BRIC ANNOUNCES PROGRAMMING FOR SPRING 2018 SEASON AT BRIC HOUSE

Jan 4, 2018 • 3:30 PM

In Its Award-Winning Downtown Brooklyn Arts and Media Center, BRIC Presents and Incubates Bold New Work by Artists and Media-Makers Reflecting NYC’s Diversity

Performances, Contemporary Art Exhibitions, TV Programs and Artist Residencies Include:

  • Reenactment, a group exhibition curated by Jenny Gerow that through performance, photography, and video by six artists of color agitates the implications of historical reenactment and underscores the problems with the singular nature of the word “history.” (On view through February 25)
  • BRIC House Sessions, a weekly music series that features a wide array of genres and renowned musicians including Mokoomba (February 22), Les Nubians (March 1), Birds of Chicago (March 8), Jamila Woods (March 15), ÌFÉ (March 29), Juana Molina (April 5), and BRIC artists-in-residence The Knights (April 12).
  • Work-in-progress performances incubated at BRIC through the BRIClab Residency, including Kamala Sankaram’s Looking at You (February 8–9), Brother(hood)! Dance’s Afro/Solo/Man (February 22­–23), Tatiana Pandiani’s Azul Otra Vez (Blue, Revisited) (March 8–9), and Tangled Lines Productions’ The Island of Sighs (March 22–23).
  • Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas, an exhibition curated by Abigail Lapin Darashti, with works from 20 Haitian and Dominican artists examining the complicated relationship between the nations.
  • The premiere of a monthly variety show on BRIC TV titled Hey, How Ya Doin’? (February 2018), and the return for Season 2 of comedies Actually, No (April 2018) and Brooklynification (May 2018). BRIC TV continues to provide a robust take on local news and social justice reporting through 112BK, Going In with Brian Vines, and the Emmy-winning documentary short series #BHeard.

BRIC, the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, announces a panoramic season of programming for Spring 2018 at BRIC House, the organization’s award-winning 40,000SF Downtown Brooklyn home. BRIC’s Spring 2018 season features premieres and works-in-progress spanning the performing arts; music across the spectrum of genres; rigorously curated exhibitions; new shows and returning favorites on the award-winning Brooklyn-focused cable/digital network BRIC TV, and on BRIC Radio, Brooklyn’s premier independent podcast network; dynamic panel discussions of timely topics; poetry slams; family programs; education initiatives; and more. The season further deepens the organization’s inclusive approach to both local and global discussions, and the places where they intersect.

At once a cultural living room for its multifaceted and diverse borough and a year-round destination for must-see arts programming, BRIC’s all-too-rare emphasis on providing Arts for All is actualized through their commitment to strictly free and low-cost events. As Brooklyn Vegan recently wrote, “There are those who believe that art and culture is the province of the few, the elite—i.e., those who can afford it. Then there’s BRIC. The organization advocates that culture is everyone’s right and, as one of the city’s largest presenters of free cultural programming, it backs up that advocacy big time.”

BRIC House, which opened its doors in 2013, has quickly become one of New York City’s most inviting and accessible spaces to experience art in its many forms. The Municipal Arts Society named it “Best Neighborhood Catalyst,” The New York Times hailed it as a “venerable…arts organization” with “snazzily redesigned headquarters,” and Time Out NY deemed it “one of Brooklyn’s best hubs for performance art and exhibitions.” BRIC received the 2015 Building Brooklyn Award for Community DeveloPMent by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, awarded to “renovation projects that improve the borough's diverse neighborhoods and economy.”

Leslie G. Schultz, President of BRIC, said of the upcoming season: “This spring, BRIC House will once again be filled with adventurous programming of the highest quality across a wide spectrum of disciplines, and will proudly maintain its place as a welcoming cultural town square for all. BRIC’s support of diverse Brooklyn artists and media-makers in the development and presentation of inspiring new work is unparalleled.”

Tickets to BRIC House events are currently on sale to BRIC members and will open to the general public on Monday, January 8 and may be purchased online at BRICartsmedia.org or via phone at 877.987.6487. The Box Office at BRIC House is open on performance days only, one hour prior to the event. BRIC House is located at 647 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn and is open weekdays and Saturday at 8am and Sundays at 10am.

