ladies from the band Fantasy Grandma explain some of NYC’s basic recycling rules.

If you think this is an easy task, think again. It’s certainly fitting that lesson #1 from the Fantasy Grandmas is DON’T automatically assume you know everything about what can and can’t be recycled…

The rules are more complicated than you might suspect, for a number of reasons that we won’t go into here; and if you’re someone who has moved to NYC from another state, like many of us at FABnyc, throw everything you think you know about recycling out the window.

For example, did you know that this is the first year in NYC that rigid plastics can be recycled? That’s right! You can now throw all your plastic cups, plastic toys, plastic anything… that’s rigid*. YAY!!!!

Fantasy Grandma elaborates…

If you’re curious and want to know more, come by our Load OUT! event on Nov. 2nd from 12-3PM and learn more recycling rules from our partner, GrowNYC.

*Previously, any plastic item without a “neck” had to be tossed into the trash. Gross, right?!

Halloween is tonight, and the holiday season is just around the corner. It’s a time for creativity (costumes, presents, parties!), but it’s also a time of massive consumption in our culture.

Do you know what that means? Lots, and lots, and lots of WASTE! Luckily, FABnyc had Myrtle J and Jane B of the band Fantasy Grandma explain some of the less commonly known recycling rules that will help us all cut down on the amount of waste we send to landfill….

In Load OUT! Lesson #1, we gave you some beginner recycling insights from Fantasy Grandma – but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Get the full scoop here:

If you’re curious and want to know more, come by our Load OUT! event on Nov. 2nd from 12-3PM and learn more recycling rules from our partner, GrowNYC! We’ll also be accepting donations of gently used materials at this event, so if you’d like to offload some of your “junk” for responsible reuse or recycling at Load OUT!, find out more HERE!

Paquita, although a more minor character in Teatro Círculo’s remounting of Carmen Loisaida, utters perhaps the most concisely powerful line in the final moments of the show. If the entire play could only be eight words long, these would be the chosen:

“Each of us grows roots wherever we live.”

Their resonance comes not from their own philosophical profundity, necessarily, but from their clear connection to the play’s deep exploration of the notions of home and personhood.

Eva Cristina Vásquez’s Carmen Loisaida features an ensemble cast in an adaptive and immersive re-telling of the classic novella and operatic versions of the Carmen story. For this production, the story unfolds against the background of Latin culture and imbeds itself into the urban locale of the Lower East Side. As title character Carmen becomes entangled with José, a cop straddling the forces between his desires for Carmen’s affection and his reputation as an upholder of the law, tensions mount to a disturbingly climatic end.

The show, performed entirely in Spanish with audience on two sides, uses its own Latin and Lower East Side contexts as a dynamic way to reframe the canonical story we know into a staggering commentary on cultural and ethnic conflict, undocumented immigration, and human trafficking.

At its core, the show asks a revealing question: who has a right to the city? As Carmen negotiated her own presence amongst the friends and enemies on her Lower East Side block, documented and undocumented alike, her journey ultimately moves her to define herself as deeply as she defines the world around her. Outside of the theatre walls and the world of the play, too, people live, work, and move throughout the Lower East Side, all carrying the stories that communicate their own belonging there, regardless of whether an apartment address, legal papers, or an ID card can communicate the same.

For Teatro Círculo, the metaphors of home and belonging— a right to the city— are not lost to their own history. As this show kicks off as a re-opening of their newly renovated and expanded building on East 4^th Street, Teatro Círculo has reaffirmed its own commitment to the Lower East Side as its longtime home and its promise to serve as a pillar of the arts and of Latino heritage for immeasurable time to come.

If Carmen Loisaida is any indication, the company and its new space will, more than ever, deliver sophisticated and engaging works of theatre that well reflect the neighborhood and the people they remain so clearly invested in.

Their roots are stronger than ever; this show and this space are milestones not to be missed.

Teatro Círculo’s Carmen Loisaida runs Thursdays through Sundays until November 24 at Teatro Círculo, 64 East Fourth Street, New York, NY 10003. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles available. Tickets are available here.

- Via Lower East Side History Project’s Blog -

Lower East Side History Project is proud to announce an exciting new partnership with Public School 126/Manhattan Academy of Technology, located at 80 Catherine Street in Lower Manhattan.

