2014 River To River Festival Lineup: Music, Dance, Art in NYC

Company:
LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL
LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL PRESENTS THE 13TH ANNUAL RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL
JUNE 19–29
Photo Credits: GODLIS (left) / Darial Sneed (right)
ALL EVENTS FREE, HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
Original Music Workshop’s “Ex-Situ” Series of Concerts Celebrating Terry Riley, Curated by Composer Paola Prestini
Global Music Concerts at South Street Seaport Featuring Live Music & DJs, Curated by Live Sounds
Trisha Brown Dance Company in Performance, Conversation & Exhibition
Bang on a Can Marathon
ETHEL with Special Guest Kaki King
Dance by Vanessa Anspaugh, Souleymane Badolo, Wally Cardona & Jennifer Lacey, Eiko, Maria Hassabi, Tere O’Connor, Okwui Okpokwasili, enrico d wey, Reggie Wilson
New Ways to Explore Lower Manhattan Architecture via “Digital Walks”
Opportunities to Socialize at R2R Bash & R2R Living Rooms (After-Hours Parties)
www.RiverToRiverNYC.com
Today Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) unveils the 2014 edition of the annual River To River Festival, Downtown NYC’s completely free summer arts festival. This 13th edition takes place June 19–29 and presents a diverse collection of music, dance, visual art, and unique participatory experiences by both renowned and breakout artists from New York City and beyond. The Festival seeks to provide world-class, free summer entertainment and to inspire residents, workers and visitors in the neighborhoods south of Chambers Street by connecting them to the creative process, unique places and each other. For audiences of one to crowds of thousands, River To River provides an intense and rewarding way to experience and discover Lower Manhattan’s waterfronts, parks, plazas and other hidden treasures. This year the Festival kicks off on June 19 with the public R2R Bash, co-sponsored by Conrad New York, Goldman Sachs and the area’s restaurants and retailers. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE.
Much more than just a series of free events, River To River serves as a platform for the arts sector in both nurturing new ideas and extending the life of existing work by inviting artists to create site-responsive versions of premiere performances that translate pieces to public space and alternative sites in new and unexpected ways. Additionally, the spectrum of work represents all stages of the creative process, and audiences are encouraged to get closer to artists and their practice through open studios, rehearsals and workshops.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled about the diverse range of cultural experiences offered by this year’s musicians, dancers, choreographers, event-makers and artists,” says Sam Miller, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President. “We hope that their movement will delight, disrupt and charm you on your way to or from your hotel, home or office; their sounds will mix with the waterfront’s own cacophony; and we’ll all re-imagine what we know and where we are as we explore new ideas and perspectives available only in Lower Manhattan.”
As an annual arts festival since 2002, River To River has become a cornerstone of Lower Manhattan culture. Since inception the Festival has had at its core the mission to respond to the needs of Lower Manhattan, and as lead producer since 2011, LMCC has continued to transform the Festival schedule and content in response to the changing Downtown landscape. This year’s focused 11-day format presents an ideally timed, manageable showcase in which the entire district of Lower Manhattan serves as a venue for intimate and provocative movement, sound and visual arts performances, exhibitions and events. Like other national and international arts festivals, this concentrated period of time lends an excitement and urgency to the proceedings, and ultimately results in greater impact and visibility for all of River To River 2014’s participants and partners.
Trisha Brown Dance Company: Exhibition, Conversation & Performance
Trisha Brown Dance Company’s participation in the 2014 River To River Festival marks a unique and extensive partnership between the Festival and the Company, the cornerstone of which is the summer-long exhibition Trisha Brown: Embodied Practice and Site Specificity at LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island. Running from Memorial Day through the end of September, the exhibition focuses on the site-specific work of the renowned choreographer, produced primarily between 1961 (when she moved to New York City) and 1979 (when she premiered Glacial Decoy on a proscenium stage), and demonstrates her myriad responses to New York City’s built environment.
“This year we celebrate the work of seminal artist Trisha Brown whose ‘embodied practice’ is often not easily categorized,” says Melissa Levin, Director of Cultural Programs at LMCC. “Brown has had—and continues to have—the power to transform us. We marvel at her unparalleled ability to respond to site, specifically in New York City, and to inspire critical and creative thinking about the world around us.”
