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Mar 05

Pan-Pot / Martin Buttrich

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It can be the similarities between two people that draw them together, but it’s the differences between them that create something special. It would be nothing if those two polar opposites failed to meet in the middle. Such is the story of Pan-Pot.

Tassilo and Thomas met at Berlin’s renowned School of Audio Engineering, better known as the SAE Institute, and were drawn together as they were the only two in their studies who had their sights set on the sound of techno. Their initial musical efforts placed a primacy on integrating electronic experimentation with minimal stylings while simultaneously establishing the ominous, murky sounds that have since become synonymous with their name.

The defining moment of Pan-Pot’s career came in 2007 with the release of their debut artist album, Pan-O-Rama. The aptly named long player offered a 360-degree view of techno that was unique, uncompromised and most importantly, their own. The body of work perfectly balanced heavy, peak time club stormers to deeper, more intricate atmospherics and birthed the overground hit “Charly”. More recently “Confronted” and “Captain My Captain” have demonstrated their classic, bold and timeless production style, presenting them as the producers at the top of their game, both sonically and conceptually.

Pan-Pot haven’t gotten to where they are on their previous accolades alone, the duo have lent their craft recently in the form of a second album „The Other“ and high profile remixes for the likes of the legendary Carl Cox, Slam, Paul Kalkbrenner and the renowned Stephan Bodzin, all while touting a ferocious touring schedule appearing regularly at the best clubs and largest festivals in the world like Time Warp, Awakenings, Glastonbury, Kappa Future and Tomorrowland to name a few. The relentless touring is how they have truly gotten to where they are: by touching the writhing, euphoric, dancing seas of bodies at countless gigs every year. Not only do they have an electric vibe to watch, but their grasp and keen understanding of each and every dance floor is unparalleled. Whether it’s an intimate club night or a massive festival, Pan-Pot know exactly what to do. Unconstrained by boundaries, they traverse Techno, House and everything in between with a masters touch.

Although their name comes from a basic element of studio equipment, they have rewritten notions of form and function through their own idiosyncratic language and are now stepping completely into a new world since the launch of their own imprint, Second State in 2014. Over the last years, Second State has not only become a platform for Pan-Pot to release their own music, but a creative outlet derived from a family of like minded artists around them to inspire, imagine and travel the world with, spreading the Second State vision and catapulting new names into the spotlight like Amelie Lens, Stephan Hinz and Micheal Klein. It’s a place where all ideas can flow seamlessly, from music and events to art and fashion.

With no letting up in sight Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix have proven that there are no limits to what can be achieved or dreamed. Now is the time Pan- Pot are truly coming into their own. Not only as world class artists and performers, but as tastemakers and masters of their own destiny.

pan-pot.net

Mar 05

Kollektiv Turmstrasse / Öona Dahl / Daniel Cowel

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Kollektiv Turmstrasse (Diynamic Music / Musik Gewinnt Freunde / Germany)

Öona Dahl (All Day I Dream / Hallucienda / New York / Germany)

Daniel Cowel (Zero / New York)

*** TICKETS ON SALE NOW: https://ktkdc.eventbrite.com/ ***

 

About the Artists

There are few artists operating in the house/techno milieu who offer much beyond functionality in their music. Those who bring more than this to the table always stand out from the crowd. Hamburg/Berlin duo Kollektiv Turmstrasse (Christian Hilscher and Nico Plagemann) are one of those rare acts whose music caters for both body and soul.

Their cinematic take on 4/4 electronica has won praise from all quarters via releases on Diynamic, Connaisseur and their own Musik Gewinnt Freunde imprint. Debut album Rebellion der Träumer (‘The Dreamer’s Rebellion’) demonstrated a prowess beyond the realms of the dancefloor, laden with frosty electronic melody, downtempo rhythm and classy vocals. A busy remix schedule has seen them grace the likes of Cocoon, Get Physical, Soma, Poker Flat, Defected, Systematic and Traum, reworking multifarious acts including Trentemøller, Hot Chip and Terry Lee Brown Jnr. along the way.