Eric Ferrara addresses the class – image via http://evhp.blogspot.com

The pilot project, launched in September of 2013, attempts to bring history to life through hands-on experiences and researched based learning. The goal is to get students excited about the extensive, influential, multicultural history in their own back yard and inspire future community involvement.

Over the next several months, students will be reading, writing, discussing and learning about how the Lower East Side has evolved over the centuries, highlighting the contributions of various ethnic groups and cultures that called the district home.

Special programming includes walking tours of the neighborhood, in-class guest lecturers and interactive experiences intended to nurture a first hand understanding of our neighborhood’s rich history.

The school-year long program will culminate in May, 2014 with a gallery exhibition showcasing what the students have learned through a series of photographs and art installations created throughout the year.

The program was written by 8th grade history educators, Alfonso Guerriero and Christopher Piccigallo in collaboration with Lower East Side History Project. Both Mr. Guerriero and Mr. Piccigallo were born within blocks of PS 126, which makes this project extra special for the veteran teachers.

“We are so excited about creating a partnership with LESHP and through their support, start our pilot program that teaches 8th grade American history through the school’s Lower East Side community,” says Alfonso Guerriero. “The young historians of PS 126/Manhattan Academy of Technology are deeply invested in exploring and understanding the history of our community.”

LESHP director Eric Ferrara suggests, “This is an awesome opportunity to get kids interested in not only history but other cultures these students may encounter on a daily basis. They get to learn about our shared and individual histories which I believe helps create stronger community relationships and inspires involvement in future preservation efforts.”

Read the full article at http://evhp.blogspot.com/2013/11/leshp-and-ps-126manhattan-academy-of.html

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) is pleased to announce “FABLES,” a public art opportunity for artists to explore the Lower East Side’s living cultural heritage, rich historical legacies, and current issues in public storytelling through visual art.

• Four to five artists (or artist teams) will be selected through an open call process,by a panel of jurors, to produce murals located in outdoor sites throughout the Lower East Side neighborhood.
• Project and artist selection will be based upon artistic quality, merit and appeal of content, connection to the community, feasibility of implementation, and contribution to public discourse.
• Each selected artist will receive between $1,500 to $2,500 as a combined artist fee and production budget.
• The first FABLES exhibition will launch in April 2014.
• Each artwork will be exhibited for between 1 and 3 months, and will open within several weeks of each other, creating a 3-month period of sequential public exhibition launches.

Image Detail: Udom Surangsophon
“Saints of the Lower East Side” with works by Tom Sanford; Curated by Keith Schweitzer & Presented by FABnyc

Applicant artists should live, work and/or have deep roots in the LES. Ideal applicants should be invested in a story collecting or investigative process that will delve deeply into the neighborhood’s legacy and/or current culture. Exhibits should contribute to community identity and sense of place, drawing on the stories of the LES and its residents. This may include memorable cultural experiences, local traditions and collaborations, vanished cultural traditions, new beginnings, or underground movements.

Artwork proposals can include: murals, collages, wheat pastes or other flat medium. In some cases, we would consider interactive new media or projections.

Note: Feasibility (budgetary, logistical, and otherwise) and permitting requirements will be additional criteria by which proposals will be evaluated. Please be realistic with your proposals. Locations and details subject to change. Artists must be available to produce the exhibition on site during Spring/Summer 2014.

Timeline:
Submission Deadline: 12/13/2013
Finalists Announced:1/31/2014
Project Development: 2/2014-4/2014
Exhibition Period: 4/2014-07/2014

FABnyc Director:Tamara Greenfield
Public Art Director: Keith Schweitzer
Jurors: Legacy Russell, Ethan Vogt, John Bowman, Molly Garfinkel

Potential Locations:
Extra Place (East 1st St, btw Bowery & 2nd Ave)
Ideal Glass (East 2nd St, btw Bowery & 2nd Ave)
La MaMa Arcade (East 3rd St, btw Bowery & 2nd Ave)
First Street Green Park (corner of 2nd Ave & Houston St)
Centre-Fuge (East 1st St, near 1st Avenue)

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts/ Art Works. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in participation with The City Council.

