Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets
Advance tickets are sold out, an in-person wait list will open at 6:30PM.

*This program has been postponed until further notice.

"WHAT’S, DONE IN THE DARK..." is a 3 part performance by 2025 AiR DANIRO that explores the desires, emotions, and imaginations of a woman of the night.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

DANIRO is a multidisciplinary artist who consistently places a future-centered focus on the voices of underrepresented communities that are the pulse of contemporary electronic music, art & culture. By reflecting the narratives of those living their lives in the societal margins, her work aims to capture a perspective not just close to home and heart, but one far too often overlooked by popular media. DANIRO's artistic practice at its root is based in her continued exploration of the human form, starting with her own body and narrative. She received her BFA focused in Film, Sculpture, & Performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. DANIRO has shown work at The Museum of Modern Art, Mana Contemporary, The Lower Manhattan Cultural council, The Gene Siskle Theater, Golden Thread Gallery and more. 

Free; advance registration required at least 24 hours in advance.
RSVP

(2 hour group sessions, 3-5 participants)

This fall, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Kyle b. co. is workshopping sessions of their Critical Race Therapy project, which thinks through how one might address race as an embodied sense or an anxiety disorder, outside of the 1-on-1 structure of Treatment 1 (CRT T1). Group Therapy Jam Band sessions will take place with a guest musician or sound maker and host 3-5 participants who will build a sample pack together. Sign up together or join up with a stranger. Kyle b. co. is interested in how the inquiries and personal reflections that emerge from the sessions feed connection. The accompanying musicians will incorporate biofeedback into the process using contact microphones, radio signals and other approaches. 

Group Therapy Jam Band will consist of two 2-hour sessions with 3-5 participants at 12PM and 3PM on the following Sundays:

Sun, October 12
Sun, October 19
Sun, November 9
Sun, November 30

Work generated from Group Therapy Jam Band will be utilized in Kyle b. co.’s upcoming OPEN AiR presentation Critical Club Therapy on Thursday, November 13.

With limited group sessions available, we kindly ask that you honor your reserved time. If you are not able to make it to a session, please cancel your reservation through Eventbrite or let us know ASAP at info@cprnyc.org so that we can reopen the slot to another participant.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle b. co. is a trans-disciplinary artist, performer, educator, and baker based in Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2024-25 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, a 2023 Smack Mellon Hot Pick, and were short-listed for the 2025 Creative Capital award in visual arts. They have received a RISCA Merit Fellowship in 3-D Arts and a Providence Arts, Culture, and Tourism Public Art Fellowship. Their work has found kinship at Hera Gallery, RISD Museum, Buoy Gallery, Zimmerli Museum of Art, Westbeth Gallery, Lucas, Lucas, and Grace Exhibition Space, among other spaces. Their practice engages with the task of mapping the present as a method of document and engagement with form. They work with materials of culture and personal history to make monuments of possibility. The matrices that hold an image may not be visible ‘til named. Their practice is one of futurity as they seek what can be sensed, not what is known. In various ways, they try to grasp at the transmission/translation of a feeling. Feeling(s) as a concept is unclear in its relationship to time. When did the feeling begin? Has the feeling ever stopped? Will you have this feeling again in the future? Their work spans both objects/installation and performance, the distinction between mediums not being that important. Their work is about feeling (&) connection(s).

Free, RSVP required (limited audience)
RSVP

An intimate poetry performance by 2025 AiR Diovanna Obafunmilayo.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Diovanna Obafunmilayo Frazier is a multimedia performance artist, Grammy-nominated songwriter, award-winning filmmaker, and poet. GODBODY, a ritual opera [Ceremony 1] is the first of two installments of her debut, evening-length performance presentation. She prayerfully wishes upon you, a body without shame. 

Free; advance registration required at least 24 hours in advance.
RSVP

(2 hour group sessions, 3-5 participants)

This fall, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Kyle b. co. is workshopping sessions of their Critical Race Therapy project, which thinks through how one might address race as an embodied sense or an anxiety disorder, outside of the 1-on-1 structure of Treatment 1 (CRT T1). Group Therapy Jam Band sessions will take place with a guest musician or sound maker and host 3-5 participants who will build a sample pack together. Sign up together or join up with a stranger. Kyle b. co. is interested in how the inquiries and personal reflections that emerge from the sessions feed connection. The accompanying musicians will incorporate biofeedback into the process using contact microphones, radio signals and other approaches. 

Group Therapy Jam Band will consist of two 2-hour sessions with 3-5 participants at 12PM and 3PM on the following Sundays:

Sun, October 12
Sun, October 19
Sun, November 9
Sun, November 30

Work generated from Group Therapy Jam Band will be utilized in Kyle b. co.’s upcoming OPEN AiR presentation Critical Club Therapy on Thursday, November 13.

With limited group sessions available, we kindly ask that you honor your reserved time. If you are not able to make it to a session, please cancel your reservation through Eventbrite or let us know ASAP at info@cprnyc.org so that we can reopen the slot to another participant.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle b. co. is a trans-disciplinary artist, performer, educator, and baker based in Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2024-25 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, a 2023 Smack Mellon Hot Pick, and were short-listed for the 2025 Creative Capital award in visual arts. They have received a RISCA Merit Fellowship in 3-D Arts and a Providence Arts, Culture, and Tourism Public Art Fellowship. Their work has found kinship at Hera Gallery, RISD Museum, Buoy Gallery, Zimmerli Museum of Art, Westbeth Gallery, Lucas, Lucas, and Grace Exhibition Space, among other spaces. Their practice engages with the task of mapping the present as a method of document and engagement with form. They work with materials of culture and personal history to make monuments of possibility. The matrices that hold an image may not be visible ‘til named. Their practice is one of futurity as they seek what can be sensed, not what is known. In various ways, they try to grasp at the transmission/translation of a feeling. Feeling(s) as a concept is unclear in its relationship to time. When did the feeling begin? Has the feeling ever stopped? Will you have this feeling again in the future? Their work spans both objects/installation and performance, the distinction between mediums not being that important. Their work is about feeling (&) connection(s).

Free,
RSVP

Join us in celebrating the beginning of our Fall 2025 Season at our Sunday afternoon launch party, featuring a special installation of The Circus is Coming to Town (The Circus is Coming to CPR) by artist Yiseul LeMieux. Come meet our newest staff members, Executive Director Jaclyn Biskup and Production and Facilities Manager Cameron Barnett, as well as Programs Manager Kerosene Jones and MVP Rentals Manager Rebecca Gual, for an opportunity to make friends with members of the CPR community. There will be sips, nibbles, and circus games aplenty. 