 

BRIC SPRING 2018 PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

Art Exhibitions

Reenactment
Curated by Jennifer Gerow
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 17, 7-9PM
On View: Through February 25
BRIC House Gallery, FREE

Reenactment is a group exhibition examining and agitating the aesthetics and politics of historical reenactment in contemporary art. In traditional reenactments, events like the American Revolution and Civil War are embodied by amateur performers using storytelling and props, all too often approaching history as unchangeable and absolute. Through work in performance, video, and photography, this exhibition looks at six artists of color who are unsettling cultural mythologies and origin stories, and who approach history as fluid. With works from Ken Gonzales-Day, Crystal Z. Campbell, Marisa Williamson, Maria Hupfield, Alicia Grullón, and Farideh Sakhaeifar, the histories represented range from civil rights activism and gentrification in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood to the refugee crisis in Syria and the American Revolution, asserting the experiences of people underrepresented throughout history.

Related Programs:

Coffee & Conversation
Saturday, February 3 at 12pm
BRIC House Gallery, FREE
BRIC hosts a gallery talk with Jenny Gerow, curator of Reenactment, and exhibition artists Maria Hupfield and Farideh Sakhaeifar, who will discuss performative reenactment and their individual practices.

Performance and Discussion
Wednesday, February 7 at 7PM
Performances by Maria Hupfield and Alicia Grullón, followed by a discussion moderated by Harry Weil, Manager of Programs at Green-Wood Cemetery.

 

Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas
Curated by Abigail Lapin Darashti
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 14, 7-9PM
On View: Through April 29
BRIC House Gallery and Project Room, FREE
Presented by Goya

Bordering the Imaginary investigates the complicated relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti—two nations that share a single island. The exhibition features work in a wide array of media by 20 Dominican and Haitian artists, based in both their native countries and in the United States, who draw on their experiences to create a collective visual narrative that exposes inequalities and stereotypes of race, gender, and sexuality. Bordering the Imaginary will display the vitality of the visual arts in these communities while revealing the complexities of a historically shifting transnational border space, and the formation of distinct but intertwined nations.

Artists include Freddy Rodríguez, Julia Santos Solomon, Tessa Mars, Cybil Charlier, Scherezade Garcia, Fabiola Jean-Louis, Groana Melendez, Edouard Duval Carrié, Pascal Meccierello, Alex Morel, Artiz Resistan, Raquel Paiewonsky, Roberto Stephenson, Nyugen Smith, Patrick Eugene, Raúl Recio, and Iliana Emilia Garcia.

Related Programs:

Coffee & Conversation
Sunday, March 17 at 12PM
BRIC House Gallery, FREE
BRIC hosts a gallery talk with Abigail Lapin Darashti, curator of Bordering the Imaginary, and exhibition artists, who will provide an in-depth discussion of the context surrounding the exhibition.

Panel Discussion: Facing Contemporary Hispaniola
Wednesday, April 4 at 7PM
BRIC House Stoop and Gallery, FREE
Bordering the Imaginary curator Abigail Lapin Dardashti moderates a panel discussion with several exhibition artists who are members of the Dominican and Haitian diasporas in New York. Artists discuss their work and offers perspectives on the relationship between the two countries.

 

Master Work: Slaves of New York 1776
Kenseth Armstead
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 17, 7-9PM
On View: Through February 25
BRIC House Project Room, FREE

Master Work: Slaves of New York 1776, part of Kenseth Armstead’s ongoing Farther Land project, will envelop BRIC’s Project Room with one duck feather for each slave in the colony of New York at the time of the American Revolution. The sculptural forms and materials of this work are derived from revolutionary-era symbols. Juxtaposing these with what amounts to 20,000 feathers tarred onto a translucent perforated steel frame, Armstead directly challenges the denial and censorship necessary to perpetuate myths of meritocracy and the American Dream.

Kenseth Armstead is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

What Is It, Then, Between Us
Magali Duzant
On View Through May 26
BRIC House Café, FREE

In this installation, Magali Duzant illuminates the power of gesture to serve as a universal language. The text, an American Sign Language translation of an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” underscores the possibility of human connection through shared experience. To translate the poem, Duzant created an archive of hands—using different hands for each letter—many of them belonging to local artists who were first-time signers. As a result, each hand forms a unique version of the letter it portrays, personalizing the interpretations of the universal gestures.