The exhibition includes a section focused on I’m going to toss my arms—if you catch them they’re yours, which the company will present as part of the Festival in a site-specific performance on Pier 15. On June 22, Trisha Brown scholar Susan Rosenberg will host a special conversation and Q&A with the public, and an open rehearsal the day before the performance will give audiences further insight into the Company’s creative process.
R2R 2014: Sound
As always, music in all its forms is a major part of the 2014 River To River Festival. Last year’s successful partnership with Original Music Workshop, a new music venue set to open in Brooklyn in 2015, continues with three more “Ex-Situ” concerts of contemporary music in site-specific locations. Curated by composer Paola Prestini, this year’s series is dedicated to the music and influences of master minimalist composer Terry Riley. It begins on June 20 with “Terry Riley and Friends,” a concert featuring works by the composer performed by musicians including his son Gyan Riley, Tracy Silverman and the Young People’s Chorus. On June 21 renowned flutist (and MacArthur Fellow/founder of the International Contemporary Ensemble) Claire Chase and Bulgarian percussionist Svet Stoyanov perform a new duet by composer Marcos Balter based on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe paired with a new arrangement of Riley’s Tread on the Trail. And on June 23, Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen and former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler collaborate on “Aokigahara,” inspired by the forest that in Japanese mythology is associated with demons and spirits.
On June 21 River To River 2014 also celebrates Make Music New York, the city-wide day of free music on the summer solstice, with three unique Downtown events. New York Walkscape by Strijbos & Van Rijswijk leads participants through Lower Manhattan transforming the sounds around them into an ever-changing musical score via a specially created, GPS-enabled smartphone app. Pete M. Wyer’s And Death Shall Have No Dominion is termed a “participatory singing event,” celebrating the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. Using synchronized mobile devices, participants set off at pre-determined times on pre-determined routes, singing words by the famous poet and ultimately converging in a public park to sing together. Finally, Digital Sanctuaries, NYC by Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez is a mobile app walk that creates 12 musical, meditative sanctuaries in 12 historic sites in Lower Manhattan.
The beloved Bang on a Can Marathon takes place on June 22 at the Brookfield Place Winter Garden, presenting an 8-hour super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world. This year’s marathon includes music by Louis Andriessen, Armando Bayolo, Jherek Bischoff, Carlos Carrillo, Bryce Dessner, Julius Eastman & Jace Clayton, Michael Gordon, Judd Greenstein, Brooks Hendrickson, Molly Joyce, David Lang, Paula Matthusen, Marc Mellits, Meredith Monk, Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, JG Thirlwell, and Julia Wolfe, and performances by Adrianna Mateo, Anonymous 4, Bang on a Can All-Stars & friends, Bearthoven, Contemporaneous, Dawn of Midi, Great Noise Ensemble, Jace Clayton (aka DJ/rupture) & friends,), Jherek Bischoff, Mantra Percussion, Meredith Monk & Theo Bleckmann, Vocal Ensemble, Adrianna Mateo, Roomful of Teeth, and So Percussion, to name a few.
On June 24 at the Brookfield Place Winter Garden, world-renowned string quartet ETHEL is joined by guest guitarist Kaki King to present a special performance of ...And Other Stories. The collaboration is anchored by a re-imagining of Bach’s masterful Brandenburg Concerto #6 and includes works from ETHEL’s repertoire by Phil Kline and John Zorn, plus original compositions by Kaki King and the world premiere of a work by Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov composed especially for ETHEL and Kaki King.
Finally, at South Street Seaport, River To River presents “Fronteras: New and Old Sounds from Latin America and the Caribbean,” a series of concerts and DJ sets curated by Isabel Soffer/Live Sounds, June 27–29. From an accordion fronted Tex-Mex punk band to socially conscious Haitian songs, and from ambient folk and electronica to the NYC debut of the king of Colombian vallenato and cumbia, the series travels the crossroads, the blurs and the beats of both traditional and contemporary sounds. Friday night highlights experimental groups that explore musical boundaries; Saturday night features hard rocking socially conscious artists that speak to today’s political and social movements; and Sunday brings out some of the finest dance rhythms on the planet. All evenings feature sets by the NY-based DJ Nickodemus.