PROGRAM

The Circus is Coming to Town (The Circus is Coming to CPR) is an immersive event combining interactive installations and a curated gallery exhibition. Upon entering, attendees are invited to touch and explore the artworks—flipping switches, spinning pieces, listening to stories, and more. Visitors also encounter games, hands-on activities, and refreshments that echo the festive energy of a traditional circus or carnival.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yiseul LeMieux is a Korean-born artist based in New York City. Her work spans multiple media, blending vivid narratives and alternative realities. She emphasizes audience engagement and community feedback, rejecting traditional boundaries between media, artist, and audience. Her creative vision explores a global network of interchangeability—where the artist, human, animal, or object holds equal value. This ethos allows her to explore limitless potential in herself and the world.

CPR - Center for Performance Research invites applications for the 2026 Artist-in-Residence Program. Click here to apply.

Application deadline: Monday, September 22, 2025 at 5:00 P.M. EST.

Email applications@cprnyc.org with questions.

ABOUT CPR'S ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

CPR – Center for Performance Research’s year-long Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program seeks to support NYC-based artists working within various perspectives of contemporary dance, performance, and time-based art. In selecting its AiRs, CPR values experimental approaches to content, form, and aesthetic, and encourages risk-taking, interdisciplinarity, and the unexpected.

The year-long residency creates an open environment for experimentation, exploration, embodiment, and exchange, and will provide a cohort of eight (8) artists with research and presentation opportunities, subsidized rehearsal space, curatorial and project support, and peer dialogue. The program is intended to nurture the individualized creative process, and prioritizes artists for whom the opportunity will make a major impact on the growth and evolution of their work and career.

Applications are solicited through an OPEN CALL, and AiRs are selected by an independent panel of artists, curators, and arts leaders. With this approach, CPR aspires to create a more accessible and equitable selection process, and to increase visibility, opportunities, and resources for a more diverse range of artists in the field.

CPR is committed to supporting artists from every background and maintains an expansive approach to performance practice. We strongly encourage BIPOC artists, LGBTQ+ artists, immigrant artists, artists with disabilities, and artists across generations to apply.

RESIDENCY DETAILS

Eight NYC-based artists will be selected for a year-long residency from January to December 2026. AiRs will have opportunities for presentation, community engagement, and creative exchange through CPR’s curated Public Programs, and will receive curatorial support and feedback from CPR staff and fellow artists throughout the year. In addition, AiRs receive advance access to CPR’s rehearsal booking calendar, and may book up to 150 subsidized rehearsal hours ($6-$10/hr) in either of CPR’s studios for the residency year, with priority booking March 2026 through . Each AiR receives a $1,500 stipend, and participation in CPR Public Programs comes with additional artist fees and resources, including access to technical equipment and production support.

ELIGIBILITY

• Eligible applicants have previously had their work publicly presented, and have not been selected as a CPR Artist-in-Residence in the last 5 years.

• Individual artists, companies, collaboratives, or collectives may apply, but each applicant/application will be considered as a single residency.

• The residency is exclusively for New York City-based artists. CPR cannot provide US visas, travel, accommodations, or other living expenses in connection with the residency.

• Current undergraduate students are not eligible to apply.
  

CONSIDERATIONS FOR A COMPETITIVE APPLICATION:

• Demonstrating a strong understanding and commitment to CPR's core values, including artistic practices which prioritize play, risk, experimentation, curiosity, new forms, modes of embodiment and presence, and urgency.

• Understanding the scope of CPR's resources. 

• Artistic approaches which include classical or traditional artforms that are not subverted or disrupted through modes of experimentation will not be considered.

THE SPACE

CPR occupies a 4,000 sq. ft. ground floor facility in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and has two flexible studio spaces. The Large Studio is an 1,875 sq. ft., flexible rehearsal and performance space, outfitted with an LED theatrical lighting system, full-range sound, projection capabilities, and a sprung wood dance floor with white marley, and can seat up to 68 people. The Small Studio functions as a rehearsal studio, gallery, and meeting space, and features floor-to-ceiling storefront windows looking out onto the street, track lighting, and a sprung wood dance floor. CPR is a fully ADA-compliant and accessible venue with two all gender restrooms, one being wheelchair-accessible. A floor plan, images, and technical specifications can be found here.

SUPPORT

CPR's 2026 Artist-in-Residence Program is directly supported by Dance/NYC’s NYC Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

APPLICATION TIMELINE

Applications will be accepted until Monday, September 22, 2025 at 5:00pm EST. Late submissions will not be accepted. Notifications will be made in December 2025.

The panelists look forward to reviewing your application!

Email us at applications@cprnyc.org with any questions.

CPR - Center for Performance Research invites proposals for live performance works to be presented as part of Fall Movement 2025 on December 5 and 6, 2025 or Spring Movement 2026 on March 13 and 14, 2026.

Click here to apply.

Application deadline:
Tuesday, June 24 at 5:00 PM EST.

Please email applications@cprnyc.org with any questions.

Fall Movement and Spring Movement provide an opportunity for artists to present new work in dance, performance, and time-based art in a shared program, curated by an independent panel of artists through an OPEN CALL.

For the first time, CPR is soliciting applications for two distinct programs spanning two seasons, with each program presenting five short works. Fall Movement will be presented on Fri, December 5 and Sat, December 6, 2025, and Spring Movement will be presented on Fri, March 13 and Sat, March 14, 2026. This new format serves to extend the OPEN CALL opportunity to more artists, where historically it has been for Fall Movement only. With each program supporting five works, the extension into Spring Movement will expand the program to support ten works total.

Individual artists, collectives, and companies may propose a live performance work that is 15-20 minutes in length. CPR encourages applicants to submit work with experimental approaches to content, form, and aesthetic, and work that values risk-taking and the unexpected.

Applicants must be available to share their proposed work in either the Fall Movement 2025 or Spring Movement 2026 program.  If selected, artists may be given the opportunity to highlight their preferred season, and CPR will make all best efforts to consider this when organizing the final two line-ups.

CPR is committed to supporting artists from every background, at various stages of their artistic careers, and across generations, and maintains an expansive approach to performance. We strongly encourage BIPOC artists, LGBTQ+ artists, immigrant artists, and artists with disabilities to apply.

Please be sure to read through the program details and application criteria in its entirety before submitting your application. We strongly recommend drafting narrative responses in a separate document. 

