Howl! Arts

The Drag Queens of New Yorkby Julian Fleisher30th Anniversary Exhibition
2025-10-16 - 2025-11-30 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
DQNY30!

Videos from the Era Screening Event

Then & Now Presentation and Screening Event

Order your own DQNY30 Prints Here!

This fall marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of the landmark The Drag Queens of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide (Riverhead), by Julian Fleisher.
Curated by Howl!’s Aldo Hernández, author Julian Fleisher and TWEED Theater’s Kevin Malony, DQNY30 draws from Fleisher’s original archive, bringing together never-before-seen photographs, taped audio interviews, handwritten notes, correspondence, surveys and more. Many of these materials — including recorded talks not only with dozens of legendary drag queens, but also, among others, bell hooks, Sandra Bernhard, Fran Lebowitz, and Quentin Crisp — have been newly digitized and restored. It offers a glimpse into the complicated process of chronicling New York’s legendary drag scene and the artists who shaped it — all during a time which, in spite of its provocative spirit, now seems almost quaint.
Published in 1996, “DQNY” was years, if not decades, ahead of its time: the first trade paperback from a major publisher to celebrate the history, culture, lives and careers of the golden age of New York’s riotous drag scene. Framed (somewhat cheekily) as a field guide, it devotes much of its time to the long, hidden history of drag in New York and its persistent interrogation of the prevailing culture, mores and norms. The book then concludes with nearly thirty iconic profiles, telling the creation stories of such drag legends as Lady Bunny, Lypsinka, Charles Busch, Sherry Vine, Candis Cayne, Mona Foot, Hattie Hathaway, Mistress Formika, Tabboo!, Miss Understood, Afrodite, Dolores, Sweetie and many more. Almost every story is accompanied by a unique studio portrait by photographer Brooke Williams.
“The Drag Queens of New York was meant to be more than just a snapshot. It was a genuine effort to capture the magic and creativity of the artists who made the scene an unforgettable explosion of color, wit, lunacy and defiance.” says Fleisher. “Like the original book, DQNY30 is a fresh celebration of that unique moment as well as of the performers, audiences, connoisseurs, historians, fans and all those who contributed their wisdom, grit and spirit – both on stage and off. It was a side-hustle that took on a life of its own.”
The exhibition promises a journey through years of drag culture, using images, audio, and ephemera from Fleisher’s original sessions, as well as a peek at the sometimes chaotic process of making the book itself. During its run, the exhibit will also include panels, discussions and more, inviting fresh, contemporary perspectives on the legacy and continued relevance of New York’s ever-fierce drag community. Copies of the original book — long out of print, but widely cherished — will be available for reference during the show.
All photos by Brooke Williams, unless noted otherwise.

Author’s Statement
The Drag Queens of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide was published in 1996. In 1994, when I signed with Riverhead Books (“The same imprint as Harold Bloom!” I crowed, pretentiously), I was just a measly couple of years into my dream of becoming a nightclub singer — a career that, at that stage, was yielding no meaningful “scratch”. So, like most young hopefuls in NYC, doing their best impressions of Joseph Campbell’s hero, I worked a bunch of side-hustles in order to fund my journey. I was a waiter, writer, retoucher, actor, SAT tutor and personal assistant to the truly psychotic wife of an aging writer whom I revered. And yet: Not enough scratch. Not enough flexibility. So — after a boozy night recounting my adventures exploring the bonkers drag scene in my new “edgy” East Village neighborhood — when an editor I knew offered me a $20,000 advance to write a book about it, I truly believed I had hit some kind of cosmic jackpot. That number seemed impossibly large and my eyes bulged with visions of all the studio time I could buy with it. Ha! How paltry it would turn out to be, though, when stretched out over two years, in three, small (taxable!) installments. To say nothing of how much I’d spend just chasing the book: research, travel, tickets, covers, minimums, meals, interns, Lou Reed charging $500 to quote four lines from Walk on the Wild Side. (In context!) My side-hustle needed a side-hustle.

The game changed, though, when I found myself starting to care — deeply — about this strange, new gig and the people I was writing about; folks with whom, it seemed, I was starting to fall in love. As the challenge of doing justice to the uncanny beauty of their demimonde truly set in, however, I buckled. The history, culture, legend, scenes, stories and struggles of this enchanted world revealed themselves to me like the curtain rising on Tosca at the Met: overwhelming. To capture it all? Impossible. To punt? Shameful. And this during a time which, for all of its high-octane, rapid-fire changes, now seems rather quaint. The internet was barely a thing: no smart phones, text chains or social networks. Research happened in libraries, correspondence in the mail; messages were left on machines and interviews were recorded on cassettes. Cassettes! Even with the help of friends and interns, I was flailing in a stew of missed deadlines, untested writing skills, reams of transcripts and a growing pile of unfulfilled ambitions for what I had hoped to achieve — and what I could offer these beautiful people who were sharing their stories with me.

I turned to (among other things) self-help: those “how to write a book” books, a couple of which I myself had written during my time side-hustling test-prep and other “educational subjects”. While browsing The Strand (Google it), I came upon a newcomer to the category: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott — now a beloved staple of the “how to” genre. Her solution to the problem of how to write? To write! Oh great. But how? Well, famously, she recalls her brother’s meltdown at having to finish a report on birds which he had months to complete. Dad saves the day by offering him the bromide that gives the book its title: “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” So elegant. So avuncular. And at $13.99, a bargain. So, I would do the same thing; I would take it…queen by queen. And just like that, I saw “DQNY” for what it really wanted to be: a bird guide in its own right. And why not? After all, just like Lamott’s, my subjects sported plumage and camouflage, observed peculiar social hierarchies and partook in unique rituals and strategies for survival. Their habitat — downtown New York during the AIDS crisis — was surely no less wild and unforgiving than that of any of Lamott’s feathered friends. Approaching the scene as a kind of docent, introducing newbies (myself included) to a mysterious ecosystem inhabited by exotic fauna cracked open the whole enterprise for me and, now, here we are.

Would I take that approach today? Could I? Is this a side anyone should hustle? Drag is simply not what it used to be, and neither is the world. Given current sensitivities, it’s probably best for anyone who writes about drag to, um, do drag — as have the likes of Charles Busch, RuPaul and Linda Simpson. Linda’s fabulous Drag Explosion is a towering tribute to the same scene as my book, arguably better. After all, she’s been making the scene herself the whole time. As playfully affectionate as my “field guide” trope was meant to be (and it was!) its cheeky hint of objectification would likely be unacceptable now, at least coming from a civilian, even a devoutly queer one. Furthermore, what drag means has changed fundamentally. The scene that fascinated me was untamed, chaotic, debauched, defiant and not for general consumption. There was no panel of judges. A show at Pyramid or Boy Bar or Tunnel or Jackie 60 was just for us. In that room. On that night. The lunacy was bespoke: it wasn’t for the internet, posterity or the star-maker machinery. Sure, it was about the star-maker machinery. But it reminded us that life could be sexy, smart, sleazy and hilarious in spite of the outside world. Not because of it. Or (worse yet) for it. It felt like resistance.

