brooklyn spaces – Page 7 – a compendium of brooklyn culture & creativity

the lab (electric warehouse)

oriana on 25 Aug ’11

neighborhood: bed-stuy | space type: parties | active since: ? | links: website

The Lab—or as it’s known to the dance kids and hipsters, Electric Warehouse—is a 10,000-sq-ft underground party space deep in Bed-Stuy. Once upon a time it was used to repair trolleys, then it was a parking garage, then a strip club. It’s rumored that famed Brooklyn DJ Frankie Bones held some of his storm raves there in the mid-nineties. Now it’s a pliable, chameleonic space that hosts all kinds of parties for all different facets of the underground. As the Lab, there’s events like Friday Night SinSations, an urban gay dance party; weekly female-only hip-hop parties; CARNIVIBES, a reggae party with Carribean food and drinks; and P. Diddy’s “Biggie Day” tribute. As Electric Warehouse it caters to techno music and rave culture, with parties thrown by groups like Feed the Starving Artists, NYCRavers, SUN Collective, RefugeNYC, and Unicorn Meat. The space has also hosted some big-name artists, from Ninjasonik and Designer Drugs to Chris Brown and Snoop Dogg.

I haven’t been to a rave in a lot of years, but I’ve been wanting to check out the Lab for months, and after a special invitation from Alex of Unicorn Meat, who, along with Feed the Starving Artists, was co-producing GET DIGITAL, a pre–Burning Man dance party, I headed out to Bed-Stuy with the intrepid Maximus Comissar to see what it was all about. First we went mid-week to see what the space was like empty, and I was a little surprised at how bare and personality-less it was, compared to other underground party spaces like Rubulad and Red Lotus Room. But when we went back on Saturday night, after a very thorough pat-down at the door, we walked in to find the place totally transformed. There was a huge pyramid jutting out of one wall, different crazy video projections coming from four different balconies, the stage was lush with six-foot flowers, there were fire-spinners and a Merry Pranksters–like bus in the parking lot, and the whole place was teeming with people just dancing their faces off. I’d forgotten how crazy awesome the energy gets at a rave, and it was super fun to watch. Everyone was dressed crazy, painted up crazy, gyrating and fist-pumping and sweating and grinning like mad. Good fucking times.

***

brooklyn spaces: How did you get involved with the Lab?
Alex: I throw underground warehouse parties all over New York, so I know a lot of different spaces. The Lab is really big, large enough that we would likely be able to not reach capacity over the entire night. At the last place I put on an event we had a much smaller capacity and way, way too many people came. So I talked to the owner of the Lab, built up a relationship with him.

brooklyn spaces: Have you been to other events here?
Alex: Oh yeah, a lot. Drew Meeks, a friend of mine and a member of the Burning Man community, he did a party here a year or two ago called Gratitude, which was one of the most amazing events I’ve ever been to. He had acrobatic aerialists, massages, chill rooms, and he worked with Leo Villareal, who’s a famous LED artist and also a part of our Burning Man camp. They had these giant red LEDs, which are part of a sign they bring out to the desert every year, and they just had these crazy transformations, shooting into the center and back out, making different patterns and all these different variables. The GET DIGITAL party was more of a rave than the other events my friends and I usually do. Our scene is a little bit different than the rave scene, musically and culturally.

brooklyn spaces: How do you define your scene?
Alex: It’s art-based. There are some others that touch on artistic things, but mostly in decoration, not in practice. We really go out of our way to make our own clothing, make our own costumes, do interactive art during events. It’s generally an older, more mature crowd, and there are a lot of working professionals who are very talented. Any time I need any kind of legal advice, or real estate advice, or we’re trying to deal with something logistical, all I really need to do is put the word out, and within hours we can get anything solved.

brooklyn spaces: Are there some artists you’ve worked with a lot who you really love?
Alex: I love all artists. There’s so many, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

brooklyn spaces: When you’re planning the parties, how do you decide what elements to include?
Alex: It’s sort of like the orgasmic peak in a song, where it starts off kind of slow and mellow and then builds up, and then you have a heavy-hitting section, and then it kind of mellows out again, and then right before it ends, you just pump it up out of nowhere. When I book my artists, that’s what I take into consideration. There’s an endless amount of artists in the city who want to participate in good parties. We’re so blessed with it.

brooklyn spaces: Do you feel like Brooklyn has had an impact on the way you throw parties or the way you conceive art, or the way the underground works?
Alex: I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve been to thirty-something countries in the past two years, hitchhiking all over the place, and the reason I came back here is because I’m a cosmopolitan, I love all people, I love the world, and New York is the center of the world. It’s got more cultural diversity, countercultural diversity, linguistic diversity, it’s got something for everyone, no matter who you are. It’s really a beautiful place.

brooklyn spaces: For you, in the simplest terms, what makes a good party?
Alex: The people. That’s the most important thing. As long as you have a room, music, and good people coming in, that’s it, as far as I’m concerned.

***

Like this? Read about more underground party spaces: Rubulad, Red Lotus Room, Gowanus Ballroom, 12-turn-13, Newsonic, Gemini & Scorpio loft

ger-nis culinary & herb center

oriana on 17 Aug ’11

neighborhood: gowanus | space type: skillshare | active since: 2010 | links: website, facebook, twitter, blog

Let’s just take a minute and talk about something totally outside of the purview of this blog: ice cream sandwiches. Think about an ice cream sandwich. We all have the same picture, right? Mushy chocolate cookie with rock-hard crappy vanilla ice cream? Let me just clear that image right out of your head. Here, my friends, are some freaking ice cream sandwiches:

chocolate-dipped almond cookies filled with black cherry ice cream

cucumber & gazpacho granita ice bites

basil ice cream with bacon on tomato

orange sherbet on sliced beet

I hope I blew your mind a little bit with those. Because Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center, where I took the Artisanal Ice Cream Sandwich class that produced such loveliness, totally blew mine.