Their sense of emotion – informed by their upbringing on Germany’s visually arresting Baltic Sea coast – lends their productions a human warmth, allowing them to slot effortlessly into both club and home listening scenarios. “Wide; open; top-heavy; all-consuming; shifted; simple; these are the words we use to describe our sound. We use both digital and analog. First and foremost we produce music for ourselves. We don‘t predetermine whether it’s suited for home or club environment.” This lack of contrition serves them well. Electronic music is an art for them; not a science.

Watching their live show reveals how their music connects with crowds on an emotional level, and how its melodic and textural depth works in such synergy with its rhythmic backbone. “We play live with two MacBooks running Ableton Live with over a thousand clips, which gives us a lot of space to improvise. The whole thing is controlled with one iPad each which allows us to work very fast and intuitively.”

Their show has been finding them in high demand across the globe, and has helped them to strengthen their relationship with Solomun’s Diynamic label – playing at their international parties while releasing music with them on a regular basis. “They have been friends of ours for over ten years” says Solomun. “It was a mere matter of time for them to join in. Mutual friends, interests and in general a similar perception of music and life brought us together.” While the label’s sound has evolved in recent years, there has always been a place for Kollektiv Turmstrasse within their fabric. “One thing that we all have in common is a certain melancholy and harmony in our productions.” For a duo who don’t like to be pigeonholed, it’s a perfect fit.

“The journey has alway been more important to us than the reward” Christian and Nico say on their future with music. “There is a lot to discover along the way and it might just be that the detour is the more scenic route to the next goal.” With such an organic pulse running through their productions, it should come as no surprise that they hope their career progresses in similarly unforced fashion.

Öona Dahl’s home is found beyond the conscious state, transforming dance floors into spaces wreathed in sound. With an open mind and a vast range of music knowledge, she knows how to connect on another level when playing her music to the crowd. Testing traditional musical limits with extended mixes, isochronic tones and melodies, Öona’s breadth of skill behind the decks is hard to match. A graduate of The International Academy of Design and Technology for Digital Media and Recording Arts. Her original production spans broad dance floor territory, from Techno, Deep House to Experimental Electronica. Finding the balance between light and dark with both her solo work and as Slumber has kept her inspired and able to express both arrays of emotions through her sound.

A true perfectionist, Daniel Cowel has traveled the world in search of the deepest roots of music and matched his geographical education with a deep study of the nature of the art, which is reflected in the breadth and integrity of his sets. An extremely humble and gracious human being, Daniel Cowel has built an international name for himself with his ZERO residency opening sets, carefully warming rooms and crafting slow boiling vibes, each set individually handled with delicate care and respect for whoever comes next. Yet, when his moments to shine arrive, Daniel Cowel delivers, giving us some incredible memories.

Mar 05

YJC Queer Lunar New Year Party

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Knockdown Center hosts the Yellow Jackets Collective’s 3rd Queer Lunar New Year Party, PIG: Year of Abundance, a party to celebrate joy and community for queer diasporic people of color.

In 2017, the year of the Rooster, YJC threw our very first queer lunar new year party. We were forged in fire, giving shape to our chosen family in the making and unmaking of things. This last year, 2018, was the year of the earth dog; when what remained from the devastation was nurtured. It was a year of grounding and healing, where people built anew and rooted in what had survived. Now it’s the year of the pig, and for Yellow Jackets, it will be a year of abundance. For us this year is about warm, generous love. It is about believing in the strength of our collective dreams, and scheming with our communities to manifest prosperity and joy. It is a year of reaping what you sow.

The party is meant to center queer people of color. There will be a slew of QTPOC DJs and performers as well as a night market with vendors selling zines, art, and other treats. Most of these performers and vendors are community that we’ve built in the last 3 years collaborating in NYC, and this party is meant as a celebration of our love, commitment and gratitude we have for our chosen families.

There will be NO TOLERANCE for anti-blackness, appropriative garb, harassment, anything nonconsensual. We are asking everyone to be financially transparent, as no POC folks will be turned away. We will have clear community guidelines in the space that we ask everyone to follow.

