Kiki Ball Closes Out Performance Space New York's East Village Series

Performance Space New York closes out its by-turns pensive, provocative, and radically festive East Village Series with The Independence Day Ball, a Kiki ball from the organization's neighbors at Alliance for Positive Change (June 29). When Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka began her leadership of Performance Space New York earlier this year, she instituted the idea of themed performance series; the East Village Series was the first. It has, since January, contemplated the organization and its surrounding neighborhood's historical legacy, with a nostalgia-rejecting eye towards the future. The Independence Day Ball concludes the series, celebrating 25 years of neighborship between Alliance for Positive Change and Performance Space New York, and the shared belief that community and performative expression can continue to save lives. All profits from the evening will go to Alliance for Positive Change.

In 1993, the AIDS Service Center NYC (now Alliance for Positive Change) opened its Lower East Side Drop-In Center in the same building as Performance Space 122. Among the locals impacted by HIV/AIDS-the population the organization supports-are many young LGBTQI people of color who are members of the Kiki scene. Emerging out of the historical House/Ballroom community, formed from the organizing of members involved in community nonprofits, the Kiki scene is a highly organized and creative youth-led organization. It centers around so-called houses, with complex kinship structures, that function as vital support systems-support systems that the government and biological families often fail to provide. The underground scene is best known for its lavish balls, where performers present their unique looks and movement styles, competing in different categories for their respective houses.

At the East Village Series' close, this celebration gives a final nod to Performance Space New York's origins as a countercultural haven of expression for queer artists amidst AIDS epidemic and the political adversity of the late 20th century. It embodies the organization's continued aim to give the floor to the individuals and communities propelling contemporary American performance and conversation. Since January, East Village Series has featured events and performances such as Welcome to Lenapehoking and Performance Space New York's longest-running-program, Avant Garde Arama; dance performance by Yve Laris Cohen and screenings of Diamanda Galás and Davide Pepe's Schrei 27; a month devoted to the legacy and spirit of Kathy Acker; an extended theatrical runway presentation from counter cultural fashion-oriented project Women's History Museum; May 2018/, a new dance work from Sarah Michelson, who returned to Performance Space New York after a 13-year hiatus; Penny Arcade's iconic Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!; a skate-park, skate sessions, workshops, and the third annual Anti-Prom; from radical cohort BRUJAS. Ishmael Houston Jones' haunting THEM will be performed June 21-28.

Tickets and Schedule

The Independence Day Ball takes place June 29 at 5pm, at Performance Space New York, 150 First Ave, New York, NY 10009. Full price tickets are available to purchase at performancespacenewyork.org for $25. All profits from the evening will go to Alliance for Positive Change.

Funding Credits

This event was made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

About Alliance for Positive Change

The Alliance for Positive Change transforms lives of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. We help people access medical care, manage and overcome addiction, escape homelessness, get back to work, and find community. By addressing the underlying issues that contribute to poor health, the Alliance's individualized, full-service approach and harm reduction philosophy help New Yorkers lead healthier, more self-sufficient lives. At the Alliance, we believe everyone deserves the chance to feel better, live better, and do better. For more information, visit www.alliance.nyc.

About Performance Space New York

Founded as Performance Space 122, in 1980, from an explosion of radical self-expression amidst the intensifying American culture wars, Performance Space New York is the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today. The early acts that defined the organization's unique role in New York cultural history asserted themselves as living, fleeting, and crucially affordable alternatives to mainstream art and culture of the 1980s and early 90s. Emboldened by the inclusive haven of a tight knit group of artists, performers like Penny Arcade, Ron Athey, Ethyl Eichelberger, Karen Finley, Spalding Gray, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Holly Hughes, John Kelly, John Leguizamo, Tim Miller, and Carmelita Tropicana, among many others, engaged in radical experimentation and created hybrid works that existed somewhere between dance, theater, poetry, ritual, film, technology and music.

With the renovation and reimagining of its original abandoned public-school building in the East Village completed, Performance Space New York is entering a new, bracing chapter. Under the leadership of recently appointed Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, and with state-of-the-art, column-free, high-ceilinged performance spaces, the organization is poised to make a case for the cultural vitality and relevance of performance for the 21st century. Schlenzka brings the idea of themed series to Performance Space New York. As part of a larger multidimensional whole, individual works are juxtaposed to evoke further meaning and push audiences to engage with our contemporary world in illuminating ways. The inaugural series (February-June) in the renovated building focuses on the East Village itself, including the institution's iconic history, re-anchoring the organization within its immediate surroundings.

Returning to a rapidly changing neighborhood during a time marked by divisive and oppressive politics, Performance Space New York builds on its own traditions of integration, political involvement and vehement interdisciplinarity, embodied by artists like niv Acosta, Big Dance Theater, Annie Dorsen, Elevator Repair Service, Tim Etchells, Maria Hassabi, Emily Johnson, Young Jean Lee, Taylor Mac, Richard Maxwell, Sarah Michelson, Rabih Mroué, Okwui Okpokwasili, Reggie Watts, and Adrienne Truscott.

Performance Space New York's lasting presence from the pre-gentrification East Village neighborhood fervently aims to create an open environment for artists and audiences, and thus foster community through performance and discourse-to be a countering force to the often-exclusionary nature of urban development.