Ger-Nis—like so many of the spaces I’ve profiled—has a lot going on. In addition to a whole slew of incredible cooking classes—like Indian Street Food, New Nordic Cooking of Iceland, and a Make Your Own Take-Out series, to name a very few—they’ve got social clubs and supper clubs and meetups and all sorts of festivals. It’s a warm, incredibly welcoming space, and I can’t wait to go back to cook something else. You should too! But first read my interview with Nissa Pierson, the space’s creator.

photo by me

photo by Maximus Comissar

brooklyn spaces: Give me a quick history of the space?
Nissa: About seven years ago I started a business called Ger-Nis International, which is an importing business for organic, fair trade fruit and vegetable. We were looking for a new space for the business, and we found this one. Honestly, the moment I saw this place, I said, “I’m going to open up a culinary center,” even though it was just an empty room then. I’m very quick to do these kinds of things. Luckily, my brothers are builders, and they were amazing, building everything out for me after I designed it. I think of the theme as “modern French farm.” I really like a kitchen to have a homey feel. Kitchens that are too modern make you feel very icy, very culinary school, big chefs with their hats, and so the modern edge here is for the artistic side, and the farm-y feel is for the culinary side. I think the place has really nice energy, because it’s all been done with love.

photo by me

brooklyn spaces: How long have you been teaching cooking classes?
Nissa: Thirteen, fourteen years. I’ve taught for the city of Santa Monica, a bunch of Whole Foods in different cities; I’ve done lost of private classes, I’ve taught at culinary studios across the country. I’ve also written a lot of herb recipes. But I’m 100 percent self-taught in everything I do.

brooklyn spaces: Do you also take a lot of cooking classes?
Nissa: Not really. I’ve taken a few and been bored to death, because most of them are just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Cooking classes are all so technique-based, and I’m not such a believer in technique. I think you can cut an onion a million different ways. I travel a lot, and when you travel, it’s not so much about technique, it’s about ingredients. So that’s what I try to emulate.

photo by Maximus Comissar

brooklyn spaces: How do you decide what to teach here?
Nissa: Listen, my head is filled with so much stuff. Creating the classes is the exciting part for me. I get bored super easily, so it’s really important that we have a variety of classes. We first opened in the summertime, so we started with a lot of ice cream and gazpacho. Our bestselling classes are my Latin classes; our pasta classes are popular too. We have such a laid-back feel about the place, and great people come in who really want to learn. And it’s a really social thing. People leave exchanging numbers and come back again together, which is really nice to see.

brooklyn spaces: Give me a quick rundown of all the different components of the space.
Nissa: Well, of course there’s the cooking classes. We also have a couple of series. One is Brooklyn Conversations, with local chefs, which is a nice way for people to get to know the chefs, and for the chefs to get to just talk about food. We have one called the Brooklyn Artisanal Kitchen, so like Salvatore Brooklyn will teach people how to make ricotta, things like that. We also do supper clubs, with a local chef and all the different local artisans, farmers, and purveyors. We did a social club this summer, sort of like a meetup for foodies, where we organized events and brought food, like we did “Opera in the Park” and brought antipasto. I’m doing one in a couple of weeks called “Lettuce Shred It” at Rockaway, which is free surf lessons—I’m a surfer—and lettuce sandwiches. Then we also have Kids in the Kitchen, and we go into schools, or have school groups come here. We’ve done programs with developmentally disabled adults. We do all different kinds of things, so long as it’s about food education.

photo by Maximus Comissar

brooklyn spaces: What’s your relationship with the community?
Nissa: I’m a strong believer in supporting the community. We do as much as we can to work with neighborhood businesses, to collaborate and cooperate. We work with Union Market quite a bit, and a lot of the restaurants around here, like Miriam, Franny’s, Al Di La. We arranged one of our meetups at the Sycamore, which is a bar and flower shop. We try to bring our customers to the people and businesses we believe in supporting.

photo by Maximus Comissar

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future?
Nissa: I’d like the space to be profitable because I’d like to pay my rent. That’s number one. I’d like this to become a place where people in the community come to socialize, to learn to cook, to play. I’d like it to become a domain for local chefs, food artisans, people with a food education message. A lot of people tell me that I take on too much, that there’s too much going on. But I believe that if you have a good grasp of how to connect it all, then it’s easy. So that’s my goal.

***

Like this? Read about more teaching spaces: Brooklyn Brainery, Lifelabs, Pioneer Works, 3rd Ward, Time’s Up, Bushwick Print Lab, Urbanglass

trinity project

oriana on 13 Aug ’11

neighborhood: east williamsburg | space type: nonprofit, art studios | active: 2009–2012 | link: facebook

The Trinity Project is a fantastic, pioneering nonprofit organization working to integrate artists more completely into the communities where they live. It’s an alliance between East Williamsburg artists, the Most Holy Trinity–St. Mary’s Parish, and the Saints Joseph and Dominic Catholic Academy, wherein artists are given subsidized studio and rehearsal space in exchange for community service, whether tending the grounds, staffing church events, or teaching art to the students at the school. It’s a fantastic rebuttal to those who think artists insulate themselves within their neighborhoods, and proof that community alliances are possible across racial, economic, and even religious lines.

To get involved with them (they’re always looking for volunteers), email info@thetrinityprojectbk.org. But first read my interview below with Monica Salazar, who co-founded the project with Megan Tefft.

The lead photo is of Janice Purvis’s studio, taken by c. bay milin. For more from c. bay (who took many of the photos below as well), check out cbaymilin.com.

Trinity Project artists at Most Holy Trinity sanctuary

Bike-In Movie, photo by c. bay milin

photo by James S. Rand

brooklyn spaces: What gave you the idea for this project?
Monica: I read an article in the New York Times about the Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint, which rents out their basement for events like F.E.A.S.T., and their choir lofts for band rehearsals. I also knew St. Cecilia’s was doing something similar. I’m a musician and I have a background in theatre and dance, and I just thought that was so cool. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for years, and I’d always walk by this church, although I’d never been inside. So I emailed the friars and asked if they had any extra space, and they responded immediately and were really interested. So we decided to come up with a barter program, and just started filling up the space. We have bands practicing at the empty church, we have twenty visual artists in this building, we have a rehearsal room for different dance and theatre groups. We threw a benefit on the roof, we built a gallery upstairs.

Pre-K students in a Halloween mask-making class

brooklyn spaces: What do the artists do in return for the space?
Monica: Lots of different projects. A lot of them maintain the buildings or the grounds, or for example there was a parishioner centennial birthday at the church and we had some artists do the decorations and make a video montage. We also found out that the school on the other side of the church—Pre-K through eight grade, 260 kids—had zero art education. So about ten of the visual artists have been helping out there, and that’s where the program is working the best. At this point we’re actually braided into the curriculum; we aren’t an after-school program, we’re actually there during the day with the kids. It’s really cool.

photo by c. bay milin

brooklyn spaces: How do you decide who’s going to do what? Do you have artists with teaching backgrounds?
Monica: Some do, some don’t. As we’ve progressed, we’ve come to realize the type of people we’re looking for, which is a hybrid of high-caliber art and commitment to community service. This isn’t a coddling artist’s residency; everybody does all the dirty work.

Lotte Allen, photo by c. bay milin

brooklyn spaces: Tell me about some of the events you’ve had. You were involved in Bushwick Open Studios, right?
Monica: Yeah, for the last two years, and we had our own open studios last fall. We’ve done face-painting booths and such at street fairs. Last summer we had a series of concerts and movies at Saint Mary’s.

photo from Trinity Project's Facebook

brooklyn spaces: So it’s all been really successful?
Monica: Definitely. But this is a funny time. The church is being sold, and we’re going to be out of this building, so we’re majorly condensing everything we do. We’re going to refocus, distill what we’ve been doing into what’s working the best, which is working with the kids. We’re going to reduce it to four visual artists and four theatre, dance, and performing arts groups.

