Rocking out, for the kids

Photo: Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls

This summer, rock stars-in-training, used to practicing their roll & roll tendancies on Guitar Hero, will converge upon Greenpoint for the first ever Rock Camp.

The week-long program looks to impart songwriting and instrumental tips to tweens and teens. To do it, they just need a little help from you (see more on a benefit this April 26 at Galapagos Art Space after the jump)

The camp isn't the only game in town. Since 2004, the Willie Mae Rock Camp has been teaching eager girls the rock & roll ropes, most recently with sessions at the Urban Assembly School of Music & Art in downtown Brooklyn.

And women, too, are able to get in on the fun, with the Ladies Rock Camp, so Brooklynites can fulfill their karaoke dreams of being Pat Benetar (or whoever your reference point is).

Applications are currently being accepted for all three, so don't delay (volunteers are also sought from both those musicially inclined and those who can't carry a tune).



Acclaimed artists tune up so youngsters can rock out at camp

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16 issue of 24/Seven)

This summer, boys and girls can rock out at Rock Camp, a week-long crash course in music composition and performance that will help kids fulfill their dreams of being the next Jonas brother or Miley Cyrus. The creators just need your help in making those dreams come true.

On April 26, Brooklyn Emerging Artists hosts a benefit show at DUMBO's Galapagos Art Space for the organization's first-ever Rock Camp, to be held this summer at the Greenpoint Reformed Church.

Taking a nod from the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a five-year-old summer rock camp currently housed in the Urban Assembly School for Music and Art in downtown Brooklyn, as well as the Portland, Oregon-based Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, Brooklyn's newest rock camp is opening its application process to aspiring Mick Jaggers and Steven Tylers, as well, as they empower the city’s male and female youth through musical collaboration.

“For 8-15 year olds, it’s important for them to feel like they created something that’s their own,” says Park Slope resident Katie Blankenship, a general manager at the Brooklyn Academy of Music who formed the camp with friends Beth Price and Rachael Benjamin. “They can go from never playing an instrument to playing on stage in a band.”

Indeed, the camp encourages musicians of any level to sign up, they only need the ambition.

“It’s not pie in the sky,” says Price, a Greenpoint-based musician and founder of Brooklyn Emerging Artists, a support network for the city’s many musicians, of the camp’s aspirations.

“Rock Camp is about empowerment,” adds Blankenship. “It’s the spirit of rock and roll. It’s fun, there’s nothing stiff or formal about it.”

To make it happen, the organizers, who also make up the all-girl country band The Havens, have been pulling from their friends in the New York City music scene to lend their skills as teachers for the completely volunteer-run camp, held this August 10-15, as well as play at benefit shows. BEA's first fundraiser, at Southpaw this past February, featured indie acts Honne Wells, Analog Transit, Jeffrey Lewis and Final Outlaw, as well as The Havens.

This all-ages Galapagos show mixes things up a bit, featuring some rock acts, as well as chamber music, with prominent contemporary composer and viola player Kenji Bunch, acclaimed pianist Monica Ohuchi, Kevin Gallagher and the rock quartet The Elektrik Kompany, and Shelley Nicole's blaKbüshe, a Brooklyn-based soul rock band, on the bill. Price will also debut a new piece at the show.

Rock Camp itself will be equally diverse, with an eclectic mix of genres including rock, country, hip-hop and chamber music.

“We want the kids to be exposed to as many different genres of music as they want to,” says Blankenship. “We offer a place for them to express themselves in any medium they can find.”

Of course, to do that, they need instruments, from drums, guitars and brass to violins, banjos and cellos, as well as turntables and equipment.

“Everything is DIY,” says Blakenship of the camp. “[Instruments] are one of the great needs.”

Another need? Volunteers, from “band managers,” or camp counselors, to administrative assistants, security, on-call nurses and doctors, and extra hands at the benefit shows planned leading up to the camp.

And, of course, donations in the form of money are always welcome. If that’s something families interested in sending their kids to rock camp don’t have, B.E.A. is also providing scholarships at half and full cost to those who need it.