R2R 2014: Movement
Once again River To River offers opportunities to experience new and notable dance pieces in often unexpected locations. Of the Festival’s dance offerings last year The New York Times noted, “You never feel quite the same way about a public place once you’ve seen dance happening in it,” and went on to say that River To River “might change the way you see dance.”
This year features a broad range of work in a wide variety of venues and at various stages of development from dancers and choreographers as varied as the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Eiko, Vanessa Anspaugh, enrico d wey, Tere O’Connor, Souleymane Badolo, Reggie Wilson, Wally Cardona & Jennifer Lacey, Maria Hassabi and Okwui Okpokwasili.
Audiences also have the opportunity to get up and dance themselves at events such as the R2R Bash, R2R Living Rooms and the “Fronteras” concerts at South Street Seaport.
R2R 2014: Exhibition & Open Studios
Visual Art installations, exhibitions and visits to the studios where artists are currently in residence with LMCC are important and unique aspects of River To River. In addition to the summer-long exhibition, Trisha Brown: Embodied Practice and Site Specificity, and mobile app-based interactive walks and journeys described above, the public will also have the opportunity to visit the studios of LMCC’s 20 artists-in-residence on Governors Island for two full days, June 28 & 29.
In addition, performing artists Aya Ogawa and CollaborationTown will open up their respective rehearsal studios and present work-in-progress showings of upcoming projects during the Festival.
Finally, caraballo-farman present their The Signs of Paradise in Battery Park, a towering installation inspired by the fact that each of the 50 U.S. states has a town named “Paradise.” Situated near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, 50 sign posts will point to the 50 towns, providing directional signage and mileage to all passersby.
New This Year: R2R Living Rooms & Creative Insider’s Guide to Lower Manhattan
This year introduces a new feature to the Festival: after-hours parties and programming in the form of R2R Living Rooms, giving audiences the opportunity to come together with friends, fellow audience members, artists and performers to socialize, dance, discuss and absorb the River To River offerings they’ve experienced during the day. Programming varies—all events will be held at VBar Seaport; please see below for details.
Also new this year is the Creative Insider’s Guide to Lower Manhattan. Sponsored by Launch LM, this guide will be a digital map juxtaposing the histories of Lower Manhattan’s iconic architecture and design and the personal tales of groundbreaking artists who have worked in the area.
RIVER TO RIVER 2014 FULL SCHEDULE:
Dates, times and locations subject to change—be sure to check www.RiverToRiverNYC.com for up-to-date information. Please note that all events are free, but due to limited capacity some require advance RSVPs. All RSVPs open June 9.
R2R BASH
June 19, 5–8pm
North End Way
Co-sponsored with Conrad New York, Goldman Sachs, and area restaurants & retailers
Tags: Food, Music, Social
Join LMCC, Goldman Sachs and Conrad New York for a “block party” style event on North End Way. Enjoy discounts at area restaurants and retailers, performances by dance troupe/rock band People Get Ready and activities for the whole family. The event is open to the public and gives attendees a chance to meet the River To River artists and partners and help kick off the 13th annual festival.
TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY
EXHIBITION: EMBODIED PRACTICE AND SITE SPECIFICITY
June 20–29: Monday–Friday 12–5pm, Saturdays 10am–5pm, Sundays 12–5pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Tags: Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Music, New Media
Trisha Brown: Embodied Practice and Site-Specificity looks closely at the artist’s early work, collaborative practice and relationship to New York City, showing the transformative effect of her performances on audiences and her significant influence on a new generation of artists.
CARABALLO-FARMAN
THE SIGNS OF PARADISE
June 20–29, 8am–8pm
Battery Park
Tags: Visual Arts
Every state in the United States has a town called Paradise. In this towering exhibition, 50 sign posts point to the 50 towns of Paradise—providing direction and mileage, and reflecting on the notion of the quintessential “American dream” and on the pursuit of paradise, freedom and happiness.
EIKO
TWO WOMEN
June 20 & 22, 2pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Tags: Dance
Eiko experiments to create and present a duet with Japanese dancer Tomoe Aihara. Two Women is an experimental performance that focuses on their age difference and explores how two bodies sometimes mirror each other in parts or collide into one.
VANESSA ANSPAUGH
WHAT WAS WASN’T HERE.