Spring FUNdraiser, photo from Trinity Project's Facebook

brooklyn spaces: Was it hard to cut down the artists?
Monica: Yeah. But we’ve always been very honest, they always knew it was only a month-to-month arrangement. There’s not really a precedent for this kind of program; we’re just making it up as we go along. It’s exciting that we’ve been able to be in this building for fourteen months; that’s longer than we’d anticipated. And we’ve definitely secured our relationship with the church, with the school, and with the diocese, and we’re working on leasing a building of our own.

brooklyn spaces: Do you have a favorite event that you’ve done?
Monica: Well, one of the challenges of this project has been that we’re not a religious organization, so the religious community and the artistic one are not always easy to bring together. But one really successful event was a holiday concert we had in the sanctuary. It was a mix of church performers and artists. Friar Timothy sang, one of the other friars emceed, this awesome church organist played, and the mostly Dominican church choir performed—they were incredible, they blew us all out of the water. On our end were mostly experimental bands doing their take on traditional Christmas music. There was one psychedelic band that was jumping around the altar, whipping stuff around their heads, and at first I was nervous, but the friars were into it. It was such a bizarre night, but really wonderful.

Trinity Project founders at St. Mary's Cathedral

brooklyn spaces: Have there been any problems between the two communities?
Monica: Well, we’ve been extremely emphatic with our artists about being respectful to the community that’s hosting us. I know young artists can be over-bold with their strokes, but this is just not the place for certain kinds of provocative art. I don’t mind it personally—I’m always intrigued by things that push the envelope, and I think that’s part of what artists are here for—but if it’s overtly anti-religious or über-sexual, we’re just not the home for it.

Pia Murray, photo by c. bay milin

brooklyn spaces: Are there other neighborhood organizations you work with?
Monica: We work closely with Chez Bushwick and Center for Performance Research. We also have relationships with the Pratt Center, Graham Ave Business Improvement District, El Puente, Saint Nick’s Alliance, and OurGoods.

brooklyn spaces: Had you been looking for an opportunity to bridge the gap between the artists and the neighborhood community?
Monica: Yeah. I lived on Broadway and Graham for six years, and I think it’s always been a little easier for me because I’m ethnic, but my roommates would complain about feeling uncomfortable, or that they made other people in the neighborhood uncomfortable. It just seems so silly to me, but it’s valid, there’s fear on both sides. So this was an awesome opportunity. I also really love church architecture, even though I’m not particularly religious. Plus, artists and the church have a very long, complicated historical relationship, so it wasn’t anything new to combine them. This church happens to be Franciscan, which is very liberal, philosophical, super educated. And the friars that we work with are the best. They’re really, really cool guys.

Like this? Read about more community groups: Trees Not Trash, Bushwick City Farms, Brooklyn Free Store, Body Actualized Center, Time’s Up

film biz recycling

oriana on 8 Aug ’11

space type: nonprofit | neighborhood: gowanus | active since: 2009 | links: website, blog, facebook, twitter

One of my favorite things about this project is how often it surprises me. And holy shit was it a surprise walking into Film Biz Recycling, an enormous basement warehouse in Gowanus in between the Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center and the Textile Arts Center, just bursting with castoffs from movies, television, and commercial shoots.

photo by me

And I’m not just talking about plastic display food and costume jewelry and faux brick walling (although there’s plenty of those); there’s also racks of designer clothing and shoes, row upon row of high-end leather couches and brass lamps, plus headboards and telephone booths and bicycles and filing cabinets. And those are just the big items; there’s also aisles of small stuff, from books to toasters to street signs to toys.

all photos by Maximus Comissar unless noted

What’s it all for? Well, for you, for whatever you can think to do with it, whether it’s building out your loft or decorating for a themed party. Eva, the founder, and her crew collect everything the film biz can’t use, and then they separate it into things to sell, things to deconstruct and reuse, and things to donate. They work with dozens of charities, including Blissful Bedrooms, Recycle-a-Bicycle, Room to Grow, Fertile Grounds, and Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, sending clothing to shelters, baby items to single mothers, e-waste to recycling centers, and building materials to reuse shops. In the three years it’s been open, Film Biz Recycling has diverted 180 tons of stuff from landfills. And they’re just getting started! It’s a space you’ve really got to see, and a cause that is so worth supporting, with your time (they love volunteers!), your money (don’t you need a new armchair?), and your ideas. Get over there! But first, check out my interview with Eva.

brooklyn spaces: What made you get into all this?
Eva: I worked in the film business for fifteen years, and I just spent so much time trying to find homes for all the leftover materials. I started a Google Group in 2007 to get all the art departments talking to one another, figuring out how to exchange materials. But the stuff needed a place to go, so in 2009 I got a tiny space in Long Island City. I used my savings for the deposit; it was totally underfunded, which was fine, that’s what ecopreneurs are famous for. But it turned out we had to grow or die, so I started looking for a new space. When I found this one—11,000 square feet!—I said, “We’ll be here or nowhere.” So we did an emergency fundraiser and raised $20,000 in two weeks, everything from $10 from a production assistant to $1,000 from Bridge Props, another prop house. We were weeping from the support. So we raised the money, signed the deposit, and got the hell out of Long Island City.

brooklyn spaces: Are you happy in Gowanus?
Eva: We love it! It’s like a perfect metaphor. We’re in between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, which are both gentrified and pretty wealthy; and then there’s this sort of ugly center, this butt crack in between those two lovely white cheeks. It’s so dirty here, but the people who love it really love it. One of the first things I did when we got here was start reaching out to anybody who’s trying to make Gowanus a better place, like Gowanus Canal Conservancy. I said, “Hey, we have materials, and we’re going to give them to you for free. Come down and see what you want.” Then I started finding local charities. CHIPS, a men’s shelter, is down the street, as is Camba Women’s Shelter. Sean Casey Animal Shelter is up the road.

brooklyn spaces: Are all the charities you work with so close?
Eva: No, they’re all over. Materials for the Arts picks up from us once a month, and Build It Green. Wearable Collections picks up clothing; they send what’s usable to South America and recycle the rest. Our mission is sort of a triple bottom line: people, profit, and planet. People are saving money, and these rich companies aren’t spending $900 a dumpster for all this usable stuff to just be tossed. It’s cheaper to donate it. It’s never not been that way.