More information and full Request for Proposals available here: http://fabnyc.org/images/FABLES-Request%20For%20Proposal.pdf

You may know the story of how FABnyc was founded . . . twelve years ago arts and cultural groups on East 4th Street were at risk of being forced out, but thanks to the collective vision and action of FABnyc’s founders, the arts are here to stay.

Our roots in the neighborhood are deep, and we are working diligently to respond to today’s challenges, while helping to shape an inclusive and innovative future for this community.

“We” can’t happen without YOU! You are an integral part of our work and our home, and you keep us going from year to year. Your support provides valuable programming year-round, as well as the capacity to implement creative solutions to ongoing challenges – solutions that cut costs and provide networked support and resources to the artists who need them most.
As we approach the new year, we ask that you consider making a contribution to FABnyc. Your investment will help the arts and culture continue to be part of an equitable and thriving Lower East Side for years to come.
Together with you, we can continue to dream big for the Lower East Side in 2014 and beyond.

Thank you for sticking with us.

Sincerely,

Tamara Greenfield
Executive Director, FABnyc

Photos by Whitney Browne
Top photo pictures D.C., student of East Village Dance Project in the foreground,
and Downtown Art in the background
Dance Block images pictures The Movement Party
ArtUp image detail of LNY’s “The Golden Hour” by Keith Schweitzer

May 2014 Marks First Annual Community Celebration of Lower East Side

 NEW YORK, NY – This May, more than thirty Lower East Side-based cultural and community groups are collaborating to launch Lower East Side (LES) History Month, an annual celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City’s Lower East Side.

During May 2014, dozens of public events, exhibits, tours, and learning opportunities will take place at more than thirty sites, all within in the historical definition of the Lower East Side—which includes the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Alphabet City.

Conceived and launched by LES-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month aims to connect our present to our past, exploring how our history can inform and inspire our future.

Special kickoff activities will include a community picnic at Pier 42 with performances and activities for all ages on Sunday, May 4; and ‘Chalk LES’, an interactive project running from Friday May 2^nd through Sunday May 4^th, encouraging anyone and everyone to share memories and images of the Lower East Side on the city’s pavements.

Following these two kickoff events, there will be dozens of ways to engage with the history of the LES. Sample events include:

• ‘THE NEWS,’ an outdoors music-theater work performed by teens from Downtown Art at multiple sites in the LES, based on a dozen neighborhood newspaper articles from 1914.
• Presentations by both Good Ole Lower East Side (GOLES) and the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on the history of activism in the Lower East Side.
• Walking tours by the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, Lower East Side History Project, Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, and The Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
• FABLES, a mural series produced by Fourth Arts Block, exploring the Lower East Side’s living cultural heritage, rich history, and current issues in storytelling through public art.
• Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant’s Illyria/Loisaida, a modern language take on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, presented as theatrical and historical walking tour of the LES, led by characters from the play and featuring visits to local establishments and iconic locations.
• Weekly Television and Livestream broadcasts of 28-minute biographies from the best of the The Lower East Side Biography Project.

A calendar of events, upcoming news and a list of participating groups will be available at the Lower East Side History Month website: www.leshistorymonth.org.  Interested individuals and organizations are welcome to participate. Please send your inquiry at http://www.leshistorymonth.org/invitation-to-participate/.

Twitter: #LESmonth
Facebook: LES History Month

Logo Design: Meredith Doby Designs
Photo credit: Meredith Doby (Magical Garden, Astor Place); Sally Young (E 6th & 5th St, Bimbo Rivas on Avenue C)

Are you an emerging activist/artist/performer who lives in (or can easily commute to) New York City? Consider applying to EMERGENYC, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politic’s annual program to train emerging New York-based artists through a yearly program of workshops, lectures and other events.

Applicants must have prior experience in activism and/or various performance genres. The program welcomes applications from individuals enrolled in the City’s colleges and universities AND from those who are not currently pursuing formal higher education.