Drag understands, celebrates and leverages pop culture as pungently as any creative movement ever has. And, at its best, it’s also an antidote to it. Writing DQNY taught me that drag is at least as much about class as it is about gender. Gender (such as it is) may be the grammar, but the meaning has always been that the “have-nots” have way more fun than the “haves”; the essence of most underground scenes. Now, thanks to the ride of the Drag-Industrial Complex, queens are routinely counted among the “haves”. It’s no longer quite the same brand of fun — at least not as we see it on TV, where drag has been adjusted to fit a much wider audience with much less…to lose. Thankfully, here in NYC, there remains an uncooperative drag scene in bars and clubs from the Village to Bushwick, where dominant/corporate culture is still the prime target, even as that culture scoops up and machine-tools the occasional queen for global distribution. The promise of fame and fortune — once the butt of the joke — hangs in the air differently at drag shows now, to be sure.

But in some of those rooms, on some of those nights, if we put down our phones, the show can still be…just for us.

— Julian Fleisher | October, 2025

SPIRITUS: No Business like Dough Business
2025-09-18 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Directed by: Michael S. Koehler
Produced by: John Yingling and Michael S. Koehler
63 minutes
Watch the Discussion

This film explores the rich history of one of the oldest family-run business in Provincetown, Massachusetts, SPIRITUS Pizza and Ice Cream. It highlights the challenges faced by the business, the queer community, and the AIDS crisis, all against the backdrop of the conservative Puritanical attitudes in the town during the 1970s and 1980s.
SPIRITUS Trailer
https://spirituspizza-movie.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Spiritus_NoBusinessLikeDoughBusiness_Trailer.mp4

Credits
Director, Writer, Cinematographer: Michael S. Koehler
Editor: Jason Shevchuk
Post Production Associate: Elliott Eustis
Producers: John Yingling, Michael S. Koehler
Sound Design: Ken Meyer
Camera Operator: Steve Bauza
Archival Film Footage: Frank Crivelli, Gus Curran, Seth Rolbein
Still Photographer: Rob Van Fleet
Director’s Statement
Having lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts for thirteen summers, Michael developed an appreciation for Spiritus Pizza and the diverse group of individuals who work there. Situated in the heart of a predominantly queer community, both Spiritus Pizza and the local queer community have faced challenges from town officials and residents. In spite of that, Spiritus has remained a vibrant epicenter of activity, resilience, and deep-rooted history in Provincetown.
When it was time for Michael to embark on his debut documentary film, he recognized that Spiritus Pizza and its rich deep-rooted history was the ideal subject for his research and storytelling. This film took seven years to complete, which I mostly shot during the pandemic. It’s a piece of Provincetown, MA history and I want nothing more than to have this film shown around the world.

Reviews
Junction North International Documentary Film Festival
WINNER of “Best International Feature”
April 2025
“Spiritus: No Business like Dough Business” is a joy to watch — a vibrant, fast-paced celebration of Provincetown’s history through the lens of a legendary pizza place. The creative use of archival footage, photos, and music immerses the viewer, perfectly capturing the town’s evolution into an oasis of self-expression and rebellion. A love letter filled with flamboyant outsiders, fierce counter girls and artists, who built a home in this coastal haven while creating their own world. Beneath the pizza-making is a deeper story about community and identity. Nostalgic, inspiring, and endlessly entertaining, this film is, in every sense of the word, a true slice of life.
The Provincetown Independent
INDIE SCREEN
A Bounty Comes to the Big Screen in Provincetown
Life, art, legends, and dough are the stars at this year’s film festival
By Howard Karren Jun 4, 2025
Halcyone Studio
August 2025
“In his filmmaking debut, Michael S. Koehler reminds us that we crave the same raw, honest style that has defined his photography for decades now, to the screen. SPIRITUS: There’s No Business Like Dough Business is a surprisingly beautiful and moving documentary about a story we didn’t know we wanted to hear. Koehler captures the essence of an old-school Provincetown, weaving a classic tale around the legendary figure of John Yingling, and his daring gamble. But BEYOND The Legend, the film is a powerful testament to the value of showing up for your community through the best and worst of times. Watching it made me reflect on my own life while simultaneously CELEBRATING my own home and the complex idea of just that. HOME – a home that holds a different meaning for everyone.” ~ Halcyone Studio | Halcyone Hurst
A Slice of Life

American Composers Orchestra Presents an Evening with Mazz Swift
2025-06-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Howl! Arts welcomes the ACO for an evening with Mazz Swift, a violinist, singer, composer, and conductor, weaving improvisation, classic African American musics, electronica, and mindfulness into their work.
During this evening, we will hear excerpts from Mazz’s ACO-commissioned work, “Memory FIVE: Freedom Initiate,” developed via the EarShot CoLABoratory program. Mazz will be premiering this work with ACO at Carnegie Hall on 10/29/25 in our program titled “New Virtuoso: For Art’s Sake.”
Free! RSVP here

The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is a national discovery and development pipeline for new orchestral music, focused on bringing the full spectrum of American music to orchestral stages, providing a gateway to the orchestral composition and performance process, and amplifying the expressive power of orchestral music to enable a vibrant future for all Americans.

Mazz Swift has composed for The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Kronos Quartet, The International Contemporary Ensemble, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Silkroad Ensemble, and the PUBLIQuartet, among others.
Aside from enjoying a robust career as a performer, Swift is an educator. They have performed and taught free-improvisation workshops on six continents, most notably having traveled to Suriname, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Albania and Siberia as “cultural diplomat” for the U.S. Department of State.
Mazz is also a performing member and teaching artist with the acclaimed Silkroad Ensemble. As part of that group, they spearheaded and developed Project MUSIC (Music, Uniting Strangers Into Community), through which they seek to develop abolitionist-minded and anti-racist programming alongside incarcerated people, designing our own liberation through presence and creativity.
Mazz is a 2021 United States Artist, and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, continually creating orchestral compositions that involve Conduction, small ensemble works, and solo works that are centered around protest and freedom songs, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward. Their newest album “The 10000 Things; Praise Songs for the iRiligious” is out now on New Amsterdam Records.

A Fresh Fruit Festival Exhibition: The Importance of Being Engaged
2025-06-21 - 2025-07-20 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
All Out Arts’ Fresh Fruit Festival and Howl! Arts present
The Importance of Being Engaged: a multi-disciplinary storytelling of connection, exploration, resistance, honoring, and nurturing across the queer community.
The Importance of Being Engaged centers queer voices across age, identity, and artistic medium — because showing up for one another is an act of art.

