Documentary Screening Iris Rose was a familiar figure of the East Village performance scene in the 80s and early 90s, primarily as a member of the group Watchface. She performed frequently at La MaMa, PS122, Darinka, and the Pyramid Club, among many other venues. By the middle of the decade, however, she had virtually disappeared as a presence within that community. Where had she gone? The Joe Project tells the story of Iris' trip "down the mommy hole.” After her…

Documentary Screening and Shorts The poet and writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an iconic presence in the world of arts and letters. For well over half a century, he has helped shape the currents of poetry and literature through his forceful engagement with society. Armed with an ideological position that often found him at odds with the political dogma of his day, Ferlinghetti became the best-selling poet of the modern era, a literary mercenary, and a rebel at the forefront of…

Book Launch “Pay Attention: The Streets Are Talking” New York Said: Volume Three provides an elucidating and timely portrait of the pervasive challenges faced in the United States and the world, through the ubiquitous words and graffiti that surround us in the city. The photography in NYS: V3 invites readers to a visual collage of thought provoking commentary on social justice, the resistance movement, equality, gun control, gentrification, immigration, imprisonment, police brutality, and race. About Amon Focus Amon Focus hails from…

Butoh Film Series in Association With Vangeline Theater and New York Butoh Institute The unique art of Butoh originated in post-World War II Japan as a reaction to the loss of identity caused by the westernization of Japanese culture—a realization that ancient Japanese performing traditions no longer spoke to a contemporary audience. One of the major developments in contemporary dance in the latter half of the 20th century, Butoh combines dance, theater, improvisation, and influences of Japanese traditional performing arts,…

Documentary Screening Cecil Taylor is the grand master of free jazz piano. All the Notes captures, in breezy fashion, the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, who is regarded as one of the true giants of post-war music. Taylor is first seen musing over Santiago Calatrava’s fleecy architecture—a typical sign of the pianist’s famed eclectic interests, which extend from soloing to combo and small orchestra work, as well as spoken word performance. Seated at the beloved and battered…

Documentary Film Screening Don Judd’s Marfa Texas An artist and critic, there was a considerable duality to Donald Judd (1928-1994). He was at once a man of intellectual rigor and a multidisciplinary conceptualist who deftly moved towards a new minimalism. In 1971, he relocated from the center of the art world, New York, to the prairies of Presidio County in Southern Texas, 20 miles from the Mexican border. It is here, in Marfa, Texas, that Chris Felver interviews Judd, providing…