Please email applications@cprnyc.org with any questions.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Fall Movement will take place at CPR on Fri, December 5 and Sat, December 6, 2025 at 7 PM. Spring Movement will take place at CPR on Fri, March 13 and Sat, March 14, 2026 at 7 PM. Five works will be presented in each “Movement” season, with each work presented on both evenings in an identical program. Each selected work will receive a 2-hour technical rehearsal with CPR production staff, 2 hours of complimentary rehearsal time in one of CPR's studios (based on availability), an honorarium of $350, and reimbursed production expenses (materials, transport, etc) up to $100. 

ELIGIBILITY

• Individual artists, collectives, or companies may apply, but each applicant/application will be considered as a unique project, and will receive a single honorarium of $350.

• While Fall and Spring Movement are not limited to NYC-based artists, CPR cannot provide US visas, travel, accommodations, or other living expenses in connection with the presentation.

• Current undergraduate students are not eligible to apply.

• Artists who have been presented in Fall Movement or Spring Movement at CPR within the last 5 five years may not apply.

• Applicants must be available for both Fall and Spring Movement dates.

• Works featuring classical or traditional artforms that are not subverted or disrupted through modes of experimentation will not be considered.

A COMPETITIVE FALL/SPRING MOVEMENT APPLICATION WILL INCLUDE:

• A strong understanding and demonstration of CPR's core values, including work that prioritizes play, risk, experimentation, curiosity, new forms, modes of embodiment and presence, and urgency.

• A strong understanding of CPR's resources and time constraints. 

• A work description that conveys the importance and timeliness of presenting this work at CPR, answering the questions: Why is CPR the right fit for this particular project? How would the opportunity impact this stage of your career and practice? 

THE SPACE

CPR occupies a 4,000 sq. ft. ground floor facility in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and has two flexible studio spaces. The Large Studio is an 1,875 sq. ft., flexible rehearsal and performance space, outfitted with an LED theatrical lighting system, full-range sound, projection capabilities, and a sprung wood dance floor with white marley, and tiered audience risers seating up to 68 people. The Small Studio functions as a rehearsal studio, gallery, and meeting space, and features floor-to-ceiling storefront windows looking out onto the street, track lighting, and a sprung wood dance floor. CPR is a fully ADA-compliant and accessible venue with two all gender restrooms, one being wheelchair-accessible. A floor plan, images, and technical specifications can be found here.

APPLICATION TIMELINE

Applications will be accepted until Tuesday, June 24, 2025, at 5:00pm EST.

We expect to send notifications in August 2025 and to announce both the Fall Movement 2025 and Spring Movement 2025 line-ups in September 2025 along with the announcement of CPR's 2025 Fall Season.

Please reach out to applications@cprnyc.org with any questions. The panel looks forward to reviewing your application!

Pranks! Parades! Peep Shows! & more!

Please join us at CPR – Center for Performance Research on Tuesday, June 17 for our 2025 Spring Benefit, which gathers artists and friends for an evening of MISCHIEF with delightful disruptions, tantalizing treats, and joyful rebellion to celebrate CPR.

PROGRAM

7PM | Tipples, Munchies, Peep Show
8PM | Performances, Toasts, Tomfoolery
9PM | Shenanigans, Sweet Treats

Mistress of Ceremonies
DeliaDelia! The Flat Chested Witch!
featuring
DJ Pussy

Mischief by
Ka Baird
Tess Dworman
Ayana Evans
Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein
Fernando Gregório aka DJ FeG
Pussypaws Puppetry
Azikiwe Mohammed
Kat Sotelo
Empress Wu
& more surprises…!

View the Artist Bios

View the Program

Food & Drink
Food by Cozy Royale
Drinks by Vine Wine, Zev Rovine Selections, Madre Mezcal
Cookies by Kyle b. co. of Kyle co. Cookies
Dessert by Fortunato Bros.

Raffle artworks donated by
Maria Baranova
Barnett Cohen
Azikiwe Mohammed
Phaidon & Artspace
River L. Ramirez

TICKETS

$750 | PRODIGAL PRANKSTER
$600 | MEDDLING MISTRESS
$400 | NOBLE KNAVE
$250 | PUCKISH PATRON
$150 | GOOD TROUBLE (for artists & arts workers) [limited]

Tickets are 100% tax-deductible, and include all food, drink, merriment, and mischief. All proceeds benefit CPR’s artists and programs – and the devious act of experimentation and embodied practice.

Tickets may be purchased without additional fees incurred by Eventbrite by making payment via Zelle to alexandra@cprnyc.org. Please include the ticket type and number of tickets in the memo (including add-ons for raffle tickets or to Deface a Chair – more info below!).

If you can’t attend this year, you can make a tax-deductible donation to CPR via Eventbrite, PayPal, Zelle (no fees) to alexandra@cprnyc.org, or check.

RAFFLE: $25

Enter to win an artwork donated by CPR artists and friends:

Barnett Cohen
34°4'21 / 118°32'33, 2024
digital media, gold mirror acrylic sheet, 12 x 12 in., artists proof, framed
estimated value: $4,000

Maria Baranova
Quiet Lives Inside, August 2020, 2020
C-Print on RC Paper, 11 x 14 in., printed in darkroom by Maria Baranova, signed and dated, framed
estimated value: $1,500

Ugo Rondinone
I Don’t Live Here Anymore, 1995/2022
Photograph, C-Print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, 11 x 9 in, edition of 30, signed, with hardback book Ugo Rondinone, 160pp, published by Phaidon
estimated value: $1,685
Generously donated by Phaidon & Artspace

Dinner for two at Quick Eternity
Within the whaling installation/bar/restaurant by Bryan Schneider, Azikiwe Mohammed and Chef Antonio Mora
https://www.quicketernity.nyc/
value: $150 

River L. Ramirez
Meeting for the First Time
Watercolor and gouache, 13 x 17 in., framed
estimated value: $400

Raffle tickets are $25 a piece. Anyone can enter (even if you are not attending!), and you can enter as many times as you wish! The drawing will take place live at CPR’s Spring Benefit on June 17, and tickets will be drawn for each artwork at random. Purchase 4 or more raffle tickets, and receive a limited-edition CPR tote bag!

Raffle tickets may be purchased online before 12PM on Tues, June 17 via Eventbrite (as an ‘add-on’ at checkout) or via Zelle (no fees) to alexandra@cprnyc.org. Tickets can also be purchased on-site at the Spring Benefit via Eventbrite, Zelle, cash, or check.

Terms and restrictions: Raffle winners must arrange to pick up their artwork at CPR’s offices in Brooklyn within 1 month of the drawing. Unfortunately, CPR cannot arrange shipping. Tote bags can be mailed within the US if an address is provided, however the preference is to pick one up at CPR, where you can also select your preferred color and size! Please note raffle tickets are NOT tax-deductible.