For context, the Lunar New Year is the first day of a calendar year that cycles with the moon. Hindu, Bengali, Buddhist, Islamic and traditional East Asian calendars are based on this system, and many of us in the U.S. who have ancestors from these ‘othered’ spaces still live and celebrate by it. The new year is a time of family reunion and we want to reinterpret this tradition by celebrating with our chosen families and our queer diasporic families.

Set List: Ushamami, DJ Ushka, Landline Sanrio Service, Br0nze_G0dd3ss, and Oscar Nñ [JUST ADDED]

Hosts: Discwoman, BUFU, BARS Collective, Shama Rahman, Alice Sparkly Kat, Ada Wrong, Yung Nihilist, Poppy and Yin of Mercy Mistress, Neon Christina (RAGGA NYC), China Residencies, Papi Juice, KT + Emilio [JUST ADDED], and Wing on Wo & Co [JUST ADDED]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YELLOW JACKETS COLLECTIVE YJC is chosen family of yellow queers collaborating towards radical futures.

Mar 05

Ballroom Throwbacks X

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Come and celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Ballroom Throwbacks. What started as an idea progressed into a Youtube Channel, then a brand and a business. With well over 100 million views and counting BrtbTV is one of the fundamental windows into the underground culture.

Feb 28

Refiguring the Future Conference

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Knockdown Center hosts the final day of the Refiguring the Future Conference, organized by Eyebeam and REFRESH, and presented in collaboration with Hunter College Art Galleries.

 

About the Refiguring the Future Conference
Following a public reception on February 8, Refiguring the Futurewill open with a two-day conference highlighting over 20 speakers and workshop leaders, including special keynotes by Simone Browne, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Paul B. Preciado in conversation with Zach Blas. Providing space to unpack the key themes in the exhibition through keynotes, panel discussions, and community engaged programs, the conference will grapple with marginalizing states of technology by propelling us to a future in becoming.

With conditions of ecologies, humanities, and sciences being implicated by technological biases, what possibilities arise when this accelerated force is paused and worldbuilding is privileged anew? As technical powers have perpetuated systemic cultural and economic oppression, the ways in which we exist, navigate, and project are seemingly dictated and undermined.

The Refiguring the Future conference convenes artists, educators, writers, and cultural strategists to envision a shared liberatory future by providing us with collective imaginings that move beyond and critique oppressive systems to offer alternative possibilities. Additional participants include: Taeyoon Choi, Sofía Córdova, Kadija Ferryman, Shannon Finnegan, Anneli Goeller, Kathy High, Yo-Yo Lin, Maandeeq Mohamed, Rasheedah Phillips, Sofía Unanue, and Alexander Weheliye (list in formation).

The Refiguring the Future conference is curated by Eyebeam/REFRESH Curatorial and Engagement Fellow Lola Martinez and REFRESH member Maandeeq Mohamed.

FEBRUARY 10  CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM | Event Check in 

12:00 PM – 01:45 PM | Session 1: Workshops, Talks, and Screenings

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Workshop | Mxtressclass: Lexi Had a Little Alembic

Location: Ready Room Bar

In a co-constitutive process of exchange, this semi-structure workshop will engage participants on collaborative writing for performance, online synchronous writing, and collaborative writing processes using enabling constraints and sympoietic systems.

In Her Interior (Virginia Barratt and Francesca da Rimini), Artists

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body

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Talks | Refiguring Planetary Health, Building Black Futures

Location: Annex

We cannot have a healthy planet that sustains all human beings as long as the systemic oppression of Black and Indigenous peoples continues. And yet, prominent environmental science institutions concerned with conservation and climate change often fail to address this oppression or their role in perpetuating it. In this talk, we will explore how histories of scientific racism and eugenics inform current scientific policies and practice. Cynthia Malone will work with various forms of freedom practice, from hip hop to science fiction to scholarship in the Black Radical Tradition, to consider alternative visions for planetary health that advance both environmental stewardship and liberation from oppressive ideologies and systems.