“We really want to stress that this is for anybody,” says Price. “These are tough times for a lot of people. I feel very strongly about representing all of New York City.”

As musicians themselves, Blankenship and Price know how important the role of something like a rock camp can provide to budding guitarists and singers.

“It would have been nice to have had an environment that was empowering,” says Price, a classically trained bassist who grew up in a competitive world.

“It took me a long time to get confidence,” says Blankenship. “I would have died for a rock camp.”

Brooklyn Emerging Artists Rock Camp Benefit Show will be April 26 at Galapagos Art Space (16 Main Street) from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Tickets are $12. For more information, call 718-222-8500.

For more on Rock Camp, e-mail bearockcamp@gmail.com, or call 347-599-2769. The camp runs from August 10 to 15.

Admission is $200, with scholarships available. Early registration, which waves 25 percent of the fee, ends May 30. The last day to register for both campers and volunteers is August 1. As these things ten to go, the sooner you register, the better.

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Just the jazziest 'Odyssey' you'll ever go on

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16.09 issue of 24/Seven)

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey are used to packed shows. Two years ago, when the band last played Southpaw, the Park Slope venue had a full house. Earlier this year, when the Tulsa, Okla.-based jazz band debuted their new, four-piece lineup, they did so to a sold-out crowd during the NYC Winter Jazz Festival.

When they return to Southpaw this April 15, expect no less than lines around the block, as this time around, the band – comprised of Haas, drummer Josh Raymer, upright bassist Matt Hayes and guitarist Chris Combs, will also have Peter Apfelbaum in tow.

So far, 2009 has been quite the year for the band, led by pianist Brian Haas, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. In addition to adding a new member to their lineup and that debut show, the band released “Winterwood,” their eighteenth album.

JFJO’s creativity is in full force on their inventive new album, 13 tracks that start at one place and pull the listener along on the band’s, wait for it, odyssey. A track like “Songs of a Viper,” for instance, goes from old-timey pickin’ and piano riffs that jump off the track to being interspersed with synth and furious piano for an unexpected tug of war between the old and the new (the victor seems to emerge on the electronicy track “Oklahoma Stomp,” which is nothing like what you’d hear at a hoedown). “A-Bird” sounds like a B-side to Radiohead’s “Amnesiac,” just minus any vocals. Simple prettiness isn’t lost in all this experimentation, such as on oddly charming “Walking Before Daylight.”

Sitting on the album for a while after a disagreement with their record company, the band decided to release the record themselves on their Web site, all 13 tracks for free.

If Griffin had any doubts about releasing the album at no cost online, they were immediately squashed by the response in the week following the release. In just four weeks, the band’s e-mail list went from over 5,000, the total in the band’s decade-plus existence, to over 10,000. And they’ve seen an increase in their audience attendance as well.

“From our standpoint, it was the most successful capitalism we’ve ever engage in, ironically,” says Griffin. “We’d had a lot more people at shows, and more interest in the band in general. We got way more people listening to our music for free than if we tried to sell it. We just want people listening to the music and getting them out to the live shows.”

Haas was so impressed by the results, he followed suit and decided to release his own solo project, “Petting Sounds,” for free on his own Web site. Beach Boys fans will recognize the play off their album “Pet Sounds.” An improvised symphony for solo piano, Haas’ album was made using the same mixing board that was used for “Pet Sounds.”

“I thought ‘Petting Sounds’ was a catchy title,” says Haas. “It’s also soothing, beautiful music.”

And while we’re on the subject of names, Haas was inspired by another musical project in the anointing of his band (which has no one named Jacob or Fred), pulling from Spinal Tap’s “Jazz Odyssey” and the made up name Jacob Fred, one he was obsessed with as a kid, to get JFJO.
While in Brooklyn, the band will be joined by a big name in the contemporary jazz scene – saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum.

“He’s one of our heroes,” says Griffin, who’s also looking forward to the Brooklyn show to just be in the borough. “It’s such a vibrant music scene all unto itself over there. I always look forward to being in the city, especially Brooklyn.”

