Happenings
Highlights: Exhibitions and Performances
Workshop & 16mm screening at Maysles Documentary Center
Teaching a Masterclass for analog filmmaking. An interdisciplinary approach. Followed by a projection of my films in the cinema.
More details forthcoming. Open to public.
Mixed Poetics
This is a fundraiser for Maysles, which gives kids neighborhood free lessons in documentary filmmaking and shows socially aware films.
My poetry will be shared as well as a short 16mm dance film will be projected in the theatre. There will be performances and screenings throughout the event.
Still Moving #41
March 29th at Ki Smith Gallery (170 Forsyth st). Doors will be at 7pm, music at 7:45.
tickets available in link below.
Arts for Art
I will perform solo.
Also on the program:
Ras Moshe, Malik Washington & Georgia Wartel Collins trio
Kevin Nathanial Hylton solo
Alexis Marcelo/Will Glass duo
Location: Nublu Classic
More info TBA
Poetry Project
50th anniversary New Year's Day Marathon at Poetry Project
Many artists involved including Meredith Monk and Patti Smith. Each performance is about 5 minutes long.
more details TBA
The Gaza Monologues
A Reading of the Gaza Monologues
An Ashtar Theatre Initiative, Co-Hosted by Movement Research, Performance Space New York, Mabou Mines, and Writers Against the War on Gaza.
Performed by Again Amin, Jen Elias, Abou Farman, Sahar K., H. Sinno, and more.
Doors at 8pm, 8:30pm Start. RSVP REQUIRED.
Read more about the Gaza Monologues here: www.gazamonologues.com
**Important**
A note on space capacity:
This event will take place in the Ninth Street Studio at 122 Cultural Center. This studio has limited capacity.
The first 65 people to arrive will be seated in the Ninth Street Studio.
The next 40 people will be seated in our adjacent Courtyard Studio and will be able to watch a livestream of the event.
Limited chairs, cushions, and blankets will be available.
Live Stream:
This event will be live-streamed. Link will be available on this page on the day of the event.
You do not need to RSVP to view the livestream.
OUTISIGHT, a Leimay production
A LEIMAY production of embodied performances at the park in LES, free and open to the public.
Location: Dorothy Strelsin Memorial Park, NYC
Body Poetics: an artist talk at LaMaMa Galleria
BODY POETICS: In conversation with Art Jones and Anna Lustberg
47 Great Jones Street, NY, NY
Love is Blue, solo exhibition at LaMaMa Gallery
Love is blue
And vast. How can you forget?
infinite, ever-expanding. Blue in green
and one of my favorite bass lines, blue in the tide,
endless, timeless, above and below me.
A blue that breathes and laughs and cries.
A blue with an end and a beginning, longing,
reaching, bellowing, undulating.
Blue in solace and uncertainty.
Blue in forgetting, remembering,
all the things I’ve wanted to tell you.
Blue in gentleness, a deepness with no words,
In places I cannot reach, a blue in the last time.
Dreams of blue, floating surrounded
by a cool blue night,
crystal water true blue.
Leaving is blue.
-Muyassar Kurdi
New York, NY, August 31, 2023 – La MaMa Galleria is honored to present Love Is Blue. Love is Blue, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Muyassar Kurdi, is an interdisciplinary exhibition which meets at the intersection of film, photography, and painting - blurring the lines and connecting across modalities. At the center of these cinematic works is embodiment, liberation, and a process of decolonization through the lens of an Arab-American woman. It presents a meditation on the color blue, literally and figuratively, and aims to move beyond borders and walls. Experimentation, intuition, and improvisation is at its heart, stepping into the unknown: a ritual and an act of rebellion.
Love is Blue presents aliveness across mediums that emanates empowerment and freedom. Analog photographs paired as diptychs explore nature in relation to the body by pulling the viewer into intimate spaces juxtaposed with vast open landscapes. The geography of the body, boundless, shameless, an attempt at reclaiming her narrative. "Love is Blue", a song by the jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, adds to the musicality behind this exhibition displaying large-scale oil paintings with sounding gestures and featuring graphic scores that were recently performed at Roulette Intermedium as part of Kurdi’s 2022-23 artist residency. This will be Muyassar Kurdi’s first solo exhibition at La MaMa Galleria.
