Jonathan Toubin / New York Night Train bring you a huge Roller Skating party!
Roller skate with your friends under the huge disco ball all night to the vinyl oldies! Plus… Live music! DJs! Dancing! Live Visuals! Pizza! Roller girls! Le Crunch Glam Dance party room with Josh Styles and Sophie Thunder-Murphy and much more!
If you don’t bring your own skates, $7 rentals available on site!
Do you have a performance, workshop, or series of events in need of a home? Send us your proposal before September 15th for consideration of our 2017-2018 programming! Short-term projects can take the form of temporary installations, dance, theater, readings, talks, screenings, etc. This open call does not limit scale, scope, or format of submissions.
Knockdown Center’s mission is to be responsive to the needs of cultural producers making experimental and cross-disciplinary work, and to provide a platform for in-depth inquiry from varying viewpoints across diverse formats. Through an open proposal process, we offer artists, curators, and organizers the freedom to challenge traditional notions of presentation and reception.
Deadline: September 15, 2017
Knockdown Center Proposal Guidelines
Please use the proposal guidelines below, refer to the floor plans to identify the space that best suits your project, and format the proposal in a single PDF and email it to mail@knockdown.center with the subject “Short-Term Proposal” or “Exhibition Proposal”
1. Project Description: In one page or less, clearly describe your project concept, all elements involved, and state why it is relevant to present at Knockdown Center.
2. Images: Please include 5 – 15 images of works included or representative of what will be included. For movement based work, please include video samples.
3. Installation plan: Describe how the project would be installed in Knockdown’s space. Clearly list all spatial needs, technical and equipment requirements, and other specific installation considerations. Include a layout of the project in space using the floor plan.
4. Timeline: Describe the full production timeline of your project including load-in, installation, tech, rehearsals, event times, and load out.
5. We often have overlapping events and programs in the building at the same time. Please consider the ways in which sharing the building may impact your project.
6. Expected attendance and ticket price, if applicable.
7. Budget overview: Please provide a detailed overview of the production budget. 8. Exhibiting artist info: Provide bios for all included artists.
9. Curator / Producer info: Give us a sense of your background and experience, including a sample of your relevant work experience.
PDF of Guidelines and Floor Plan here.
Join us for a free evening of comedy, hosted by Brooklyn-based comedian Jason Weitzman! Taking place in the Ready Room, our intimate bar.
This fall at Knockdown Center, artist Azikiwe Mohammed stages a performative installation of his fictional thrift store, Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime. New Davonhaime – a location conceived by Mohammed – is an amalgamation of the names of the five most densely populated Black cities in America: New Orleans, Detroit, Jackson, Birmingham, and Savannah. Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime was created to serve as a safe space for Black and Brown people living in America. Knockdown Center’s galleries will be fully transformed into a thrift store that contains objects both created and found by Mohammed including tapestries, records, postcards, paintings, lamps, and books.
Mohammed will be on site daily performing as the thrift store owner, Jimmy, accepting donations from the public in the form of photographs to be added to Mohammed’s Black Community Family Albums, or audio-recorded memories that detail the first time participants realized they were Black. These recordings, called My First Time stories, will be compiled and turned into 12” records that are then added to the installation’s growing collection. Both living archives offer an intimate and nuanced portrait of Black lives both contemporary and past.
Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime also contains a music library that invites visitors to exchange music using Mohammed’s custom New Davonhaime flash drives with an emphasis on visitors dropping off their original compositions to be shared with other visitors.
Previous versions of Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime have shown at Spring/Break and No Longer Empty in 2016, and Knockdown Center’s culminating presentation of Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime will be its most extensive iteration yet.
Related Programs:
September 24: Josep Maynou and Alison Kuo
October 1: Grady Owens and GDFX
October 7: Documenting the Nameplate
October 27: DJ Susan Z Anthony
Azikiwe Mohammed graduated from Bard College in 2005 where he studied photography and fine arts. Since then he has shown these things in galleries both nationally and internationally. In 2015 he received the Art Matters Grant, and in 2016 was the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Emmerging Artist Grant. He lives in New York and currently works at Mana Fine Arts as part of their mana BSMT program.
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Knockdown Center’s exhibitions are selected through a competitive open call for proposals. Through a multi-round process, exhibition proposals are reviewed by Knockdown Center’s Curatorial Advisory Board and selected based on quality, distinctiveness, and response to Knockdown Center’s unique site and context within an ecosystem of live events.
Founded in 2015, the Knockdown Center’s Curatorial Advisory Board is currently comprised of seven sitting arts professionals with diverse but overlapping interests and fields of expertise. The Curatorial Advisory Board meets bi-annually to provide critical feedback on a wide range of proposals as well as contributing to discussions about larger programmatic goals. To learn more about proposing an exhibition or short-term project please visit our Proposals Page.
The KDC Friday Night Movie is a series of FREE screenings in the Ruins, Knockdown Center’s backyard. Every Friday from August 11th – September 8th, join us at 8pm for live music followed by a feature film, frozen drinks, and our very own house-made popcorn! Make sure to bring your own blankets or lawn chairs, as seating is limited!
Goodfellas (1990)
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is an adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. The film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends over a period from 1955 to 1980.
Join us at 8:00pm for a special performance by Hearing Things!
About Hearing Things
Matt Bauder formed Hearing Things in 2012 after hearing a phantom band playing in his practice space. The band had wild rock & roll beats, haunting organ and relentless saxophone. But when he opened the door no one was there. The real life Hearing Things has been said to play “music for surfing through hurricane-force winds” – The Columbia Tribune and “Brooklyn’s Funnest New Band” – New York Music Daily. They have toured nationally as main support for Nick Waterhouse and Will Butler (Arcade Fire). Currently, Hearing Things plays once a month at Brooklyn’s Barbés, the band’s favorite music bar. When not playing in Hearing Things, saxophonist/composer Matt Bauder tours playing sax in bands like Arcade Fire, Father John Misty, Iron and Wine, and Haim.
The KDC Friday Night Movie is a series of FREE screenings in the Ruins, Knockdown Center’s backyard. Every Friday from August 11th – September 8th, join us at 8pm for live music followed by a feature film, frozen drinks, and our very own house-made popcorn! Make sure to bring your own blankets or lawn chairs, as seating is limited!
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Big Lebowski is a 1998 American crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken identity, after which The Dude learns that a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski was the intended victim. The millionaire Lebowski’s trophy wife is kidnapped, and he commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release; but the plan goes awry when the Dude’s friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the ransom money. Julianne Moore and Steve Buscemi also star, with David Huddleston, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Elliott, Tara Reid, David Thewlis and Flea appearing in supporting roles.
Upcoming:
Friday, September 8 – Goodfellas (1990)
The KDC Friday Night Movie is a series of FREE screenings in the Ruins, Knockdown Center’s backyard. Every Friday from August 11th – September 8th, join us at 8pm for live music followed by a feature film, frozen drinks, and our very own house-made popcorn! Make sure to bring your own blankets or lawn chairs, as seating is limited!
Natural Born Kilers (1994)
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 American satirical crime film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore, and Tommy Lee Jones. The film was released in the United States on August 26, 1994. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and mass murderers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Upcoming:
Friday, September 1 – Big Lebowski (1998)
Friday, September 8 – Goodfellas (1990)