 

Subtitles
Jesse Chun
On View February 26-March 14
BRIC House Garage Door, FREE

Through sculpture, installation, and video, Jesse Chun investigates language, identity, and communication through symbols and information technology. Subtitles is a conceptual poetry piece that employs the tropes of a film narrative, using interior design magazine text and color swatches to investigate how we construct conversations around memory, displacement, and space. Chun appropriates text and blocks of color from various interior design magazines and then selectively rearranges them to arrive at new formulations of home and desire.

Jesse Chun is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

What time is it there?
Katherine Shima
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 14, 7-9PM
On View: Through May 6
BRIC House Hallway, FREE

Katherine Shima’s intricately constructed wall relief sculptures weave together digital and traditional techniques as a means to explore how societies shape their environments by building in, over, and through the landscape. Comprised of natural materials such as stained wood and fiber, the installation resembles an archipelago of disparate locales. Organic in overall appearance, the detail in each sculpture evokes a complex, self-perpetuating machine defined by its own patterns, logic, and dynamics.

Katherine Shima is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

The Life of a City
Elizabeth Riley
On View April 30-May 14
BRIC House Garage Door, FREE

Elizabeth Riley’s video works address questions surrounding the complex relationship between our lived reality and its digital manifestations. The Life of a City follows the timeline of a modern cityscape—from a primordial, prehistoric realm up to the contemporary bustle of a cosmopolitan metropolis. While Riley’s video speaks to the growth and accessibility of any major city, the work’s setting at BRIC calls attention to the vast amount of development and movement perpetually occurring in Downtown Brooklyn. By allowing the video to fade out while the buildings are still constantly altering their facades, Riley proffers the notion that industrial and societal innovation continues indefinitely.

Elizabeth Riley is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

Through the Door or Window
Sophia Narrett
Opening Reception: Friday, May 11, 7-9PM
On View: Through June 17
BRIC House Project Room, FREE

Sophia Narrett uses embroidery to tell stories about love and desire. Her work explores love as a transformative experience that has the ability to bring purpose, initiate self-discovery, and offer joy, as well as its potential to bring heartbreak, miscommunication, and manipulation. By basing her embroideries on digital collages sourced from the Internet and media, Sophia uses the language of pop culture and social media to express her own desires and fears, and the deep sense of conflict we are faced with as we try to navigate love and the evolving nature of identity against treacherous media portrayals of what we should be and want.

Sophia Narrett is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

Night Mountains
Tatiana Arocha
On View May 29-October 27
BRIC House Café, FREE

Inspired by her childhood journeys into Colombia’s rainforests with her anthropologist father, Tatiana Arocha’s multidisciplinary work stems from a desire to celebrate the landscape’s astounding biodiversity. Her immersive murals surround the viewer with nature rendered in monochromatic tones, a color palette that references historic naturalist engravings and warns of a future in which the rainforest exists only in the past. By installing depictions of nature in urban settings, Arocha’s murals draw parallels between the diverse ecosystems of Colombia and the cultural flourishing of her current Brooklyn neighborhood.

Tatiana Arocha is a 2017-18 recipient of the ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House. For more information, visit BRICartsmedia.org/ArtFP

 

Music

The Knights
2017-2018 BRIC Artists-in-Residence

“One of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products…known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory.” -The New Yorker

Led by brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen, The Knights are a GRAMMY-nominated, Brooklyn-based orchestral collective that engages listeners and defies boundaries with programs that showcase the players’ roots in the classical tradition and passion for musical discovery.

 

Love Sick
BRIC House Ballroom
Evening Concert: Saturday, February 3, 8PM
Tickets: $18 Advanced / $23 Door, General Admission Seating

Family Matinee: Sunday, February 4, 2PM
Tickets: $10 Advanced / $14 Door, General Admission Seating

Featuring Katja Herbers, television actress from Westworld and The Americans, this program of beautiful German lieder (poems set to classical music) includes beloved classics from Schubert and Schumann as a modern melodrama for solo voice and orchestra.

 

Hungarian Rock
BRIC House Ballroom
Evening Concert: Thu, April 12, 8PM
Tickets: $18 Advanced / $23 Door, General Admission Seating

Family Matinee: Sat, April 14, 2PM
Tickets: $10 Advanced / $14 Door, General Admission Seating

Explore the wide influence of Eastern European folk music, including new arrangements of Brahms’ famous Hungarian Dances and a world premiere arrangement of Ligeti’s Hungarian Rock.

