Among the urban renewal disillusionment of gentrification and post-disaster capitalism exists an oasis of boundary-breaking, artist respite, a well of art spirit since 1980, Performance Space.
Performance Space is on the fourth floor in the former PS 122 building on First Avenue. The center is humanitarian in practice, a refuge for “queer and radical voices shut out by a repressive, monocultural mainstream and conservative government…”
The space has survived neighborhood gentrification, political change, cultural attack and erasure. The community has had its own revolution of art, resistance, and political movements supporting the continuation of artful spirit and humanity.
They hold true to their mission, “to create deeper relationships with artists through long-term engagements and providing space for experimentation and development.”
Performance Space holds a donation-based Open Movement program on Sundays, from noon-4 pm. Afterwards there is a community workshop facilitated by performance artists and others interested in co-liberation, focused on interconnected voice and purpose.
I attended my first workshop, How to Carry Water, on October 5. An epic container developed and facilitated by Don Christian Jones, artist, musician, and director whose work spans painting, performance, installation, and social practice.
A tub of water lay in the center of the room as Don began by sponging people’s bodies. making an example of water and how it can be held, or spread. An opening exercise included a reflection on our initial remembrance of water. I wrote:
Drip. Embryonic fluid travel the way of water;
The original blueprint of Total
form and ether. Ancestor, carried river to the ocean. Drop
How to Carry Water moved bodies, one to another, with a combination of intention, intuition and wisdom.
For more information check donchristian.world and performancespacenewyork.org for upcoming events.
Jayne Cortez: Firespitter
On the night of Oct. 8, St Marks Church teemed with poets, educators, stewards, peoples, musicians and mystics, chewing on the fire She spat. She, being Jayne Cortez: a revolutionary member of the Black Arts Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Organization of Women Writers of Africa. Poet, performing artist, publisher, and activist who created an everlasting fire in the mouths and hearts of all who read and felt her energy, engaged with her sound.
All gathered in honor and celebration of Cortezs’ life, spirit, soul, and to celebrate the 700-page collection spanning four decades of work, Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez (Nightboat, 2025), edited by Margaret Busby, with a foreword by Sapphire which released in August.
Cortez conceptualized balance through poetry, eliciting the essence of harmony, generating twelve books and nine recordings of poetry that radiated from her sonic aura. Members of the band,
Jayne Cortez and the Firespitters, including her son, Denardo Coleman, a renowned jazz drummer, came together to channel the spirit of Cortez, blues and poetry, the essential sonorities from which Cortez vocalized and generated. Organized by the Poetry Project, readings and performances of Firespitter were held in love by The Firespitters with Denardo Coleman, Cortez’s son on drums, with readings by LaTasha Nevada Diggs, Lois Griffith, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Aja Monet, Tracie Morris, Quincy Troupe, T’ai Freedom Ford, Rosamond S. King, Tangie Mitchell, Jessica Care Moore, Fred Moten and Brandon Lopez, and Anne Waldman.
The wind picked up outside as I exited the portal of poetry, of Cortez; the weather an emotional transmission of tantrum, as if to breathe heavily into tornado, to never let this thread of Firespitter go.
Gangsters & Showgirls: Harlem Nocturne at KGB presented by Zero Boy & Viva Lamore
It’s Sunday night around 7 p.m., as I arrive at the iconic brownstone situated at 85 E. Fourth St, the Kraine Gallery Bar (KGB). A wave of warmth rolls through my chest, the kind of warmth that happens after a shot of Four Roses, the kind of warmth that says, walk through this door.
While the first incarnation of the building was the Women’s Aid Society in 1878, and then Casino Hall in the early 1900s, the space eventually became Ukrainian Labor Home, a safe haven for immigrants and those deemed communist to shelter and work.
KGB Founder and proprietor, Denis Woychuk spent time and even worked at the Ukrainian Labor Home, after his father brought him there as a child. In 1983 Woychuk was given the opportunity to buy the building and transitioned it into an art gallery by day and theatre by night. The theatre, formally known as the Kraine Theatre (short for Ukraine), now known as Private Curtain, continues to be a home for avant garde theatre production, on the first floor of the brownstone.