DEFACE A CHAIR

As a special addition to your evening of MISCHIEF, you can Deface a Chair at CPR with an additional tax-deductible donation of $100. To commemorate your devious support, we’ll affix a plaque on your chair naming you as its malevolent benefactor, or dedicated to a loved one, friend, pet, place, or prank of your choosing.

You can Deface a Chair as an ‘add-on’ at checkout via Eventbrite, or send your donation via PayPal, or Zelle (no fees) to alexandra@cprnyc.org. You can complete this order form to confirm your dedication or email Alexandra Rosenberg at alexandra@cprnyc.org with the details.

Orders placed by June 1 will have their plaques affixed by the Spring Benefit, so that you may recline and revel in your splendid misdeed as we misbehave the night away. While not required, we hope that you will continue to sustain your chair with a meaningful donation in subsequent years.

LOCATION AND ACCESSIBLITY

CPR – Center for Performance Research
361 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211

CPR is easily accessed by public transportation or car. For detailed directions, please visit www.cprnyc.org/contact-directions.

CPR is located on the ground floor in a fully accessible and ADA-compliant venue, with two single use all-gender restrooms, one being wheelchair-accessible.

*THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FALL 2025

Live In-Person Event
Fri, June 13 at 7PM
Tickets $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase tickets


Virtual Live-Streamed Episodes
Sat, May 3 at 10AM
Sat, June 7 at 12PM
Free. Tune in virtually via Instagram Live @crackheadbarneyandfriends__ or Twitch @crackheadbarney


Live from Crackhead Barney’s sweat-soaked mattress comes In Bed with Crackhead Barney: The Bed Wench Podcast, a series of conversations with fellow artists, derelicts, sworn enemies, and strangers from Plenty of Fish, consummating her signature ambush street interviews under the sheets. 

After getting down and dirty with guests during three steamy Saturday virtual broadcasts, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Crackhead Barney invites the public into her conjugal bed for a live, in-person podcast event at CPR on Friday, June 13, celebrating the imminent success of her 10,000-man Birthday Gang Bang Challenge.

Surprise guests to be announced.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Crackhead Barney was born in Jamaica, Queens to strict religious parents who immigrated to America from Northern Nigeria. She was raised in a one bedroom apartment with her siblings in an era before wokeness and identity politics ruled the cultural landscape and was always taunted for her immigrant African roots and dark complexion. She studied Fine Arts and Media at Hunter College and was told her artwork wasn't shit. Rejected from museums and galleries, she decided to take matters into her own hands and use the streets of NYC as her canvas, painting pictures with her body across the landscape without the need to satisfy the desires of the cultural institutions. Her street performances garnered attention and she began to go viral all over the Internet with people reacting in confusion, laughter, anger, pity, concern, and all the other emotions available to humans. Rejecting any hierarchies that didn't feature her at the very pinnacle, she naturally was attracted to social media where she could form a universe centered on her performance art. She began a “Crackhead Barney and Friends” account on Instagram and TikTok where she’s developed a cult of personality supportive of her creative practice.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets

There are ceramic works and aquaria, and what has slowly gained a reputation as the finest manufactory of personal electronic musical instruments in the hemisphere. (The biannual music festival held at Morgre, in which composers come from all over our world to have their works performed, was one of the joys of my adolescence.)

— Marq Dyeth describing the city of Morgre, from Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel R. Delany, Bantam Books, Paperback, 1985 (p. 112-113)


Artist and engineer Johann Diedrick organizes If the stars align..., an OPEN STUDIOS program inspired by Samuel R. Delany's novel Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand where Delany imagines the Morgre Festival, a gathering where composers traverse vast distances to experience music performed on electronic instruments yet to be invented. In Delany's wider work, from Nova to The Einstein Intersection, we encounter instruments that exist in the realm of the speculative and evocative. Considering such tools that expand our notion of what musical instruments can be and are able to express, Diedrick invites inventive electronic musical practices found on our terrestrial home, inspired by the earthly concerns of our times and our aspirational dreams found floating among the stars, with works in development by Rena Anakwe, Sonic Liberation Devices, and Femi Shonuga-Fleming.

OPEN STUDIOS is a series of work-in-progress showings held regularly throughout the year, organized by guest curators, and serves as an incubator for new work, inviting the public into the artistic process.

View the program.

PROGRAM

Rena Anakwe: This Is a Score || SONOPOETICS [Vol. One]

Using poetry as a compositional tool, “This is a Score || SONOPOETICS [Vol. One]” is a live performance for tape and voice orchestra. The piece explores loops as a reflection of the repetitiveness that we are living through, societally, culturally and psychically. By returning to the first electronic media that she interacted with as a child, Anakwe is interested in the tactility of sound that the obsolete technology of a multitrack cassette tape machine provides when played as an instrument. The looping back of time begins here. Using various cassette tape machines, handmade tape loops, effects pedals and voice, Rena Anakwe will share an excerpt of her inquiry into using the written word to notate musical composition.                                                                
Sonic Liberation Devices: Sonic Manifesto 

Performing with Sonic Liberation Devices (SLDs) as a Sonic Manifesto is a declaration of resistance, an embodied act of storytelling, and a reimagining of how music technology can serve as a tool for liberation. These performances are not just about sound but about sonic activism—using handmade, open-source instruments to disrupt conventional narratives around accessibility, design, and ownership in music technology. Each device is intentionally designed to reflect social justice issues, embedding layers of meaning within their construction and sonic output. Through live performance, I reclaim space and invite audiences to engage with music as an act of protest and connection. The instruments’ tactile interfaces, rooted in decolonial design, challenge Western biases in music-making while amplifying historically marginalized sonic traditions. Making these performances interactive and community-driven allows others to experience the power of sound as a means of resistance, healing, and collective storytelling. Performing a Sonic Manifesto is my way of demonstrating that instruments can be more than just tools for music—they can be vessels of history, activism, and liberation. It is a call to action, urging others to rethink how technology can serve people rather than systems of oppression.

