INDEPENDENT / FIRE / WORKS

A Benefit for St. Mark’s Church-on-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street @ Second Avenue
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
7pm – 4am

Organized by by A-ron, Brendan Fowler and Ethan Swan
Presented by The Guggenheim Museum, Supreme, RVCA Clothing, ANPQuarterly and www.ruckus.com

Performances by The Virgins, Car Clutch, Lissy Trullie, Kria Brekkan, Effi Briest, Mod Rocket, and Young Lords

DJs Mike Fellows, Rub n’ Tug, Free Simon

Food & Drinks

$5 Entry

All funds-raised will go toward restoring the façade of historic St. Mark’s Church

Downtown. Bohemian. Avant-garde. When we think of the original downtown scene we think, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Allen Ginsburg, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, then Patti Smith, Sam Shepard, Richard Hell, Eric Bogosian, Thurston Moore, and the list goes on. St. Mark’s Church was their clubhouse. It was the place where they could do what they did with whomever they wanted with no one to answer to. This is where Patti and Lenny Kaye first met up, poetry with guitar, in 1971. It's where Andy screened "Empire". And before all of them, it's where Isadora Duncan danced and Carl Sandburg read his poetry. Black Panthers met there in the 60’s and anarchists and other protestors demonstrating against the GOP convention in 2004 found a safe haven at the church. The Poetry Project started at St. Mark’s Church in 1966 and continues to support and celebrate artists. Danspace also took up residence in the 70’s and has mounted performances by dancers from Merce to Meredith Monk and Bill Jones. Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysterical Theater, the driving force of avant-garde theater, has steadily produced some of the best downtown theater since it first started in the 60’s and has been at St. Mark's since 1992. Through these and other programs, St. Mark’s continues as a place where progressive politics and the arts keep engaging in a dialogue that defines our understanding of culture as more than just what is fed to us by the media.

Independent/Fire/Works has been organized to help maintain that space and its spirit for ongoing generations of artists and performers. As part of the celebration for St. Mark’s, the artist Dash Snow, who exhibits his work at LES gallery Rivington Arms and was featured in the most recent Whitney Biennial, has created a limited edition print to benefit the church. The event will feature performances by alternative superstars, The Virgins, Car Clutch (BARR), Lissy Trullie,
Kria Brekkan (MUM/AnimalCollective), Effi Briest, Mod Rocket, and the Young Lords. DJ’s include Mike Fellows, Rub n’ Tug, and Free Simon. Everyone has donated their time and energy to the cause.

Downtown has changed, it is a state of mind more often than a physical space, but St. Mark’s Church is still here and still a dynamic force for the arts and community.

--Kira von Eichel, June 26, 2007

For more information please go to http://nyglob.com/