Literature, Performance, and Film Showcases

Artists:
Alexandria Deters
Alina Wilczynski
Anna Augustsson
Ari Fay-Long
Arlene Rush
Art Java
Barbara Clark
Caren Shapiro
Carlos Louis DeMedeiros
Carol Foy
Christen Clifford
Christopher Carr
Cliff Chase
Curtis Upshaw
Eileen Dover
Erik Bergrin
Eva Mueller
Ewan Duarte
Gail Thacker
Heidi Russell
Jamie Leo
Jill Verhaeghe
Joel Handorff
Joelle Circé
Katrina del Mar
Kim Hanson
Lucien Samaha
Meryl Meisler
Michael Fequiere
Michael Luongo
Michelangelo Alasa
Neil Curti
Pamela Sneed
Pierrot Carrilero
Rica Takashima
Simon Donovan
Siufung
Sofiya Kuzmina
Stephen Gemberling
Vicki Khuzami
Zelda aka Judith Z Miller

An Evening with Gene Fedorko & Nora Burns
2025-06-19 18:00 - 21:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
6:30PM
Gene Fedorko leads a walk-thru of our exhibition from his art collection
7:30PM
Nora Burns performs Make the Flyer First (in honor of Tom Murrin)
FREE!
Gene Fedorko – Selections From His Collection
More than 20 artworks and photographs from Gene’s collection are on limited view through June.
Artists featured: David Armstrong, BLADE, John Dugdale, Joel Handorff, Robert Loughlin, Alice O’Malley, Michael Roman, Mark Rosenthal, Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian), Gail Thacker and unknown.

Bushwick Book Club: The Intermediaries by Brandy Schillace
2025-05-14 18:30 - 21:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Author Brandy Schillace joins The Bushwick Book Club at Howl! for an evening of original songs and performance inspired by their new release, The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story.

The Intermediaries
The fascinating history of a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich.
Set in interwar Germany, The Intermediaries tells the forgotten story of the Institute for Sexual Science, the world’s first center for homosexual and transgender rights. Headed by a gay Jewish man, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the institute aided in the first gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments, acting as a rebellious base of operations in the face of rising prejudice, nationalism, and Nazi propaganda.
Performances by:
1. Chase Horseman
2. Swan Real
3. Ralph Denzer with Tanja Höhne and Susan hwang
4. Tanja Höhne with Ralph Denzer and Susan Hwang
5. Brandy Schillace
6. Charles Duke
7. Alex Petrullo with Elise Burch
8. Mya Byrne
9. Don Rauf
10. Mya Byrne and Susan Hwang with Ed Pastorini, Tanja Höhne, and Ralph Denzer
11. Charming Disaster
12. Sea Griffin
Reading and book signing with author Brandy Schillace

The Bushwick Book Club is a literature-inspired performance series and podcast that invites local songwriters and artists to plumb the depths of a chosen literary gem to create that rare and beautiful thing – a new song (or visual art, dance, film or snack). All songs are then performed at a live show. The Bushwick Book Club now has several branches all over the world, including Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, Greenville, NC, London and Malmö, Sweden. The Bushwick Book Club podcast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud.

Film: Conversations with Gay Elders - Gene Fedorko
2025-05-02 19:00 - 21:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Film Screening and Discussion with Paul C. Bellman MD, Sean Strub, and Gene Fedorko.

Eugene N. Fedorko (left), filmmaker David Weissman (right). Photo: Jackie Rudin
Howl! Arts is pleased to present an encore screening of a 2017 segment of Conversations with Gay Elders about the life of Gene Fedorko. In Conversations with Gay Elders, filmmaker David Weissman (The Cockettes, We Were Here) fostered a cross-generational collaboration. He worked with gay men in their 20s and 30s to profile gay men in their 70s and 80s whose journeys of self-discovery precede the era of Stonewall and gay liberation. Conversations with Gay Elders explores how these men navigated being “different” long before there was any social or political context for a positive LGBT self-image.
Review by Sur Rodney Sur, 2019:
“Yesterday, I attended a screening of a filmed interview with Eugene N. Fedorko wherein he talked about growing up in the 40s and 50s and his discovering his homosexual proclivities and how it affected his life. It was certainly one of the most spectacular interviews I’ve been witness to. I met Gene years ago as he was part of a mutual circle of acquaintances and always respected as one of the most gracious and generous members of our gay community. The interview was one of a series of four elders interviewed by filmmaker David Weissman detailing their lives exposing all the horrors and joys of life pre- and post-Stonewall. The film was made to educate about what life was like for so many of our elders, back then and today.”
Introduction video clip from director David Weissman. Following the screening will be a discussion with prominent HIV/AIDS physician Paul C. Bellman M.D., and Sean Strub (longtime ACT UP activist and publisher of POZ).

With Purpose & StyleTom Murrin"The Alien Comic"
2025-04-11 - 2025-05-25 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Opening reception: Friday, April 11, 6 – 9 PM
Howl! is thrilled to present this spontaneous, playful, comprehensive exhibition of the art, performances and life of Tom Murrin ‘The Alien Comic’ (1939-2012) at Howl! Happening 6 East 1st Street. Tom often performed in this space when it was the La Mama Galleria, making it the ideal venue for his first expansive show in 11 years. On display will be over 200 performance masks, props and costumes (many never shown before), plus select flyers, posters, scripts, photos and press from performances in New York City, across the USA and around the globe.

Watch an invocation of the Moon Goddess Luna Macaroona by Salley May and Agosto Machado for the opening of Tom Murrin “The Alien Comic” With Purpose & Style exhibition at Howl! Happening.

Actress, performer, and writer, Heather Litteer reads her poems at the Tom Murrin exhibition “With Purpose & Style” for Mother’s Day and the Flower Moon.
May 11th, 2025

“I’m talking about the political scene of the day, I’m talking about the weather, I’m talking about a dream I had, I’m talking about breaking up with a girlfriend, I’m talking about whatever I feel like talking about, but I’m making the props and the visuals fit along with it in some way, and then changing the visual as fast as I can.”
– Tom, from an interview with Jim R. Moore.
By the 1970’s Tom who was already in experimental theatre groups in Seattle, roamed the world as a performance trailblazer; traversing Asia, and staging daily shows in both outdoor public spaces, and indoor theater spaces. Our exhibition shares documentation & visuals from his early years as ‘Tom Trash’ along with a cornucopia of items from his archive illustrating his range of performance and street theater that covers four decades.
As a member of the first generation of La MaMa playwrights, Tom had four of his plays produced by John Vacarro’s Playhouse of the Ridiculous, including the offbeat hit, Cock Strong, which toured with Ellen Stewart’s La MaMa Troupe to Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. His plays Sport-Fuckers and Butt-Crack Bingo were produced at Theater for the New City and La MaMa and directed by David Levine.
From the mid ’70s onward, Tom was part of, and curated The Full Moon Show, his monthly lunar celebration in which he and other artists thanked the moon goddess ‘Luna Macaroona’ for shining good fortune upon the world. It rotated among downtown spaces, then continued in his honor at Howl! Happening for six more years. Our exhibition intentionally opens on the Pink Full Moon weekend!
Under the guidance of close friend, rock manager Jane Friedman, Murrin began to perform under the name Alien Comic, opening for acclaimed punk bands in rock clubs such as CBGBs, Max’s Kansas City and Irving Plaza. He appeared in such downtown venues as The Pyramid, Mudd Club, 8BC, Dixon Place, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Performance Space 122 (PSNY), Chandalier and Darinka. He was also the first performance artist to appear at the original Dixon Place.
“His frenetic shows fashioned kooky narratives out of found objects and homemade masks and made him a longtime favorite in the downtown avant-garde arts scene.”
– Bruce Weber, NYT.
Beginning in 1999, Murrin, continuously active, began writing a riveting monthly column in PAPER Magazine that ran for 16 years. He covered the performance and stage scenes, individual actors, dancers, playwrights and directors, and upcoming theater works. Selections from his column, which brought attention to many up and coming artists, are included in the exhibition. Tom lived his motto “Performance Is Anything Done With Purpose And Style” until shortly before he passed.
We hope you are inspired to visit and make time to view a selection of Tom’s live performances which will play on a large monitor along with live photos from 2011 and an enlightening 2008 interview. A bench will be positioned for comfortable viewing.
About Tom Murrin and our Tom Murrin Archive Exhibition:
Howl! is the repository of the Tom Murrin Archive comprising handmade masks, costumes, scripts, correspondence, photographs, and tapes of his performances going back to the early 1970s. Murrin (1939 – 2012) also known as The Alien Comic and Jack Bump, was a pioneer whose life and work inspired both artists and audiences for more than 40 years. We look forward to seeing you at this celebratory show.
Photos by Susan Hwang, Jim Moore, and Aldo Hernandez