Femi Shonuga-Fleming: Thanks to the ground beneath my feet

Sadnoise is the ritual practice of giving thanks to the ground beneath your feet through exploration in sonic materiality. It's an abstraction and extension of the conversation between architectonics, the body, sonic exfoliation and afrofuturism. Through temporal performance, electronics protrude the urban landscape with concrete interventions. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Johann Diedrick is an artist and engineer who makes listening rooms, spaces for encountering new sonic possibilities off-the-grid. He works to surface resonant histories of past interactions inscribed in material and embedded in space, peeling back vibratory layers to reveal hidden memories and untold stories. He shares his tools and techniques through listening tours, workshops, and open-source hardware and software. He is the founder of A Quiet Life, a sonic engineering and research studio that designs and builds audio-related software and hardware products. He is currently a 2023-25 Just Tech fellow and recently a 2023-24 Performance AIRspace Resident at Abrons Art Center. He was the Director of Engineering at Somewhere Good, a 2022 Future Imagination Collaboratory Fellow at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, a 2022 Wave Farm artist-in-residence, a 2021 Mozilla Creative Media Award recipient, a 2020 Pioneer Works Technology resident, a community member of NEW INC, and an adjunct professor at NYU’s ITP program. His work has been featured in Wire Magazine, Musicworks Magazine, and presented internationally at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, MoMA PS1, Dia Art Foundation, NYC Parks Department, the New Museum, Ars Electronica, Science Gallery Dublin, Somerset House, and multiple New Interfaces for Musical Expression conferences, among others.

Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. Most recently, she was a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow for Interdisciplinary Arts, a 2024 artist-in-residence in The Kitchen’s DAP (Dance and Process), a 2023-2024 Lincoln Center Social Sculpture Cohort artist and was awarded a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship, 2021-2022 MacDowell Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Arts, a 2022 Jack Nusbaum Artist Residency at BAM and the 2021 Canadian Women Artists’ Award from NYFA & the CWC of New York. Rena has collaborated, produced, and shown work at (select list): The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Governors Island Arts, Serpentine, ‘Arts & Ideas’ (UK), The Guggenheim Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, Lobe Studio (CAN). Under the moniker A Space for Sound, Anakwe released the first in an ongoing audio series titled “Sound Bath Mixtape vol. 1”, through New York City-based label and collective PTP. In Fall 2021, her album "Sometimes underwater (feels like home)" was released through RVNG Intl's Commend THERE series. She is based in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Nigeria and Canada. www.aspaceforsound.com
Karla “Lita” Vinueza aka Sonic Liberation Devices is a multidisciplinary artist, creative technologist, and instrument builder whose work explores the intersection of music, accessibility, and resistance. Her practice focuses on designing Sonic Liberation Devices (SLDs)—custom-built musical instruments that challenge conventional music technology by centering social justice and inclusivity. Her first device, Drum Liberator, is a Braille-integrated, battery-powered drum machine designed for accessibility and protest use, featuring sounds from Palestine and symbolic design choices reflecting global liberation movements. By making her instruments and process open-source, Lita aims to shift how musical devices are designed and used, encouraging others to create politically and socially conscious machines. Her work blends traditional craftsmanship with modular electronics and reclaimed materials, fostering an alternative approach to performance and storytelling. Whether through interactive installations, live performances, or community workshops, Lita’s practice reimagines music technology as a tool for empowerment, cultural preservation, and collective resistance.

Femi Shonuga-Fleming is an architect and sound artist from New York who works with various synthesis techniques and live coding languages to discuss the organic within electronics and technology through sound art and composition. His work explores the intersections of sound and space though spatial audio and architectural design as an experimental practice. He’s most interested in generative systems, chance, texture within sonic soundscapes. Femi’s architectural work explores indigenous ritual practice as a vessel for conversation between sound, space and interactions of the body. Femi has been performing as a solo experimental electronic improvisation artist since 2018 as sadnoise. Musical and Festival performances include Ende Tymes (2022, New York), Creative Code Festival (2020, New York), Waterworks Festival (2024), Slabfest (2024), amongst others.

Live In-Person Event
Fri, June 13 at 7PM
Tickets $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase tickets


Virtual Live-Streamed Episodes
Sat, May 3 at 10AM
Sat, June 7 at 12PM
Free. Tune in virtually via Instagram Live @crackheadbarneyandfriends__ or Twitch @crackheadbarney


Live from Crackhead Barney’s sweat-soaked mattress comes In Bed with Crackhead Barney: The Bed Wench Podcast, a series of conversations with fellow artists, derelicts, sworn enemies, and strangers from Plenty of Fish, consummating her signature ambush street interviews under the sheets. 

After getting down and dirty with guests during three steamy Saturday virtual broadcasts, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Crackhead Barney invites the public into her conjugal bed for a live, in-person podcast event at CPR on Friday, June 13, celebrating the imminent success of her 10,000-man Birthday Gang Bang Challenge.

Surprise guests to be announced.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Crackhead Barney was born in Jamaica, Queens to strict religious parents who immigrated to America from Northern Nigeria. She was raised in a one bedroom apartment with her siblings in an era before wokeness and identity politics ruled the cultural landscape and was always taunted for her immigrant African roots and dark complexion. She studied Fine Arts and Media at Hunter College and was told her artwork wasn't shit. Rejected from museums and galleries, she decided to take matters into her own hands and use the streets of NYC as her canvas, painting pictures with her body across the landscape without the need to satisfy the desires of the cultural institutions. Her street performances garnered attention and she began to go viral all over the Internet with people reacting in confusion, laughter, anger, pity, concern, and all the other emotions available to humans. Rejecting any hierarchies that didn't feature her at the very pinnacle, she naturally was attracted to social media where she could form a universe centered on her performance art. She began a “Crackhead Barney and Friends” account on Instagram and TikTok where she’s developed a cult of personality supportive of her creative practice.

Free with RSVP
RSVP


This workshop facilitated by 2025 Artist-in-Residence Yiwei Lu invites participants to reflect on the themes of death and mourning through the lens of Chinese paper effigy traditions. After a brief introduction to the cultural and historical significance of paper effigies, participants will create their own modern interpretations using simple materials. The session culminates in a symbolic cyber-burning ritual, offering a space to explore the emotional and symbolic aspects of honoring the deceased. Through shared creation and dialogue, the workshop fosters a collective contemplation of loss, memory, and the rituals that connect us to those who have passed.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yiwei Lu is an artist and refrigerator based in New York and Nanjing. As an artist, Yiwei’s work has been exhibited internationally, including Nanjing Powerlong Art Center, The Wallach Art Gallery, SVA Library, Nanjing University of Arts, Trieste Photo Days, and Open Air Art Project. As a refrigerator, Yiwei aims to unfreeze time, to make it hers. She focuses on the man-altered and social landscape. Created by humans, left with traces of use, they become part of human society and the figurative representation of collective memory. Through methodical composition, the deepest levels of emotion transfers into extreme restraint. Yiwei holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University, and an BFA in Photography and Video from the School of Visual Arts.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets

Thurs, May 29 at 4PM and 7PM
Fri, May 30 at 7PM and 9PM

For sold out performances, an in-person wait list will open 30 minutes prior to showtime.