Between April and June, participants will take part in weekly workshops led by George Emilio Sánchez as well as by invited artists such as Susana Cook, Fulana, The Yes Lab,  Peggy Shaw (Split Britches), Dan Fishback, Ed Woodham, Daniel Alexander Jones, and others TBD. The program will also include a teach-in on Performance (“PerforWHAT?”) led by Hemispheric Institute Founding Director and NYU University Professor Diana Taylor. (We are in conversations with other artists and activists for additional workshops/presentations—check emergenyc.org for updates). We ask applicants to define social issues that are important to them and to find a bridge to communities around those issues. Past participants have explored themes of racism, racial stereotypes, and racial violence; LGBTQ rights; war and human rights; gender and sexuality; religion; and gentrification, among others. They have created performance pieces around these issues, interviewed members of various communities, and led workshops in community programs (such as GLOBE/Make the Road New York), etcetera.

FIND THE APPLICATION HERE - DUE FEBRUARY 3RD, 2014

Neighborhood Sustainability: One Block at a Time

For the last four years, FABnyc has been exploring the many intersections in which the arts and sustainable practices can meet. This has resulted in the creation of our SUSTAIN project, out of which most of our exciting and successful programs have emerged, including Load OUT!, the White Roof Project, and Amanda Browder’s commissioned installation of “Good Morning,” to name a few.

Still, it’s clear there is so much more to be done. There are more communities to activate, underlying factors to consider, and even more creative solutions to utilize. We wanted to open a conversation about each of these domains, so we invited a few organizations and individuals we felt were successful in one or more of these areas to speak in a public forum.

The first of these forums happened in late January 2014. Our panel of speakers represented a number of non-profit organizations addressing sustainability in their neighborhoods. After hearing of their challenges and strategies, all attendees – including the panelists – were broken up into small groups and encouraged to critically brainstorm and analyze these initiatives.

Panelists from left: Anusha Venkataraman of El Puente, Betsy Immershein of FABnyc, Christine Keefe of Two Bridges, and Facilitator Cassim Shepard of Urban Omnibus.

Below are just a few of the key ideas we took away from the forum’s dialogue:

• Identify & engage the community: can be done via canvassing, conducting surveys, attending various community gatherings (at churches, community board meetings, BIDs). Stay positive, be helpful, and keep their attention.
• Find stakeholders: making neighborhoods affordable, and grow community: find commonalities between groups within a community; intermediaries can be crucial to identifying these!
• Bringing residents together, making a collective effort: there should be shared values that are community wide, making a greater impact with volume.
• Adapting to the needs of the neighborhood and its residents: find a universal language, or at least a common vocabulary so communication is clear (often times this can be in the form of art and public murals by community artists). Provide safe, public space for the community to congregate and share their ideas and concerns.
• Empowering the community to be educated about their neighborhood: communities may need a representative they can trust to communicate their needs and advocate for them. Education needs to begin from the ground up, starting in schools, moving to churches and businesses and community boards. If members of the community are doing the data collecting and outcomes of unsustainable practices themselves, their community will be more responsive to the findings.
• More useful tools: gamification of best practices, speed-dating between artists, educators, and scientists, and consumer awareness

We were so excited to see how well attended this first community forum was, and we hope to meet with and hear from even more members of the community at the next! Join us on Monday, February 24^th @ 6PM, when we’ll focus on cross-sector approaches to community-led sustainability initiatives, and hear from diverse panel of artists, activists, scientists, and educators.

If you haven’t already RSVP’d, make sure you do! Email RSVP@fabnyc.org to secure your spot!

Neighborhood Sustainability: One Block at a Time
Cross-Sector Approaches
Monday, February 24^th @ 6-8PM
Bowery Arts + Science | 308 Bowery [btw Bleecker + Houston]
FREE with RSVP

FABnyc announces 9 Semi-Finalists for FABLES Public Art Program

 FABnyc is pleased to announce these nine projects semi-finalist projects as selected by our jury:

Lexi Bella
Paul Brainard
Tamara Gayer
Theresa Loong & Laura Nova
Levan Mindiashvili
Simon Scott
Greg Spielberg & Rich Tu
Miguel Trelles, with Juan Fernando Morales-Nazario
Margaret Inga Wiatrowski

Finalists will be announced Monday, February 24th after consideration of additional information from the semi-finalist artists. FABnyc would like to thank all the applicants and our FABLES jurors: John Bowman, Molly Garfinkel, Legacy Russell, and Ethan Vogt.