Bushwick Book Club: Rems-a-Palooza! + Secret Door Closing Party
2025-03-29 16:00 - 20:30 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
4 – 6 PM: Secret Door Exhibition Closing Party
6 – 8:30 PM: Bushwick Book Club Presents: Rems-a-Palooza!
An evening of original performances celebrating writer and editor Emily Rems’ 50th Birthday!
Amazing singer/songwriters debuting original songs and more based on the writing career of Emily Rems!
New art/performance from:
Penny Arcade (new video!)
Ellia Bisker (Sweet Soubrette, Charming Disaster)
Errin Donahue (Royal Pink)
Sea Griffin
Rufus Hickok
Susan Hwang
Phoebe Kreutz
Mandy Mayhem
Risa Mickenberg
Karen Pittelman (Royal Pink; via video!)
The Ruminators
and others!
Read the words inspiring new songs and performances – the collected works of Emily Rems:
https://www.vitaphone.net/ejr/Emily-Rems-Collected-Works-20250219.pdf
The Bushwick Book Club is a literature-inspired performance series and podcast that invites local songwriters and artists to plumb the depths of a chosen literary gem to create that rare and beautiful thing – a new song (or visual art, dance, film or snack). All songs are then performed at a live show. The Bushwick Book Club now has several branches all over the world, including Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, Greenville, NC, London and Malmö, Sweden. The Bushwick Book Club podcast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud.

Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories)
2025-03-22 19:00 - 21:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories) explores the rich history, cultural significance and otherworldly occurrences of the famous Hotel Chelsea in New York City. The hotel gets its due in this smart and creative film as a place where anything could happen, where creativity thrived and where people from all walks of life came together in a chaotic and vibrant community. Thanks to its dedicated owners, the late Stanley Bard and his son David, the creative spirit of the Chelsea was fostered making it the unique creative haven that it became.
The film features interviews with past and present residents, including artists, musicians, writers, and other creative individuals. Some famous faces tell tales of their time in the hotel along with the riveting stories from the eclectic folks who still reside in this legendary and haunted building.
Featuring
Michael Imperioli, Sherill Tippins, Ned Van Zandt, Victor Colicchio, Harley Flanagan; Richard Barone, Cynthia Ross, Howie Pyro, Ruby Lynn Reyner, Marcia Resnick.
Directed By
Danny Garcia
Written By
Danny Garcia
Produced By
Danny Garcia, Cesar Mendez, Mike Schnapp
Chip Baker Films
(75 min)

THE SECRET DOOR - Cynthia Ross
2025-03-13 - 2025-03-29 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Opening Reception, Reading & Signing
Thursday March 13, 5:30 – 8pm

The Art of Emotional Repair
A poetry book launch for The Secret Door by Cynthia Ross and a multi-media exhibition of readings, paintings, embroideries, and collage; highlighting collaborations connected to and inspired by the poetry of Cynthia Ross.
Paintings by Ian Wilson – New York City
Ian’s art appears in The Secret Door book and record cover.
Embroideries by Eveline – Paris
Eveline hand embroiders Cynthia’s poems on vintage cotton nightgowns and boudoir artifacts.
THE SECRET DOOR – Tokyo
A Poetry & Collage Collaboration
Cynthia Ross and Zenji Fujiyama create erotic art pieces that combine her words and his images on Japanese paper

Saturday, March 22nd at 7pm
Ghosts of the Chelsea Hotel (and Other Rock & Roll Stories)
A documentary film by Danny Garcia about the iconic New York City hotel. Cynthia is a former resident and appears in the film. Free!
Saturday March 29th – closing reception 5 to 7pmBushwick Book Club performances 7 to 9pm celebrating writer/editor/podcaster Emily Rems (former editor-in-chief of the feminist periodical BUST Magazine). Free!

HOWL!IDAY POP-UP SHOP
2024-12-19 12:00 - 2024-12-22 18:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
At our Howl!iday Pop-up Shop, grab Howl! exhibition catalogs and books from our events at 30% off, while supplies last. We’ll also have a limited number of Arturo Vega and Brian Butterick/Hattie Hathaway commemorative tee shirts available for $20 each. Our friends at the Allen Ginsberg Estate will showcase an assortment of Beat tee shirts, records, CDs, books, and more.
Artist Scooter LaForge has created a very limited number of new pieces of his apparel art, plus a Howl! illustration we’ve printed onto a tote bag. Performer/artist Iris Rose will offer her latest handmade creations! Female Genius merch, an exclusive photo print tee shirt by Lola Flash, and publications by Lola, Julie Tolentino/Kia LaBeija, Eileen Myles, and others, along with a few surprises, will also be available.
See what’s available, get together with us, and pick out a special gift for yourself or a friend.

THE GREAT CLIMATE CHANGE - Staged Reading
2024-12-14 16:00 - 18:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
The Great Climate Change

by Tammy Gomez, Coni Koepfinger, Madeleine Popkin, and Rhiannon Ling
with Paula Cizmar, Damon Chua, Alexis Roblan, and Aimee Greenberg
directed by Peculiar Works’ Ralph Lewis and Aimee Greenberg of California’s fruitlessmoon theatreworks

For THE GREAT CLIMATE CHANGE, Directors Greenberg and Lewis are collaborating with a unique team of activist playwrights from across the country to investigate how theater can respond to our changing climate, creating a cautionary, science fiction tale of inequity and displacement set in a dystopian future of ravaged coasts and devastated forests.
Featuring:
Stan Baker • Lindsay Brill • Russ Kane • Austin Kirk • Jon Lonoff • Catherine Porter • Maria Isabella Rojas • Jenny Selig • Alisha Spielmann • Dan Lane Williams
Peculiar Works Project was founded by Ralph Lewis, Catherine Porter, and Barry Rowell in 1993 to create, develop, and present original, multi-disciplinary, site-based performance that investigate the essential issues of our time. Our award-winning company encourages collaboration, experimentation, and a rebel spirit in artists by providing them with the tools and opportunities needed for artistic exploration. We perform in unconventional, non-theater spaces because we believe artistic work wakes up a site, these sites in turn transform the work, and audiences experience both in surprising new ways.
Peculiar Works projects are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and from New York City Council member Christopher Marte; and with private funds from the Mental Insight Foundation, as well as our many, wonderful, individual donors.