For press inquiries, images and interview request, please contact the gallery at
lamamagalleria@gmail.com
Program:
Love Is Blue is on view at La MaMa Galleria from August 31 through September 22, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 31, 2023 from 6pm - 8pm
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday 1pm - 7 pm, or by appointment
Artist Discussion: Body Poetics
Moderated by Art Jones and Anna Lustberg
Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 4:00pm
A Daughter of Isis performed at Roulette Intermedium
Roulette Intermedium world premiere of The Daughter of Isis
The Body: Object, Product, Agency— Group Exhibition
A group exhibition honoring Women’s History Month opening reception March 3rd, 2022 6pm-9pm through March 25th, at The People’s Forum and again later for 6 weeks at the Bronx Art Space In September/October (dates TBA).
curated by Amanda Johnson
Where my Olive Trees Grow performed at Roulette Intermedium
Muyassar Kurdi: Where My Olive Trees Grow performed at Roulette Intermedium
From the River to the Sea performance at Center for Performance Research
Fall Movement Festival presents:
From the River to the Sea is a cinematic and embodied interdisciplinary sound performance ruminating on: migration, memory, and home through the lens of a Palestinian refugee. The work explores the cinematic elements and aims to connect the modalities of sound, movement, and image while addressing issues surrounding displacement and colonialism. An interdisciplinary artist whose work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, analog photography and film, Muyassar Kurdi continues her research on healing through movement and deepens her understanding of its relationship to memory and intergenerational trauma. As a first generation Palestinian refugee, Kurdi remains interested in themes such as migration and the idea of “home” and, through the lens of an indigeneity, expresses vulnerability, connection, and community healing.
Islands in the Sea at Lincoln Center of Performing Arts
Artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya transforms the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool into a site that honors the grieving process. Nine sculptures serve as beacons of reflection, lighting a path forward from losses that so many of us have suffered in the last few years. With this installation, visitors engage in a ritual reminiscent of Loi Krathong, a celebrated Thai festival of gratitude, forgiveness, and respect. Participants are invited to release a floating vessel to carry away their burdens, worries, or grief gently into the pool. Each vessel reflects the sky as it drifts along the water, forming a flotilla of shared struggle. The installation serves as a gentle reminder that while grief never fully leaves us, we can temper sorrow by embracing the many forms that grief and healing may take.
Join the artist and be a part of the ritual on the select dates:
May 28: 4:00–5:00 pm
June 25: 4:00–5:00 pm
June 26: 12:00–1:00 pm
The event on June 5 at 12:00 has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience.
The participatory events feature Sugar Vendil/Isogram
Sugar Vendil, Artistic Director & Performer
Grace Aki, Performer
Chris Ignacio, Performer
Muyassar Kurdi, Performer
Cindy Lan, Performer
Thea Little, Performer
JuYoung Ma, Performer
Veronica Mak, Performer
Linda McBride, Performer
Vast Geographies performance at Roulette Intermedium
2020 Roulette Commissioned Artist Muyassar Kurdi presents Vast Geographies— a ritual exploring ecology, movement in stillness, walking, embodiment, and sound as liquid architecture. It is a meditation on traveling and awareness through movement where there are no borders—only boundless geographies in a sea of graphic scores and earthly materials. Opening with the sensual and urgent short dance film Vast Geographies, variation 3 (16mm to digital) directed by Kurdi and performed by Eryka Dellenbach, the screening will be followed by a concert with Luke Stewart on bass and Kurdi on voice and electronics. The works in total present a cinematic and interdisciplinary performance centered on presence and space.
For the optimal experience, the artist requests that you wear headphones.
Vast Geographies was originally scheduled for Spring 2020 but was postponed and rescheduled due to Covid-19. Roulette’s Fall season will be presented virtually and available for free on a variety of streaming platforms. Our theater is currently closed for public performances as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the safety measures that Roulette has put in place to keep staff, artists, and the public safe.