“Adios Amigos” by Raul Ayala in the Extra Place Alley; Photo © Jaime Rojo, courtesy of BrooklynStreetArt.com

FABLES is a public art opportunity for artists to explore the Lower East Side’s living cultural heritage, rich historical legacies, and current issues in public storytelling through visual art. The first exhibition will launch in April 2014, with subsequent exhibitions opening monthly through August 2014. Each exhibition will be on view between one and three months.

 This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts/ Art Works and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in participation with The City Council.

After a competitive jury process, we have selected five finalists for the inaugural FABLES Public Art project! FABLES is a public art series produced by FABnyc to explore the Lower East Side’s living cultural heritage, rich historical legacies, and current issues in public storytelling through visual art. The five finalist artist/teams are: Lexi Bella, Tamara Gayer, Theresa Loong & Laura Nova, Levan Mindiashvili, Miguel Trelles & Juan Fernando Morales-Nazario. Semi-finalists also included Paul Brainard, Scott Simon, Greg Spielberg & Rich Tu, and Margaret Inga Wiatrowski.

FABLES artist Tamara Gayer’s installation “Happiness is Easy” at Mixed Greens, NY in 2009

The first installation will open in April, with subsequent installations through August 2014, and will be a featured program of the inaugural Lower East Side History Month in May 2014. Each exhibition will be on view between one and three months at multiple locations in the neighborhood, including: Ideal Glass (East 2nd St, btw Bowery & 2nd Ave), First Street Green Park (corner of 2nd Ave & Houston St), Centre-Fuge (East 1st St, near 1st Avenue), and City Lore (56 East 1^st Street).

Artists of the final projects have lived, worked, or have deep roots to the Lower East Side (LES), and have proposed pieces that draw on the stories and history of the LES and its residents. “The Lower East Side has one of the most diverse and rich cultural histories in New York City,” says Lexi Bella, an artist who will be focusing on notable, yet under recognized women of the LES. “It is my heart, my home, and the birthplace of my daughter. I am so excited to express, educate, and pay homage through my art to the great women who are the past and the future of my favorite part of NYC.”

Theresa Loong and Laura Nova met at the counter of Shopsin’s in the Essex Street Market. A restaurant known for its one of a kind chef and provocative philosophy on food, Theresa and Laura quickly connected on topics of digital media, food, and art. Feed Me a Story is the resulting collaboration, consisting of food stories gathered in part from their work at the LaGuardia Senior Center, shared with the public through visual and audio installations. “We are thrilled to be a part of the FABLES Exhibition. This project will enable us to shine a spotlight on senior citizens and reflect diverse tastes and traditions in the neighborhood.”

By applying sign vinyl directly to glass, artist Tamara Gayer is designing a new stained glass inspired storefront space on the windows of City Lore. The artist explains, “First Street between First and Second Avenue is a beautiful block, exemplary of the diversity and history that are still evident on the Lower East Side. It would be hard to find a more perfect ‘canvas’ than the windows of City Lore.”

Artistic team Miguel Trelles and Juan Fernando Morales-Nazario will bring a lively, Loisaida-centric variant of their exhibit Posters on the Wall, Our Nuyorican Story to actual walls in the neighborhood. According to the artists, the exhibit will revisit the striking and historical Nuyorican poster, “which lavishly illustrates the cosmopolitan sophistication of Puerto Rican artists in New York amalgamating traditional Puerto Rican culture with life and activism in the City.”

Levan Mindiashvili, whose project will investigate gentrification and its effects on architecture and sense of place, describes, “With the mural ‘Ghost’ I want to contribute to a raising awareness in the importance of historical heritage and outline the overwhelming expansion of gentrification and generalization in the contemporary world.”

Updates, progress and further information can be found by contacting FABLES@fabnyc.org or by visiting www.fabnyc.org/fables.php.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts/ Art Works and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in participation with The City Council. FABLES is presented in celebration of LES History month, the inaugural celebration of the rich and diverse history of the LES, taking place during May.

