Knockdown Center and Open Engagement present an evening of performances and dancing with opening act Lykanthea followed by a Discwoman showcase with BEARCAT and Riobamba in conjunction with the Open Engagement SUSTAINABILITY conference May 11 – 13, 2018.

Official drink sponsor for the event is Kombrewcha, the first hard kombucha that allows you to socialize without compromise.

Open Engagement 2018 – SUSTAINABILITY will take place May 11 – 13, 2018 at the Queens Museum in New York. Open Engagement (OE) is an annual, three-day, artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around and creating a site of care for the field of socially engaged art. The conference highlights the work of transdisciplinary artists, activists, students, scholars, community members, and organizations working within the complex social issues and struggles of our time. Since 2007, OE has presented eight conferences in two countries and six cities, hosting over 1,600 presenters and over 6,000 attendees. Annual programming is selected by committees comprised of artists, educators, professionals, and community members from a free, open call for proposals. http://openengagement.info/

Founded by Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, Emma Burgess-Olson and Christine McCharen-Tran, Discwoman is a New York-based platform, collective, and booking agency—that showcases and represents talent in electronic music. Started as a two-day festival in September 2014 at Bossa Nova Civic Club Discwoman has since produced and curated events in 15+ cities—working with over 250 DJs and producers to-date.

BEARCAT is a London born, Brooklyn based artist. She is internationally known, and has performed all over the world, including Egypt, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Leipzig, Barcelona, Mexico City, Oakland and Chicago. She has worked as a DJ/producer, audio engineer and professional make-up artist since 2005. BEARCAT provided creative direction for live events and festivals such as Afropunk, Glastonbury, Reading and Lovebox, among others. She has also DJ’ed sets for the musicians 21 Savage, CupcakKe and Caleborate. She draws from deeply personal experiences and Diaspora roots, and isn’t afraid to delve deep. Her sets are emotive musical selections as a form of therapy. Her ear guides her into creating bass-heavy uncompromising, powerful mixes that harness a symbiotic energy between the music and the crowd to generate the perfect soundtrack to any event. 2017 was a year of astounding new heights. BEARCAT performed at the Guggenheim, Wiener Festwochen in Vienna), Bloomberg Summer Picnic, 29Rooms, Performa 17 Biennial. BEARCAT’s archive of work and sets can be found at bearcat.digital

Riobamba is an Ecuadorian-Lithuanian producer, DJ, and cultural activist based in Brooklyn. Riobamba’s rowdy, deeply researched live sets reflect back nightlife’s power as a site of joy and resistance, amplifying connective tissues between YouTube clips, dembow brujería, bodega soundtracks, and noise hyperreality “suped up with a twisted, industrial gnarl” (Complex). As a self-made bridge between música urbana’s underground movements and pioneers, Riobamba has recently shared the stage with Tego Calderón, Maluma, Nina Sky, DJ Playero, Rosa Pistola, and DJ Blass. The Fader has called her production work “a radically self-expressive piece of futurism that stands against a single, boxed-in definition of what Latinx club music can be.” Riobamba is founder of record label and creative agency APOCALIPSIS, a platform insistent on visibility for narratives by those “ni de aquí, ni de allá” (neither from here, nor there); recent highlights include curating and co-producing Boiler Room’s first reggaetón showcase, and providing ongoing music education in a Brooklyn juvenile detention center. Riobamba leads A&R for the iconic Nuyorican music label Fania, home to groundbreaking artists Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe, and Willie Colón, and was previously Music Editor of cultural platform Remezcla. Prior to moving to NYC, she was the first Colombia-based researcher in the Fulbright-mtvU program, studying the subversive power of digital music production in a region enduring the effects of civil conflict. Her original work has been featured in Resident Advisor, Univision, Fact Mag, The Fader, Thump, Complex, and Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Lykanthea is Lakshmi Ramgopal, an electronic musician from Chicago, IL. Her haunting voice and gauzy drones explore kinship, community, loss, and identity in shows that integrate performance art, synths, the sruti box, and processed vocals that draw on Carnatic improvisational traditions. Her debut EP Migration released in 2014 to praise from Noisey, Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, and Public Radio International’s The World, and was followed by a European tour and appearances at Leipzig, Germany’s Wave Gotik Treffen, NYU’s Occult Humanities Conference, and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Her recent work includes the sound installation Maalai, which explores the role of family archives and the preservation of cultural memory, and an upcoming installation for Chicago’s Lincoln Park Conservatory. She will be performing with violinist Lucy Little at Open Engagement.

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Kombrewcha was created to provide people with an option to drink socially without having to compromise taste, experience, or the pursuit of a well-balanced life. Born and brewed in Brooklyn, New York, our hard kombucha (3.2% ABV) is a fizzy fermented tea with naturally occurring alcohol. Low in sugar and calories, our light and refreshing gluten-free brew is the perfect alternative to beer, wine, or cider- hold the hangover.