Pussypaws Puppetry, an inclusive puppetry collective composed of artists with and without disabilities working (and playing!) together, will present Pussypaws Pleasure Faire, a full-bodied celebration of eroticism and its spoils. The Pussypaws Pleasure Faire will expand Pussypaws’ years-long quest to celebrate stories about the sex, love, and fantasy lives of artists with disabilities. As the culmination of their 2025 Technical Residency at CPR – Center for Performance Research, the show is a Renaissance Faire fever dream combining puppetry, poetry, storytelling, and song in an experimental and immersive environment. Expect tales of masquerade hookups, frogs that transform into men, and a love triangle between a water wench, a musician, and a juggler. Most of all, expect an invitation into a world of puppet pleasure and spirited play. Everyone in attendance will become part of the Pussypaws Pleasure Faire and part of the Pussypaws community, so come ready to get weird and feel good.

This OPEN AiR program is an extension of a Spring 2025 Technical Residency with Pussypaws Puppetry. More information about the residency here.

View the program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pussypaws Puppetry is an inclusive puppet troupe of visual artists, musicians, and performers with and without disabilities. They are enchanted by all things silly, spirited, and sensual. Inspired by puppetry’s legacy as a medium of the people – inherently playful, provocative, and predominantly existing outside art world norms and trends – Pussypaws offers a freewheeling, experimental, accessible creative space where artists of all persuasions, backgrounds, and abilities can make puppet shows and have fun. The collective was founded in 2020 by sisters Priscilla Frank and Alana Hauser, and is named after the Pussypaws flower, whose magical properties open us to the healing powers of physical touch.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets

Thurs, May 29 at 4PM and 7PM
Fri, May 30 at 7PM and 9PM

For sold out performances, an in-person wait list will open 30 minutes prior to showtime.


Pussypaws Puppetry, an inclusive puppetry collective composed of artists with and without disabilities working (and playing!) together, will present Pussypaws Pleasure Faire, a full-bodied celebration of eroticism and its spoils. The Pussypaws Pleasure Faire will expand Pussypaws’ years-long quest to celebrate stories about the sex, love, and fantasy lives of artists with disabilities. As the culmination of their 2025 Technical Residency at CPR – Center for Performance Research, the show is a Renaissance Faire fever dream combining puppetry, poetry, storytelling, and song in an experimental and immersive environment. Expect tales of masquerade hookups, frogs that transform into men, and a love triangle between a water wench, a musician, and a juggler. Most of all, expect an invitation into a world of puppet pleasure and spirited play. Everyone in attendance will become part of the Pussypaws Pleasure Faire and part of the Pussypaws community, so come ready to get weird and feel good.

This OPEN AiR program is an extension of a Spring 2025 Technical Residency with Pussypaws Puppetry. More information about the residency here.

View the program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pussypaws Puppetry is an inclusive puppet troupe of visual artists, musicians, and performers with and without disabilities. They are enchanted by all things silly, spirited, and sensual. Inspired by puppetry’s legacy as a medium of the people – inherently playful, provocative, and predominantly existing outside art world norms and trends – Pussypaws offers a freewheeling, experimental, accessible creative space where artists of all persuasions, backgrounds, and abilities can make puppet shows and have fun. The collective was founded in 2020 by sisters Priscilla Frank and Alana Hauser, and is named after the Pussypaws flower, whose magical properties open us to the healing powers of physical touch.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets


Thurs, May 29 at 4PM and 7PM
Fri, May 30 at 7PM and 9PM

For sold out performances, an in-person wait list will open 30 minutes prior to showtime.


Pussypaws Puppetry, an inclusive puppetry collective composed of artists with and without disabilities working (and playing!) together, will present Pussypaws Pleasure Faire, a full-bodied celebration of eroticism and its spoils. The Pussypaws Pleasure Faire will expand Pussypaws’ years-long quest to celebrate stories about the sex, love, and fantasy lives of artists with disabilities. As the culmination of their 2025 Technical Residency at CPR – Center for Performance Research, the show is a Renaissance Faire fever dream combining puppetry, poetry, storytelling, and song in an experimental and immersive environment. Expect tales of masquerade hookups, frogs that transform into men, and a love triangle between a water wench, a musician, and a juggler. Most of all, expect an invitation into a world of puppet pleasure and spirited play. Everyone in attendance will become part of the Pussypaws Pleasure Faire and part of the Pussypaws community, so come ready to get weird and feel good.

This OPEN AiR program is an extension of a Spring 2025 Technical Residency with Pussypaws Puppetry. More information about the residency here.

View the program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pussypaws Puppetry is an inclusive puppet troupe of visual artists, musicians, and performers with and without disabilities. They are enchanted by all things silly, spirited, and sensual. Inspired by puppetry’s legacy as a medium of the people – inherently playful, provocative, and predominantly existing outside art world norms and trends – Pussypaws offers a freewheeling, experimental, accessible creative space where artists of all persuasions, backgrounds, and abilities can make puppet shows and have fun. The collective was founded in 2020 by sisters Priscilla Frank and Alana Hauser, and is named after the Pussypaws flower, whose magical properties open us to the healing powers of physical touch.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets


Thurs, May 29 at 4PM and 7PM
Fri, May 30 at 7PM and 9PM

For sold out performances, an in-person wait list will open 30 minutes prior to showtime.


Pussypaws Puppetry, an inclusive puppetry collective composed of artists with and without disabilities working (and playing!) together, will present Pussypaws Pleasure Faire, a full-bodied celebration of eroticism and its spoils. The Pussypaws Pleasure Faire will expand Pussypaws’ years-long quest to celebrate stories about the sex, love, and fantasy lives of artists with disabilities. As the culmination of their 2025 Technical Residency at CPR – Center for Performance Research, the show is a Renaissance Faire fever dream combining puppetry, poetry, storytelling, and song in an experimental and immersive environment. Expect tales of masquerade hookups, frogs that transform into men, and a love triangle between a water wench, a musician, and a juggler. Most of all, expect an invitation into a world of puppet pleasure and spirited play. Everyone in attendance will become part of the Pussypaws Pleasure Faire and part of the Pussypaws community, so come ready to get weird and feel good.

This OPEN AiR program is an extension of a Spring 2025 Technical Residency with Pussypaws Puppetry. More information about the residency here.