Screening:
Vast Geographies, variation 3 (16mm to digital) directed by Muyassar Kurdi, performed by Eryka Dellenbach
Performance:
Luke Stewart: upright bass
Muyassar Kurdi: voice, electronics
Body Poetics film screening at Outpost Artist Resources
Our second Cuts and Burns Screening was curated by Muyassar Kurdi, and is titled Body Poetics, featuring work by MV Carbon, Muyassar Kurdi, Art Jones, and Eryka Dellenbach. This screening streamed on Sunday november 15th at 7pm through the Outpost Vimeo channel.
This series brings together a group of interdisciplinary artists whose works in video and analog filmmaking explore: relationships between the body and the camera, the queer gaze, boundless landscapes, and the transformation of self. A ritualistic quality is present throughout, and viewers cannot help but travel to unknown and anonymous places at the intersection of poetry, painting, and dance. These works depict new explorations in embodiment and moves toward unifying modalities.
Brain Works performance on Governors Island, HarvestWorks residency
Brain Works aims to unify the disciplines of sound, movement, and painting in an interdisciplinary work that meditates on color, shape, and gesture– one which embodies the spirit of “free” sound and “free” movement in an act of awakening and protest. We dance and sing towards liberation. Exploring the connections between the body and mind, Brain Works develops an awareness through movement with a sort of nerve-dance.
LOCATION: Building 10a, Nolan Park, Governors Island
Come Together (Apart) at MoMA PS1
Come Together (Apart):
Come Together (Apart) is a daylong streaming festival to celebrate and support local and international music communities, building on the music festival and record fair with Other Music that was slated to take place at MoMA PS1 this weekend. Enjoy a full schedule of DJ sets, workshops, a talk with no-wave pioneer Lydia Lunch, and a screening of Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story from home. Plus, connect with some of our favorite independent labels and support artists directly on Bandcamp.
DJ SETS
Boston Chery
Dee Diggs
Alejandra Sabillón
RECORD FAIR
Connect with our favorite independent labels and support artists directly at the Come Together (Apart) record fair on Bandcamp, organized by iconic record shop Other Music. Explore new music and shop for vinyl, merchandise, and more from over 90 participating labels.
TALKS
Filmmaker Beth B interviews no-wave pioneer Lydia Lunch, the subject of her recent documentary Lydia Lunch - The War Is Never Over (2019). Online forum Pick Up the Flow presents group conversations around issues in the local New York music community.
LISTENING SESSION
Multi-instrumentalist NNAMDÏ guides a listening session of tracks from his new record, BRAT, ahead of its release on April 3 (Sooper Records).
WORKSHOPS
Grassroots radio station Half Moon Radio, champions of electronic music’s Black and Brown origins and future, leads a workshop on creative uses of Ableton. Interdisciplinary artist Muyassar Kurdi’s workshop will focus on the relationship between body and voice with an emphasis on awareness through movement, spontaneity, and meditative improvisation. Participants will explore sound and movement through exercises built on trust, deep listening, and slow, concentrated, ‘soul-generated theatrics.’
SCREENING
Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story (2019)
A new documentary film details the life and work of Black trans icon Beverly Glenn-Copeland, whose idiosyncratic musical style is a mix of ambient electronica, jazz, classical, and psychedelic folk featured on two renowned self-released albums—an eponymous record from 1970 and Keyboard Fantasies, a cassette released in 1986. Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story (2019) is directed by Posy Dixon and produced by Liv Proctor. Glenn-Copeland performed for the first time in the United States at MoMA PS1 in 2019 alongside the premiere of the film.
Browse Artbook @ MoMA PS1's Come Together (Apart) reading list on Bookshop, featuring new titles with Lydia Lunch, Genesis P-Orridge, David Grubbs, Josh MacPhee, Sun Ra, and more.
ABOUT OTHER MUSIC
Other Music was a NYC-based record shop specializing in indie, underground, rare and experimental sounds, a music mecca on East 4th Street in Manhattan for two decades from 1995 to 2016. Renowned for their broad and adventurous selection, the deep knowledge of their staff, the shop’s diverse tastes, and its open approach to music of any era and style, the store was a hub of the vibrant local scene. With a widely read weekly new music newsletter, Other Music was known around the world as a destination for music fans everywhere. The shop outlasted many of its contemporaries on the record scene, but in 2016, in the face of continuing migration of music consumption online, they closed their doors.