It’s about time Queens debunks its reputation as the “sleeping” borough. In fact, Long Island City, the new artsy enclave where the city’s creative minds had been moving for the past decade may be to Queens what Williamsburg was for Brooklyn. This weekend, May 20-22, Long Island City is celebrating its inaugural LIC Arts Open, a new festival featuring visual arts, music, dance and theater from the neighborhood.
The festival officially commenced on May 14 with a party at Reis Studios and will be running all week with culminating performances, children’s activities and parties through the upcoming weekend. About.com stated that Long Island City has the greatest concentration of art in New York City outside of Manhattan. The neighborhood artists are determined to prove it.
As a tradition, every spring, LIC visual artists open their doors to the hood crowds for one weekend in May. However, many other venues such as dance, film, music and theater remained inaccessible to the local arts enthusiasts. “Artists used to want to perform in Manhattan,” says Richard Mazda, the festival director, and creator of the Secret Theater and The Queens Players troupe, “but that has changed.” Dennis Cieri, a founder of eGarage, a media company, chimes in. “People from at least 120 different countries live and work in this diverse eccentric area, dubbed The United Nations of New York City,” he explains. “This is a great location for an arts festival.”
This year, the local creative community has formed a fully-fledged arts festival, coinciding with the Queens Fringe Festival, a month-long music, theater and comedy fete. Over 40 different venues ranging from dance performances to art shows in empty studio apartments and buildings, including a block party and a children’s art competition, will welcome Gotham’s fans for the first time.
eGarage, will be running non-stop performances Friday night, all day and evening Saturday and Sunday afternoon ranging from Open Mic to Flash Films Contest Screening to a late night Burlesque Extravaganza. The Secret Theater will present Queens Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Swing and Insight Dance, an all-day dance performance by Kensaku Shinohara, Genesis Dance Company and other troupes.
Among the art exhibits are Made in Long Island City, local artists’ ingenious potpourri, Yoga Islands, featuring yoga-themed sculptures, Edible Art, a portrait of food and the people who create it and even One Million Ninjas, a viral art-craze of a ninja-obsessed cartoonist. And, as with any fiesta, there will be plenty of food and drink. No carnival goes without a party and there will be plenty. A block party is planned for Saturday the 21st and the “Sorry, We’re Closed” Party will wrap up the festivities on Sunday night.
These are only a few highlights of this multi-disciplinary festival that the Queens creative minds intend to turn into the next arts destination. “One artist brings another, and soon voila – a snowball process occurs creating this exciting multicultural arts destination,” says Juvenal Reis, an LIC artist.
Come across the river and see for yourself!
More info on LIC Arts Open
The eGarage and The Secret Theater performance schedules: http://www.egarage.tv/thegarage and http://www.secrettheatre.com/home.html.
Downloadable festival brochure with maps and directions
Images from top:
1. A performance at Secret Theater
2. Yanka Cantor, Maiden
3. Jack Howard-Potter, Fat Torso
4. Julia Griffin, Peril
5. Fran Kaufman, Esperanza Spalding
6. Cari Claire, Which Road To Travel
7. Donna Levinstone, Bay Light
8. Roxie Munro, Chrysler Glimpse
9. Improve Nation – - eGarage performance poster