TWO FILMS BY MERRILL ALDIGHIERI
2024-12-13 18:00 - 20:30 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
PREMIERE OF TWO FILMS BY MERRILL ALDIGHIERI
SHÖX LUMANIA MANIA
NEW ORDER ILLUSTRÉ

SHÖX LUMANIA MANIA (run time: 1 hour 9 minutes)
This feature includes four interviews with the band Shöx Lumania and a full concert from 1980. An underground favorite of Klaus Nomi, the band was known for changing costumes between every song. It was also electronic-hip-hop pioneer Man Parrish’s first band, and he restored the film’s soundtrack. Filmmaker Merrill Aldighieri collaborated with the band on several experimental films, excerpts of which enhance the visuals. Shöx Lumania was truly a unicorn of the new wave.
SHÖX LUMANIA trailers

NEW ORDER ILLUSTRÉ (run time: 33 minutes)
On September 26, 1980, the band New Order made its New York City debut. This director’s cut of their historic full concert features commentary by bassist Peter Hook. It marks the first recording of the band as they struggled to find their voice following lead singer Ian Curtis’ untimely death. Like an illuminated tome, Aldighieri embellishes her original concert video with experimental graphics, animations, and explorations of painter L.S. Lowry’s work. Lowry, who passed away just a few years before Curtis, created art inspired by the same industrial region of England. New Order’s music brought a new soundscape to the region, much as Lowry baptized its landscapes in art.
The film’s concert setlist features “In a Lonely Place,” “Procession,” “Dreams Never End,” “Mesh,” “Truth,” “Cries and Whispers,” and “Ceremony.”
NEW ORDER ILLUSTRÉ trailer

Bushwick Book Club presents EVERGREEN REVIEW - AIR
2024-09-07 18:00 - 20:30 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
BUSHWICK BOOK CLUB and historic literary journal EVERGREEN REVIEW team up to present new, original music and performance in response to writing on the theme of AIR.

J﻿oin us for a night of nerdy daredevilry inspired by Evergreen Review, delivered as only Bushwick Book Club knows how.
Performances and art by:
Jim Andralis
Theresa Byrnes
Bugsy Gabriel
Isaac Gerard
John S. Hall
Bob Holman
Susan Hwang
Yoko Kikuchi
RB Korbet
Larry Krone
Margo Luxlun
Uila Marx
Helen Oji
Lianne Smith
Alexis Vinzons
Selected writing on the theme of AIR:
Crooked and Loose by Keller Easterling
One for you, one for me. by Younis B. Azeem:
Beauty, Vindication by Jamie Kahn
Dear Sparrow, Take Me Home! and Not Yet Spring by Haya Abu Nasser
Ocean is There by Izumi Ueda Yuu
Pantisex Time by Andrew Miller
Deluge Over Winesburg and Other Poems by Lily Wood
Evergreen is a historic U.S. based literary magazine, first published in 1957 and known for its commitment to the progressive side of politics. They debuted pivotal works by Samuel Beckett, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Marguerite Duras, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Pablo Neruda, Vladimir Nabokov, Frank O’Hara, Susan Sontag and Malcolm X.
The Bushwick Book Club is a literature-inspired performance series and podcast that invites local songwriters and artists to plumb the depths of a chosen literary gem to create that rare and beautiful thing – a new song (or visual art, dance, film or snack). All songs are then performed at a live show. The Bushwick Book Club now has several branches all over the world, including Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New Orleans, Greenville, NC, London and Malmö, Sweden.
Image: Bill Jones – Mothra, 2021, Unique cyanotype, 19 x 26 inches
Event Photos – Bob Krasner

EDGAR OLIVER: Poetry Reading
2024-07-27 18:30 - 20:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Howl Arts is pleased to present a poetry reading by renowned poet and playwright Edgar Oliver.

“Edgar is, without doubt, the greatest raconteur in the world,” says George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth.
Edgar Oliver (b. October 31, 1956) is a legend of the Lower East Side and has lived there since 1977. Oliver made his debut in New York City’s Pyramid Club in the mid 1980s and is a mainstay at La MaMa. He has written at least a dozen plays, including Rip Tide, The Poetry Killer, The Ghost of Brooklyn, When She Had Blood Lust, The Master of Monstrosity, I Am a Coffin, My Green Hades, and Chop Off Your Ear. Oliver has published two poetry collections, A Portrait of New York by a Wanderer There, Summer, and the novel The Man Who Loved Plants.

CURT HOPPE: DOWNTOWN PORTRAITS REVISITED
2024-07-11 - 2024-08-11 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Opening reception: Thursday, July 11, 5–8 PM

Howl! Arts | Howl! Archive is pleased to present Downtown Portraits Revisited, an exhibition featuring Curt Hoppe’s large-scale realist paintings and black-and-white photographs of New York City artist friends. These were first exhibited five years ago at Howl! Happening in conjunction with Frank Bernarducci Gallery. Since then, we’ve experienced not only the loss of some of the artists who are subjects in his series, but significant changes in our daily lives due to the recent viral pandemic.
Curt has enjoyed a successful 45-year career driven by meaningful relationships with pioneering downtown creators. While many of the artists, writers, musicians, activists, and art entrepreneurs appearing in the series are now well known, this project was conceived not as a hall of fame but as a personal homage. Hoppe has been inspired not only by his subject’s youthful achievements but also by their lifelong perseverance and creativity.
“It all started with Arturo,” says Hoppe of the late Arturo Vega, his longtime friend. His larger-than-life painting of Vega, who was both the inspiration for Howl! Happening and the subject of the first portrait in the Downtown Portraits series, will be featured in the exhibition.
What started as one large realist painting became a nine-year project for Hoppe. As a longtime downtown New York denizen, he pays tribute to the core group of artists who welcomed and guided him since the mid 70s, continuing to inspire him as both an artist and a member of a vibrant creative community. “I wanted the exhibition to be forward-looking,” Hoppe says. “These artists found a way to survive and to thrive, and their wisdom continues to have a profound impact on today’s culture. We’re cooler now than we were back then. Our lives are on our faces.”
Copies of the Downtown Portraits catalog published in 2019 will be available for sale. The catalog features photographs and paintings, along with essays by Marc H. Miller, Walter Robinson, and others. It examines the cultural themes and community that defined downtown New York in the 1970s and 1980s.
Links to two great articles on Downtown Portraits:
https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/curt-hoppe/
http://www.itchysilk.com/curt-hoppe-journeys-into-hype
Link to trailer of Paul Tschinkel’s ART/new york documentary on Downtown Portraits

