Issue Project Room

Join ISSUE on September 21st at 2pm for a Long Table discussion around the public art project, Exorcism = Liberation, by Puerto Rican-born, Brooklyn-based artist and choreographer Yanira Castro. During this year’s critical American election, “I came here to weep” is but one of several slogans in the project’s call-to-action. Limited Capacity!

The Long Table is a dinner party structured by etiquette, where conversation is the only course. The Long Table - developed by Lois Weaver - is inspired by Marleen Gorris’s film Antonia’s Line, and brings what might often be seen as ‘outside’ in. Everyone in the room has the power (and imperative, with the communal interest for a more satisfying discussion) to shift the direction of conversation, to mediate moments of tension and to make space for voices less easily heard.

When to use a long table:
to invite community knowledge around difficult conversations
to break down institutional barriers for knowledge
to cultivate community
to share in dialogue with artists from across ISSUE’s history including Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste , Sami Hopkins & Theodore (ted) Kerr

Thanks Split Britches NYC for this history on the Long Table. ISSUE Members receive free access with their online code! Engage with the full project here: http://exorcism-liberation.net/

📸: Masks from ‘I came here to weep’ courtesy and

Free with RSVP at next month, 2024 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence Axine M brings together an incredible ensemble & speaks about Sold Licker Glass (9/12):

Áslaug Magnúsdóttir, Clarinet, .magnusd
Bridget Ferrill, Harp,
Cal Fish, Flute, ._.fish
Kwami Winfield, Trumpet,
Leila Bordreuil, Cello,

“The withering music industry demands that artists volunteer embodied information, sometimes biometric data, as recorded audio. Likenesses are routinely stolen and repurposed. What was once a fantastical nightmare is now barely newsworthy, as voices, faces, and personas are used to warp the statements of strangers. Writing for an ensemble is a means for me to invert that and have others embody my ideas. In this case, it’s a group of trusted friends. I’m thinking about transmitting a musical idea as cheaply and compressed as possible and reclaiming worthlessness. Sheet music divorces my body from distribution, and its experience requires the recipient’s physical participation.

I wrote this song cycle out of habit, working through feelings of detachment and physical alienation, not realizing that I was simulating solid, liquid, and gas. The melodies now threaded through it affirm all the ways I was being, melting, evaporating.”

ISSUE’s 2024 Membership Campaign continues! Join as a Member during the campaign, and receive a free ticket to our 2024 Fall Opening concert on September 7th!

Your ISSUE Membership directly contributes to:
✨Building a diverse community of artists who explore some of the most pressing issues and questions of our time
✨Supporting the development of emerging and underrecognized projects and practices
✨Sustaining both room for dialogue and a permanent home at 22 Boerum Pl. for our robust network of artists, audience, and staff

Up to $10,000 of new and renewing memberships will be matched during ISSUE’s 2024 Summer Membership Campaign. This offer is due to the generosity of the ISSUE Board and a number of people within ISSUE’s community, including: Kathy Brew, Claire Chase, Gisela Gamper, Thomas Hamilton, Joan La Barbara & Morton Subotnick, Steve Milton, Stephan Moore, Amy Schwartzman, plus two anonymous donors. THANK YOU!

Full Announcement: 2024 Fall Programs!

👉 9/12 ISSUE Artist-In-Resident Axine M (.m): Sold Licker Glass
👉 9/21 Yanira Castro (): Exorcism = Liberation: I came here to weep with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste (), Sami Hopkins & Theodore Kerr ()
👉 9/26 Jo Andres’ Black Kites with Eszter Balint (.balint), Mimi Goese, Katie Porter () & Hahn Rowe ()
👉 10/4 Jo Andres’ Dreaming Out Loud with Jennifer Reeves (), Lisa Rinzler (), Lucy Sexton (), Elliott Sharp () & Axine M
👉 10/23 ASA-CHANG (.info) & Junray / Alma Laprida ()
👉 10/30 heartsleeves: LoVid () & Ka Baird ()

ISSUE Members receive free or discounted tickets to all events, and retain exclusive access to limited-capacity events until sold out.

