Finish off February with the New Museum Triennial, Central Park's Arsenal Gallery and Secret Project Robot's art-driven NYC Porn Film Festival, along with a (hopefully Lana Del Rey-free) talk with Sonic Youth frontwoman Kim Gordon, and Pat Kiernan's glammed up twist on your regular old pub quiz.
via The Ebony Society NYC Parks facebook
February is Black History Month, and one of the best ways to mark the occasion this year is with a trip to Central Park's Arsenal Gallery, which is hosting a new exhibition, The Migration, all month long. Homing in on the first half of the 20th century, the new exhibit features photographs, paintings, and other works of art inspired by the "Great Migration" of blacks out of the south and into the the (arguably) more equitable cities of the American North and West. The exhibit is put on by the NYC Parks Ebony Society and includes Bill Morrison's 78 minute film, The Great Flood, documenting the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 set to a jazz score, as well as mixed media pieces from Edward Myers, Rachel Elizabeth Griffith, Tony Wells, and more. "The show is not intended to be a literal history of the Great Migration, but a collective of artistic responses to this epoch," the Parks Department told Gothamist. (Scott Heins)
Exhibit runs weekdays until February 24th, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. // Central Park Arsenal, 830 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan // Free
via Pine Ear's Flickr
Check out this "Kool Thing": alterna-goddess Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame will be discussing her new memoir Girl In A Band at Strand Books on the 24th. Frontwoman for one of the most influential New York bands to ever grace CBGBs, they effectively brought No Wave to the masses and continue to be a mix-tape staple for a bevy of "Teen Age Riot"-ers and Daydream Nation kids. From details about her split with ex-husband/bandmate Thurston Moore to her childhood in California, it's set to be a night of in-depth conversation with Vanity Fair contributing editor Elissa Schappell, reflective of the book's themes of "art, partnership, and dissolving identity."
Tuesday, February 24th, 7 p.m. // Strand Books, 828 Broadway, Manhattan // Free with the purchase of Girl In A Band or a $15 Strand Gift Card
photo via Scott Lynch
For those who like their pub quiz with a hint of pop culture, The Bell House presents their 2nd Annual Red Carpet Trivia Night with the inimitable Pat Kiernan of NY1 and VH1 fame. Everything from books to Broadway is fair game, so come prepped for a night of the Biebs, Beyonce and every "relevant" media superstar out there. Everyone there will get the opportunity to participate in multiple rounds of trivia, though a few lucky attendees will get to join Pat onstage for some quality trivia time and the chance to win a whole host of gifts the organizers are hinting will be Hollywood-levels of glamorous.
Tuesday, February 24th, 7 p.m. // The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn // Tickets $26
photo via CineKink
Lust is in the air with two sex-positive, 18+ film festivals set to take the stage this month across the East River from each other. The first is Manhattan-based CineKink, which is now in its twelfth year of celebrating "a wide diversity of sexuality" with screenings, short film competitions, awards, showcases, presentations, a kick-off gala and (of course) a very kinky after party.
For something a little more hardcore though, there's also the NYC Porn Film Festival, a Bushwick newcomer that aims "to challenge the consensus and the hypocrisy surrounding pornography and examine its cultural and social impact," especially in an age of new media and technologies. We hear there will also be a celebrity-sized special screening, so snag your tickets soon.
CineKink
Tuesday, February 24th, 8 p.m. - Sunday, March 1st, 11:30 p.m. // Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue, Manhattan // Individual Screening Tickets $8-10, All-Access Pass $40-85
NYC Porn Film Festival
Friday, February 27th - Sunday, March 1st // Secret Project Robot, 389 Melrose Street, Brooklyn // Individual Screening Tickets $5, All-Access Pass $69
This month the New Museum will unveil its long-awaited Triennial, a massive multi-gallery show that emphasizes prodigious artists in the early stages of their careers in hopes of pointing the way forward, rather than looking back and taking stock. This year's installment, the third in the museum's history, will be dubbed "Surround Audience" and boasts 51 artists from over 25 different countries. Tethered to a theme of data, spectacle, media, and technology, the triennial should be sweet artsy nectar for anyone with an open mind. Works from niv Acosta, Juliana Huxtable, Nadim Abbas, Sophia Al-Maria, and many more have been commissioned. (Scott Heins)
Opens Wednesday, February 25th, // New Museum, 235 Bowery, Manhattan // Tickets $18