Cynthia Malone, Activist, Scholar, and Scientist

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The Spirit of the Water Bear

In this talk, Claire Pentecost will give an introduction and reading of Spirit of the Water Bear, a young adult novel set in a coastal town in the Carolinas. The novel’s protagonist, Juni Poole, is a 15-year-old girl who spends much of her time exploring the natural world. Inevitably, she finds herself confronting the urgency of a crisis that has no end, namely climate change and the sixth great extinction. Through experiences of activism, she finds comrades who feel environmental and political urgency much as she does, and learns that she has a place in the ongoing struggle for environmental justice. The book is a work of “Cli-Fi” or climate fiction, featuring Juni’s adventures, but it is also a work of “Cli-Phi” or climate philosophy, featuring conversations and musings on the nature of our existential predicament.

Claire Pentecost, Artist

Speaker Introductions by Lola Martinez, Eyebeam and REFRESH Curatorial and Engagement Fellow

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Workshop | Bioplastics for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes 

Location: Arizona

In this bioplastics and biomaterials workshop, participants will refigure methodologies to radically re-make petro-chemically derived plastic materials that we use in our everyday lives. We will envision tactics for reclaiming, rebuilding, nurturing and healing – via renewable biological raw materials – the extractive and destructive processes of techno-capitalism and the inherent waste, cultural and environmental degradation of these now dominant processes.

Tiare Ribeaux, Artist—

Screening | Incense, Sweaters, and Ice

Location: Gallery 2

(1 hour, 9 minutes. Closed Captioned)

Incense Sweaters & Ice follows the movements of Girl, Mrs. Queen Esther Bernetta White, and WB (“whiteboy”) through different phases of watching, being watched, and remaining unseen. Using Hollywood film tropes and the visual languages of social media video platforms like Vine and Instagram, the film follows the long cinematic history of using camera motion to create the illusion of subjectivity. Intertwining technique and narrative, the film drives at the tension between surveillance and self­ promotion that pervades our many avenues of self­ documentation and broadcast.

Martine Syms, Artist

Film Introductions by Maandeeq Mohamed, Writer

01:45 PM – 02:45 PM | Lunch 

03:00 PM – 04:45 PM |   Session 2: Workshops, Talks, and Programs

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Workshop | Abstract Data Portraits

Location: Wood Jamb

Note: Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops.

In this community data justice workshop, participants will explore the data they constantly create by generating and abstracting their data via creative code. Through an informative yet playful process, we aim to demystify concepts around “big data” by allowing agency and providing information.

Ladan Siad, Designer and Creative Technologist

Aljumaine Gayle, Designer

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Roundtables and Talks | Visible networks: Community Building in the Digital Arena

Location: Annex

As notions of accessibility are being rendered visible on networks and digital medias, disability and chronic illness communities are utilizing networks to provide resources and representations. Yet what does it mean to build community within these platforms? This roundtable discussion offers reflections by artists working to provide new insights into biomedical discourses which reinforce apparent and unapparent representations of disabled bodies.

Hayley Cranberry, Artist

Anneli Goeller, Artist

Yo-Yo Lin, Artist

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#GLITCHFEMINISM

Legacy Russell is the founding theorist behind Glitch Feminism as a cultural manifesto and movement. #GLITCHFEMINISM aims to use the digital as a means of resisting the hegemony of the corporeal. Glitch Feminism embraces the causality of ‘error’ and turns the gloomy implication of ‘glitch’ on its ear by acknowledging that an error in a social system disturbed by economic, racial, social, sexual, cultural stratification, and the imperialist wrecking-ball of globalization—processes that continue to enact violence on all bodies—may not be ‘error’ at all, but rather a much-needed erratum. The digital is a vessel through which our glitch ‘becoming’ realises itself, and through which we can reprogramme binary gender coding. Our ‘glitch’ is a correction to the machine—f**k hegemonic coding! USURP THE BODY—BECOME YOUR AVATAR!

Legacy Russell, Curator and Writer

Speaker Introductions by Lola Martinez, Eyebeam and REFRESH Curatorial and Engagement Fellow

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Workshop |  Alt-text as Poetry 

Location: Ready Room Bar

Alt-text is a key building block of web accessibility, allowing blind people and people with low vision to access visual content. Often it is seen through the lens of compliance, as an unwelcome burden that needs to be met with minimum effort. How can we instead approach alt-text lavishly and creatively? In this workshop, we will reframe alt-text as a type of poetry and practice writing it together.

