Yes, yes, we know it’s Frieze Week, but you need an antidote (or eight), don’t you? When your eyes start watering and you hit fairtigue — or if you just want to avoid the fairs all together — try an experimental music festival, an exhibition of work by art handlers at major NYC museums, a black art Wikipedia edit-a-thon, or any of these other events. They’ll pick you right back up.

 American Tattooed Ladies

When: Tuesday, May 12, 8pm ($8)
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum (424 3rd Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn)

Writer Anni Irish will give a lecture on the history of tattooed women in the US, with a particular focus on those who made a living in sideshows and dime museums. Irish will discuss the origins of body art and key figures like P.T. Barnum, and the talk will be heavily illustrated. Get some ideas for your next tat! —Vic Vaiana

 Nightcleaners

When: Tuesday, May 12, 7:30pm ($7)
Where: Light Industry (155 Freeman Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn)

The filmmakers and activists of the Berwick Street Collective managed to unify formal experimentation with a political message in their 1975 movie Nightcleaners, an exploration of the attempts to unionize London’s mostly female night cleaners. The collective chose to complicate the film’s structure in order to keep viewers alert to its politics. The film survives as a documentation of labor and feminist activism in the pre-Thatcher ’70s. Don’t miss the chance to see such a rare piece of history. —VV

 Ende Tymes V

When: Wednesday, May 13–Sunday, May 17 ($60 for festival pass; individual event prices vary)
Where: Knockdown Center (52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, Queens), Silent Barn (603 Bushwick Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn), and Outpost Artist Resources (1665 Norman St, Ridgewood, Queens)

The Ende Tymes Festival of Noise and Abstract Liberation is a four-day experimental music festival spanning shows at the Knockdown Center, the Silent Barn, and Outpost Artist Resources. The venues will host noise installations during the day with free admission and ticketed shows with extensive line-ups in the evening. Reviewing last year’s End Tymes for Hyperallergic, Charles Eppley wrote that the event “felt less like a music festival than it did a communal gathering, in part because of its no-frills attitude and open structure.” Leave the earplugs at home — or not, if you’re feeling cautious — and get ready to have your ears ringing for days. —VV

 Gary Hume at Cooper Union

When: Wednesday, May 13, 6:30–8pm (free)
Where: Cooper Union (41 Cooper Square, Noho, Manhattan)

On Wednesday, Gary Hume will discuss his latest work for Cooper Union’s Spring 2015 Alex Katz Chair in Painting Lecture. The 1996 Turner Prize nominee is best known for his “door paintings” — flat, geometric representations of doors from institutional settings. Affiliated with the YBAs, Hume’s deadpan, nihilistic attitude towards painting and modernism (he continues to use cheap household paints) long ago caught the eye of Charles Saatchi, who subsequently included Hume in the infamous Sensation (1997) exhibition. —Tiernan Morgan

 Southern Rites

Gillian Laub, “The Prom Prince and Princess dancing at the integrated prom” (2011) (courtesy of and © Gillian Laub / Benrubi Gallery, NYC) (click to enlarge)

When: Opens Thursday, May 14, 6–8pm
Where: Benrubi Gallery (521 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, Chelsea, Manhattan)

As recently as 2009, Montgomery County High School in St. Vernon, Georgia, held two separate proms: a “white prom” and a “black prom.” That year, a New York Times spread featured photos and interviews by Gillian Laub documenting the school’s long-standing tradition of segregated proms and led to national outrage. The school reluctantly changed to a single, integrated prom. In her show Southern Rites at Benrubi Gallery, which coincides with the release of a documentary film of the same name on HBO, Laub uses photography to chronicle the progress and setbacks of the St. Vernon community as its members continue, to this day, to grapple with the reality and legacy of racial inequality. —Kemy Lin

 Artwork by Art Handlers

When: Opens Friday, May 15, 6–10pm
Where: BFP Creative (119 Ingraham Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn)

Art handlers are often artists themselves. They pack, mount, and deinstall millions of dollars worth of art, but have few opportunities to show their own work. Brooklyn Fire Proof issued a call for projects and pieces from art handlers at the Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney for this last in a trio of shows. The opening reception will be accompanied by performances in the garden. —KL

David Herbert, “After the Gold Rush” (photo courtesy Brooklyn Fire Proof)

 The Black Lunch Table Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon

When: Sunday, May 17, 1–6pm
Where: The Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street, Harlem, Manhattan)

The past two years’ Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thons have been huge successes, so it’s great to see another group adopting the same tactic to remedy the glaring omissions of the crowdsourced encyclopedia. Artists Jina Valentine and Heather Hart and their Black Lunch Table project will take up residence at the Studio Museum on Sunday afternoon, inviting anyone who’s interested to come

create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles pertaining to the lives and works of Black artists—including many housed in the Museum’s permanent collection—with first person accounts and research materials. Together we will create historical documents that respond to the urgent need for a reconstruction of the art historical record!

The museum is free on Sundays, and technical support, research materials, tutorials, and refreshments will be provided. BYOED (electronic device).

 Explaining Public Art

When: Monday, May 18, 9–12:30pm (free, but email RSVP required)
Where: 1 Madison Ave (at East 23rd Street, Flatiron District, Manhattan)

Public art became increasingly important in the 1970s as an opportunity for civic revitalization and community building. Murals, sponsored by community-based organizations, often depict local figures and historical narratives, while arts organizations like Dia help produce public art that draws on conceptual or social practice traditions. How do these two types of public art fulfill different purposes? Does public art have to explain itself? In this symposium, artists, critics, and arts administrators will discuss the ways in which public art and its goals have evolved. —KL

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With contributions by Kemy Lin, Tiernan Morgan, and Vic Vaiana

Jillian Steinhauer is a former senior editor of Hyperallergic. She writes largely about the intersection of art and politics but has also been known to write at length about cats. She won the 2014 Best...