Once their back home in Tulsa, there’s more work to be done for the band, which is getting ready for a gig later this fall with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, a performance of Beethoven’s Third and Sixth Symphonies together but rearranged by the jazz quartet, as well as finishing a new record of jazz standards with vocalist Annie Ellicott.

“It already feels like I did a whole year. Is it 2010?” jokes Griffin. “There’s so much going on, I can barely keep track.”

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey play Southpaw (125 Fifth Ave.) on April 15 at 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) Tickets are $10 in advance, available for purchase at http://www.ticketweb.com/, or $15 the day of the show. To hear more of Brian Haas, go to http://www.brianroyhaas.com/.

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Roll 'em: It's the Great Picture Show

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16.09 issue of 24/Seven)

When she strolls around Williamsburg with her Border Collie mix, April Smith jokes that more people know her dog than they know her.

“She’s really cute,” says the musician. “I’ll be walking her and people will say, ‘Hi, Scout!’ and I’m like, ‘How do you know my dog?’”

Smith won’t be staying under the radar for long. After songs in the TV shows like “The Hills” and “Newport Harbor” and a string of successful shows at South by Southwest, Smith is poised to have even more exposure this year with her band, The Great Picture Show.

On April 17, you can catch the tiny songstress when she plays Park Slope’s Southpaw with PT Walkley, a match made up by their managers.

“I thing they thought we’d be a good fit, which I definitely agree with,” says Smith. “PT has that sunny, upbeat vibe, and that’s what we have. I think it’s going to be a really great match. I don’t want to be playing before a band called Kitten Vomit or something.”

Smith and her own band’s sound falls into the retro pop vein, composing compulsively listenable songs, like the jaunty single “Colors,” which won a 2008 Independent Music Award for best song and blogger Perez Hilton described as “the kind of tune you’d hear on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy or in the next iPod commercial.”

It doesn’t hurt that Smith’s playful powerhouse of a voice is backed by some of industry’s most sought-after musicians, with the “players” including Stevens on bass, Elliot Jacobson (who also plays with Ingrid Michaelson, Bess Rogers and Jenny Owen Youngs) on drums, Marty O’Kane on guitar, and Brandon Lowry on keys.

“I really love the guys that I play with now,” says Smith. “They’re incredible musicians, very intuitive. They know exactly what I want on a song.”

She has also worked with producers Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne) and Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, Jenny Owen Youngs) in developing her sound.

When they play Southpaw, the band will pull from material off their debut release, 2005’s “Live from the Penthouse,” and last year’s EP “Live from the Penthouse,” as well as some newer material that Smith has been working on, cooped up in her Williamsburg apartment.

“I’m kind of a loner,” says Smith. “Lately I’ve been just trying to write and keep being creative. A lot of the time when that happens, I’ll just stay in at night and really just try and work on stuff that I’ve had in my head.”

When not in a music mindset, Smith has her focus on living a sustainable, environmentally friendly life. Though it’s not one an aspect that makes it into her music, Smith’s van, Mr. Belvedere, rivals Scout in popularity. The band’s famous tour bus, Mr. Belvedere runs on vegetable oil, and they have taken him to Chicago, and meant to get to Austin for SXSW though mechanical issues got in the way.

“I’m pretty sure my bus is possessed and it’s just hell bent on sabotaging every trip that I have,” jokes Smith. “It might be time to convert a different vehicle to run on vegetable oil. It’s not going to stop us.”

In addition to the van, Smith likes to also recycle clothes, taking a bottom of a dress, say, and turning it into a skirt, instead of buying new outfits. She looks to incorporate sustainable methods into her own merchandise.

Musically, Smith’s exposure continues this year, as beyond the Brooklyn show, you can next hear her tunes in the Rob Schneider film “Wild Cherry,” as she has two singles, “The Bells” and “High School Memory,” in that film, set for release later this year. The singer couldn’t be more excited about the chance to get her music out to a wider audience.

“I really hope it comes out soon,” says Smith. “I can’t wait to see it.”