HELEN OLIVER ADELSON: SUMMER TIME
2024-07-06 - 2024-08-04 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 6, 2024, 5–8 PM
Howl! Arts | Howl! Archive is pleased to present Summer Time by Helen Oliver Adelson, featuring paintings made within the last three years. In her vivid portraits, intimate nudes, and townscapes, she delves below the surface of her subjects to uncover inner mysteries, emotions, and tensions.
Oliver’s gestural line and the deeply felt presence of the sitter create “images [that] vacillate between the hallucinatory, bordering on Surrealism, and a raw pragmatic quality that makes them appear utterly truthful,” says David Ebony. Her joyous, bohemian character imbues her paintings with an imaginative inner narrative, and style that goes beyond any affiliations to contemporary art trends, schools, or movements. An air of whimsy permeates some of her portraits, while languid nudes stare frankly into the viewer.
Since the late 70s, Helen Oliver has been an integral part of the artistic and performance-art scene of the Lower East Side, tapping into the personalities of the vanguard and rendering oil paintings of artists, musicians, filmmakers, and writers including John Kelly, Hapi Phace, Penny Arcade, Lenny Kaye, Louie Cartwright, Kembra Pfahler, Samoa, and Brian Damage. She is also well known for her stage-set design, especially for her brother Edgar Oliver’s plays, many of which premiered at La MaMa.
She was a founder of Pompeii Gallery on 10th Street (and later Forsyth Street) in New York City in the mid 1980s. She has exhibited in New York, Paris, and Lucerne, and has painted three rooms at the Carlton Arms Hotel. Originally from Savannah, Georgia, she moved to New York City in the late 1970s after studying in Paris and receiving a B.A. from George Washington University in Washington D.C. She now spends more of her time in Tarquinia, Italy, where she makes her home, although she visits New York seasonally.
EDGAR OLIVER reading at HA|HA on Saturday, July 27, 2024

LOLA FLASH AND ALICE O’MALLEY
2024-06-13 - 2024-06-30 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
LOLA FLASH + ALICE O’MALLEY TALK ABOUT THEIR SLIDESHOWS – JUNE 27, 2024.

Opening Thursday, June 13, 5–8 PM

Photographers Lola Flash and Alice O’Malley are both veterans of women’s clubs and AIDS activism in 1990s New York. Howl! Happening is pleased to present their individually curated slide shows, primarily featuring images from that indelible decade, displayed on opposite walls of the gallery.
By 1990, photo slide shows had become a nearly instant, affordable way to celebrate queer beauty and militant eroticism within our clubhouses. Group empowerment and reflecting our unity were crucial during those heady years. We railed against censorship and queer phobia, while AIDS ravaged friends, family, and lovers, because we had no effective medicines to suppress it and a government that vilified us. These photographs gave us visibility and strength. Come see.
In addition, the exhibition will feature a constellation of prints from Alice O’Malley’s slide show, along with Lola Flash’s vibrant metal portraits of downtown New York LEGENDS and a trio of images from her surmise series.
Lola Flash, a New Jersey native and longtime figure in New York’s downtown scene, is an activist who documents themes of race, age, and gender. Flash was an active member of ACT UP during the AIDS epidemic in New York City and was notably featured in the 1989 “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” poster. Their art and activism are deeply connected, fueling a lifelong commitment to visibility and preserving the legacy of LGBTQIA+ communities and communities of color worldwide.
Flash has worked as a practicing artist and teacher in the US and UK, with numerous international exhibitions and commissions over the past several decades. Their work is included in significant public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, inviting audiences to not only look but truly see.
Alice O’Malley worked as a coat checker at the Clit Club in the early ’90s, a renowned BIPOC-centered lesbian nightclub in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Unaware of the club’s no-camera policy, she photographed patrons using high-speed black-and-white film, often in the corridors of the club’s basement rooms.
Over the next decade, O’Malley documented live performances on late-night stages at venues such as the Pyramid, Jackie 60, Squeezebox, Club Casanova, and other downtown parties. This explosion of queer nightlife occurred against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, which devastated the community and claimed the lives of many close friends and creatives. Comrades from the previous night’s parties would find each other in the daylight, rallying against the government’s failed response to the crisis, chanting in the streets, “ACT UP! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!”
Alice O’Malley is an image maker best known for their portraits of New York’s downtown demimonde. O’Malley’s pictures have been exhibited, collected, and published widely. They teach at the International Center of Photography and are represented by John Marchant Gallery in Brighton UK.

STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL BENEFIT FOR UNICEF
2024-06-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Howl! Happening is pleased to host Stuyvesant High School’s 2nd UNICEF Club fundraising event.
There will be a wide variety of performances from Stuyvesant High School students including poetry, music, theater, and modern dance! Admission is free for all. The community is invited to join Howlers, students, parents, and faculty to experience the performances and learn more about UNICEF. All donations go directly to supporting children through UNICEF. Howl! salutes Stuyvesant High School’s youth participation and action in the arts for this worthy cause.

Music Performance by FEMALE GENIUS
2024-05-19 16:00 - 18:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Click here to watch the livestream if you can’t make it!
Female Genius: Julie Hair, Nikki D’Agostino, Marnie Jaffe, and Janice Sloane.
Julie Hair and Marnie Jaffe blasted out of the Lower East Side underground rock scene of the 1980s and are still creating. Julie’s experience in the legendary art-rock band 3 Teens Kill 4 and Marnie’s Live Skull footprint inform their musicality. (The video for “Madeline” features deep-fake versions of the two when they were in their twenties lip-synching to the song.)
Nikki D’Agostino, an avant-garde composer who teaches music technology at CUNY, moved from being a fan to an integral member of the group. Her free improv, skronk, and lyrical sax lines add gravitas to the electric and effected instrumentation. Experienced performers, they are equally at home playing in a nightclub or an art gallery,
The trio of multi-instrumentalists Julie Hair, Marnie Jaffe, Nikki D’Agostino have recently joined forces with New York artist Janice Sloane on guitar. With their minimal arrangements; vocal-driven music; and bass loops layered with guitar, keyboards, percussion and sax; they seem to have found the sonic equivalent of “outsider art.”

PYRAMID PIONEERS
2024-04-18 - 2024-06-01 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Opening Reception, Book Signing, and Reading – April 18th, 2024

In honor of the publication of “We Started a Nightclub,” Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive and Some Serious Business will host a book signing and readings from the oral and narrative history of the club. In celebration, Howl!’s 250 Bowery gallery is pleased to present Pyramid Pioneers, an exhibition showcasing early Pyramid Polaroids and posters by Trey Speegle; video, graphics and memorabilia from Mark Oates; photographs by Lynn M. Grabowski (Pyramid name: Baronessa); Julie Hair & Jody Kurilla’s musical memorabilia from their Pyramid series, Tuesday Night Fever; clips from the documentary Pyramid Club–The Movie directed by Elizabeth Bouiss; and flyers and photos featured in the book from Howl! Archives’ Brian Butterick Collection. Copies of the book may be purchased at the book signing and throughout the run of the exhibition.