 

BRIC House Sessions
Thursdays—7PM DJ Set, BRIC House Ballroom & Stoop
Tickets: $15 Advanced / $20 Door, General Admission Standing

The ethos of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is alive at the organization’s Fort Greene headquarters with world-class concerts reflecting the diversity of Brooklyn in a weekly music series: BRIC House Sessions. Spanning two stages, each show begins with local DJs and musicians on the BRIC House Stoop overlooking the Gallery, where guests can explore the contemporary art exhibitions. The featured artist will then perform in the BRIC House Ballroom, one of the best spaces for live music in Brooklyn.

 

February 22, 8PM
Mokoomba / Mandingo Ambassadors
Drawing inspiration from the Tonga people and their vibrant life, music, and culture, Mokoomba is regarded as one of Africa’s best touring acts. An electrifying Afro-fusion of funk, ska, pop and traditional Zimbabwean rhythms, they are “a band that deserves to be seen live” (NPR). Mandingo Ambassadors will start the party with their Guinean Afro-jazz grooves.

March 1, 8PM
Les Nubians
The GRAMMY Award-winning Parisian sisters known for their neo-soul infused with sounds of the African Diaspora present Up Close & Personal, an intimate performance of classic and new songs with live visuals and storytelling. Co-curated with Joan Osborne’s Womanly Hips Presents.

March 8, 8PM
Birds of Chicago / Victory
Mixing folk, mountain gospel and soul, husband-and-wife-led band Birds of Chicago returns to New York in support of their new album, American Flowers. Singer-songwriter and veteran busker Victory will open with songs from her debut solo EP, It’s a New Dawn. Co-curated with Joan Osborne’s Womanly Hips Presents.

March 15, 8PM
Jamila Woods / Celisse
A frequent guest vocalist in the hip-hop, jazz and soul worlds with the likes of Chance The Rapper and Macklemore, Jamila Woods has emerged as a powerful, once-in-a-generation soul and R&B singer-songwriter. Hard-rocking and blues-tinged singer-songwriter Celisse opens.

March 29, 8PM
ÌFÉ (New York debut) / M.A.K.U SoundSystem
A powerful synthesis of electronic sound and Afro-Caribbean language, ÌFÉ is a bold new project from Puerto Rico-based, African American drummer/producer/singer Mark Underwood, aka Otura Roso Mun. New York’s ‘immigrant beat’ innovators M.A.K.U SoundSystem will start things off with their explosive blend of traditional Latin rhythms and gritty urban sensibility.

April 5, 8PM
Juana Molina / Maria Usbeck
Ever-experimental artist Juana Molina is known for creating distinct and bewitching music that defies genre. Using looping technology to layer propulsive guitar strumming, clanging percussion and her ethereal vocals on top of one another, she creates a whirling, hypnotic and often gorgeous musical tapestries. Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and former Selebrities frontwoman Maria Usbeck opens, performing songs from her solo debut album Amparo.

April 12 | 8PM
The Knights / Black Sea Hotel
Tickets: $18 Advanced / $23 Door, General Admission Seating
The GRAMMY-nominated, Brooklyn-based orchestral collective explores the wide influence of Eastern European folk music, from traditional tunes set by Romani folk musicians to modernity. Brooklyn vocal trio Black Sea Hotel opens with their beautifully-precise Balkan vocal harmonies.

 

Look + Listen Festival
Friday, April 13 | 8PM
BRIC House Stoop & Gallery, FREE

“Stands out, even in a very crowded field, as a genuinely innovative series.” –John Schaefer, WNYC’s Soundcheck

The Look + Listen Festival celebrates the best of contemporary classical music by presenting it in compelling visual art galleries. Each concert offers a chance to hear a diverse group of performers playing works by some of today’s finest composers. The program at BRIC House includes the New York City premiere of a festival-commissioned chamber piece, Talking Gong by Susie Ibarra, that’s inspired by Philippine gong-chime music, and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Claire Chase performing Empty Garlic by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun for bass flute and electronics.  

 

Performance

BRIClab Residency
BRIClab is a commissioning and residency program that offers local artists time and space to explore and expand the possibilities of their work in music, dance, theater and multi-disciplinary performance. Work-in-progress showings, presented with moderated artist-audience dialogues, bring you into the artists’ process and creativity.