Take a look at this fascinating and informative virtual tour of our block (and surrounding neighborhood) made by our friends over at City Lore. By focusing on their morphology, time constructed, context, form, typology, function, style, and technology, we can begin to understand the basic vernacular architecture of these buildings, and see how integral a part these structures played in the cultural history of the neighborhood. Check it out!

A shot of the Greek Revival style columns of Horse Trade‘s entrance from “Seeing East 4th Street: Vernacular Architecture in NYC“

Neighborhood Sustainability: One Block at a Time

Following the success of the first, FABnyc held its second sustainability forum, entitled “Cross Sector Approaches: Science, Art, Education, and Activism,” in tandem with the SUSTAIN project in late February 2014 at Bowery Arts + Science. This time the panel included Toby Cumberbatch, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Cooper Union; Wendy Brawer, founder of Green Map; and Shawn Shafner, founder of The POOP Project, and was moderated by David Bergman, architect and adjunct at Parsons the New School for Design. Turnout was excellent and included local residents as well as some who came from further out, including artists, educators, scientists, students, and professionals. Each panelist introduced themselves and their work, explaining their passion projects and ideas for promoting sustainability, especially in terms of creating greater awareness and engagement, establishing better dialogue between institutional ideas and citizen needs, and thinking in terms of closed-loop systems.

Tamara introduces the panelists of Monday’s forum

The audience had a chance to ask panelists questions, then divided up into smaller focus group discussions. Each table established a speaker and was asked to address the following questions:

• What actions can we take as individuals to further sustainability in our neighborhood?
• What are some of the obstacles that people encounter in terms of sustainability awareness and engagement?

A few notable ideas that emerged from the evening’s dialogue:

• “De-Silo-ization”—Mr. Cumberbatch mentioned this coined term to basically say: don’t let specialists stay in their zones. To make substantive change, we need to foster networking across disciplines and communities, the scientists need to speak to the neighborhoods, the artists to the architects, and so on.

• Experiment with technology, graphic communication, social media, and public art in a capacity that more fully extends the reach of awareness—Green Maps and Dontflush.me are great examples of how this can happen

• De-bunk the mindset that waste is “bad” and “goes away,” and that we can indefinitely dispense energy; we need to more actively and aggressively be implementing closed-loop systems
  • What are closed-loop systems? The perfect environmentalist’s example: collecting food waste to make compost to fertilize food crops, or and creating methane gas from biological waste for energy production through co-generation.  The Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Digester Eggs use this co-generation process.

• Take accountability! This can be difficult to initiate, as it’s often terrifying information that’s hard to swallow and feel impassioned by. Make it simple, follow by example, get others to do the same
  • Creating policies to influence individual behavior, either through positive or negative reinforcement—examples include charging for wasteful containers such as coffee cups and plastic bags, or encouraging people to eat healthfully through education and meal-sharing.

A big thanks to all who came out for this conversation series! Check out more SUSTAIN events this April—including our Model Block exhibit at Cooper Union and our bi-annual Load OUT! Reuse and Repurposing Riot!

Written by Annabelle Meunier, SUSTAIN Intern

I’ve been familiar with Frigid New York for the last two years, but this was my first year in attendance. Always a bit hesitant of these free-for-all festivals, I carefully chose my picks of a long list of options– Petunia & Chicken by Animal Engine and Basic Help by StrangeDog Theatre. My choices were easy ones; I knew of Petunia & Chicken from their hugely popular, sold-out summer showcase during last summer’s miniFRIDGE, and I have long been familiar with the excellent writing and humor of StrangeDog since seeing Bootstraps last fall.

Karim Muasher and Carrie Brown of Animal Engine

Thankfully, both of my choices were excellent. If the only association I had to “clowning” was Animal Engine’s aesthetic, I’d strive to be a clown myself someday. Full of wit, impeccable timing, and the most creative uses of a shawl, a bowler hat, and two spoons I have ever witnessed, Petunia & Chicken is the ultimate American love story. Weaving together three classic novels by Americana author Willa Cather, Animal Engine’s sole members Karim Muasher and Carrie Brown prove themselves as masterful storytellers, embodying what feels like a dozen characters each (including a scarily believable senior Bloodhound). In less than 90 minutes, the range of emotions  evoked feels true to a lifelong epic.