View the program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Pussypaws Puppetry is an inclusive puppet troupe of visual artists, musicians, and performers with and without disabilities. They are enchanted by all things silly, spirited, and sensual. Inspired by puppetry’s legacy as a medium of the people – inherently playful, provocative, and predominantly existing outside art world norms and trends – Pussypaws offers a freewheeling, experimental, accessible creative space where artists of all persuasions, backgrounds, and abilities can make puppet shows and have fun. The collective was founded in 2020 by sisters Priscilla Frank and Alana Hauser, and is named after the Pussypaws flower, whose magical properties open us to the healing powers of physical touch.

Free; advance registration required at least 24 hours in advance.
RSVP


Critical Race Therapy thinks through methodologies of race treatment(s) or how one might address race as an embodied sense or an anxiety disorder. Treatment 1 (CRT T1) / The Rhythm Treatment will focus on sound and feeling in relationship to race – come make “race songs” with 2024 Artist-in-Residence Kyle b. co.

Private 1-on-1 sessions are available at 11:30AM, 1PM, 2:30PM, and 4PM on the following Sundays:

Sun, March 23
Sun, March 30
Sun, April 6
Sun, April 13
Sun, May 4 (recently added!)
Sun, May 11
Sun, May 18

Private sessions run about 1 hour. Participants may remain anonymous and will receive a recording of their songs. 

With limited 1-on-1 sessions available, we kindly ask that you honor your reserved time. If you are not able to make it to a session, please cancel your reservation through Eventbrite or let us know ASAP at info@cprnyc.org so that we can reopen the slot to another participant.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle b. co. is a trans-disciplinary artist, performer, educator, and baker based in Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2024-25 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, a 2023 Smack Mellon Hot Pick, and were short-listed for the 2025 Creative Capital award in visual arts. They have received a RISCA Merit Fellowship in 3-D Arts and a Providence Arts, Culture, and Tourism Public Art Fellowship. Their work has found kinship at Hera Gallery, RISD Museum, Buoy Gallery, Zimmerli Museum of Art, Westbeth Gallery, Lucas, Lucas, and Grace Exhibition Space, among other spaces. Their practice engages with the task of mapping the present as a method of document and engagement with form. They work with materials of culture and personal history to make monuments of possibility. The matrices that hold an image may not be visible ‘til named. Their practice is one of futurity as they seek what can be sensed, not what is known. In various ways, they try to grasp at the transmission/translation of a feeling. Feeling(s) as a concept is unclear in its relationship to time. When did the feeling begin? Has the feeling ever stopped? Will you have this feeling again in the future? Their work spans both objects/installation and performance, the distinction between mediums not being that important. Their work is about feeling (&) connection(s).

Free with RSVP
RSVP


How can we honor and incorporate our unique, beautiful bodies into our poetic/artistic practice? Together with choreic poet and 2025 Artist-in-Residence Latif Askia Ba, we will listen, read, and practice with the work of Larry Eigner, a 20th Century poet with cerebral palsy. We will practice being present in our bodies to express our intuitive selves in our work.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Latif Askia Ba is a choreic poet. Dancing in and out of various forms, he tries again and again to realize the music of the disabled body-mind-universe. You can find his work in Poetry Magazine and Poem-a-Day. His newest collection, The Choreic Period, was published by Milkweed Editions.

Free; advance registration required at least 24 hours in advance.
RSVP


Critical Race Therapy thinks through methodologies of race treatment(s) or how one might address race as an embodied sense or an anxiety disorder. Treatment 1 (CRT T1) / The Rhythm Treatment will focus on sound and feeling in relationship to race – come make “race songs” with 2024 Artist-in-Residence Kyle b. co.

Private 1-on-1 sessions are available at 11:30AM, 1PM, 2:30PM, and 4PM on the following Sundays:

Sun, March 23
Sun, March 30
Sun, April 6
Sun, April 13
Sun, May 11
Sun, May 18

Private sessions run about 1 hour. Participants may remain anonymous and will receive a recording of their songs. 

With limited 1-on-1 sessions available, we kindly ask that you honor your reserved time. If you are not able to make it to a session, please cancel your reservation through Eventbrite or let us know ASAP at info@cprnyc.org so that we can reopen the slot to another participant.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle b. co. is a trans-disciplinary artist, performer, educator, and baker based in Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2024-25 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, a 2023 Smack Mellon Hot Pick, and were short-listed for the 2025 Creative Capital award in visual arts. They have received a RISCA Merit Fellowship in 3-D Arts and a Providence Arts, Culture, and Tourism Public Art Fellowship. Their work has found kinship at Hera Gallery, RISD Museum, Buoy Gallery, Zimmerli Museum of Art, Westbeth Gallery, Lucas, Lucas, and Grace Exhibition Space, among other spaces. Their practice engages with the task of mapping the present as a method of document and engagement with form. They work with materials of culture and personal history to make monuments of possibility. The matrices that hold an image may not be visible ‘til named. Their practice is one of futurity as they seek what can be sensed, not what is known. In various ways, they try to grasp at the transmission/translation of a feeling. Feeling(s) as a concept is unclear in its relationship to time. When did the feeling begin? Has the feeling ever stopped? Will you have this feeling again in the future? Their work spans both objects/installation and performance, the distinction between mediums not being that important. Their work is about feeling (&) connection(s).

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets


In this OPEN STUDIOS, Abrons Arts Center 2024-26 Performance AIRSpace Residents Cleo Reed and Symara Sarai will share works in process. The Performance AIRspace Residency supports a cohort of two early career performing artists for a project development residency and premiere at Abrons Arts Center.

OPEN STUDIOS is a series of work-in-progress showings held regularly throughout the year, organized by guest curators, and serves as an incubator for new work, inviting the public into the artistic process.

View the Program

PROGRAM

Cleo Reed: cuntry: wip
Cleo Reed arrives with a work in process performance meant to address labor both in the body and the workplace. Reed will preview original music manifested into a new character — the working mule. The album that accompanies this work is set to be released in July 2025. Reed will be accompanied by Natalia Catalan on bass guitar. As well, cuntry: wip features original work choreographed by Cemiyon Barber and Chanel Stone. 