You can see April Smith & The Great Picture Show when they Southpaw (125 Fifth Ave.) on April 17 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.ticketweb.com/. The show is 18+.

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Hebrew School is now in session

As a member of the klezmer rock band Golem, and the leader of Hebrew School, a indie rock band that pulls from hymns you might have sung preparing for your Bar or Bat Mitzvah, David Griffin is busy. He still has find to blog about the music goings-on in Brooklyn, though, and document his newest project.

"There lots of talk about what it's like to live in Sunset Park, the goings on and culture in Boroklyn, too," says Griffin, who's preparing for a CD release this April 14 at Public Assembly (see article after the jump).

Recent posts talk about Passover and friends Las Rubias del Norte, and, of course, his album release party.

Hebrew School calls this rockin' class to order

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16.09 issue of 24/Seven)

As a freelance musician, jumping from the klezmer punk band Golem to The Murrays, as well as having played in the faux French pop band Nous Non Plus, David Griffin hasn’t had a project to call his own, until now.

Last year, a grant from the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists enabled the musician to create Hebrew School, an indie rock band that takes inspiration from the sings Griffin grew up learning in, you guessed it, Hebrew school.

“I was always the guy who was in the band who would be told to show up at this time,” says Griffin. “My goal in getting the fellowship was to get my solo career off the ground.”

A partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the two-year grant enabled Griffin to get what was an idea – a mix of low-fi multi-instrumental indie rock, experimental music with contemporary and traditional Jewish covers – to a reality, putting a band together (comprised of Griffin on guitar, keyboard, vocals, trumpet, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman on bass, Timothy Monaghan on drums, Giancarlo Vulcano on guitar, and Julia Barry on vocals), do research and going into a studio to record an album.

Ironically, growing up in Malden, Mass, Hebrew School was the last place Griffin wanted to be.

“I would always call my mom and tell her I suddenly got sick at 3 o’clock,” says Griffin. “It actually worked out that I appreciate it later in life.”

As a musician, Griffin works out most of his music by ear, and the Hebrew songs he learned as a pre-teen have remained ingrained in his subconscious decades after needing to recite them, reincarnated today for the nostalgia factor rather than the religious.

“The band is definitely secular,” says Griffin. “I think that what we try to do is bring in these religious elements as fodder for creative containers for this kind of music.”

Pulling from popular Hebrew hymns, other musical influences coming of age in the early 90s, including Air Miami and Uncle Wiggly, and current sources of indie inspiration, such as Animal Collective and Camera Obscura, Griffin has created a ‘60s psych-esque album that, when listened closely, will reveal its sources to other Hebrew school graduates. The Shabbat hymn “Hinei Ma Tov” becomes a leisurely, loungey tune, while another popular hymn, “Adir Hu,” is reincarnated as the melancholy, subdued “Ancillary Devices (Adir Hu),” which hardly makes a peep compared to more robust performances of the hymn until the horns come in midway.

When the 10-track album drops April 14, Hebrew School celebrate with a release party at Public Assembly. After a “coming out” party at Park Slope’s Union Hall earlier this year, near Griffin’s Sunset Park neighborhood, the band wanted to branch out into another Brooklyn area, choosing the Williamsburg venue for the show.

“My goal here is to expand my reach into other parts of the city,” says Griffin, who will be joined on the bill by Will Daily, Mappa Mundi and the solo project of Hebrew School vocalist Julia Barry.

Buoyed by the opportunities the fellowship has granted, Griffin looks to use it as a springboard for his solo career, involving Jewish themes or otherwise.

“I see Hebrew School doing more for sure,” says Griffin. “I need some other sort of song project that’s separate from Hebrew School but shares some of the musical elements.”

With enough material for a second Hebrew School album, that may be in the music scene’s near future, when Griffin’s not bouncing around from one band to the next.

“I took some nice things from the other music projects I work on,” says Griffin. “I think Golem is a good example of that – we’re taking material that is thought of as serious and making it into something where hipsters go to rock club and let themselves go and dance, and maybe even smile.”

