ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. HOSTED BY ARTS FOR LIVING Arts For Living: Artists Feed the L.E.S. PENNY ARCADE NOMINATION COMMITTEE LAUREN BOYLE is a virtual fundraiser featuring video PARTICIPATING ARTISTS DAVID GARZA commissions by collaborative teams of LINDA DIAZ MEI LUM TRIPPJONES CANAL RESEARCH Lower East Side residents and New York City ELROY GAY ASSOCIATION based filmmakers. Marking 1 year since EUGENE PUGLIA JULIE ATLAS MUZ New York City went into lockdown due to BARBARA KING & ADAM ZHU SANDRA E. WALKER COVID-19, each work is a deeply personal ANNIE TAN BROADCAST PRODUCED BY reflection on the Lower East Side here and GRANITE LIVE PARTICIPATING FILMMAKERS now. A R PRODUCTION MANAGER ALEJANDRO HIDALGO VIOLET TAFARI This screening will be hosted live by Penny Arcade from ALICIA MERSY our historic Playhouse Theater, which for the past year ALON SICHERMAN LIGHTING DESIGNER has been operating as our Food Access Initiative, a food GOGY ESPARZA NATALIE AVERY pantry that serves 700 Lower East Side residents each ANDY K. BOYCE week who face food insecurity worsened by the COVID-19 SOUND DESIGNER pandemic. FOOD ACCESS INITIATIVE TEAM JAMES KOGAN JON HARPER TYLER DIAZ DECKHAND KAYLYN KILKUSKIE CHRISTINA TANG KIA ROGERS JANET CLANCY PRODUCTION ASSISTANT LUKE VAN MEVEREN OLIVIA CRAWFORD MIKE TAYLOR JOHN-PHILIP FAIENZA SPECIAL THANKS JUSTIN FAIRCLOTH CHRISTIE BOWERS RANDY LUNA RICHARD DELIGTER MILLIE KAPP LIANNE DIFABBIO KATIE VOGEL CHELSEA JUPIN CARLOS MONTANEZ & BARBARA KANCELBAUM THE COMMUNITY COVID KUMASI SADIKI & RESPONSE TEAM THE GOOD COMPANY LILAH MEJIA & THE MOBILE ELLEN SCHNEIDERMAN MARKET TEAM DEANNA SORGE KATIE VOGEL ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. How to Support the Food Access Initiative Donate! Arts For Living is produced to support our Food Access Initiative which to date, has distributed nearly $700,000 worth of groceries to our neighbors. In addition to attending the event, please consider making a donation. Your donation will be directed towards our relief efforts. Buy A Shirt! Abrons has collaborated with Lower East Side clothing brand The Good Company to design a limited edition run of Arts for Living shirts, available for pre-sale on March 26 on The Good Company website. 100% of sales from every shirt sold will be donated to our Food Access Initiative. ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. Arts For Living Program Dawn TV: Dawn Lombardi Visits the Abrons Food Access Initiative Directed by Eugene Puglia Featuring Kaylyn Kilkuskie, Damaris Gomez, Carlos Montanez, and Jon Harper of the Abrons Food Access Initiative Filmed and edited by Alon Sicherman Only one week after Arts for Living was announced, we were swarmed by the press! Legendary reporter Dawn Lombardi of Dawn TV stopped by the Playhouse Theater to lend a hand for a special segment on our Food Access Initiative. Water Seeks Featuring Linda Diaz Edited by Matthew Fishman Water Seeks is a performance video by Linda Diaz’s song of the same name. The piece is an homage to her hometown neighborhood of the Lower East Side, and to her mother’s words that have guided her as she continues to learn and grow: “water seeks its own level.” St. Augustine’s Project Featuring Barbara King and Sandra E. Walker Directed and edited by Gogy Esparza St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on the Lower East Side is one of the last remaining churches in New York City that has maintained the architectural integrity of its “slave galleries”--the upper level of the sanctuary where enslaved people and freed Black people were forced to worship segregated from the white congregation. In this short film directed by Gogy Esparza, we meet Barbara King and Sandra E. Walker, two life-long Lower East Side residents who have led the charge to preserve these sanctuary spaces, the undertold history of slavery in New York City, and it’s impact on our neighborhood. ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. Arts For Living Program The Smelliest Block in New York Featuring Annie Tan Directed and edited by Andy K. Boyce Storyteller Annie Tan, with the support of filmmaker Andy K. Boyce, tells the story of how her block, Broome Street between Eldridge and Allen Streets, made national news in 2011 when it was declared the “Smelliest Block in New York.” In this piece, Tan invites us to see her beloved street through her eyes, as she reflects on the effects that the headline has had on her neighbors. Tha 6th Boro Co-directed by Elroy Gay and Alicia Mersy Edited by Alicia Mersy Sound by Jazmin Romero A video portrait of Elroy Gay, a long-time Lower East Side resident and founder of the urban apparel brand “Tha 6th Boro,” which is the name many locals use to refer to the Lower East Side. Co-directed by Alicia