June 20 at 3pm
June 21 at 1pm & 3pm
Location TBA
Commissioned by LMCC
Tags: Dance
Inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s The Far Away Nearby and the process of developing this work on Governors Island, Vanessa Anspaugh explores the illusions of separation, relationships and space, and asks how bodies share and lose one another.
ORIGINAL MUSIC WORKSHOP’S EX-SITU SERIES
TERRY RILEY & FRIENDS
June 20 at 7pm
Federal Hall
Tags: Music
Composer Paola Prestini curates the second iteration of the Ex-Situ series and showcases work created and inspired by iconic composer and musician Terry Riley. Experience the work of Riley—often called the “father of minimalism”—and of musicians he has inspired including his son Gyan Riley, Tracy Silverman and the Young People’s Chorus, among others.
PETE M. WYER
AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION
June 21 at 11am
Location TBA
Co-presented by Make Music New York and Poets House
Tags: Music, New Media
Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas, And Death Shall Have No Dominion is a “vocamotive choir” participatory event in honor of his famous poem. Using headphones and synchronized mobile devices, participants set off on a 45-minute walk through the city, singing the words of the renowned poet across the landscape of his final days.
STRIJBOS & VAN RIJSWIJK
NEW YORK WALKSCAPE
June 21 at 12pm, 2pm & 4pm
Various Locations TBA
Co-presented by Make Music New York
Tags: Music, New Media
Composed by Dutch composers Strijbos & Van Rijswijk, New York Walkscape is a software-coded iPhone app called “Walk With Me.” As one walks throughout Lower Manhattan, a musical score is unraveled by the physical exploration of the built environment.
SUSIE IBARRA & ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ
DIGITAL SANCTUARIES, NYC
June 21 at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm
Starting Locations: India House (1pm); Peter Minuet Plaza (3pm); Tear Drop Park (5pm)
Commissioned by New Music USA’s Commissioning Music/USA program and presented as part of Make Music New York
RSVP required
Tags: Music, New Media
Digital Sanctuaries, NYC is an urban music mobile app walk that brings 12 sanctuaries of music to 12 historic sites in Lower Manhattan. Experience this virtual pilgrimage through the built environment of a cityscape, and discover meditative spaces in unexpected places, marked by an ever-changing musical score.
ORIGINAL MUSIC WORKSHOP’S EX-SITU SERIES
CLAIRE CHASE & SVET STOYANOV
June 21 at 7pm
Federal Hall
Tags: Music, Visual Arts
Flutist Claire Chase and Bulgarian percussionist Svet Stoyanov collaborate on a new duet called “Alone” by composer Marcos Balter—a music drama based on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. Using acoustic and electronic manipulations of their instruments, voices and physical gestures, Chase and Stoyanov explore facets of loneliness inside a living room built of visual illusions and spatially organized sounds. As the room contracts and expands, the performers face a paradox of human existence realizing that we are both never and always alone. Chase and Stoyanov will also debut a new arrangement of Terry Riley’s Tread on the Trail for a variety of modern flutes including the piccolo, G alto and C bass flutes that will be sampled in real time with a MalletKAT providing percussion.
R2R LIVING ROOM
EPHRAT ASHERIE & HECTOR ARCE-ESPASAS: EVERYDAY I’M HUSTLIN’
June 21, 9–11pm
VBar Seaport
Tags: Music, Dance
For the first time, River To River is programming into the night! Artists, partners and audiences are all invited to come together, socialize and experience after-hours programming at the new R2R Living Rooms—taking place at the newly opened VBar at The Seaport.
Ephrat Asherie and Hector Arce-Espasas present an evening that fuses the iconic hustle dance with a diverse mix of classic and contemporary disco and Latin beats. This is the first collaboration between choreographer Asherie and visual artist and DJ Arce-Espasas who have worked alongside each other since September as participants in LMCC’s Workspace artist residency program.
BANG ON A CAN
MARATHON
June 22, 2–10pm
Brookfield Place, Winter Garden
Co-presented by Arts Brookfield
Tags: Music
Bang on a Can returns with its annual super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world! This year features eight hours of rare performances by some of the most innovative musicians of our time side-by-side with some of today’s most pioneering young artists including Roomful of Teeth, So Percussion, Jherek Bischoff and many more.