Kamala Sankaram
Looking At You (work-in-progress)
February 8-9, 7PM
BRIC House Artist Studio
Tickets: $8 Advanced / $12 Door, General Admission Seating
Looking At You is an immersive techno-noir, music-theater piece confronting the question of how loss of privacy in our digitized society could transform us as a global culture. With a dynamic score inspired by dance music, crime jazz, and operatic arias, Kamala Sankaram’s story of high-tech espionage lays bare these urgent questions.

Brother(hood)! Dance
Afro/Solo/Man (work-in-progress)
February 22–23 7PM
BRIC House Artist Studio
Tickets: $8 Advanced / $12 Door, General Admission Seating
Afro/Solo/Man uses multimedia, dance, and storytelling to engage the audience in a meditation on the identities of Black men in relation to ideas of origins, nourishment, heritage, nature, sexuality, and technology in the 21st century. Brother(hood)! Dance, co-founded by Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine, challenges assumptions, provokes rethinking, and is unafraid to explore race, gender, sexuality and “brotherhood.”

Tatiana Pandiani
Azul Otra Vez (Blue, Revisited) (work-in-progress)
March 8-9 | 7PM
BRIC House Artist Studio
Tickets: $8 Advanced / $12 Door, General Admission Seating
Azul Otra Vez is a musical adaption of Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío’s poetry and short stories, combining his characters into one tale about a king, a poet, and the power of words. The book and lyrics are in Spanish with simultaneous English translation; the score is a fusion of Latin jazz and folklore.

Tangled Lines Productions
The Island of Sighs (work-in-progress)
March 22-23, 7PM
BRIC House Artist Studio
Tickets: $8 Advanced / $12 Door, General Admission Seating
The Island of Sighs is a multimedia theater piece incorporating live visuals, dance, and music to tell the story of Tamar, one of the most famous characters in Armenian lore. A refugee of love and loss looking for the way off her island, Tamar is a metaphor for all who seek refuge after disaster and displacement. Featuring artists Anais Alexandra Tekerian, Kevork Mourad, Amber Star Merkens, and Marjorie Folkman.

 

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

BRIC OPEN: Borders
An Arts & Ideas Festival
Thursday-Sunday, April 26-29
BRIC House, FREE
The BRIC OPEN is an arts and ideas festival that grows from BRIC’s core values of creativity, inclusion, and community, bringing people together through four days and nights of art, music, film, and performance; readings and conversations; and neighborhood tours and shared meals. This year’s festival theme, Borders, reveals complex experiences of moving across geo-political and ideological borders, illuminates the way real and imagined borders intersect, and celebrates our capacity to create connection across boundaries. Program details to be announced.   

 

#BHeard Town Halls

BRIC TV’s #BHeard Town Halls are empowering live events that activate journalists, elected officials, artists, and the community in the spirit of social justice. Through a documentary series that culminates in a televised town hall, BRIC takes a deep dive into the most pressing social issues of the day. From gentrification and race & policing to women’s rights, no topic is off-limits, and no viewpoint is ignored.

Sexual Harassment and Assault
Wednesday, March 21, 6:30PM
BRIC House Ballroom, FREE
From the media to politics to the military, we are in a moment of public reckoning with the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment in America. As the saying goes, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. How can we seize this moment to shift the systemic sexism that created the situation in the first place? And how can we challenge the entire community to hold those in power accountable for this much-needed transformation?

The War on Drugs
Wednesday, May 23, 6:30PM
BRIC House Ballroom, FREE
When the U.S. declared illegal drugs “public enemy number one” in 1971, few could have anticipated a five-decade war that has cost billions of dollars and disproportionately targeted, prosecuted, and incarcerated millions of people of color. If the result is overcrowded prisons, high overdose rates, gun violence, and a global criminal industry that is growing, why then are we still engaged in this war? What are the government policies that need to change?

Stoop Series

BRIC’s Stoop Series welcomes audiences for dynamic conversations that connect art, performance, media, and other creative fields with big ideas that are important to Brooklynites. The Stoop Series highlights voices we don’t hear enough, creative solutions that deserve more attention, artistic endeavors that make you see the world differently, and tools for enhancing your own creativity.

Tuesday, February 20, 7PM
The Black Gotham Experience with Kamau Ware
The Black Gotham Experience is an immersive visual storytelling project founded in 2010 that honors the impact of the African Diaspora on New York City via interactive walking tours through Manhattan’s Financial District, a developing series of photography-based graphic novels, and a web series, weaving together art, research, fashion and entertainment.