brooklyn spaces: Okay, take me through all the different components of the space.
Eva: Well, first we have the Re-Workshop. We want this to be a community hub, a place for groups to meet and talk to one another. We have a Re-Gallery, to show the works of our featured artists, who have a workshop in the back. Right now it’s Dog Tag Designs. We’ve got our offices in the back, and a kitchen, and even an underground terrace, where they used to store the coal to heat the building. It’s our break room and spraypaint area and impromptu garden center—I’ve made some planters out of toilets that Build It Green refused, and we’re growing basil and things.

photo by Alix Piorun

brooklyn spaces: Now tell me about what you’ve got for sale.
Eva: Let me just give you a couple of examples. There’s a set of brand new white leather couches that cost $3,700 new; the whole batch is $1,200 here. There’s a roll of rubber flooring, which costs $1,000 at RoseBrand, that we’re selling for $200. A gorgeous vintage lamp that was $2,300 new is $400 here. There’s a couple of crazy old phone booths that we just sold to Brooklyn Creative League to use in their coworking spaces. And that’s just the huge stuff. We also have a Small Boxes section. We have things like Bodega in a Box, Birthday Party in a Box, Hospital in a Box—these are usable items, not just props. We have salt and pepper shakers, lunch trays, trophy cups, petri dishes, candles, maps, a whole box of creepy clowns.

brooklyn spaces: So is everything for sale?
Eva: Not everything; we also have a rental-only section for items that are specific to the industry. Like, imagine a Downy commercial, with the mom looking into the dryer at her laundry, or a Sunny-D commercial, with the kid looking into the fridge. How do you get those shots? You cut a hole in the back of the dryer or fridge. And what did we do in the goddamn stupid industry forever? Bought a new one every single time. So now at Film Biz Recycling we rent them out.

brooklyn spaces: Have you found anything that you were just stumped about how to repurpose or recycle or resell?
Eva: Theatrical flats. They’re huge, they’re made with lauan—a rainforest material from the Philippines—and they get used once and tossed. But I’ve been thinking about remaking them into composting bins. Our composting company is Vokashi, and I’m going to see if they could use something like that. There’s a solution for everything.

brooklyn spaces: Do you want to export the Film Biz Recycling model to other cities, like LA?
Eva: Well yeah, but you know what? Brad Pitt needs to write me a check. I’m not doing it from the ground up again. But I really do want to fix the film industry. I don’t want to go to a movie and know that everything on the screen is in a landfill now. There’s a midcentury credenza I had to throw away once that haunts me to this day. That thing survived so many decades, made it to our set, and, because somebody flaked on Craigslist, was put into a dumpster and is dead now. That’s not okay with me. Film Biz Recycling isn’t the last resort; we’re the only resort.

brooklyn spaces: And it doesn’t just benefit the film industry.
Eva: The industry is only 10% of our revenue. This is stuff that anyone can use, and I just want to get the word out, so people will. It’s starting to work; Film Biz Recycling is being featured on a new Discovery show called Dirty Money. Eco Brooklyn just wrote a post on us; they redo brownstones sustainably, and they bought some materials from us, which is just what we want. I mean, it’s easy to sell a couch; it’s hard to sell a piece of wood. Anyone who’s redoing their apartment or building out their loft should come here, there are so many possibilities. You could use four theatrical flats to make a platform for your bed or your band or whatever. Trim it with some carpet squares or curtains, it’s beautiful. Anything you can think of.

***

Like this? Read about more community spaces: Books Through Bars, Trees Not Trash, Bushwick City Farms, Time’s Up, Brooklyn Free Store, Trinity Project, Boswyck Farms

950 hart gallery

oriana on 3 Aug ’11

neighborhood: bushwick | space type: art gallery | active: 2010–2012 | links: website, blog, facebook, twitter

950 Hart came relatively late to the Bushwick gallery scene, but they were incredibly busy. In their first nine months, they put on seven shows in their space, plus one off-site at Life Café. The gallery spanned two floors, with the basement holding their permanent collection, featuring work from three of the space’s four founders: Michael Kronenberg, Antoinette Johnson, and Mikki Nylund. Sean Alday, the fourth member of the team, is a writer, blogger, videographer, and unofficial gallery historian. When I went to the opening of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it was pleasantly busy, and several of the artists were there to talk about their work. Everyone I met was welcoming and warm, and eager to share their excitement about the project.

Due to skyrocketing rents in the neighborhood, 950 Hart closed their doors in July 2012, along with several other pioneering Bushwick galleries, including Famous Accountants and Botanic.

Q&A with Michael and Sean

brooklyn spaces: Do either of you have any prior curating experience?
Sean: All I’ve really done is construction and gardening; I learned how to make things lovely through construction, and then with gardening I learned how to put things in the right order. I did a lot of Zen gardening, so my first curating experience was making a little garden on the side of a hill. Then I got here, and I realized it’s another little garden on a hill, and it just needed to be cultivated.
Michael: Sean’s being modest; he’s actually been a godsend. He’s incredibly brilliant and very motivated, and super at coordinating and reaching out to people. He also has a really good idea of what he wants to do and a great eye for new talent.

photo by Sandee Pawan

brooklyn spaces: What made you decide to start a gallery?
Michael: We’re acquainted with a pretty large circle of creative, talented artists, and we wanted to try to get more exposure for them. We started talking about starting a gallery when we were all hanging out. Mikki and I were making art, and Sean was writing and video-documenting everything.
Sean: And Antoinette went out and got four panels and started meticulously crafting the checkerboard pieces that are now in the permanent collection. She worked on the piece for about a month straight. Every time I came by, she was working on it. It’s a very good vindication of the enthusiasm we had about doing this, and it kind of became the reason we were doing it, because everyone was so excited about it. And we all fed off of the excitement; there was no way not to.
Michael: I also want to give a big shout-out too to Grant Stoops, from Bushwick Project for the Arts. He’s the one who talked me into actually showing my stuff for the first time, and now we’ve got some of his pieces in our permanent collection, too. It’s great synergy.

E.V. Svetova and her model in front of her art

brooklyn spaces: Who are some of your favorite artists you’ve shown?
Sean: We love all of our artists, but some who come to mind are Raquel Echanique, Teddi I Rogers, Eisig Frost, Irena Romendik, E.V. Svetova, Sandee Pawan, Worm Carnevale, Jarvis Earnshaw, and Dan Victor.

permanent collection

brooklyn spaces: Tell me about some of the different shows.
Sean: The first show was called “950 Hart,” and just putting it up was big for us. The second one, “Broken Hearts,” was even more exciting, and the responses from both of them were so different that it pushed us to do the third show, “The Garden of Eve.” For that one, we wanted something that was going to push us to be more creative than we had been, and also be unique enough that it would draw more artists and more people who appreciate art spaces.

photo from 950 Hart's tumblr

brooklyn spaces: Do you prefer a certain type of art?
Michael: We like to encourage figurative and abstract art to a certain extent. We like to give enough of a leading narrative so that people can either take it and run with it or reflect back or come in with something completely off in left field. But as far as a criterion for what we show, if we respond to it emotionally, we show it. It doesn’t matter what your name is. We’re not particularly interested in pedigrees; we look for people who are sincere and generate an emotional response from the viewer. We’re looking for positive, energetic, upbeat pieces that are made in Brooklyn—and certain other places as well, as the octopus spreads out his tentacles.

brooklyn spaces: Are you a part of the greater Bushwick art scene?
Michael: Yes. This year we did a show for Bushwick Open Studios, which allowed us to interact more with the community, and let them know we’re here. We had a really good response from the organizers; they were so supportive.
Sean: After that, we did a show at Life Café. Actually, we put up three different shows over the course of a month, framed as art battles.