Polaroids by Trey Speegle
“We Started a Nightclub”: The Birth of the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Told by Those Who Lived It by Brian Butterick, Susan Martin, and Kestutis Nakas is a narrative and oral history comprising more than 75 interviews with performers and bar boys, doorpersons and DJs. It covers the early years of the Pyramid from the time of its founding in 1981 through its rise, near demise, and rebirth. Throughout the book project, Howl! Arts has lent its support. Their Archive is the repository for the collections of Brian Butterick, book co-author and close collaborator of Howl! Executive Director, Jane Friedman. Archivist Aldo Hernandez provided invaluable resources from Brian’s Pyramid Collection. Designed by Jeff Streeper for MODERN IDENTITY. Published by Damiani Books in association with Some Serious Business. Publication date: April 30th.
Buy your book now and pick it up at HA/HA!
The book is also available for pre-sale in Europe through Damiani Books.
Top Image: Lynn M. Grabowski

STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL BENEFIT FOR UNICEF
2024-02-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
Howl! Happening is pleased to host a fundraising concert for Stuyvesant High School’s UNICEF Club on February 9th from 6-8 PM.
Live music, poetry, and more by talented student groups including Stuy A Capella, Stuy Indian Classics Club, and Stuy Poetry Hub will highlight the evening. The community is invited to join Howlers, students, parents, and faculty to experience the performances and learn more about UNICEF. All donations go directly to supporting children through UNICEF. Howl! salutes Stuyvesant High School’s youth participation and action in the arts for this worthy cause.

Spectacle of Chaos and Love: Inside BLACK LODGE
2023-12-09 18:00 - 19:30 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
David T. Little and Anne Waldman
Discussion & Screening

Opera and poetry provocateurs David T. Little and Anne Waldman sit down to discuss their GRAMMY®-nominated BLACK LODGE, an opera/film hybrid that reimagines the operatic form through the fractured mythologies of artists like William S. Burroughs and David Lynch, with influences from glam metal and industrial music.

Attendees will be offered a special preview of Electric Cerberus, a forthcoming music video from BLACK LODGE, and have a chance to meet the artists.

Watch the Official Trailer for BLACK LODGE

NUE - A Photography Exhibit by Javi Alvarez Featuring Vangeline
2023-12-07 - 2023-12-16 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 7 | 6–9 PM
Special Performance by Vangeline: Thursday, December 7 at 7:30 PM
CLICK HERE to RSVP
Open Hours:
Friday, December 8 – Sunday, December 10 | 12 – 6 PM
Wednesday, December 13 – Saturday, December 16 | 12 – 6 PM
Howl! Arts is pleased to partner with Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute and visionary photographer Javi Alvarez to present an exclusive preview of their photographic project, NUE, with a special performance by Vangeline at 7:30 PM on December 7th at Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor.
NUE consists of a series of exquisite nude photographs of Butoh artist Vangeline captured in nature and the studio by Javi Alvarez. An exclusive selection of large prints will remain on display at the gallery through December 16, 2023.
Vangeline will perform an excerpt of her celebrated solo Eternity 123, which traces the symbolic journey of women’s liberation across time. With this piece, Vangeline also celebrates the impact of women on the butoh art form—exploring the link between women, butoh, and “Cabaret.”
NUE derives its name from the French word for nude and refers to the divine. With this collaboration, Alvarez and Vangeline explore the divine feminine prevalent within nature and the female form. Through this photographic study, Butoh becomes a conduit for this sensual, ecstatic, and sacred energy.
“Vangeline’s work as an artist and advocate for women’s rights is inspiring,” said Alvarez. “The way she stands in fierce authenticity with equal parts of kindness and strength has given room for an intimate collaboration that shows delicate and powerful femininity.”
“Butoh has always had a privileged relationship with photography,” echoed Vangeline. “The art form was launched in Japan in the early 60s thanks to a stunning book of photographs by Eikoh Hosoe. Live performances can be so ephemeral. But Javi‘s work has captured the great intimacy and vulnerability behind Butoh. We are both excited to share these images with the world and build on our collaboration.”
A series of legacy, limited edition co-signed prints will be exclusively available during this exhibition, pre-book release. The photographs will be on display at the gallery until December 16, 2023. NUE will culminate in 2024 with a book launch and exhibition.

About the Artists
Javi Alvarez was born in Costa Rica in 1984, and now lives and works in New York. With an academic background in economics, he began his artistic journey following an informal but expressive path. A collector, cinematographer, explorer, visionary, Alvarez doesn’t take photographs — he experiments, letting the gestures transform his intuitions into works. New, uncommon, and alternative elements become pretexts for expressing oneself, in balance with concept, people and light. Constantly challenging the rules, his work finds infinite possibilities of articulation according to the spaces, situations, and moods of the moment, with a modality that is never static or definitive, but always improvisational, unstable, evolving in the time. NUE is Javi’s fifth visual arts exhibit and the first one in Soho. Prior to this, his film work with dance painter Annika Rhea was exhibited in 2021 and 2022 during the Miami Art Basel at the Loews Hotel as part of SCOPE Art Show. He has held two videography and photography exhibitions at The Box Factory Gallery in Brooklyn. For more information, visit: www.javialvarez.com
Vangeline is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer specializing in Japanese butoh. She is the artistic director of the Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute (New York), a dance company firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese butoh while carrying it into the twenty-first century. With her all-female dance company, Vangeline’s socially conscious performances tie together butoh and activism. Vangeline is the founder of the New York Butoh Institute Festival, which elevates the visibility of women in butoh, and the festival Queer Butoh. She pioneered the award-winning, 15-year running program The Dream a Dream Project, which brings butoh dance to incarcerated men and women at correctional facilities across New York State. Vangeline is a 2022/2023 Gibney Dance in Process residency and the winner of a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Dance Award. She is also a 2018 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography for Elsewhere; the winner of the 2015 Gibney Dance Social Action Award as well as the 2019 Janet Arnold Award from the Society of Antiquaries of London. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book: Butoh: Cradling Empty Space, which explores the intersection of butoh and neuroscience. She pioneered the first neuroscientific study of Butoh “The Slowest Wave;” Her work is the subject of CNN’s “Great Big Story” “Learning to Dance with your Demons.” She is also featured on BBC’s podcast Deeply Human with host Dessa (episode 2 of 12: Why We Dance).
About Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute
Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute aims to preserve the legacy and integrity of Japanese Butoh while carrying the art form well into the future, with a special emphasis on education, social justice, research, and archiving. For more info, visit: www.vangeline.com
Vangeline Theater programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Image: Vangeline by Javi Alvarez

SCOOTER LAFORGE: Tee Hee Hee
2023-11-02 - 2023-12-17 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
A T-shirt Extravaganza
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 6 PM

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Explore 3D Space

Scooter LaForge

One thing we at Howl! Arts love about Scooter LaForge is his spontaneity—in his creative gestures and in life. He’s an experimenter, he takes a chance. The energy of his creation flows out into the world in forms as diverse as paintings, sculpture, clothing, jewelry, set design, ETC. He is a brilliant painter who does not edit his work to perfection. In fact, it is that roughness combined with elegance that always surprises. He tells the ugly truths about injustice where he sees it and at the same time gives us a world of sweet animals and creatures that open the heart and make us smile.
Wearing a t-shirt by Scooter is fun. You get noticed. They’re one of a kind. The shirt says “You are unique.” No need to wait for the end of the show: take it home with you right away and start wearing it, or gift it to a friend. On the spot block printing and painting will replenish the stock throughout the Tee Hee Hee exhibition event at Howl! Happening, 6 East First Street.