On the fourth landing is the Red Room, serving as the establishment’s coined speakeasy space and urban writers retreat. Warm, with limited seating, ripe with red light, and low light, the cocktails inspire one to travel back in time, to an era of prohibition, indulgence, and fastidiously cheeky behavior. Originally, Palm Casino during the Prohibition era, The Red Room was the gambling den and brothel of local mafia kingpin Lucky Luciano, where the upper echelon of the Kosher Nostra hung out.
As I step onto the fourth-floor landing, a woman with alert green eyes and a long neck greets me with a crooked, candle-dusted smile. She taps my name into the list of arriving guests. Upon entry, she hands me two ten-dollar bills, gambling Funny Money for the evening. Historically accurate bills originally printed in 1905. Eligible spends include a shot of genuine Moonshine served straight up by Stephanie St. Clair, the Queen of the Numbers Racket and burlesque darling extraordinaire.
Moonshine not your thing? Play a round of dice against Zero Boy, or purchase period ephemera, a lexicon guide from the 1920s. Bathtub gin and barbeque chips get the party started as the lights dim, the show begins, and Zero Boy starts to make love to the mic. Two card tricks to wow the crowd. A sausage cock flops around the front row as audience members take nibbles.
The crew hopes to make this a monthly affair. Tickets are $20, available through viewcy.com. Learn more about Viva and the Full Moon Cabaret and upcoming events at www.fullmooncabaret.com.
Ms. Viva Lamore is also the producer of Full Moon Cabaret. They will be returning for its second New York event, The Beaver Moon, a feminist varietease that trades tommy guns for tassels. With shows spanning two days, The Beaver Moon will host guests on Thursday Nov. 6 at 7:30 pm. for the EARLY show and Friday Nov. 7 at 11 pm for the LATE show. Tickets begin at $30 and may be purchased at https://www.fullmooncabaret.com/.
Fall Theatre: Downtown Doings at TNC and La MaMa
On Oct. 26, I shuffled into Theatre for The New City for the 3 pm final matinee hurrah of DetoNation Rat Cabaret for the 2025 season. As I obtained my press ticket at the box office, the usher cooed, “Best theatre in the house! Watch out for the rats!” Mysterious ruby red eyes mirrored every move, as I descended the stairs into the basement theater. The rats begin to gather, peeking out from behind corners, scurrying past… The theater smelled of mildew, magic, light marijuana, dust and patchouli. Accompanied by a rat band in all bad behavior, skunks and czars alike came out of the woodwork to play, sing, and advocate against the killing of an entire race of rats.
Entertaining is the drug-induced rat stupor of this cabaret… as time collapses into an endless haze of off Broadway ridiculum. The urban subterranean odyssey brought audience members from the gutters of New York City’s Lower East Side into the belly of the beasts; Focused on the fight for the Rat right, resisting erasure and plague.
The subterranean odyssey is one of a kind, written and directed by JC Augustin, with music by Vicente Coelho, and music direction by T. Scott Lilly.
This month, TNC presents The Popes of Farragut Street by Melanie Maria Goodreaux, opening on Nov. 6 and running through the 23rd. The play features Hollie Harper, Benjamin Rowe, Derrick Storme, Javán Robinson, Marco Antonio Cunha, Aristotle Stamat, Zus Santos, Christian Neal, Vienna Carroll and is executive produced by TNC’s executive director, Crystal Field. For tickets, call (212) 254-1109.
La MaMa has served as “a haven for the underrepresented artists to experiment with new work.” This year, La MaMa celebrates its 64th Season with a Gala on Nov. 5, honoring arobust season of plays and programming.
Now playing at Ellen Stewart Theatre, a one woman show conceptualized, written and performed by Kim Ima, Ready for Company and Other Family Tales, directed by Megan Paradis Hanley, opens on Nov. 6. Ready for Company and Other Family Tales, tracks the tales of family and legacy, connecting the threads of lineage and ancestral vision from the experiences of this specific Jewish-Japanese-American family. The play will run through Nov.23. Tickets can be purchased at lamama.org, with prices ranging from $30 for adults, $25 for seniors and students, and $10 for La MaMa members.