Gavin Earl Johnson and Megan Greener in “Basic Help”

Along a much more linear – yet still rewarding and provoking – emotional line, Basic Help is the story of two people caught in the “vast emptiness” of their lives. The story’s two characters collide during a customer service call over the case of a broken blender, forming an unusual relationship. With such a special show (that should be seen), I’d rather not give the details away. All that needs to be known is that with the help of two exceptional actors at the helm, StrangeDog has mastered the skill of approachable yet surprising theater, making it feel personal and insightful to our contemporary human condition.

With two great shows, my first year of Frigid was a rousing success, wishing I had the time to see more. If you have the chance, take it. Excellent theater at an excellent price, what could be better?

Petunia and Chicken continues at the Kraine Theater tonight at @ 8:40PM, and Saturday @ 3:40PM

Basic Help continues at UNDER St. Mark’s on Sunday, 3/9, @ 12:30PM

The Frigid Festival ends Sunday, 3/9. See the full schedule here.

The newest hit to take the off-off Broadway stage is an unlikely one. La MaMa ETC, together with the Monk Parrots, has brought Bum Phillips All-American Opera to a downtown audience often far removed from the genres of opera and live classical music.

What seems like a strange pairing, though, works well for La MaMa’s experimental legacy. Bum Phillips is a contemporary opera led by a creative team whose aim is to push the boundaries on where and for whom opera is staged.

Gary Ramsey as Bum Phillips (center) and cast members of Monk Parrots’ World Premiere of Bum Phillips All-American Opera

This opera certainly does that. Not the expected opera storyline, Bum Phillips celebrates the life of National Football League icon and American hero O.A. “Bum” Phillips, head coach of the Houston Oilers from 1975-1980. The show’s story explores Phillips’ personal journey to find resilience and faith in failure, and how a single passion can fuel an entire city’s hope.

The show presents a perfect marriage of the new and the familiar. Despite the unlikely match between opera and football, the story’s themes of success, failure, and ultimate hope is as classic as the genre itself. What’s new about this production, though, is the contemporary presentation in which it is performed. With a multimedia backdrop of fluidly oscillating images and videos, a stage lined with modern light panels, and minimalist set placings, the weight of the story relies on the lyrical music, and the audience’s imagination. That both can carry a clear storyline all the way to the final bows speaks to the power of both.

Briana Elyse Hunter, Victor Khodadad and Jessie Dean in Monk Parrots’ World Premiere of Bum Phillips All-American Opera.

A collaboration like this—LaMaMa and the Monk Parrots, opera and football—is one rarely found around these parts. Don’t miss it while you have the chance.

Bum Phillips All-American Opera runs Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:30pm until March 30 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 E 4^th Street. Tickets here.

“Come One, Come All” to join forces and make a difference! Join our Member of the Month, Cooper Square Committee and the Urban Justice Center March 27th @ 9AM, 1 Centre Street (The Municipal Building), and let our voices be heard, not silenced, and our words spoken, not ignored!

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Join a coalition of city-wide tenants, advocates, and elected officials get together and reform the rent guidelines and policies of NYC. As The Rent Guidelines Board meet, CSC hopes to demand the Mayor’s new Board to vote for what all New Yorkers need –  A RENT FREEZE!

If you’d like to join the fight: Meet 9 AM SHARP at 1 Centre Street (The Municipal Building) March 27th. You can find more information HERE or call Jaron Benjamin from Met Council on Housing at 718-864-3932

Tenants called for no rent hike before Thursday’s R.G.B. vote at The Cooper Union

Cooper Square Committee’s Transitional Homeless Housing Plan for LGBT Youth Moving Forward:

The NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is expected to file the Urban Development Action Area Plan for the Bea Arthur Residence at 222 E. 13th St. with the City Council in the coming weeks.  The City Council must pass a resolution designating the project a UDAAP, and authorizing a long term tax exemption, which is a formality since local Councilmember Rosie Mendez is a strong supporter of the project and helped secure $3.3 million for its development.  The Cooper Square Committee (CSC) is partnering with the Ali Forney Center (AFC) to renovate a vacant building at 222 E. 13^th St. to house 18 homeless LGBT youth ages 18-24.  CSC has done the bulk of the pre-development work, and will oversee the renovation, and AFC will rent up and manage the building when it’s completed.  Project architects, Magnusson Architecture and Planning are expected to file the approved building plans with the NYC Dept. of Buildings within the next week.  “We are hoping to acquire the building by the end of May, and start renovation immediately after that” says CSC Executive Director, Steve Herrick.