"Bloom" by Michael Noel

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future of the space?
Michael: To have as many shows as possible, and to eventually expand outward and upward.
Sean: For me, the main thing is progressing the community. We want to leave behind a roadmap for the kids who come after us, because eventually there’s going to be curiosity about what happened here in Bushwick. That’s why I’m videoing everything and blogging as much as I can about what we’re doing. It’s an easy way to feel like you’re doing something for the community of the future.

***

Like this? Read about more art galleries: Ugly Art Room, Wondering Around Wandering, Concrete Utopia, See.Me, Central Booking, Micro Museum, Invisible Dog

egg & dart club

oriana on 13 Jul ’11

neighborhood: ft. greene | space type: social club | active: 2010–2012 | links: blog, facebook

Egg & Dart was a social club just off the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Ft. Greene run by Alita and Angie, service-industry veterans who are well connected to the Brooklyn creative scene, regularly bartending at places like the Red Lotus Room and Rubulad, and involved with the fantastic Nonsense NYC. At Egg & Dart, they hosted a slew of events, including weekly poker nights, barbecues, live music, craft parties (bonnet making!), gardening classes (terraria!), gay brunches, film screenings, and more. They collaborated with Flux Factory, Swimming Cities, DJ Sticker Guy, Bonnie Montgomery Trucking, applewood, Alan Lomax Archive, Quince Marcum, and Lamia Design. They closed their doors in the summer of 2012.

photo from Egg & Dart's Facebook

The first time I went was for the Rooftop Sprinkler Slushie Hootenany, a potluck barbecue with music sets by the Home for Wayward Drummers. It was a beautiful night and the party was lovely, mellow and relaxed. The few dozen people were of all ages, with a handful of dogs running around underfoot. The music was awesome, the food was great, and everyone was incredibly welcoming.

Q&A with Alita and Angie

brooklyn spaces: How did you pick the name?
Alita: The space used to be a social club, in the seventies, and they had egg-crate foam all over the walls because of the sound. I think it was called the Egg Drop Space, so Egg & Dart came out of that.

photo from Egg & Dart's Facebook

brooklyn spaces: What made you decide to start a social club?
Angie: We’ve been talking about it for a really long time, and looking at spaces, and when we found this one, we decided to go for it.
Alita: Angie and I both work in the service industry, and we’re interested in bringing the skills we have from that—like getting people together, and creating a special space and occasion—to meet the amazing weird art projects we work on the rest of the time, and the people involved. I’m a bit of a matchmaker and a people collector, and I love nothing more than introducing some of my favorite people to other favorite people.

photo by me

brooklyn spaces: Is there a division of labor between the two of you?
Alita: We work really well together. The labor falls kind of naturally between different things that we’re inclined to do. We pretty much do it all together.

photo by me

brooklyn spaces: What’s your favorite event you’ve done?
Angie: Oh, there have been so many good ones! We get such a great crowd, it’s always really mellow, nice people, very friendly, a very good vibe. I can’t pick a favorite, they’re all so good.

photo from Egg & Dart's Facebook

brooklyn spaces: What made you pick this neighborhood?
Angie: Our studio is really close, just a couple blocks down. And I love the neighborhood, I’ve spent a lot of time here. There’s metalworkers over there, our next-door neighbor has a vintage shop; it’s just mechanics and nice people all around. We were lucky to find something here.

photo by Rachel Eisley

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future of the space?
Alita: I’d like to have more people doing more stuff. We have a theatre director coming to look at the space, and we’re trying to find someone to help us book music, and someone to build up the gardens. There’s a lot of possibilities for collaboration.
Angie: We love people who want to work with us, because that makes it more fun. That’s really the point. It’s not just our thing; we like everyone else’s ideas too.

photo from Egg & Dart's Facebook

brooklyn spaces: Has anything about doing the space surprised you?
Angie: It’s kind of like an organic thing that changes and goes in different directions, but that’s what makes it fun and interesting. We don’t know who’s going to come to us next!

***

Like this? Read about more collaborative event spaces: Page Not Found, Hive NYC, Greenroom Brooklyn, The Schoolhouse, Bushwick Project for the Arts

red lotus room

oriana on 7 Jul ’11

space type: parties | neighborhood: crown heights | active since: 2009 | link: blog, facebook

The Red Lotus Room is breathtaking. The first time I went was for BANZAI!!!!!, a surreally crazy art and performance party, full of elaborate costumed revelers, an eclectic selection of multimedia art, and performances from drag acts to DJ sets. The second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) time I went back was for the famous Shanghai Mermaid party, an underground, more-or-less-monthly, themed event (usually Paris, Shanghai, Berlin, or New Orleans in the twenties or thirties), where everyone has to dress accordingly. It was a beautifully bizarre experience, riding the subway out to Crown Heights in period attire, wandering down darkened streets in heels, then stepping through the door into a sprawling, whirling, huge space, walls draped with red velvet, tables laden with candles, everyone in hats and suspenders and fans, sequins and rhinestones and fringes, with cigarette girls hawking candy and treats, exotic cocktails and food, and hours and hours of amazing performers: aerialists, fire dancers, musicians, burlesque, and more. The parties start at ten and go until dawn, if not later. It’s an absolutely phenomenal way to spend a Saturday night.

Juliette, photo by Erica Camille

So how did it all get started? Read on for my interview with Juliette, who’s responsible for the whole thing.

Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, photo from shanghaimermaid.com

brooklyn spaces: So how did it all get started?

Juliette: I really had a vision. I just decided I wanted to do a nightclub like Paris in the 1920s. Paris and Berlin and Shanghai all had these very decadent underground club scenes at that time. There was so much turmoil throughout the world, but people who have traditionally been marginalized—artists, intellectuals, gay people, people of color—have historically created underground scenes as a reaction to the mainstream, which then, ironically, takes its cues from the underground. Anyway, at the very beginning, my dear friend Tanya Rynd suggested that i throw some parties in lieu of trying to start an actual nightclub, to see if anyone was interested. For the first party, I think we each sent out fifty emails, and we were really particular about who we invited, because we wanted people who would really get it and appreciate it. And it was amazing. I had friends who had this space in Dumbo, and even though Dumbo hasn’t been dangerous for a long time, at night it’s kind of desolate, and four years ago even more so. People would be walking around going, “Are we in the right place?” and they’d walk through this maze of tagged walls, and then they’d hear music, and they’d walk in and it was just complete glamour, candlelight and chandeliers, the whole thing. It was really unexpected, which for me is part of the magic. You want to feel like you’re in a different time and place. That’s really my goal, to make people feel like they’ve been completely transported.