Tuesday, February 27, 7PM
Of Sight and Sound: Brandon Ross & Ford Crull
How does improvisation manifest between disciplines? How does creative practice shift when our senses are altered? This evening’s program explores these questions through a live, improvised collaboration between blindfolded painter Ford Crull and musician Brandon Ross from the band Harriet Tubman.

Tuesday, March 6, 7PM
Putting the “M” in Media: Marriage, Motherhood & Media-Making
Is it possible to juggle motherhood, relationships, and a career in media? Join us for a night of real talk with women who shed light on the strategies, challenges, and triumphs of being a working mother in the industry. Panelists include Mathilde Dratwa, founder of MomsInFilm.org, and Patricia Robinson, Director of Operations for New York/Hot 97, WBLS, and WLIB radio stations.

Tuesday, March 27, 7PM
Conversations with Otura Mun
In conjunction with a screening of the documentary Conversations with Otura Mun, filmmaker Omid Fatemi and Otura Mun of the band ÌFÉ delve into a discussion about the making of the film, and Mun’s spiritual and musical journey through the lens of the Ifá religion. Moderated by the BBC’s Jasmine Garsd. ÌFÉ will perform at BRIC on Thursday, March 29, as part of the BRIC House Sessions music series.

Tuesday, April 3, 7PM
Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora
Moderated by preeminent scholar Dr. Deborah Willis, Mfon co-founders Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu, along with photojournalist Michelle Agins, will discuss the commemorative bi-annual journal committed to establishing and representing a collective voice of women photographers of African descent.

Tuesday, April 10, 7PM
Ազատություն: The Power of Women in Armenian Art
Through the lenses of activism and poetry, this panel discussion explores the evolution of women’s rights and liberation in both Armenia and its diasporic communities over the past 170 years. Presented in collaboration with the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU).

Tuesday, April 17, 7PM
Heels on Wheels: FEMME-ifesting Queer Performance
Heels on Wheels presents a joyous evening of multidisciplinary queer performance—ranging from theater, music, and drag to literary arts, dance, and puppetry—created and presented by queer artists representing a variety of intersectional identities, including multiracial; trans and gender non-conforming; immigrant; and people of all abilities.

 

Brooklyn Poetry Slam
With host Mahogany L. Browne and DJ Jive Poetic
BRIC House Stoop & Ballroom, 7-9PM, FREE
Monday, February 12; Monday, March 12; Monday, April 23

The Brooklyn Poetry Slam brings together Brooklyn’s best slam poets for a monthly gathering of words and wisdom, hosted by poet, activist, and educator Mahogany L. Browne with music by DJ Jive Poetic. As Mahogany says, “These poets will make you feel things.” The Slam is followed by an Open Mic.

 

Community Dance Class
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company
BRIC House Ballroom, 6:30-8PM, FREE
Monday, March 26
Monday, April 16
Monday, May 21
Monday, June 18 

All ages and skill levels are welcome for a series of community dance classes led by Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company. Evidence blends traditional African dance with contemporary choreography and spoken word, providing a unique view of human struggles, tragedies, and triumphs. These Community Classes are rooted in the Company’s fusion aesthetic and are the perfect alternative to another boring day at the gym. No previous experience necessary.

 

TV & Podcast

BRIC TV
BRIC TV is the voice of Brooklyn on cable television and online video—reflecting the best that the borough has to offer with original, character-driven series, award-winning short documentaries, local news and social justice reporting, and premier arts and live event coverage. BRIC TV can be viewed on Spectrum 1992, Cablevision Optimum 70, and Verizon 46.

 

            Original Series

Actually, No
Season 2: April 2018
This series of mockumentary shorts focuses on Brooklyn’s most underrepresented characters—people who may or may not exist. Past episodes of Actually, No have highlighted Brooklyn’s smooth jazz revival, a Bushwick artisanal Spam venture, a graffiti artist who’s made a big name for himself making really small street art, and more. These hilarious mockumentaries will resonate with fans of shows like Documentary Now! and Nathan For You.  

Brooklynification
Season 2: May 2018
Mondays at 8PM
Directed by Keith Miller (Five Star, Welcome to Pine Hill), and produced by Christopher Poindexter (72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story?), Brooklynification is an uncomfortable comedy series about gentrification in New York’s most storied borough. For fans of Portlandia, High Maintenance and Broad City, this hilarious and diverse cast of characters take on the good, the bad and the awkward as transforming neighborhoods face the unexpected encounters of Brooklyn’s rapidly changing streets.