Music by:
Louis Andriessen, Armando Bayolo, Jherek Bischoff, Carlos Carrillo, Bryce Dessner, Julius
Eastman & Jace Clayton, Michael Gordon, Judd Greenstein, Brooks Hendrickson, Molly Joyce, David Lang, Paula Matthusen, Marc Mellits, Meredith Monk, Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, JG Thirlwell, and Julia Wolfe.
Performances by:
Adrianna Mateo, Anonymous 4, Bang on a Can All-Stars & friends, Bearthoven, Contemporaneous, Dawn of Midi, Great Noise Ensemble, Jace Clayton (aka DJ/rupture) & friends, Jherek Bischoff, Mantra Percussion, Meredith Monk & Theo Bleckmann, Roomful of Teeth, and So Percussion.
TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY
IN CONVERSATION: EMBODIED PRACTICE & SITE-SPECIFICITY
June 22 at 4:30pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Tags: Talks, Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Music, New Media
Trisha Brown’s principles of choreography and movement will be discussed by art historian Susan Rosenberg, in a talk that illuminates parallels between Brown’s dance ideas and visual art of her time, focusing on major works of the 1970s and 1980s.
ENRICO D WEY
WHERE WE ARE RIGHT NOW
June 22 at 7pm & 8pm
June 24 at 7:30pm
Pier 15
Tags: Dance
In his where we are right now, enrico d wey explores an endless circuit: the little lives, loves and deaths within each singular, yet insignificant moment—originating as action, and ending as memory.
TERE O’CONNOR
UNTITLED
June 23–25 at 1pm
Elevated Acre
Commissioned by LMCC
Tags: Dance
Tere O’Connor creates a new duet for Michael Ingle and Silas Riener, a work constructed by allowing the lines traced by the dancing body to intersect with those created in space by on-site buildings. The choreographic relationship between human figure and monolith forms the basic structure of this work examining the coexistence of spectacle and anonymity in public spaces.
COLLABORATIONTOWN
IN DEVELOPMENT: STAGED READING OF NEW WORK
June 23 & 26 at 2pm
June 24 at 5pm
LMCC’s studios at One Liberty Plaza, 12th Floor
RSVP required
Tags: Theatre, Open Studios
CollaborationTown presents staged readings of two new pieces in development: Henry IV written by Geo Decas O’Donnell and The Fun Pain written by Jordan Seavey. Henry IV follows one man’s obsession with Hamlet and how his mania affects his surrounding world. The Fun Pain chronicles two sisters living in the South.
AYA OGAWA
LUDIC PROXY
June 23 at 5pm, June 25 at 2pm, June 27 at 4pm
LMCC’s studios at One Liberty Plaza, 12th floor
RSVP required
Tags: Theatre, Open Studios
Inspired by the horrific devastation following the 2011 Japanese earthquake, Ludic Proxy by Aya Ogawa is a multi-lingual, multi-media play exploring the tenuous line between memory, reality and fantasy as experienced through a lens of three narratives: Nostalgia, Virtual Reality and The Future Age.
ORIGINAL MUSIC WORKSHOP’S EX-SITU SERIES
KIMMO POHJONEN & JEFFREY ZEIGLER
June 23 at 7pm
Pier 15
Tags: Music
Inspired by the lure of Aokigahara—long associated with demons and spirits in Japanese mythology, and in recent years a popular place for suicides—innovative Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen and former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler collaborate to weave a potent and energetic musical tapestry rife with hope, faith and resignation.
SOULEYMANE BADOLO
, OF HISTORY (VIRGULE DE L’HISTOIRE)
June 24 at 3pm
June 25 at 1pm & 5pm
John Street Church Courtyard
Commissioned by LMCC
Tags: Dance
Souleymane Badolo’s , of history (Virgule de l’histoire) is a dance about the effect of external events in shaping one’s vision and re-defining self-image. It is about the process of transformation that comes from accepting circumstances that are often beyond our control. In this dance, Badolo finds happiness through the various twists and turns that have led to new influences and different outcomes than imagined.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMS
June 24, 4–8pm
Various Locations, see website for details
Tags: Visual Arts
Enjoy free admission at 13 distinctive museums and historic sites in Lower Manhattan as part of the 2014 River To River Festival. Discover where New York City’s history and culture begin.