Lady C, photo by Erica Camille

brooklyn spaces: It’s kind of like a gift you’re giving to people.
Juliette: I don’t think there’s enough glamour in the world, I really don’t. Even though we may not have any money, we certainly can have glamour. If you have talented and creative people around you, you can make anything you want. But it’s definitely a lot of work, you have to be really obsessed to manifest your vision because it’s definitely against all odds, sometimes.

photo from Red Lotus Room’s blog

BANZAI!!!!! co-creator Eric Schmallenberger, photo by Gabi Porter for New York Metromix

brooklyn spaces: So what happened to the Dumbo space?
Juliette: Well, we outgrew it really quickly. Shanghai Mermaid got listed on Nonsense NYC, which is a wonderful list, and Jeff Stark wrote something very nice about it—I think he mentioned that we use real glassware. It was really exciting, but it made the party huge. And the landlords happened to be driving by and they called the cops and the fire department. About a dozen fire trucks and cop cars descended on the space. They walked in and were like, “Oh my god.” But they stayed for like an hour. Amber Ray was performing when they finally turned the lights on and the music off, and everyone started booing. I said, “You know what? You’ll look way cooler if you let her finish her number.” And they said okay. They were really, really cool.

photo by Michael Blase

brooklyn spaces: Did you get the Red Lotus Room right after that?
Juliette: No. We were mobile for awhile, which was so much work. Everything at Shanghai—tables, chairs, tablecloths, bar, chandeliers, curtains, the stage, the lights, the sound—we had to bring all that with us. Then we’d set up for hours, and when it was over, I’d be sweeping the floor in a ball gown at seven in the morning. So I knew I needed my own space, I didn’t want to keep setting up and breaking down. But finding a space in Brooklyn is super hard. I looked for a year and a half. I really wanted Red Hook, I wanted something on the water, I love turn-of-the-century warehouses, but finally I realized I had to be realistic. I like that it’s in Crown Heights, that people have to go a little bit out of the way to get here. I think when you have to work harder for something, you appreciate it more. Like the dress code. I hate to turn people away, but if someone’s going to go spend money and time to create an outfit from another era, I don’t want other people to come in in a polo shirt and jeans. It’s not fair and it breaks the whole illusion.

Trixie Little & the Evil Hate Monkey, photo by Benjamin Mobley

brooklyn spaces: What’s your relationship with the people in the neighborhood?
Juliette: I try to be a part of the community, and I’ve had a great response. I support the neighborhood, I buy everything I can around here. And there’s all these little kids, really nice kids, and they don’t have anything to do, so sometimes I let them come in, and I show them the backstage area and all the costumes, and I let them on the stage. I really want to try to do kids’ workshops or classes here, it’s definitely something the community needs. On the whole, there’s good things and bad things about gentrification. I remember being at Home Depot when we were first building out the space, and this guy said, “I’m so happy white people have moved into this neighborhood.” I said, “You are?” and he said, “Yeah, because now when you call the cops, they come.” That just gave me the chills.

Maine Attraction, photo by Michael Blase

brooklyn spaces: Who are some of your favorite performers to work with?
Juliette: Les Chauds Lapins, they were the very first act at the very first Shanghai Mermaid. I love Hot Sardines, Baby Soda Jazz Band, Blue Vipers of Brooklyn—they were also at the first Shanghai Mermaid. For burlesque performers, I tend to go for people who are costumey and conceptual, like Veronica Varlow, and Maine Attraction, she’s got this great personality, very Josephine Baker. Amber Ray performed at the April in Paris party, when everything was very French and dramatic. Then there’s the fire performers, there’s so many great ones, like Reina Terror, Christine Geiger, Lady C and Flambeaux. And for aerialists I adore Seanna Sharpe, and of course Anya Sapozhnikova from House of Yes and Lady Circus; she’s another example of someone who’s not only a performer, as I am, but who works her ass off to run her own venue while performing all around town. I’m very impressed with her and her dedication.

BANZAI!!!!! photo by Gabi Porter for New York Metromix

brooklyn spaces: Do you think the exclusive nature of the parties attracts people?
Juliette: Shanghai Mermaid is not exclusive, and I’ve never wanted it to be. Everyone is welcome. It’s just that for survival it had to be really on the down-low. Although lately it’s not so down-low anymore; it’s listed as a venue on Time Out New York, Gothamist just wrote about it, the Village Voice called it the “Best Literally Underground Cabaret Show.”

photo from shanghaimermaid.com

brooklyn spaces: Since this is a Brooklyn blog, tell me your thoughts on being in Brooklyn these days.
Juliette: I very much believe in Brooklyn, in the Brooklyn scene. I think Brooklyn’s really exciting. There’s still a little bit of a Wild West quality here, which I don’t feel like Manhattan has anymore, it’s gone really corporate. The party-throwers in Manhattan, they have PR agents and big websites, they want to do a lot of corporate stuff. I usually stay away from that. There’s definitely money in it, but the thing is, who are you creating it for? Not that people who go to corporate events don’t deserve something fabulous, but it’s just not something I’m going to go after. I guess I’m a purist.

Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, photo by Erica Camille

brooklyn spaces: What’s one of the best, most beautiful memories from the parties?
Juliette: I’ll always remember the very first moment at the very first Shanghai Mermaid when the curtains opened and Les Chauds Lapins were playing, and I looked around and saw all these people dressed so beautifully, and I thought, “We did it, and it’s so lovely!” It really was how I imagined it. That’s a great memory. Opening night at the Red Lotus Room was really exciting too. It’s a tremendous amount of work, but it is super rewarding to be able to do something like this and share it. And I’ve always been very, very blessed to have beautiful wonderful people come. When I walk down the aisle, people grab my arm and say, “Thank you so much for doing this.”