🎈Wishing a happy birthday to Annea Lockwood!

A member of ISSUE’s Artistic Advisory Council, the recordist-listener/composer was also honored during the organization’s 2021 Benefit. We celebrate Annea and her ongoing influence & contributions to the mapping of feminist sound art histories.

View the 2021 restaging of the iconic Piano Transplants (1968-72) in ISSUE’s free, online archive, along with more of Annea’s work. You can also visit the Piano Garden

ISSUE is pleased to share a new, limited edition broadsheet for Members! The broadsheet, launched in conjunction with our Summer Membership Campaign, features artwork by the renowned performance & visual artist Jo Andres (1954-2019), who is this year’s 2024 Gala honoree.

Sign up for a membership at the Contributor level or above during the Campaign and receive a limited edition Dark Denim “Cyanotype” Tote Bag, in celebration of the artist’s innovative, dreamlike imagery🌀

ISSUE’s Summer season closes this Saturday with TO BREATHE IS TRIUMPH! ISSUE invites free-jazz quintet and afrofuturistic vocalist as members of our experimental music community to gather in civic partnership with “to breathe, and keep breathing any way we can.” This event commemorates 10 years since the murder of Eric Garner, and the ongoing loss of Black life at the hands of the State.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲? 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟭𝟬?

🎟️ 🖤 Link in bio / Discounted tix available for ISSUE Members / in support of youth & families who have been victims of police brutality, please consider contributing to the

It is only recently that Frankie Mann is becoming recognized for her pioneering work in music and technology.

She began her career in the 1970s when the shift from analog to digital technologies was quickly evolving, requiring Mann to (quite literally) write her way into the male dominated history of electronic music composition. While much of Mann’s work has existed on the peripheries of history, this September, ISSUE brings a selection of her past works in conversation with present-day works & collaborators—including ISSUE Artistic Advisory Council Member —in celebration of the artist’s legacy. Link in bio!

Artwork by

Alongside the announcement of our Fall programs, ISSUE is launching our Summer Membership Campaign! Community engagement through Membership is critical to everything we do at ISSUE.

Join as a Member during ISSUE's Campaign and receive a 🆓 ticket to our Fall Opening concert:

After last performing in 2000, composer Frankie Mann will make her return to New York at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn (9/7) to open ISSUE's 2024 Fall Season. She will be accompanied for this landmark occasion by longtime collaborator David Behrman, Allison Easter, Sarah Hennies & John King to present Descent, a new work for traditional acoustic and electronic instruments and soundscapes. Sarah Hennies will open the evening by working with difference tones for solo bowed vibraphone before joining Mann, Behrman, Easter & King.

Our dear friends at , need your help! Please buy a ticket and/or donate to their Benefit Concert & Fundraiser taking place this Wednesday evening! More information at brooklynmusicschool.org

And at the BMS Playhouse this Thursday 6/27, ISSUE presents Joni’s second 2024 Artist-in-Residence performance. Don’t forget to RSVP!

"It seems perhaps mundane, but in this residency at ISSUE, I would like to talk about the weather, and maybe motherhood, and maybe Louise Bourgeois' Spirals. My musical practice changed quite a bit since moving from Brooklyn to the mountains of Utah with young children, over a decade ago. In the move, I felt I lost my music community, and, as a performer I felt very isolated, but I gained time, and, importantly, I became comfortable with change and impermanence. I realized that my favorite music to both perform and listen to was a shared experience, ephemeral, music to exist in...

Almost always these works are about slow change. Sometimes we use the weather as 'small talk,' as a way to mark our days and predictability of the seasons, but now the weather has been so extreme lately, smoke-filled cities, flooding, that I found myself asking over and over, what is going on? Are we just sharing the small daily changes in our individual lives? Or are we waking up to the extreme change that is happening around us?" —On 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘞𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘯 - 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘐𝘯 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 & 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 by Katie Porter

This Saturday! Don't miss Q***R TRASH's Symposium with 2nd, David Grollman, M. Lamar, and Qiujiang Levi Lu...and speaking of FREE events:

Thursday, July 11th from 6–9pm, join ISSUE Project Room and Figure 8 Recording to celebrate the summer with a drink at our 22 Boerum Pl. theater! Shahzad Ismaily, the musicians’ musician and impresario of Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, will be spinning a special selection of his personal record collection at 7pm. The evening will also feature a raffle with a chance to win exclusive Figure 8 merchandise, some rare picks from ISSUE’s archive, Distributed Objects, and more!