 

Local News and Social Justice Reporting

112BK
Cable TV: Monday-Thursday at 10PM
Podcast: Tuesday-Friday at 6am
112BK, hosted by Ashley C. Ford, is the only daily news and culture show from and about the country’s fourth largest city: Brooklyn. Both a broadcast and podcast, the half-hour program presents an intimate space for ongoing conversation about politics, social justice, activism, and the arts. If it matters to Brooklyn, it matters to us.

Going In with Brian Vines
Season 2: March 2018
Wednesdays at 8PM
BRIC TV Senior Correspondent Brian Vines takes you inside some of the most pressing issues facing our borough today, from the opioid epidemic and gentrification to rising Islamophobia.

#BHeard
BRIC TV’s Emmy award-winning #BHeard short documentaries explore social justice issues through a human lens. From Zainab, a Yemeni teen fighting Islamophobia in the current political climate, to Sal, who is still struggling to rebuild his life after Hurricane Sandy, these stories show viewers the real people who ignite activism and put a face on inequality in our city and beyond.

Music, Arts & Comedy

Hey How Ya Doin’?
Premiere: February 2018
Ashok “Dap” Kondabolu hosts this monthly variety show made up of man-on-the-street interviews around NYC, short comedy sketches, beautifully shot video montages set to a rotating cast of actors and musicians reciting original poetry, experimental video art and animation, and live musical performances with choreography. 

Laffaholics
New Season: March 2018
Thursdays at 9PM
Hosted by Ray DeJeon and filmed in front of a live audience at the Lindenwood Diner in East New York, this unfiltered stand-up series showcases the best emerging comedic talent including headliners like TK Kirkland.
 

B-Side
Thursdays at 8PM
A live, in-studio music series held Thursdays at BRIC House featuring intimate performances and interviews with Brooklyn’s hottest emerging musicians of all genres. Acts like Oshun, The Last Poets, and George Clanton have all played the studio stage, while folks like Jean Grae, Queen GodIs, and Delicate Steve have hosted.

Brooklyn Made
Schedule Varies
A cinematic documentary spotlight on the makers, builders, designers, and artists who make Brooklyn one of the most creative places in the world. Featured artists have included Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, acclaimed cellist Malcolm Parson, and Tony-nominated actor Sahr Ngaujah.

Brooklyn Documentaries

BK Stories
Monday-Friday at 1PM
BK Stories, the award-winning series of documentary shorts, features cinematic stories of Brooklyn and the characters that animate it. BK Stories is like the city it represents: diverse, vibrant, and pulsing with life.

Frameworks
A long-form documentary series that delves deep into a range of subject matter, going beyond the level of a slice-of-life portrait to bring the viewer on a journey as it unfolds.

 

BRIC Radio

BRIC Radio is Brooklyn’s independent podcasting network, amplifying voices and stories that reflect the diversity and creative spirit of the borough’s communities. BRIC Radio can be found on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play.

Last Name Basis
Hosts Franchesca Ramsey and Patrick Kondas discuss what’s going on in their world and in their lives as a married couple in this bi-weekly podcast that’s got everything from science news and dream interpretations to headline news and karaoke.

Brooklyn, USA
This monthly podcast is your home for stories and sounds from and about Brooklyn. The stories are deep, authentic, compelling, and produced by a curated group of storytellers. The sounds are portraits of the borough we call home. Together, they reflect the diversity and beauty of Brooklyn.

112BK
Hosted by Ashley Ford, this Brooklyn-centric daily news podcast covers everything from local politics and arts and culture to pressing social justice, environmental, and economic issues. 

B-Side
A live, in-studio music series held Thursdays at BRIC House featuring intimate performances and interviews with Brooklyn’s hottest emerging musicians of all genres.

 

Community Media

Brooklyn Free Speech, BRIC’s New York Emmy-winning community television network, amplifies and honors alternative voices in media and gives Brooklynites the tools and know-how to professionally create and distribute their own television and podcast shows. In addition to free and low-cost, high-quality media training courses at BRIC House and several Brooklyn Public Library locations that benefit close to 2,500 adults annually, pitch sessions, media talks and screenings help media makers take their message to the next level. 

