Irish Arts Center to Present Week-Long Residency With Indie Rock Band Pillow Queens

Irish Arts Center will present a week-long residency with The Guardian's "most exciting indie-rockers" of 2020, Pillow Queens. Stretching across multiple mediums and including some of their favorite local and International Artists, Pillow Queens curate engagements including a film screening, a literary event, and two concerts from the band with special guests SOAK and Deanna Petcoff.

Programming for Pillow Queens in Residence kicks off with a screening of You Are Not My Mother (September 13), the "seriously impressive" (The Guardian) feature film debut of writer-director Kate Dolan, whose previous work includes the Pillow Queens videos "Holy Show," "Brothers," and "Gay Girls." The film follows the teenage Char, whose mother goes missing from their Dublin home one day, and returns utterly changed-with Char tending to the nightmare that unfolds.

On September 14, Pillow Queens present an event surrounding the essay collection This Woman's Work: Essays on Music. Edited by '90s icon Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and esteemed writer Sinéad Gleeson, this powerful collection of essays is for and about the artists who kicked in doors and offered a new way of thinking about the vast spectrum of women in music. Gleeson is joined in conversation by fellow writers Leslie Jamison and Jenn Pelly. Pillow Queens' Sarah Corcoran moderates.

Two standing-room concerts conclude the residency, September 16 & 17, offering New York audiences a chance to intimately experience the work of a group deemed by The Guardian "one of Ireland's best new bands in a country (let alone a city) not short on them" and "part of the Irish rock renaissance" by Stereogum. For these evenings, the band is joined by special guests SOAK, the Derry-born singer-songwriter who was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2015 for their first album, at age 18, and Toronto-based indie rocker Deanna Petcoff.

Pillow Queens in Residence Schedule and Ticketing

Tuesday, September 13

Film screening: You Are Not My Mother
7:30pm | $18 ($15 + $3 service fee)
Tickets

Wednesday, September 14

Literary event with Sinéad Gleeson, Sarah Corcoran, Leslie Jamison, and Jenn Pelly:
This Woman's Work: Essays on Music
7:30pm | $18 ($15 + $3 service fee)
Tickets

Friday, September 16

Pillow Queens and Friends in Concert
Featuring SOAK and Deanna Petcoff
Standing room only
8pm | $23 ($20 + $3 service fee)
Tickets

For every ticket purchased for Pillow Queens and Friends in Concert, audience members can add a ticket for You Are Not My Mother or This Woman's Work-or both-for $10 each (reg. $18, inclusive of $3 service fee). Package pricing takes effect after all events are added to your cart.

About Pillow Queens

Since forming in Dublin in late 2016, Pillow Queens have shared stages with the likes of IDLES, Soak and Pussy Riot, developing a community of loyal and passionate fans. In the winter of 2019, the band traveled to rural Co. Donegal to record their debut album, In Waiting, with award-winning producer Tommy McLaughlin (Soak/Hanna Peel). Released through the band's own label in September 2020, In Waiting was met with critical acclaim, including a 5-star Irish Times review, which called the album "an emotional masterpiece."

In Waiting was nominated for Ireland's prestigious Choice Music Prize as Album of the Year. It earned Album of the Day and A list play on BBC 6 Music, and drew praise and support from the likes of NPR's All Songs Considered and KEXP's Song of the Day.

In 2021, the band was invited to make their US Late Night television debut on CBS's The Late Late Show, and later signed with Sub Pop Publishing. In May, the band returned to their Dublin city practice space to begin writing their next record, and have recently found a new home for it, signing a worldwide deal with Toronto's Royal Mountain Records. They plan to spend the rest of the year touring to sold-out shows in Ireland and the UK.

About Irish Arts Center

Irish Arts Center, founded in 1972 and based in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, is a home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion or appreciation for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America. We present, develop, and celebrate work from established and emerging artists and cultural practitioners, providing audiences with emotionally and intellectually engaging experiences-fueled by collaboration, innovation, adventurousness, authenticity, and the celebration of our common humanity, in an environment of Irish hospitality. Steeped in grassroots traditions, we also provide community education programs and access to the arts for people of all ages and ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In an historic partnership of the people of Ireland and New York, Irish Arts Center recently opened a state-of-the-art new facility to support this mission for the 21st century.

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