Mersy and shot on and around Avenue D featuring local residents wearing “Tha 6th Boro” garments, this work is a reflection on how Gay showcases community pride through fashion. I Lillian........... Written by Eugene Puglia Composed by Billie Alexopolous Cello by Michaella Shiamilis Costume Design by Stephanie Renee On February 11, during the new moon, the spirit of Lillian Wald (Henry Street Settlement’s founder), was seen on the streets of Lower Manhattan. She was spotted walking down Henry Street singing a song she wrote about her life, her legacy, and missing her human form on this Earth. Written and performed by comedian Eugene Puglia, I Lillian........... is a humorous musical speculation on what our institution’s founder would think of the Lower East Side in 2021. ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. Arts For Living Program Lower East Immortal Featuring TrippJones Co-directed by Alejandro Hidalgo and TrippJones Edited by Alejandro Hidalgo and Rachel Rojas Lower East Immortal is a short film that captures a soul from the Lower East Side, one who is slowly being torn apart while trying to keep the one thing they love alive. Featuring two original songs and spoken word by TrippJones with visuals by Alejandro Hidalgo, this work chronicles how a lost soul searches for a way to keep the beautiful place they learned how to survive in alive while also dying inside. ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. Arts For Living About Penny Arcade aka Susana Ventura is an internationally respected performance artist, actress, writer, poet, theater maker and an icon of artistic resistance. An avowed artist advocate, she has worked with artists all over the world, promoting other artists is a feature of her practice. In a career spanning 52 years she has inspired and influenced artists around the world for decades. She has created over 16 full length works and hundreds of solo performance pieces. Her work draws from oral history, journalism and memoir and has always focused on the other and the outsider in society in a cultural critique on history, class, race, and identity as well as critiquing the politics of art. The child of working class Southern Italian immigrants, she debuted at 18 in NYC’s explosive Playhouse of the Ridiculous and was a teenaged Warhol Superstar featured in the film Women In Revolt. in 2010 Semiotexte published a partial collection of her scripts in Bad Reputation. With her longtime collaborator of 29 years, Steve Zehentner, she co-helms the “LES BIO Project” and “Stemming The Tide Of Cultural Amnesia , a video documentary project that has broadcast and cybercast weekly for 21 years every Monday at 11pm on TV, cable, and Fios. [website] Andy K. Boyce is a korean american filmmaker based in brooklyn who graduated from Emerson College for film production. His work is driven by documentary practices highlighting key figures in altenernative and queer scenes. He has had works featured in film festivals such as “DOC NYC.” Andy’s work has also been featured in online publications such as Paper, Galore, Von, and Out magazine. [website] Linda Diaz is a singer, songwriter, and performer from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She is the winner of the 2020 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and co-host of the PBS musical education series “Sound Field.” The gentle yet soulful artist is easily recognizable by her lush vocal arrangements and powerful lyricism that accompany a jazzy r&b sound. In December of 2019, Diaz independently released “Magic,” a 6 track EP. In August of the following year, she won the 2020 NPR Tiny Desk Contest with a live rendition of the project’s lead single “Green Tea Ice Cream.” Her entry garnered early recognition from this year’s contest judges, notably NPR Tiny Desk Creator Bob Boilen and Grammy Award Winning Artist Brittany Howard. Diaz also featured in the 2020 MTV VMA’s J Balvin ABRONS ARTS CENTER ARTS FOR LIVING: ARTISTS FEED THE L.E.S. Arts For Living About x Toyota collaboration where she opened the commercial singing and performing Balvin’s hit single “Mi Gente.” She lives in Brooklyn, NY. [Instagram] Gogy Esparza is an Ecuadorian-American, New York City-based artist who concentrates in photography and video. His photography project, El Vacîo (2012-14), was published by Dashwood Books and featured in accompanying exhibitions with Comme Des Garçons in Berlin and the Wayward Gallery in London. He has also exhibited at HVW8 Los Angeles; HVW8 Berlin; SO1 Gallery, DOMICILE, and Just Another Gallery in Tokyo; La Pierre in Paris; The Aishti Foundation in Beirut; 98 Orchard, No Romance Gallery, Magic Gallery, and Know-Wave Gallery in New York; Auto Body in New York and Miami; Good Taste in Miami; and Test Gallery in Copenhagen.