Night at the Museum participants:
African Burial Ground National Monument
The Anne Frank Center USA
Federal Hall National Memorial
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Museum of American Finance
Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
National Archives at New York City
National Museum of the American Indian—Smithsonian Institution
National September 11 Memorial Museum
9/11 Tribute Center
The Skyscraper Museum
South Street Seaport Museum
Wall Street Walks
ETHEL WITH SPECIAL GUEST KAKI KING
…AND OTHER STORIES
June 24 at 7:30pm
Brookfield Place, Winter Garden
Co-presented by Arts Brookfield
Tags: Music
Known worldwide for transcending the limits of tradition, the string quartet ETHEL presents an epic oeuvre of musical styles and sounds. Brought together with virtuoso guitarist Kaki King—who has won an enthusiastic international following—these celebrated artists collide to create a memorable evening of sound.
REGGIE WILSON
…MOSES(ES)
June 25 at 2:45pm
June 26 at 1:45pm & 3:45pm
St. Cornelius Chapel, Governors Island
Co-commissioned by New England Foundations for the Arts’ National Dance Project, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and LMCC
Tags: Dance
In ...Moses(es) Wilson asks: how do we lead and why do we follow? He examines the multiple iterations of Moses as represented in religious texts, and his place in the mythical, canonical and ethnographic imaginations, exploring questions and expectations in our relationship to leaders and leadership.
TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY
I’M GOING TO TOSS MY ARMS—IF YOU CATCH THEM THEY’RE YOURS
Open Rehearsal: June 25 at 7pm
Performance: June 26 at 7pm
Pier 15
Tags: Dance
I’m going to toss my arms—if you catch them they’re yours premiered in October 2011 at Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris with sold-out performances for a two-week run. It was met with enthusiastic critical praise in both Paris and Rome and for its New York City premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2013. Now, Trisha Brown’s piece de resistance is re-imagined for audiences on the East River Waterfront.
R2R LIVING ROOM
MIKE IVESON/DJ HOTEL SCAMPI
June 25, 9–11pm
VBar Seaport
Tags: Music, Dance
For the first time, River To River is programming into the night! Artists, partners and audiences are all invited to come together, socialize and experience after-hours programming at the new R2R Living Rooms—taking place at the newly opened VBar at South Street Seaport.
DJ Hotel Scampi spikes absurdly danceable music from contemporary times with occasional forays into his extensive collection of Dutch dance pop from the years 1974–1987, otherwise known as Nederpop or Dutch Dance Dirt.
WALLY CARDONA & JENNFIER LACEY
THE SET UP: I NYOMAN CATRA
June 26 at 5pm
June 27 & 28 at 1pm
Location TBA
Commissioned by LMCC
Tags: Dance
The Set Up: I Nyoman Catra is the fifth installment of an eight-part series. The Set Up is a multi-year project devised by Wally Cardona, made in collaboration with choreographer Jennifer Lacey, and an international assembly of dance-artists viewed as “masters” of their form, operating in their own culturally informed aesthetic.
THE 22ND ANNUAL POETS HOUSE SHOWCASE OPENING
June 26, 5:30–8:30pm
Poets House
Co-presented by Poets House
Tags: Writing/Literature
Poets House presents the 22nd annual Poets House Showcase, a free exhibit featuring all of the new poetry books and poetry-related texts published in the United States in a single year from over 650 commercial, university and independent presses. This diverse and inclusive exhibition will be on view through August 2, 2014.
MARIA HASSABI
PREMIERE
June 27 at 3pm
June 28 at 3pm & 5pm
Bowling Green
Commissioned by LMCC
Tags: Dance
Through Hassabi’s sculpturesque approach to movement and extended duration, PREMIERE continuously exposes process, calling attention to the present moment. Keeping the aliveness of the form at the forefront of each individual encounter, the work will reflect on the human experience as an ongoing process.
PIÑATA PROTEST, KUENTA I TAMBU (KIT), HELADO NEGRO & SLV
FRONTERAS: NEW & OLD SOUNDS FROM LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
June 27, 4–9:30pm
The Uplands, South Street Seaport
Co-presented by Isabel Soffer / Live Sounds
Tags: Music
Punk rock-y-roll band Piñata Protest is a bilingual accordion-fronted quartet that believes that old school punk rock and old-school Latin border music can be fused into something modern and loud. Their sound has been dubbed “ranchero punk” with songs that target the adversities and emptiness of modern life.