Scooter LaForge (b. Las Cruces, New Mexico) is a New York-based artist who has lived in the East Village for the past 18 years. His unique style mines the catalog of art history by infusing classical themes with a colorful sensibility. LaForge works in various media, including painting, sculpture, and drawing, and employs unorthodox techniques and striking iconic images.
Often combine-like, his works are a walking journal of images where ideas are explored and refined. LaForge approaches painting intuitively, absorbing what surrounds him and working on the canvas with agility and focus—drawing from a fertile inner emotional realm and an extensive painterly vocabulary.
His paintings have been shown at the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York, the Friedrichshof Museum in Vienna, and the Spritmuseum/Absolut Art Collection in Sweden.
In 2015, the artist was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. He holds a BFA in painting from the University of Arizona.

Directed by Flloyd: An Evening of Video and Film Work
2023-10-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
In addition to his visual arts and performance art career, Flloyd is also well-known for his significant body of work behind-the-camera. In a single evening showing the highlights of films and videos directed by Flloyd, attendees will get a full view of Flloyd’s breadth and depth as a filmmaker.
The evening will begin with a summary of Flloyd’s short films and music videos, including a short film titled “Field Day” (4 min, 50 sec), music videos made for his band 3Puen, music videos made with his band Flock of Slits, the opening credits of Channel 69, and selections from Flloyd’s own public access TV show Gay Action News.
Following a short intermission, the event will culminate in a screening of Flloyd’s feature length film, Jack the Ripper. Directed between 1992 and 2002, Flloyd directed and produced a film adaptation of Blacklips Performance Cult’s greatest plays, Love Forever’s “Jack the Ripper.” Starring the cast of Blacklips, this all-black-and-white feature follows the story of local sex workers living under the black cloud of a serial killer of women lurking the streets at night. One by one, they are murdered in high stylized fashion by Jack (played by Flloyd).
Never released and rarely screened, Jack the Ripper remains a high mark in Flloyd’s prowess as a director and the entire cast of Blacklips, who provide their singular talents in this historic drag film.

ALLEN GINSBERG’S THE FALL OF AMERICA VOL II
2023-10-06 18:00 - 20:00 | HA/HA, 250 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10012, United States
Album Release and Film Screening
Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive celebrates the release of Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America Vol II, a musical interpretation of poems from Ginsberg’s The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971.
Join us for a film screening including Philip Glass & Allen Ginsberg’s Have you Seen this Movie, Ai Weiwei and O_Future‘s Allen Ginsberg’s Hum Bom, Jack Dangers & Allen Ginsberg‘s Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss, CJ Mirra and Kai Campos & Allen Ginsberg‘s Bixby Canyon, and Seb Taylor & Allen Ginsberg, Over Denver Again.

Vinyl and CDs will be available for purchase at the event. All proceeds from sales will benefit Pen America.
The Fall of America Volume II, a musical tribute to Allen Ginsberg to benefit Pen America will be released digitally as well as on CD and vinyl on October 6, 2023, via Allen Ginsberg Recordings. The album features performances by Ai Weiwei, Philip Glass, Anne Waldman, Thurston Moore With Saul Williams, Devendra Banhart, Miho Hatori, Jack Dangers, Yoni Wolf, Fennesz & Taylor Deupree, Stephen Hillage & Miquette Giraudy, Kai Campos & Cj Mirra, Dj Spooky / Aka That Subliminal Kid Feat Antoine Drye, and more.
“Allen could often seamlessly mix the secular with the divine, the past to the future, and enact transformation and liberation through poetry. It’s an honor to mouth these words with the shaping of music composed here.” – Anne Waldman
“Well, here we are now dearest Allen, rallying and resisting, revolting and revealing, your ‘prophecy’ in constant manifestation, fighting fascism as soldiers of peace, informed by your singing out from the ‘mind jail.’” -Thurston Moore
“Allen’s spirit of true freedom clearly resonates in his words & in the soul that he was.” -Ai Weiwei
“Wow! It’s just like when we used to perform together! It’s like the pieces were made for each other.” – Philip Glass
PRE-ORDER THE FALL OF AMERICA VOLUME II
Fall of America Poems published by City Lights Books in San Francisco, covers the years 1965-1971 when Ginsberg was crisscrossing the country, exploring a system of composition by narrating into the portable reel-to-reel Uher that Bob Dylan had gifted him.
“In 1965, Ginsberg began planning an ambitious project, a book of thematically connected poems, a collection that ‘discovered’ America in poetry similar to the way Kerouac’s On the Road had explored the country in prose. The Vietnam War would be a constant presence overhanging Ginsberg’s travel writings like a darkening shadow affecting daily life in the country. It would be a study of contrasts: natural beauty slammed up against an ugliness that rose out of the tensions of violence. The public’s polarized dialogue over Vietnam and, earlier in the decade, the civil rights movement, convinced Ginsberg that America was teetering on the precipice of a fall.”
– Michael Schumacher, from Introduction to The Fall of America Journals 1965-1971
For more information and to preview tracks please contact (co-producers) Peter Hale phale@allenginsberg.org & Jesse Goodman jgoodman@allenginsberg.org

Dicks and Divas Silk Screening event with Flloyd
2023-09-30 15:00 - 17:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
You’re invited to Howl! for a Dicks and Divas silk-screening event open to the public. Artist Flloyd will provide the silk-screens, inks, and designs for attendees to silk-screen personal items in various sizes and designs. Attendees will be able to choose 4 design options, two dicks and two divas.

Flloyd’s Channel 69 Trilogy: Hosted by Linda Simpson and Flloyd
2023-09-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street, New York City, NY, 10003, United States
A special screening of Flloyd’s breakthrough drag performances of the 1990s, followed by live commentary with Flloyd and Linda Simpson. In the early 1990s, Linda Simpson hosted Channel 69, a variety entertainment program which brought the East Village drag scene to public television. The series featured new and upcoming queens of the era, including Flloyd’s special dedicated episodes, where he presented his groundbreaking “Drag Trilogy.”
While many of the performances featured on Channel 69 constituted of regular drag performance, Flloyd’s “Drag Trilogy” marked a conceptual turn for the show, and for Flloyd as an artist. Prior to 1990, Flloyd performed as Felicia with his band The People Tree. Taking inspiration from RuPaul, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Lypsinka, Felicia soon transformed into a more daring performer who would go on to make a greater impact in the East Village scene.
Flloyd would go onto the develop the “Drag Trilogy” for Channel 69 the same year. The cycle is broken down in three 30-minute specials: “This You Won’t Believe,” “Sex Clown,” and “Facility Girl (A Tribute to National Secretary’s Day).” Each of the numbers bleed into each other conceptually, innovating and expanding on performative elements first explored by artists like Lypsinka, such as the inclusion of dialogue. Flloyd’s “Drag Trilogy” marks an outstanding breakthrough in drag history and for Flloyd as an artist.
The evening will open with Flloyd’s Wigstock Performance, following a screening of the complete “Drag Trilogy,” followed by a Q+A discussion with Flloyd and Linda Simpson to discuss the importance of these performances and their legacies within the community.
