Banquet for America Events
Taco Night!!! (an opening holiday for Banquet for America): Friday, February 3, 7-11pm
It’s an American tradition, one that many get excited about. And traditions are funny: they start out as one thing, everyone brings something to it, and it changes. Taco Night!!! will show the diversity of America and its tradition through a tableau of food.
Flux will bring the basics: tortillas, rice, and vegan beans. You will bring the rest; in order to eat, you will need to bring a filling. Whatever you like: salsa, meat, vegetables, cheese, sour cream, etc., with enough to share.
While you are there, you’ll be able to meet the Flux village. Later on, we’ll have performances by Adam Ende, Hector Canonge, LuLu LoLo, and Trabajo (with the special collaboration of The Sperm Whale). Taco Night!!! is presented by Jean Barberis and Mark Krawczuk.
Special Flux Thursday: Thursday, February 9, 8pm+
Join us for this month’s Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon… in our town-within-the gallery, as part of Banquet for America! This month, we’ll have dinner at the banquet table and enjoy presentations and performances from artists taking part in the exhibition, including Adam Ende, Hector Canonge, Kerry Cox, and Veronica Dougherty.
This evening is a potluck; please bring drinks or something delicious to share!
Cabaret Extravaganza: Saturday, February 11, 7pm
Join us for a night of performances staged in our artist-built town. The Invisible Kitchen puppet theater will perform The Master of Prayer. Following the show will come fantastic performances by Homo Hasidus, Angela Washko, Veronica Dougherty, Kagero, and the Ruffian Arms.
The Invisible Kitchen presents: The Master of Prayer, a puppet allegory based on the story by Rebbe Nachman.
The Master of Prayer lives in the woods with his followers, singing, dancing, and repenting like crazy. But he hears of a city of riches where people are valued only according to how much money they have, and is compelled to save these poor idiots from their money-lust. To this end, they depart together on a journey that takes them through many strange kingdoms where some people worship only happiness, others lust, and some even death itself. They must cross a sea of wine, a river of milk, and a sea of blood before they find their way to the truth.
Featuring traditional and original klezmer music by the beautiful and talented Craig Judelman, with puppeteers Adam Ende (the director and janitor of Jawbone Puppet Theater) and Noah Block Harley (of Tic Toc Laboratories fame).
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Kagero is a fabulous, eclectic, part-Japanese pseudo-gypsy band, “your local neighborhood urban-gypsophonic, border-jumping, international debtor’s prison groove-loving feel-good band next door.” Kagero regularly travels throughout the New York Metro Area and crawls into the Kazmovan to gig in Jersey or parts North, South or West. The sound has been described as a melting pot of tonalities and rhythms from Asia, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe — “Cultural Confusion.”
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In the basement at the Sweatshop in Williamsburg, five artists gave birth to the Ruffian Arms, a force to be reckoned with. They combine hard rock melodies with humorous and clever lyrics and package it with an image fully equipped with gender bending costumes that feature high-heeled boots, cheerleader outfits and tiaras. The Gay Mens Social Crisis has said “They add a certain level of raw sexual energy not always front and center in punk music”. They have been described as “messy joy” by The Imagist, and their music as “unleashing a sonic barrage that overflowed with plenty of punk noise and bravado.” New York Magazine has said that they are a “glam (sextet) led by an Amazonian redhead……participating in band wide cheers and pom-pom fights while their trashy, punky, rockabillyesque sound kept the room bouncing along.” The Ruffian Arms have performed widely in New York City, and been selected to participate in several performance festivals, including the New York Makes Music festival, “New Visions and Voices of Queer Culture” with CINEMAROSA at the Queens Museum, Hot Shots at Dixon place, and the “Alpha Women Attack the Lower East Side” festival at Thompkins Square Park.
A Bacchanalian Banquet: Sunday, February 12, 6-9pm
Giustina Surbone presents A Bacchanalian Banquet, our closing event. A Bacchanalian Banquet is a decadent feast, a visual and tactile extravaganza influenced by Greek and Roman saturnalia and Filippo Marinetti’s Futurist Cookbook.
Featuring: Adam Ende, Alan Williams, Amazing Amy, Bismarck Del Castillo, Craig Judelman, David Modello, Hector Canonge, Jazzmine, LuLu LoLo, Morgan Williams, Robin Dann, Stephanie Fribourg, and Theresa Magario
Videographer: Daniel Smyksy
Chef: Nadia Rohrs
This banquet is rsvp-only… and we are no longer taking reservations!
Sponsored by Fairway Market Red Hook, O Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat Market, Los Paisanos Meat Market, Raffetto’s, Sahadi’s, and Three Guys From Brooklyn.
WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, has generously donated Pernod Absinthe to the Banquet for America’s opening and closing receptions. Download WAGMAG’s new gallery guide mobile app, The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn, here.
All events take place at 39-31 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens and are completely free, unless otherwise noted.