Shannon Finnegan, Artist

Bojana Coklyat, Artist

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Workshop |  Distributed Web of Care

Location: Arizona

What kind of network do we want for the future? How does it feel to be programmed into centralized, decentralized, and distributed networks? Distributed Web of Care imagines a more equitable, caring internet for the future. Through lecture and performance, we will address timely issues of the internet including surveillance, censorship, corporate data ownership, and explore alternative methods of communicating via peer to peer protocols for collective agency.

Taeyoon Choi, Artist and co-founder of School for Poetic Computation

Stud1nt, Sound Artist

Cori Kresge, Dancer

04:45 PM – 05:00 PM | Session Break 

05:00 PM – 05:30 PM | Performance: Breaching Toward Other Futures

Location: Main

For their performance, Morehshin Allahyari and Shirin Fahimi will channel the revelation of the jinn figures Aisha Qandisha and Ilm al-raml as their method for telling and opening doors towards other futures. Aisha Qandisha is one of the most honored and fearsome jinn in Islam, known as “the opener”. When she possesses humans, she does not take over the host but rather opens them to an outside–to a storm of incoming jinn and demons, making them a traffic zone of cosmodromic data. Ilm al-raml refers to the foresight that the Earth holds within itself. Through its practice, this foresight is revealed and the future is seen, known, and breached.