Hebrew School celebrate the release of their CD April 14 at Public Assembly (70 North 6th St.) at 9 p.m. Joining them on the bill are Julia Barry, Will Dailey and Mappa Mundi.

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Beware! These poems come with strings attached

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16.09 issue of 24/Seven)

While living in Los Angeles, Rick Reid was told that his work, which spoke of the visual art process, had a “New York” vibe. Having never lived in the city before, he had no idea what that meant, but he eventually did find his way to the East Coast, moving to Greenpoint three years ago.

On April 14, the conceptual artist and writer celebrates a work of his that, in the same vein, speaks to the verbal art process, when his book of poems, “To be hung from the ceiling by strings of varying length,” is released, with a launch party at Greenpoint’s Word bookstore.

Though the book cover says “Poems by Rick Reid,” the author himself isn’t so sure if it should be read as one long poem or individual ones.

“It’s not necessarily what you’d expect when you open a book of poems,” says Reid. “I imagine superimposing them on each other.”

If that sounds vaguely like an art process, it’s because Reid was inspired by the act of layering and re-layering paint on a canvas, one the artist started on a painting several years ago. Retracing a shadow that fell on a canvas and would move each day as the sun did, each image was repetitively superimposed upon the other, and helped Reid look at the process of painting in a new way.

“The way in which the light hit that canvas and started to go off the canvas – I started to challenge my normal process of painting,” says Reid. “I would approach the canvas as a frame which then was being cracked open, which was really exciting to me, to be able to lose a singular understanding of the way a painting should be, or a way a book should be, or a way a poem should be, and create a new being.”

While Reid never finished that painting, the poems partly inspired by that thinking became “Strings,” as he looked to challenge, not the painting process, but language itself. In this, Reid looked to “Rose is a rose is a rose” writer Gertrude Stein for further inspiration.

“She’s somebody I always return to,” says Reid. In particular, one text of Stein’s Reid would return to while working on these poems was the long serial poem “Stanzas in Meditation.”

“What struck me about that text is that when I picked it up and started reading it, I didn’t have a clear understand of what was going on,” says Reid. “The text was teaching me a new way to read, a new way to listen, a new way to create meaning. I was having these moments of complete obscurity and disconnection and then these moments of a really strong connection. The text wasn’t so much about understanding and knowing but more about a kind of urgency, a tension in my relationship to language that normally I would take for granted.”

Reading “Strings” can be a similar process. The name itself, says Reid, is an invitation to take the book apart and decode this familiar yet wholly unfamiliar language, as he looks at memory and perception, piecing together words and imagery, seemingly like pieces picked randomly out of a hat, that was produced out of Reid’s own desire to develop a new process of writing, as he did in painting.

Going to the Ph.D creating writing program at the University of Southern California, Reid met Chris Albani, the creator of Black Goat, an independent poetry imprint of the Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books. Albani was the ideal match for Reid as he looked to publish “Strings.”

“Akashic and Black Goat were more than willing to do artistic jumps,” says Reid, who retained much control in the look and layout of his book, including the brevity of the pages, which in some cases contain no more than four words (see page 39: “not this in fingers”).

“Reading tends to be a suffocating experience – we shut down our senses, close up our bodies. We have this very visually focused relationship with the text,” says Reid. “Creating attention in that space as well is important to me. It’s not like the book jumps out and bites you, but you are having to read a lot of pages a lot faster than you normally would” for a “more physical relationship with the book.”

Living just a couple blocks away from the bookstore, Reid saw Word as the perfect spot to host his book release party as he culminates his work, which has traveled with him these past 10 years, in his Brooklyn home.

“It’s wonderful to have a bookstore like Word,” says Reid. “It’s important to have not only a place to have access to uncommon materials but also as a venue to experience people’s work who might not be experienced, people who are dealing with smaller presses, people who are doing work that’s under the radar.”

Rick Reid celebrates the release of “To be hung from the ceiling by strings of varying length” on April 14 at Word (126 Franklin St.) at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 718-383-0096. The book is available on Amazon.