***

Like this? Read about more underground party spaces: Rubulad, Newsonic, Gemini & Scorpio loft, The Lab (Electric Warehouse), 12-turn-13, Gowanus Ballroom, Big Sky Works

breuckelen distilling co.

oriana on 1 Jul ’11

neighborhood: sunset park | space type: commercial | active since: 2010 | links: website, facebook, twitter

Brooklynites are makers. We make everything, no matter how weird or difficult. We make gardens in abandoned lots, screen-printed skateboards, pools in dumpsters, art from old books, games out of shopping carts. So of course we’re also making booze. There’s beer from Brooklyn Brewery and Sixpoint, wine from Brooklyn Winery, and a handful of small distilleries making harder stuff: Kings County Distillery in Bushwick, New York Distilling Co. in Williamsburg, and Breuckelen Distilling Company in Sunset Park.

all photos by Maximus Comissar

Housed in a former boiler room—which used to contain a massive coal-fired furnace that steam-heated the surrounding buildings during the Industrial Revolution—Breuckelen offers a selection of gins and whiskeys. They make all their spirits on the premises, from scratch, using organic ingredients sourced from within New York State. And they do it all themselves, from milling the grains to corking the bottles. You can buy their spirits in bars and liquor stores around New York City (and in a few other states), and you can sample them at the distillery: they have tastings every Saturday from 12 to 6—for only $3, refundable if you buy a bottle—and they pair their gin with Q Tonic, also from Brooklyn.

So how’s this stuff made? I didn’t know, so in case you don’t either, here’s a simple rundown. Breuckelen’s spirits start with organic, whole-grain wheat from Upstate New York. This is milled into flour, which gets dumped into a huge masher, mixed with water and natural enzymes, heated, and then cooled. Next they add yeast and pump it into fermentor tanks (which smell just like baking bread!). What comes out is like a crude form of beer. That’s loaded into their custom still, which heats the mash gently and evenly. During the fermenting process, the spirit that comes off first isn’t palatable, so Brad and Co. smell and, eventually, taste the first few jars to determine when the alcohol is good to drink.

At this point, the spirit can become either gin or whiskey. The gin is re-distilled with juniper berries, lemon peels, ginger, rosemary, and grapefruit. The whiskey is aged in charred oak barrels, which gives it a maple syrup flavor, along with the yeasty taste of the wheat; Brad says it tastes like a pancake breakfast. Finally, the spirits are diluted with NYC tap water, bottled, and corked. Neat!

brooklyn spaces: So are you a huge gin drinker? What made you decide to do this?
Brad: Yeah, I like gin, I like whiskey. That was one of the things that was important to me, to make something that I appreciate. I had this other job where I wasn’t making anything, and I saw all these people in Brooklyn making stuff, taking something and transforming it into something totally different, whether it’s turning steel into a knife, turning flour into bread, or turning coffee beans into the second most delicious thing in the world. I wanted to do something like that, to make a contribution. Then one day I read an article about how the federal government had recently relaxed some of the rules and now it was financially possible to have a small distillery. It sounded perfect, to do something totally my own, whether it’s good, bad, popular, unpopular; it would taste of the ingredients we used, and of the processes we designed to make it. I decide to try it, and things sort of came together.

brooklyn spaces: How did you know how to get started?
Brad: I read some books, then I visited some small distilleries, like Koval in Chicago. Kothe, who made the still for us, puts on some classes, so I took one of those. I also did a lot of drinking to understand the different spirits, why they taste the way they do. And then just a lot of experimentation.

brooklyn spaces: How did you find this space?
Brad: I knew I needed sixteen-foot ceilings because the still was going to be so tall. My real estate agent told me about this space, but she said it in passing, like, “Well, there’s one other place with high ceilings, but it’s not in the right neighborhood for you. You can go look at it in your spare time if you want.” So I rode my bike down here, and I remember coming under the BQE; with all that construction, it felt like a war zone. The neighborhood seemed a little desolate, but the space was beautiful, and I knew it was a good fit. And then once I started coming down here, I realized there are actually a lot of really cool, friendly people doing great things around here. A couple doors down is Object Metal, they makes gorgeous furniture; next door Kevin Barrett is doing amazing abstract metal sculpture; down the block is Pawz, a company that makes rubber dog booties, which my dog uses all the time and they’re awesome. There’s a bunch of other artist studios next door, and nearby there’s Cut Brooklyn, who makes knives, Sway Space Letterpress, and Lite Brite Neon.

brooklyn spaces: So it’s a good community?
Brad: Yeah, it’s really awesome, really friendly. After I rented the space, one of the first things I bought was the forklift, and I had it delivered in the middle of the night, because that was cheaper. So the guy shows up at three in the morning, we unload the forklift, and I try to bring it inside. It’s a used lift, and the guys who had it before had modified it by welding a section on the top, so even though I’d checked the height online, it didn’t fit through my doors. Kevin wound up storing it for me for three months while I got the doors replaced. So yeah, there’s a great community down here.

brooklyn spaces: I feel like there’s almost an unprecedented surge of creativity in Brooklyn right now. Do you think Brooklyn attracts people who want to do things like this?
Brad: Definitely. For me it was just being here and realizing how great it was and deciding I wanted to be part of it. It really made me rethink my path. The whole idea of Brooklyn, it was inspiring to see people doing these crazy, ridiculous, but really authentic projects, independent of some giant organization. And people support that here, too; I used to bike three miles to get the coffee beans that I like.

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future of the space?
Brad: To survive. To keep making better gins and whiskeys. We’re working on a jenever-style gin, and a barrel-aged one, gin aged in an oak barrel like a whiskey. I have a couple other ideas for different flavors that I want to try. The whole project is a big experiment, trying to figure out how to keep making it better and better.

Like this? Read about more makers: Metropolis Soap, Urbanglass, Ugly Duckling Presse, Twig Terrariums

house of yes

oriana on 27 Jun ’11

neighborhood: east williamsburg | space type: performance venue | active since: 2008 | links: website, facebook, twitter

update, summer 2014: In sad but of course not shocking news, the House of Yes lost their East Williamsburg lease in August 2013. (If you want to take a look back, the Atlantic has an awesome piece on all three incarnations, from Bed-Stuy to Ridgewood to East Williamsburg.)

But why get nostalgic? House of Yes 4.0 will be opening in Bushwick the fall! Want to help make it happen, and get some wild and incredible rewards to boot? Donate to their Kickstarter, and help keep the Brooklyn underground alive.

***

I am really overjoyed about this post, because House of Yes is actually my very favorite space in Brooklyn (so far), and one of the spaces that inspired this whole project. It’s an aerialist training facility and performance venue in a huge former ice warehouse, and they put on the most high-energy, high-caliber, innovative and astonishing shows I’ve seen. They make all their costumes onsite and build their own sets, they collaborate with Brooklyn bands for live musical accompaniment, and every show is just spectacular, bristling with staggeringly talented aerialists, trapezists, fire-dancers, contortionists, burlesque acts, singers, and musicians.

Anya Sapozhnikova

Besides putting on phenomenal shows in a fantastic converted warehouse—in one of the most vibrant corners of East Williamsburg, down the block from 3rd Ward, Werdink, Shea Stadium, the former Bushwick Project for the Arts and Bushwick Music Studios, and more—many of the House of Yes gals make up the loose conglomeration of female acrobats Lady Circus, and they are tireless, performing at all the best underground Brooklyn parties and Manhattan cabarets, like Shanghai Mermaid and Café Panache, among many many others. And the mainstream world is taking notice: the Lady Circus performers were featured as a costume-design challenge on the incredibly popular show Project Runway in 2011!