Based in Amsterdam, Caribbean Carnival revelers Kuenta i Tambu (KiT) are a riot of beats and rhythms who’ve transformed the traditional tambú music of Curaçao into the 21st-century phenomenon of Tambutronic or global bass. A wild and colorful explosion of energy, the band has cleverly found a balance between electronic sound samples, song, chant and the infectious rhythms played by ritual tambú drums. The name Kuenta i Tambu translates to “Stories and Drums” from Papiamentu, which is the native language of the Dutch Caribbean islands Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire.
Helado Negro, one of many musical projects of Roberto Carlos Lange, is an ethereal electronica project that reflects 21st-century Latin America. Pounding bass beats from passing cars, boom boxes bouncing down the block, late-night parties and the rich sounds and colors of the various Latino cultures of Southern Florida where he was born provides a foundation for Lange’s interest in sound. The atmospheric haze and low-tempo beats set a beautiful backdrop for Helado Negro’s dreamy echoed vocals.
The moody, intensely personal pop songs of multi-instrumentalist/songwriters Sandra Lilia Velásquez and Sean Dixon’s new project SLV have a subtle electronic edge. Velasquez is the founder of the acclaimed Latin band Pistolera, which released three studio albums and toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Sean Dixon is the drummer for the experimental electronic band Zammuto. Together the pair recorded the SLV debut EP Dig Deeper, produced by ten-time Grammy nominee and legendary bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, who plays bass on three of the
songs and co-wrote one.
MARIA HASSABI, PAOLO JAVIER & KANEZA SCHAAL
IN CONVERSATION
June 27, 7–9:00pm
Poets House
Co-presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center and Poets House
Tags: Talks, Dance, Poetry, Theatre
In conjunction with the site-based presentation of Maria Hassabi’s dance performance PREMIERE at Bowling Green, Hassabi is joined at Poets House by Paolo Javier and Kaneza Schaal—artists working in poetry and theatre respectively and each of whom also blurs the lines between disciplines in various ways—in a conversation about the relationship between word, image and movement.
OPEN STUDIOS WITH LMCC’S ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
June 28–29, 12–5pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Tags: Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Music, New Media
Join us for Open Studios with Process Space artists-in-residence at Governors Island! Visit with visual and performing artists and writers who have been working at LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island since March. The weekend will feature behind-the-scenes access to 20 multi-disciplinary artists’ studios.
ROBERT KOCIK & DARIA FAIN:
UBIQUITOUS DIVIDEND: A DAY-LONG CELEBRATION OF ROBERT KOCIK’S SUPPLE SCIENCE
June 28, 2–5pm (workshop), 6–8pm (performance)
Poets House
Co-presented by Poets House
Tags: Performing Arts, Social Practice
Poets House presents an afternoon workshop and performance celebrating the works of poet and prosodist Robert Kocik through a variety of disciplines—poetics, visual art, performance, architecture, disability studies, design, medicine, economics, politics—to explore what Kocik calls the “sore, over-sensitive, insecure, and supple sciences.”
OKWUI OKPOKWASILI
BRONX GOTHIC: THE OVAL
June 28 & 29 at 3pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Co-commissioned by Danspace Project, LMCC, and Performance Space
Tags: Performance Art, Dance, Theatre
Bronx Gothic reveals an impassioned story of coming of age as notes are surreptitiously passed between two school girls at the tender age of 11. Enacted as a solo, Okpokwasili casts a gripping performance that sheds light on harrowing issues of self esteem, body image and sex amid a susceptible moment in a young girl’s life.
BÉLO & CURUPIRA
FRONTERAS: NEW & OLD SOUNDS FROM LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
June 28, 5:30–9pm
The Uplands, South Street Seaport
Co-presented by Isabel Soffer / Live Sounds
Tags: Music
Haiti’s outspoken groove innovator BélO has been hailed as the island’s musical ambassador to the world. The globally informed singer, songwriter and guitarist interweaves Afro-Caribbean Haitian traditions with jazz, rock and reggae alongside a progressive voice for social and political transformation into what he calls “Ragganga.”