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Fronting: Photography book looks at the city in transformation

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.16.09 issue of 24/Seven)

Storefronts have a certain captivation for photographers – both amateur and professional alike. Last year saw the publication of “Brooklyn Storefronts” by Paul Lacy, an avid bike rider who captured hundreds of images of places he wanted to remember while he rode around the borough.

This year brings us “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York City,” out on Gingko Press this year. In addition to presenting the vibrant images of barber shops and liquor stores, the book’s photographers, James and Karla Murray, documented generations-old stores in the city, places that have persisted for years as Starbucks and other chains cropped up around them (though now, in this faltering economy, seem to go the way they came), places that give a neighborhood its charm.

The initial seed for the project was planted when the Murrays were scouring the city for graffiti for a completely different project. What they increasingly saw were the quick changes that occurred on a block, completely changing its character as these staples disappeared or were forced due to zoning regulations to modernize their signage.

“Despite the short time frame between visits...we noticed that some blocks looked drastically different. Many neighborhood stores had closed, or we would come across ‘old’ stores, still in business, but somehow different,” say the two in the book’s introduction. “They were either refaced, remodeled, or original signage had been substituted with new, bright and shiny plastic awnings. The whole look and feel of the neighborhood had changed and much of its individuality and charm had gone. The result was unsettling.”

It was then that the pair made it their mission to document these stores, covering the five boroughs and breaking up the shots by neighborhood.

As of publication, one-third of the documented storefronts had closed, and the numbers are sure to be rising. In Coney Island, a part of the borough that’s been disappearing with each passing summer, wide shots reveal the carnival aspect of the boardwalk, with storefronts shilling frankfurters, Italian sausage, cold beer, cotton candy and hot pizza. The stretch at West 10th St. is equally bittersweet as it captures (cica 2005) the Astroland Park sign – rocket and all – that was dismantled late last year.

Another example of change is the Long Island Bar and Restaurant on Atlantic and Henry, which put up a “closed” sign in 2007 and has remained such since (published reports at the time say the move was only a temporary one, as the owners were taking time off for personal reasons). In “Store Front,” the beloved diner was captured in 2004, alive and well, an American flag in its window. An interview with the owner informs us that the restaurant opened in 1951, back when Brooklyn was considered part of Long Island (a statement no Brooklynite would utter today).

Other interviews with owners reveal fascinating facts about the city’s recent history. For instance, the birthplace of the teddy bear, next door to Jimmy’s Stationary & Toys in Bedford-Stuyvesant, had President Theodore Roosevelt’s personal blessing. Cobble Hill’s Court Pastry is one of the last places in the city to get a cannoli made the old-fashioned way – by hand.

“We roll out each cannoli individually by hand and that’s what makes them taste better,” says second-generation co-owner Gaspar Zerilli. “We don’t use a big sheet of dough with a cutter like most bakeries. It’s the individual attention we give to everything we make.”

One of the challenges posed to photographers trying to shoot storefronts is dealing with bustling city streets, full of people, parked cars and locked up bikes. To capture their exquisite block-long views of storefronts, with lines of hair stylists, lunchonettes, laundromats and pastry shops unobstructed, such as on New Utrecht Avenue at 72nd Street in Bensonhurst, the two took multiple photos of stores using their 33 mm cameras and combined them digitally to preserve the street view for posterity.

“The neighborhood store has always been a foothold for new immigrants and a comfortable place where familiar languages are spoken, where ethnic foods and culture are present,” reads the introduction. “These shops are lifelines for their communities, vital to the residents who depend on them for a multitude of needs. When these shops fail, the neighborhood itself is affected. Not only are these modest institutions falling away in the face of modernization and conformity, the once unique appearance and character of our colorful streets suffer in the process.”

“Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York City” (Gingko Press, $65) is available for purchase on Amazon.

James and Karla Murray will be in Brooklyn on April 16 at Book Court (163 Court St.) for a lecture, signing and Q&A beginning at 7 p.m. While in the neighborhood, hop on down to Court Pastry (298 Court St.) beforehand for a hand-rolled cannoli.