Don’t you want to hear from the woman responsible for it all? Read on for my interview with Anya Sapozhnikova, founder of House of Yes and Lady Circus and crucial fixture in the Brooklyn underground performance scene.

photo from designglut.com

brooklyn spaces: I first heard about House of Yes when it burned down.
Anya: Yeah, that was our first space. The thing about the fire was that it made us realize that people really cared about what we were doing, and the mobilization of the underground scene in Brooklyn and beyond really blew us away. Our friend threw us a benefit party at Pussycat Lounge, and all the underground parties that were happening that night canceled their events and moved everyone there. The benefit was immensely successful, and we went from having nothing—we were all homeless, all of our shit was gone—to being able sign a lease on a new space.

Circus of Circus

brooklyn spaces: Was House of Yes originally conceived as a studio and teaching space, or was it always a performance venue?
Anya: The old space was just “Let’s do this and see what happens.” The new space was always going to be a venue in the evening and a training and rehearsal space during the day. Upstairs we also have a sewing studio, Make Fun. To be able to flourish and produce as much work as we want to, we need every square inch of the space making money all the time. We aren’t like, “Oh, we’re DIY culture, we’re going to dumpster everything.” Sustainability’s great, but we’re really excited about doing high-production-value shows, we want to do the best we possibly can, and we don’t want money holding us back. We have this state-of-the-art facility that enables us to create a show from start to finish, from sitting down with all your friends and working out the concept to having a sold-out closing night. What makes it so beautiful to me is that we concentrate on every single aspect: the costuming, the rehearsals, the movement, the sound, the promotion, everything. To me, live theatre is the most all-encompassing, the most mixed-media way to produce art. So in order for us to do our best, we’re always thinking about how we can generate income so these things can keep happening and we can keep growing.

The Wonderneath

brooklyn spaces: There’s a lot of these types of spaces around, but I feel like House of Yes is more intentional, and the caliber of shows here is higher. Do you think that’s partly because you have such a multifaceted facility?
Anya: I think we’re just really ambitious. There are a lot of different people involved and everyone just brings a huge amount of passion. Everyone involved in the space is so hands-on. We know what we need, there’s always an open dialogue, and it’s just a really tight group of friends who are all really, really ambitious.

New Faux Fashion Show

brooklyn spaces: How many people are involved in the day-to-day running of the space?
Anya: I don’t know. A lot. Nikki and Airin run Sky Box, which is the aerial component of the space, and that’s classes, workshops, training, rehearsals. Tara and Kae, who’s my main partner in the space, they run the sewing studio. Kae and I do the majority of the booking. Hasaan, one of the original founding members, runs the sound studio.

AHOYA, student showcase

brooklyn spaces: How long does it take to put a show together?
Anya: Two weeks.
brooklyn spaces: Seriously?
Anya: Yeah. $piderman! was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, and it was done in two weeks. In two weeks we wrote, produced, directed, cast, made costumes, figured out the craziest lighting you’ve ever seen, everything. It was a huge pain in the ass and it caused a bunch of nervous breakdowns, but I think everyone secretly enjoyed it.

$piderman: Turn on the Lights!

backstage during 2010's Christmas Spectacular

brooklyn spaces: Do you have a favorite show, or one that’s particularly triumphant or special?
Anya: I like them all for different reasons, but I think that the Christmas Spectacular is probably my favorite. For a lot of the people involved, it feels like you have a real family. Me and Kae curate it, and it’s just everyone we know who we think is talented and amazing who we want to hang out with for three weeks straight. People can do whatever the fuck they want, and we kind of guide it and arrange it. I realized it was my favorite show when I was standing backstage and there was an eleven-year-old boy dressed in drag next to a fifty-three-year-old transvestite dressed as a man, and they’re dancing their asses off and I’m holding this giant spotlight, getting ready to go on, and I was just like, “Wow, this is really beautiful, we’re a family, and we’re celebrating this holiday that’s all about family.” It’s kind of really wholesome in a fucked up way. So that’s my favorite show. It’s low pressure, but really high talent, and it’s always good. Airin said it’s entertainment at its worst dressed in its best. High-quality chaos.

AHOYA! student showcase

brooklyn spaces: Being in this amazing corner of Brooklyn, do you have a relationship with the other people in the neighborhood?
Anya: Yeah, absolutely. It’s awesome to see this really accessible gentrification, where it’s not some random guy you’ll never meet building some random building you’ll never live in. Our peers aren’t afraid of becoming entrepreneurs and businesspeople, really pursuing what they want to do and doing it well, doing it in an interesting way that they care about. I love being in this community of business owners and curators and producers who are all young people, we all ride bikes and hang out on rooftops together. It’s like a different kind of grown-up. I really enjoy that.

Amber Dinner Theatre

brooklyn spaces: What are your goals for the future of the space?
Anya: I want to become a New York City institution. I want to make theatre in New York City better. It’s okay for theatre to be really fucking entertaining. I want to create art that’s accessible and meaningful and a really good time too.

***

Like this? Read about more performance spaces: Gowanus Ballroom, Big Sky Works, Rubulad, The Muse

werdink / ninja pyrate

oriana on 22 Jun ’11

neighborhood: east williamsburg | space type: screenprinting \ events | active since: 2010
links (werdink): site, blog, myspace, facebook | link (ninja pyrate): facebook
contact (werdink): contact@werdink.com; 917.204.2976 | contact (ninja pyrate): ninjapyrates@gmail.com

Even though I live about ten minutes away from them, I’d never heard of Werdink Screenprinting Boutique or Ninja Pyrate. And maybe you haven’t either—but believe me, that’s going to change. They’ve got an amazing hybrid space, encompassing a high-end screenprinting studio, a boutique shop selling apparel and skateboards (all printed onsite), a multipurpose event space with a rubber floor and an aerial rig, a DJ setup, and a recording studio in a pirate ship. A pirate ship. And they’re really eager to open the space up to the community, to see what people can do with it.

Who are these amazing people? Matthew is the Werdink screenprinter, and his sister Krisstina and her boyfriend Jeff are still figuring out more amazing ways to use the Ninja Pyrate space. Plus they’re all well connected to the crazy Brooklyn creatives: Werdink did a screenprinting truck for the first three Lost Horizon Night Markets and shares tips with Bushwick Print Lab; Krisstina pals around with one of the girls from House of Yes and Lady Circus who started Make Fun; their space is literally downstairs from Shea Stadium.

Scroll down to hear more from these awesome people!
[all photos in this post by Alix Piorun]