Architect’s rendering of the Bea Arthur Residence upon completion in 2015.

Greening low income housing: 

 CSC is reaching out to many low income cooperatives to enroll them in the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) which can provide tens of thousands of dollars per building towards new boilers, windows and other energy efficiency upgrades for income-eligible co-ops.  Renovated buildings often reduce their fuel costs more than 30%. 614-620 E. 9^th St. and 336 E. 4^th St. were weatherized during the last few months, and more buildings are in the pipeline, including 128 Rivington St., 131 Norfolk St., 745-747 E 6^th Street and 528 East 11^th Street.  “I’m happy to meet with other low income co-op boards to tell them about WAP and other energy efficiency programs” said Greening Program Coordinator, Angee Cortorreal.

A Cooper Square tenant embraces the new fridge she got through the program.

New windows lining up to get installed at 336 East 4th Street.

photo courtesy of IATI Theater

Fresh off a successful international tour spanning Russia, Spain, and Cuba, Loren Escandon brings Montera back to New York City for a two week run at IATI Theater.

Written and performed by Escandon, Montera is a fierce, fearless one-women show that brings a complex human face to one of the oldest and most dehumanized professions throughout history and in contemporary culture.

Escandon embodies La Guiri, a sex worker confronting the harsh duality between her own experiences and society’s perception of her. With equal parts comedy and vulnerability, La Guiri travels through her own beliefs and dreams about the world of prostitution and her place in it, but also about the larger world around it.

Escandon’s performance goes deeper than the slinky physicality of tight corsets and red-hot shoes. Carrying the audience through a story oftentimes about everything other than sex work, the show’s stream of consciousness script takes the audience though stories centered on themes of love and loss, money, and home – all dimensions that empower La Guiri’s character, connecting her complexities to the broader human condition. Just as she has exposed her body, she has also exposed her soul.

Earning multiple awards and rave reviews since its premier in 2012, the show’s message is central to its acclaim. The show has a powerfully ability to challenge ideas around blame and victimization of women in the sex work profession, and to open up a taboo subject to public discourse, when society more often prefers it in the shadows.

We can all benefit from the humanity the show displays by taking it outside of theater walls and applying it to the world we interact with every day.

Montera runs April 3 through April 13, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets can be found here.

While celebrating Lower East Side History Month, Lead Organizer of The Cooper Square Committee, Brandon Kielbasa shares this post on their first ever Tenant Rights Walking Tour:

The Cooper Square Committee’s Tenant Rights Walking Tour was designed to deliver basic “know your rights” type information for tenants along with nuanced tips on how to organize their buildings and engage the larger tenants’ rights movement.

The tour  concentrates on the problems tenants face in the LES, and highlights how tenants have come together to organize their buildings, creating a successful means for pushing aggressive, speculative landlords. The tour will speak to everything from the very first steps tenants need to take (talking to their neighbors and calling 311) to some best practices in organizing (coming together quickly at the first sign of trouble).

The tour is approximately 90 minutes long and this first version of the tour looks at organizing efforts in five different buildings throughout the LES. Some  buildings have direct connections to one another, while others are connected by shared issues, or by the approach tenants took to organize against their landlords. Though many of the buildings featured are/were rent regulated, the tour will also delve into the larger considerations tenants should be knowledgeable about when organizing in any building.

The Cooper Square Committee intends to continue doing these tours and produce one annually. We hope to make this an ongoing cycle, and for the tours to become a part of our regular educational programming. We expect to add stops on future tours based on the issues that are currently trending in the community, in addition to looking at outstanding organizing practices, and patterns of real estate speculation.

We feel that by offering tenants’ rights educational programming in different formats that we might attract LESers and other NYers who might be less likely to attend general tenants’ rights workshops. In the end, we hope the tours will be a new and interesting way for us to continue to get tenants the knowledge they need to defend their homes and their communities.

Written by Brandon Kielbasa