Bogota-based Curupira are a groundbreaking group who perform an original style of music they call “funklorica.” They are known for incorporating traditions like gaita, chalupa, fandango and champeta from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern plains of Colombia with contemporary urban sounds including rap, rock, funk and classical Indian music.
SERGIO MENDOZA Y LA ORKESTA & REY VALLENATO BETO JAMAICA
FRONTERAS: NEW & OLD SOUNDS FROM LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
June 29, 1:30–5pm
The Uplands, South Street Seaport
Co-presented by Isabel Soffer / Live Sounds
Tags: Music
The 1950s funky big-band indie mambo and cumbia sound of Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta is led by keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist Sergio Mendoza (Devotchka and Calexico), and features the rich baritone of Mexican vocalist Salvador Duran (who dueted with Willie Nelson on “Señor” in the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There).
The King of Colombian vallenato and cumbia music, Beto Jamaica, makes his New York debut performing ecstatic accordion-fronted dance party music from the Caribbean coast. Since earning his “Rey” title at the prestigious Leyenda Vallenata Festival, Beto has become one of Colombia’s most beloved artists and contemporary musicians.
ON VIDEO: NEW YORK CLOSE-UP
June 29 at 4:30pm
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
Tags: Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Music, New Media
A screening of videos featuring current participants in and recent alumni from LMCC’s artist residency programs. Art21’s New York Close Up series is devoted to artists in the first decade of their professional careers, living and working in New York City. Featured artists are Martha Colburn, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Liz Magic Laser, Mary Mattingly, Shana Moulton and Jacolby Satterwhite.
ABOUT LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL (LMCC)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Lower Manhattan and beyond. In 2014, LMCC will award over $500,000 in grants, provide 500 individuals with professional development skills and access to business leaders and arts professionals, place 100 individuals and arts groups in our studio residency programs, as well as present over 60 days of free cultural experiences for the public to enjoy. The combination of LMCC’s investment in individual artists and small arts groups, our robust network of partners in the public and private sectors, and our integrated approach to fostering local neighborhood efforts, aims to spark public imagination as well as inspire personal attachment and investment in NYC’s communities.
LMCC’s public engagement initiatives demonstrate the role artists play in our communities by connecting the Lower Manhattan public to creative practices, ideas, art forms, and other audience members seeking similar experiences. Through the presentation and commissioning of performances, talks, exhibitions, studio visits, open rehearsals, readings, and participatory events across Lower Manhattan, LMCC aims to inspire the public to think critically about the world around them and increase the attachment that participants feel toward the place where the activity is taking place as well as to their fellow attendees. For audiences of one to 1,000 made up of individuals with a wide-range of interests and experience with the arts, LMCC’s Open Studios, River To River, Arts East River Waterfront, and Arts Center at Governors Island initiatives all shine a light on neighborhoods where artists are at work.
RIVER TO RIVER FOUNDING PARTNERS
River To River was founded in 2002 by American Express, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Alliance for Downtown New York, Arts Brookfield, Battery Park City Authority, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and South Street Seaport.
2014 RIVER TO RIVER PRESENTING PARTNERS
Art21
Arts Brookfield
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Live Sounds
Make Music New York
Original Music Workshop
Poets House
South Street Seaport
2014 RIVER TO RIVER FUNDING
Leadership Support generously provided by: Alliance for Downtown New York, American Express, The Downtown Alliance, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, HUD, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Westfield World Trade Center, The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation & HUD, and in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Lead Media Partners: THIRTEEN, WNYC and WQXR.
Major Support provided by: Conrad New York, Goldman Sachs, and The Howard Hughes Corporation, as well as CBRE, Century 21 Department Store, The Moody’s Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Friends of the Festival: Launch LM, NY Waterway, Old Seaport Alliance, TheaterMania, The Trust for Governors Island, Union Square Events, Vbar Seaport, and Zipcar, as well as 55 Water Street Corp., The Battery Conservancy, National Parks Service, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, and Trinity Wall Street.
Additional support provided by: Ameriprise Financial, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
www.RiverToRiverNYC.com
Facebook: facebook.com/rivertoriver
Twitter & Instagram: @R2RFestival #R2RFestival