Still from Prince Rama’s “Never Forever” video, on view in ‘Anxious Spaces’ at the Knockdown Center (image via clocktower.org)
Happy Canada Day! Happy American Independence Day! You could celebrate with poutine and hotdogs … but those are so boring compared to gentrification, tall ships, Puerto Rican activists, Sandra Bernhard, and more. Have a complicated, artsy week of holidays.
An Oral History of Gentrification
When: Wednesday, July 1, 7–9pm
Where: Powerhouse Arena (37 Main Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn)
You may recognize the name DW Gibson from the New York magazine piece published in May that laid bare the appallingly racist tactics of one NYC landlord. That was an excerpt from his new book, The Edge Becomes the Center, which is subtitled “An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century.” That sounds like a hugely ambitious undertaking, but also one worth attempting. Head to the book launch to see how he did.
Munch at the Movies
When: Wednesday, July 1, 7pm ($10)
Where: Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan)
Of the two documentaries making up this program, one will satisfy the Munch generalists in the audience, while the other will appeal more to longtime devotees of the Norwegian artist. If you want to hear Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin, Liv Ullmann, and others wax lyrical on Munch, Dheeraj Akolkar’s Let The Scream Be Heard is for you. If you’re curious to discover Munch’s 11-panel mural “The Sun” (1909) — his only site-specific commission still in its original location, at the University of Oslo — Stein-Roger Bull’s The Sun will have you screaming. —Benjamin Sutton
Festival of Tall Ships
When: Wednesday, July 1–Saturday, July 4
Where: South Street Seaport (Lower Manhattan)
Just named one of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the South Street Seaport is rallying this week for people to celebrate the city’s nautical past. The star of the Festival of Tall Ships is L’Hermione, a painstaking re-creation of an 18th-century vessel sailed by General Lafayette; the new one has sailed all the way from France to Lower Manhattan’s Pier 16. —Allison Meier
Great Architectures of the World
When: Begins Wednesday, July 1, 2:30pm ($35)
Where: 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)
How much do you really know about the archaeology of Pompeii or what makes the temples of Angkor Wat so stunning? This Wednesday, the 92Y launches its five-class series on great architectures of the world, exploring some of our planet’s most amazing structural feats, from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia to Spain’s Great Mosque of Cordoba. —AM
The Young Lords
Fred W. McDarrah, “Pablo Guzman, Yoruba of the Young Lords” (c. 1968), vintage gelatin silver print, 7 x 4 ½ inches (17.8 x 11.4 cm) (via bronxmuseum.org)
When: Opens Thursday, July 2
Where: The Bronx Museum of the Arts (1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx)
This is easily one of the most exciting undertakings happening in NYC museums in 2015. The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, and Loisaida Inc. are collaborating to present a three-part survey of the work of the Young Lords, a radical Puerto Rican activist group of the 1960s. ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York begins this week at the Bronx Museum, where the display will include “more than 50 works, including paintings, installations, photographs, films, and rare archival materials that highlight the presence of women in the Young Lords, the struggle for equal representation of Latinos in the media, and community actions in the South Bronx.” The Museo and Loisada openings follow later in July. Not to be missed.
Formal but That’s Not All
When: Opens Thursday, July 2, 6–8pm
Where: Taymour Grahne Gallery (157 Hudson Street, Tribeca, Manhattan)
Curated by artist Kamrooz Aram and curator Murtaza Vali, Formal Relations features artists who use form to explore issues beyond the formal. From the aesthetics of dislocation to visualizations of instability, the work of Abdolreza Aminlari, Doug Ashford, Fayçal Baghriche, Eva Berend, Ala Ebtekar, Michelle Grabner, Yamini Nayar, and Zarina should make for a visually rich experience. —Hrag Vartanian
Queering America with Sandra Bernhard
When: Friday, July 3, 10pm
Where: Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
What better way to celebrate Independence Day in our new land of marriage equality than with comedian Sandra Bernhard “tak[ing] on Nina Simone, Barbra Streisand, and Diana Ross, sing[ing] ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ as a lesbian torch song, and strip[ping] down to American flag G-string to the tune of ‘Little Red Corvette’”? Expect all of that and more in the film version of Bernhard’s famous one-woman show Without You I’m Nothing, With You I’m Not Much Better, brought to Dixon Place by the inimitable Dirty Looks: On Location series and curator Karl McCool.
Anxious Performance Spaces
When: Sunday, July 5, 5–10pm
Where: Knockdown Center (52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens)
Installation-based performance art may be a rather specific category, but it can be one of the most transformative types of art. Knockdown is an amazing warehouse that has more than enough room for this type of immersive installation, so I can only imagine that artists Lucas Abela, Audra Wolowiec, Prince Rama, Aurora Halal, Will Ryman, Molly Lowe, Tim Bruniges, and Benjamin Mortimer will take full advantage of the site to transport us into their creative visions. Can’t wait. —HV
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With contributions by Allison Meier, Benjamin Sutton, and Hrag Vartanian