ISSUE Project Room, in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Council and First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, presents TO BREATHE IS TRIUMPH.

Commemorating 10 years since the murder of Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY, ISSUE participates in a series of community activations happening across NYC sparked by The Ritual of Breath to contend with an important question: what does it mean to support Black life through embodied ritual?

To honor this memorial anniversary in the last of its summer season programs, ISSUE joins these collective healing rituals by welcoming liberation-oriented free-jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements and afrofuturistic vocalist and improviser, Shara Lunon to First Unitarian. In recognition of the Staten Island community, ISSUE will be offering free advanced tickets for Staten Island residents🖤

Read more about the program, artists, and The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist partners on our website - link in bio!

📸 by Ariella Villefranche

In celebration of Roulette, ISSUE recognizes their 45th Anniversary Gala on June 6th honoring co-founder and Artistic Director Jim Staley for his many years of leadership in experimental art. As fellow members of this creative community, we raise a glass to Staley after 45 adventurous years, Roulette staff, and all of the wonderful artists (and friends of ISSUE) who are participating in this year’s Gala! 🥂

Images:
Slide 1 - Chris Cochrane, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori, and Jim Staley by Barbara Mensch
Slide 2 - Hal Willner's “Amarcord Nino Rota” by Sam Polcer (2023)
Slide 3 - Roulette’s 45th Anniversary Gala photo by Lona Foote

Save the Date: ISSUE Project Room is delighted to honor the renowned performance & visual artist Jo Andres at our 2024 Gala taking place on Wednesday, October 9th at the organization’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater. This year’s Gala recognizes Jo on the heels of Jo Andres: Before Your Eyes - a solo exhibition spanning 40 years, presented by SPRING/BREAK Art Show promoting the first expansive exhibition of the artist’s work, including ISSUE’S co-presentation of the Liquid TV Salon. Jo stalwartly supported ISSUE since the organization’s early days in the East Village, and was a longtime friend and ally to ISSUE’s founder Suzanne Fiol. Alongside her husband and long-standing ISSUE Board Member Steve Buscemi, the brilliant artist, filmmaker, choreographer and member of ISSUE’s Artistic Advisory Council crucially advocated for the organization as it grew and established itself in Brooklyn. ISSUE remains truly grateful for her ardent commitment to experimental art, and for her belief in the organization as “the pulse of the culture.”

ISSUE’s Gala is an opportunity to recognize important figures in the experimental arts community and serves as a critical fundraising initiative towards ongoing commissions, international artist appearances, residencies, and premieres. The evening reinforces the organization’s investment in underrepresented artists, while continuing to develop new ways of supporting experimental work.

This Thursday! For the first time at ISSUE, GRM composer Michèle Bokanowski will present three live electroacoustic works spanning the length of her career at : Tabou (1984), Battements Solaires (2008), and Rhapsodia (2018).

ISSUE is thrilled to be welcoming this critically important composer for a rare performance in NYC, alongside educator Paula Matthusen joining in conversation with Bokanowski and so many other female composers often overlooked in the canon of musique concrète. Alongside a new solo live-electronics performance, Matthusen will present an audio-structural improvisation related to the Old Croton Aqueduct co-conducted by and in Van Cortlandt Park.

📷 slide 1: Bokanowski by Robert Cahen (1972) / slide 2: Paula Matthusen courtesy the artist

Announcing FREE June 2024 programs!