 

B Scene
Black TV Matters: A Race to the Mountain Top
Wednesday, February 21, 6:30-8:30PM
BRIC House Stoop, FREE

A screening and discussion of community-produced short films that were created in a 72-hour period, exploring  the lives of African-Americans, covering themes such as Black love, gentrification, and Afrofuturism.

Audiences will select a winner.

 

B Free Awards
Sat, March 24, 7PM
BRIC House Ballroom & Stoop, FREE

The B Free Awards were created with one goal in mind: to celebrate and honor the diverse voices of community-produced TV on Brooklyn Free Speech. We’re rolling out the red carpet for the dedicated producers who share their programs on public access television. This year’s 5th annual B Free Awards will honor “character and community,” with 15+ statuettes up for grabs, diverse category choices, and an awards show that always brings glamor and excitement.

 

Family Programs

House Parties

Brooklyn’s best daytime family parties continue with exciting and interactive activities that encourage creativity and discovery. Hands-on art making, gaming and technology exploration, storytelling, and live performances all culminate in a raucous dance party for all ages.

Movers & Shakers
Saturday, February 10, 12-5PM
BRIC House, FREE

A day to celebrate the people who inspire us—the movers who make change and the shakers who challenge the status quo—from history and today.

Imagination Island
Saturday, April 7, 12-5PM
BRIC House, FREE

Attendees can ignite their imaginations with stories, arts, and games from global island cultures.

FamJam

A hands-on workshop for families to work together on a creative art project. Inspired by master works of various forms and fashions, made accessible with easy-to-follow instructions, these projects, best for ages 7+, celebrate the creative potential of collaboration across generations.

Basket Building
Saturday, March 3, 11am-2PM
BRIC House Gallery, FREE

An opportunity for families to learn basic weaving techniques influenced by diverse cultural traditions. Using colorful materials and adornments, families can collaborate to create their own basket or bowl and lid to take home and use every day.

Mosaic Making
Saturday, May 19 | 11am-2PM
BRIC House Gallery, FREE

Inspired by Roman and contemporary mosaic artists, families will learn how to design, glue, and grout mosaic tiles onto a wood panel. Using colorful glass tiles to create their own original patterns and symbols, families will work together to create a mosaic to take home and display as a collaborative work of art!

 

Support for BRIC

BRIC’s programs benefit from generous private funding Alloy Development, American Express, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, B&H Photo Video, Edwin Barbey Charitable Trust, The Bay and Paul Foundations, Bloomingdale’s, Brooklyn Community Foundation, City Point, Con Edison, The Educational Foundation of America, Ford Foundation, Forest City New York, Howard Gilman Foundation, Goya, The Hearst Foundations, Henson | Soule | Compass, JP Morgan Chase, Lambent Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, M&T Charitable Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, New York City Cultural Agenda Fund in The New York Community Trust, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Oppenheim Family Fund, Peapod, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Organization, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Sterling National Bank, TD Bank, TF Cornerstone, Tiger Baron Foundation, and Pia and Jimmy Zankel, as well as numerous individual supporters. BRIC’s media programs are made possible by generous funding from Verizon, Optimum, RCN, and Spectrum.

Generous public support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Legislature, and the Regional Economic Development Council; Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl; Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams; New York State Assembly Members Joseph R. Lentol, Walter Mosley, Annette Robinson, and Jo Anne Simon; New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council; New York City Council Members Inez Barron, Robert Cornegy, Laurie Cumbo, Rafael L. Espinal, Jr., Mathieu Eugene, Vincent Gentile, Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Alan Maisel, Darlene Mealy, Mark Treyger, and Jumaane Williams; and the Theater Subdistrict Council.

The Knights residency at BRIC is made possible through generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and, in part, with public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About BRIC

BRIC is the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. We present and incubate work by artists and media-makers who reflect the diversity that surrounds us.  BRIC programs reach hundreds of thousands of people each year.

Our main venue, BRIC House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio, and artist work spaces.

Some of BRIC’s most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park, several path-breaking public access media initiatives, including BRIC TV, and a renowned contemporary art exhibition series.  BRIC also offers education and other vital programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn.

In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences.

BRIC is unusual in both presenting exceptional cultural experiences and nurturing individual expression.  This dual commitment enables us to most effectively reflect New York City’s innate cultural richness and diversity. 

Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.


Press contact: Blake Zidell, Rachael Shearer, or Ron Gaskill at Blake Zidell & Associates: blake@blakezidell.com, rachael@blakezidell.com, ron@blakezidell.com 718.643.9052