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The Civilians @ Eye Level

On April 17, New York-based theater company The Civilians host a benefit at DUMBO's Galapagos Art Space.

Does that name ring a bell? Last winter, the group put on "Brooklyn @ Eye Level" at the Brooklyn Lyceum, a performance piece tha gave voice to the different interests surrounding the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.

If you missed the weekend of performances, or want a refresher, clips can be found here.

More on the benefit after the jump.



Join The Civilians fo a special night in DUMBO

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 4.9.09 issue of 24/Seven)

There’s no place like home at Galapagos Art Space on April 17, when The Civilians host their annual benefit at the DUMBO performance center.

The theme of home was an apt one for the New York-based theater company, whose most recent productions include “Brooklyn @ Eye Level” and “A Beautiful City,” where the company investigated the idea of community in Brooklyn and Colorado Springs respectively.

In addition to performing excerpts from those two shows, the night will also feature an original Civilians piece put together from the audiences’ personal insights on what home means to them.
Soliciting responses as people purchase tickets for the benefit in the weeks leading up to the show, the Civilians will be putting together a mix of cabaret, theater and music based on the responses at the DUMBO space.

“Galapagos has a really wonderful nightclub atmosphere,” said The Civilians’ Artistic Director Steve Cosson. “The performance space is big enough to hold all the various performers we’re going to bring but still has that intimate nightclub feeling, which is great for a special one-night event like this.”

Brooklyn was another ideal location for the company’s benefit, following their production of “Brooklyn @ Eye Level” at the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope this past winter, as they explore the theme of “home.”

“We’ve been spending a lot of attention the past few years looking at community, looking at how people live with each other, next to each other with varying degrees of success,” said Cosson. “For our benefit, we wanted to open that theme up to our patrons.”

The company will take inspiration from the sentences, quotes and pictures that patrons submit, creating an original piece, as well as performing excerpts from “Brooklyn @ Eye Level” and “This Beautiful City.”

Traveling to Colorado Springs, considered the evangelical capital of America, the company interviewed residents and created a show performed in New York, as well as in Kentucky, Washington, DC, and Louisiana that investigated the Evangelical Christian Political Movement through the complex mountain town that is its headquarters.

Closer to home, the company also put their lens on the residents and community affected by the proposed Atlantic Yards project, working with composer Michael Friedman, blues musician Michael Hill, the dance company Urban Bush Women, and the playwrights Lucy Thurber and Carl Hancock Rux to explore the changing face of Brooklyn from all sides and interests.

“I think I was certainly drawn to the idea largely because I live in Brooklyn and have been aware of how rapidly the borough is changing,” said Cosson, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. “In terms of public attention it’s looked at in a certain way, largely in terms of real estate and the economics of it all. As a theater company, we wanted to look at what was happening in Brooklyn on a much more human scale and to really hear from the people who live in these neighborhoods what these changes mean to them.”

After a week of sold-out performances at the Brooklyn Lyceum in the first phase of the production of “Brooklyn @ Eye Level,” The Civilians are currently finalizing a commission of a playwright for a play to be produced in a couple seasons. They are also putting up clips of the initial performance on their Web site.

Proceeds from the benefit will help The Civilians in their next endeavors, only works in progress at the moment, but including project on divorce, another interviewing people working in the porn industry in Los Angeles, and a collaboration with Princeton University on climate change.
And as “Brooklyn @ Eye Level” evolves, the Manhattan-based company also has their eye on a Brooklyn home.

“If we can we’d like to relocate our offices to Brooklyn,” says Cosson. “As we move into the future we hope to have a more regular relationship with the community.”

“There’s No Place Like Home,” The Civilians’ annual benefit, is April 17 at Galapagos Art Space (16 Main Street). Complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres start at 8 p.m., followed by an original performance by Civilians associate artists at 9 p.m. and an after party at 10 p.m. Tickets range from $75 to $1,200, with $25 ones for the after party only. Audience members can submit their ideas of home on their RSVP card or the blog at The Civilians’ Web site. To RSVP, call 212-730-2019.

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