The unique environment of ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Pl. theater provides an ideal laboratory for experimentation. In service of our community, ISSUE invites artists to engage with a space in transition, and to question infrastructural and curatorial boundaries:

⚫ ISSUE partners with Arab.AMP and 2020 SFCF Leyya Mona Tawil to present the sixth installment in her NOMADIC SIGNALS series, 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘎𝘢𝘻𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘭𝘺𝘯 (6/7), featuring composer Huda Asfour alongside poet and performer Farah Barqawi.
⚫ Exploring improvised sound interpolated with dialogue, 2018 SFCF and collective Q***r Trash present the next evolution of their Symposium series (6/15) featuring experimental artists 2nd, David Grollman, M. Lamar, and Qiujiang Levi Lu.

Then, at Brooklyn Music School:

⚫ 2024 AIR Katie Porter presents her second "systems piece" exploring slow change: 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘞𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘯 - 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘐𝘯 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 & 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 (6/18).
⚫ 2024 AIR Joni presents her second installment of 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦 (6/27).

ISSUE Project Room was saddened to learn of the passing of our Artistic Advisory Council Member, Paul Auster, an experimental Brooklyn man of letters who we will miss. His loss will be felt in the community.

Image by Ulf Andersen (Getty Images)

This Friday 🎺 Kwami Winfield presents her first program at 22 Boerum Pl as a 2024 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. Exploring multiple selves signified in sound, traveling forward, Winfield's 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯 6 asks:

𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦?
𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭?
𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥…

Featuring live computer processing of trumpet performance, Winfield's residency is supported by Harvestworks' Technology Immersion Program (TIP). Free with RSVP!

📸: Kwami Winfield & C. Spencer Yeh at First Unitarian Congregational Society, 2023 ISSUE Winter Opening. Photo by Cameron Kelly McLeod.

Tomorrow! Cecilia Lopez & John Driscoll have designed sound materials for "Gestures/Murmurations" resulting from their combined aesthetics. The sounds are tailored to the movement of five robotic rotating loudspeakers, two speed-controlled rotating 55-gallon drums with loudspeakers inside and two conventional speakers. The resulting installation will create an immersive experience for the audience in which the movement of sounds in space and their nature are inseparable. In p/ship with Harvestworks & Fridman Gallery

This event has reached capacity, but email [email protected] to access the waitlist, or for final RSVP access with your ISSUE Membership 🔊

This Saturday! ISSUE and Xing present the prototype sculpture from Francesco Cavaliere's Abyssal Creatures: Body0 Xilema in transparent crystal with the iridescent head Phalaminàsh 0, the firstborn of his animal ensemble at UrbanGlass.

📸: Francesco Cavaliere - Abyssal Creatures presented by Xing at Accademia di BelleArti di Bologna, Aula Magna, 2024, photo by Luca Ghedini, courtesy Xing. The project was possible thanks to the support of

What’s on the ISSUE staff’s Friday wishlist today?

Coming off the heels of our event at in March, Avant Joik’s ‘Live in Bergen’ is on our minds. Recorded live at Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall, supported by Norse Komponistforening. All proceeds go directly to the artists

Slide 1 & 2: 📸 Courtesy of ISSUE, photography by Aaron Rosenblum

Just Announced! This May, ISSUE presents Kwami Winfield’s “Thorn 6” (5/3), the first commission in her 2024 artist residency. Featuring a proprietary brass-based, air-vibratory recursion matrix–filtering pillars of wind–the artist will experiment with live computer processing of trumpet performance at 22 Boerum Pl. Winfield’s residency is supported by Harvestworks’ Technology Immersion Program.

ISSUE is pleased to co-present Jo Andres: Liquid TV (5/11), a salon with SPRING/BREAK Art Show centered on performance works from the Jo Andres Archive. A performance lecture followed by a reception will take place at 32 Prince Street, hosted by Cuban American interdisciplinary artist Stephanie Acosta, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Laurie Berg, plus special guests.

In mid-May, ISSUE then welcomes critically important composers Michèle Bokanowski / Paula Matthusen (5/16) for an evening of electroacoustic music and visuals at BMS. Throughout ISSUE’s history, the org has continued to support the work of many pioneering female French composers often overlooked in the canon of musique concrète.

Sharing some moments from our first 2024 Artists-In-Residence (AIR) events this Winter season with Katie Porter, Axine M and Joni 💥 Stay tuned this week for more upcoming Spring programming announcements!