Morehshin Allahyari, Artist

Shirin Fahimi, Artist

~~~

The Knockdown Center is an accessible venue. The conference entrance is located on 52-19 Flushing Ave at 54th St through a parking lot. The accessible entrance is available by ramp in front of the building. Restrooms are located on the ground floor lobby area and are wheelchair accessible.

(For accessible transportation inquiries from the Flushing Ave JM MTA Station to the Knockdown Center please contact j.soto@eyebeam.org or +1 347 378 9163 (voice only) by Thursday, February 7)

Day 1: American Sign Language interpretation and CART captioning will be provided

Day 2: American Sign Language interpretation will be provided

*********

About the Refiguring the Future Exhibition 
Curated by REFRESH collective members Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Dorothy R. Santos, the exhibition title is inspired by artist Morehshin Allahyari’s work defining a concept of “refiguring” as a feminist, de-colonial, and activist practice. Informed by the punk ethos of do-it-yourself (DIY), the 18 artists featured in Refiguring the Future deeply mine the historical and cultural roots of our time, pull apart the artifice of contemporary technology, and sift through the pieces to forge new visions of what could become.

The exhibition will present 11 new works alongside re-presented immersive works by feminist, queer, decolonial, anti-racist, and anti-ableist artists concerned with our technological and political moment including: Morehshin Allahyari, Lee Blalock, Zach Blas*, micha cárdenas* and Abraham Avnisan, In Her Interior (Virginia Barratt and Francesca da Rimini)*, Mary Maggic, Lauren McCarthy, shawné michaelain holloway*, Claire and Martha Pentecost, Sonya Rapoport, Barak adé Soleil,Sputniko! and Tomomi Nishizawa, Stephanie Syjuco, and Pinar Yoldas*.

Names with asterik denotes participation in conference.

Refiguring the Future Schedule
Exhibition: February 8, 2019—March 31, 2019
205 Hudson Gallery, Hunter College Art Galleries
New York, NY 10013

Conference: February 9-10, 2019
February 9th, 2018
10am – 6pm
Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065

February 10th, 2018
12pm – 6pm
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, NY 11378

*Full detailed schedule coming soon

ABOUT
Technology’s effect on our future is always changing and difficult to understand. Through exploratory process and emotionally compelling output, Eyebeam believes that artists can help us visualize and realize a more just future. Eyebeam provides both space and support for a community of diverse, justice-driven artists. Our annual residency program, highly engaged community of alumni, advanced tools and resources, and shows and events help our artists bring their work to life and out into the world. Eyebeam enables people to think creatively and critically about technology’s effect on society, with the mission of revealing new paths toward a more just future for all.

REFRESH is a collaborative and politically engaged platform established in 2016. As a collective, they begin with inclusion as a starting point for pursuing sustainable artistic and curatorial practices across the fields of art, science, and technology.

Hunter College Art Galleries provide a space for critical engagement with art and pedagogy, bringing together historical scholarship, contemporary artistic practice, and experimental methodology.

Kaye Playhouse hosts internationally-acclaimed artists and music, dance and theatre companies for New York audiences, as well as serving as the centerpiece for the performing arts at Hunter College.

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Feb 28

Secret Soca Society Presents: Last Flight

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Get On Board #SSS Airways on Saturday 9th February with Non-Stop Jamming to Port-of-Spain!

We are Climbing to an Altitude of Winery! So Pack Light!

A Turbulent DJ Cast is going to have you Pumping all the way, thinking about nothing but the Mecca of Carnival!

Who is Ready to Fly?!! Get your Plane Ticket Now cause Standby is Not an Option!

The Secret is in d Sauce! After completing your online ticket purchase, you will receive an email confirmation with your attached PDF ticket(s). You MUST print and bring your PDF ticket(s) to be admitted for the event, or you may show the ticket on your phone in lieu of printing. [SECRET SOCA SOCIETY Ticket Transfer Policy: You may gain entry to the event even if you name is not on your ticket ONLY AS LONG as the barcode is scan able. SECRET SOCA SOCIETY is not responsible if ticket(s) that cannot be scanned and the order is a different name than the person presenting the ticket.]

Ticket Reminder: To ensure your satisfaction, SECRET SOCA SOCIETY cannot guarantee tickets purchased from unauthorized third party resellers (individuals or brokers). SECRET SOCA SOCIETY recommends you purchase tickets directly through SECRET SOCA SOCIETY Eventbrite.com link, and our authorized partners. For questions: EMAIL SSSFETE@GMAIL.COM

Feb 28

Akumandra

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AKUMANDRA SHOWCASE

For compositions that are interpreted in moderate musical time, AKUMANDRA surfaces as a projection space for sound in which the artists reproduce and diffuse their projects to a public hungry for the reception of vanguardist concepts. Concepts that recreate hearing and mood from a perspective of a positioned observation opened unto an amalgam of original results in musical creation.

21+
10pm-5am

Feb 28

New Years Eve ‘Time + Space’ with Claude VonStroke

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BangOn!NYC blasts into the new year with their annual Time + Space New Years Eve 2019. Dirtybird captain Claude VonStroke, Bleep Bloop, and more prepare for lift off to transcend time and space on December 31st, 2018. Explore alternate realities, immersive spaces, interactive performances, and two full musical stages at their big bang to travel straight into 2019!

Show Time: 9:00 PM – 5:00 AM [ 21+]

Feb 28

Coming To America Theme Party

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Hilarious, sweet, and sharp, COMING TO AMERICA is Eddie Murphy’s funniest film. African prince Akeem is on a journey across the world to find a a queen. What better place to look than Queens, New York? Akeem wants to live like the common people of Queens do, but his faithful servant prefers the luxuries of palace life. Will they find a woman who wants Akeem for love and not his wealth?
Join us as we celebrate the 30th anniversary with a movie screening and a giant immersive party. Guests can expect a memorable experience at this one of a kind event that brings moments from the screen to life. Be part of a gigantic dance party as we jump into music from Africa, and all the way back to classic 70s and 80s songs. Enjoy special performances and delicious themed food + much more. Dress up as your favorite character for a chance to win an amazing trip to Ghana or Kenya in April 2019! This is a night for fans to come and celebrate a timeless classic film.
Welcome to the 30th anniversary celebration for COMING TO AMERICA.
Tickets on sale now!
Coming To America Movie Screening + Party (Limited Tickets): $30 (Guests will have access to the film screening and a seat from 7:00PM – 9:30PM. Guests will also have access to the event from 10pm – 4am.Guests have access to all interactive activities and event space areas.)
Coming To America Party: $25-$45 (Access to the event from 10pm – 4am. Does not included film screening. Guests have access to all interactive activities and event space areas.)
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