📸 by Cameron Kelly McLeod & by Aaron Rosenblum

This Saturday, 2024 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence Joni presents her first program 𝕊𝕦𝕣𝕘𝕖: 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕤 𝕋𝕠𝕠𝕝𝕤 at 22 Boerum Pl.

***8pm show is at capacity - 9pm performance added!***

By way of live sampling, Joni explores loops as sound and memory; creating new arrangements for the body to exist within. Mirroring total dismemberment with live reassembly, Surge reworks sounds recorded in a state of complete unconsciousness and vulnerability. The artist will present these new compositions of incredibly revealing, intimate and visceral sound work, alongside new ceramic pieces. Free with RSVP!

📸: Joni by Seth Kenji at ISSUE Project Room

This Thursday: experimental Nordic artists Avant Joik make their U.S. debut at ISSUE featuring Indigenous Sámi singer Katarina Barruk (vocals/joik), acclaimed experimentalist Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje (vocals and live electronics), and live visuals by Sámi artist Matti Aikio. Renowned vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara will open the evening with a series of vocal explorations that will activate the space at Brooklyn Music School in Fort Greene. Doors at 7:30pm!

📸 courtesy of .musicagency

Next Friday! ISSUE Members, students, and special guests are invited to experience an open rehearsal of the newly commissioned work “What If?” by String Noise Sounds composed for this occasion by Christian Wolff. This special Member Event–which also marks the day of Christian’s 90th birthday–will include an exclusive interview between Wolff and visionary scholar and composer, George Lewis. The mini-marathon birthday celebration at Judson Memorial Church - New York City the following evening (3/9) is open to the public.

Lewis, who wrote the foreword to "Occasional Pieces..." (a comprehensive collection of Wolff’s writings), will guide us through what rehearsing and preparing a world premiere entails, through the lens of one composer to another.

📸: Christian Wolff by Pauline Kim Harris
This Member Event is free with RSVP using your member code✨ https://issueprojectroom.org/events

Just announced! ISSUE’s Spring 2024 programs begin: Francesco Cavaliere (4/13), Holland Andrews / Methods Body (4/17), plus Cecilia Lopez & John Driscoll (4/24).

ISSUE and Xing present the US premiere of interdisciplinary Italian artist Francesco Cavaliere’s Abyssal Creatures: Body0 Xilema (4/13). A project in the form of sound sculptures blown by Murano masters, Cavaliere explores the narrative of a group of fantastical creatures. These special objects will be activated as performative sound installations at UrbanGlass in Downtown Brooklyn. The evening will conclude with a conversation between the artist and Abram Deslauriers of UrbanGlass. .circles7 .it

In mid-April, ISSUE presents REMAIN, a thoughtful study of connection, grief, joy and catharsis developed by vocalist and composer Holland Andrews (2020 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence) with Methods Body (4/17), Portland-based sound artists John Niekrasz & Luke Wyland. The piece serves as a living development of their work SPEECHLESS (2022), created for Beacon Sound’s forthcoming compilation supporting Palestinian liberation. This limited capacity event at 22 Boerum Pl. is free for ISSUE Members with RSVP. .andrews

ISSUE then invites our community in partnership with Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and Fridman Gallery to explore the evolution of Gestures/Murmurations by composers and sound artists Cecilia Lopez & John Driscoll (4/24). The unique acoustics of the 22 Boerum Pl. theater provides an ideal laboratory for experimentation, where the audience can move about the space and experience the self-running installation from different sonic and visual perspectives. A reception will follow this free artist talk & showing.

Coming Soon...

Saturday, March 9th at 7pm, ISSUE celebrates legendary pianist and composer Christian Wolff's 90th birthday at Judson Memorial Church. The event will feature performances of chamber works spanning from 1950-present day, plus a new world premiere by Wolff himself.

ISSUE is honored to partner with String Noise & Judson Memorial Church - New York City for this celebration. For more info about participating artists, tickets, and more please visit issueprojectroom.org/events 🎂