Symara Sarai: Angelic Architectures This is a performance experiment that showcases the inner anarchy of black queer femininity blown out the stage space. With this work I create scores for three dancers including myself that enliven, awaken, and honor our urges.  The scores ask us what do we want to do right now and what does that look like? I give us the permission to be indulgent, we honor the practice of doing what we want, when we want–a mode often denied to us by systems beyond our control. I am opening the portal to performance as an act of protest against set expectations for black femininity and showing the expansion that it holds.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ella Josephine Julia Moore aka Cleo Reed is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practices uses participatory art, music composition, instrument-making, bandleading, installation, and fabric arts. Under the alias Cleo Reed, they complete musical projects that are rooted in their ancestral and cultural lineage. Recently, they developed software instruments for Jon Batiste’s American Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Their debut album project Root Cause was released in 2023 and alongside the work they premiered a self-directed performance art piece titled Black American Circus at AFROPUNK Festival, Banlieues Bleues in Paris, and Brooklyn Museum. They work toward a future that enables them to realize intentional creative endeavors and encourage joy within collaborative spaces such as museums, theaters, and unseen spaces. In their practice, they are currently drawn to notions of tradition, dissolving the binary, making noise, and breaking the barrier between artist and audience.

Symara Sarai, a Portland, OR native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally. A 2023 Bessie Award winner for Breakout Choreographer, Symara is also a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago. The scholarship led her to Beijing, China where she spent two years gaining an associate degree in modern choreography at the renowned Beijing Dance Academy. Symara is a 2019 graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program. She was a resident artist for Bearnstow, Gibney 6.2 Work Up, Gallim’s 2022 Moving Artist’s Residency, BAX’s Fall 2022 Space Grant Program, and CPR – Center for Performance Research’s 2022 AiR Program. She is a 2023/2024 New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Artist and a 2023/2024 Women in Motion Commissioned artist. Their work as a performer and maker has been reviewed and featured in the New York Times, Dance Enthusiast, and Fjord, and promoted through Forbes. She has had multiple film works commissioned by Berlin-based choreographer Christoph Winkler. They have presented work at New York Live Arts, The Clarice at UMD, The LGBT Center, Judson Church, BAAD, Kestrels, and other venues throughout the United States, China, and Germany. She is currently an Urban Bush Women company member. She has also notably worked with Jasmine Hearn, Ogemdi Ude, Pioneers Go East Collective, Kevin Wynn, Joanna Kotze, Nattie Trogdon+Hollis Bartlett, and Slowdanger, among others.

Free, RSVP required (limited audience)
RSVP


Tues, April 8 from 7-8PM
Tues, April 15 from 7-8PM
Tues, April 22 from 7-8PM
Tues, May 6 from 7-8PM


In this weekly performance series, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Kat Sotelo invites the audience into her research surrounding seductive, ephemeral worlds – fantasies staged as a peep show for intimate consumption. Indulge in humiliation or glory as she enacts tropes of Filipino subservience. Let boundaries blur between spectator and spectacle, sensation and transaction. What is being revealed, exchanged, exploited? Who is in control? Become the voyeur, the voyeur of the voyeur, the object of desire, the furniture, the wall.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kat Sotelo is a first-generation Filipino American performance artist, choreographer, and set designer whose practice blends movement, satire, and constructed environments. She explores the body as a site of commerce, often using her experience in "exotic" dance to examine fantasy and cultural hybridity. As a film industry professional, Sotelo’s compositions also integrate elements of cinema to create layered realities. Her current body of work focuses on eroticism and servitude through a Filipino American lens – at the intersection of nostalgia, rage, and melancholy. By weaving video, personal archives, and Philippine folk traditions, she critiques the commodification of art and identity with humor and pop visions. Sotelo is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research (2024-2026) and CPR – Center for Performance Research (2025). 

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets


Sun, May 4 at 3PM (w/ Sophia Parker)
Sun, May 4 at 6PM (w/ Glenn Potter-Takata)
Mon, May 5 at 7PM (w/ Lena Engelstein)


Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.

Comedy Pilates will be a 1-hour class, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available at CPR, and please note that there is limited private changing space.


CREDITS

Conceived and directed by Amelia Heintzelman
with Leah Fournier, teaching assistant; Tess Michaelson, dramaturg

Special guests:
Sophia Parker, dancer and dramaturg (May 4 at 3PM)
Glenn Potter-Takata, media designer and artist working in performance (May 4 at 6PM)
Lena Engelstein, dancer, performer, and choreographer (May 5 at 7PM)

Additional Performers: Sofia Engelman, Em Papineau, Skjold Rambow, Justin Sterling


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com

Sophia Parker is a dancer and dramaturg from Berkeley, CA. She received her BFA in Dance from Fordham University/The Ailey School. Sophia has dramaturged works by Scottie Harvey, Amelia Heintzelman, and Sacha Vega. Most recently, she performed in and dramaturged G R A P H, a new work by Sidra Bell, which was presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their Flight Into Egypt exhibition.

Glenn Potter-Takata (Bronx, NY) is a Japanese-American media designer and artist working in performance. His practice is somatic-based, utilizing butoh, improvisation, media equipment, and consumer materials to create performances around the body as a historical site in post-internment America. Preoccupied with the consumer culture runoff from the Japanese archipelago, Glenn juxtaposes the materiality of consumer detritus with his interests in Buddhist concepts of emptiness and Western notions of nothingness. Both rigorous and playful in his process, Glenn incorporates aspects of Buddhist philosophy and pedagogy into his work, but also sometimes performs wearing a giant Pikachu costume. glennpottertakata.com/about

Lena Engelstein is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. Her work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics and lauded as “subtly campy and hilariously queer” by the Brooklyn Rail. She has been part of the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Lisa Fagan, since 2019. Her recent work with Fagan Friday Night Rat Catchers premiered at New York Live Arts in March 2025 and their previous piece Deepe Darknesse was presented in Live Arts’ 2024 Live Artery festival. She has performed work by Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, Brendan Drake, Chafin Seymour, Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present), Isa Spector, Owen Prum + Lili Dekker, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Third Rail Company (Then She Fell company member, 2019-2020). Engelstein has created new works with performer and director Magda San Millan and choreographer Jo Warren. She choreographs for and performs with the band Lou Tides. She has taught dance technique, improvisation, and directing at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Barnard College, University of Maryland, and The Field Center. Lena holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College. www.lenaengelstein.com 

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
Purchase Tickets


Sun, May 4 at 3PM (w/ Sophia Parker)
Sun, May 4 at 6PM (w/ Glenn Potter-Takata)
Mon, May 5 at 7PM (w/ Lena Engelstein)


Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.

Comedy Pilates will be a 1-hour class, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available at CPR, and please note that there is limited private changing space.


CREDITS

Conceived and directed by Amelia Heintzelman
with Leah Fournier, teaching assistant; Tess Michaelson, dramaturg

Special guests:
Sophia Parker, dancer and dramaturg (May 4 at 3PM)
Glenn Potter-Takata, media designer and artist working in performance (May 4 at 6PM)
Lena Engelstein, dancer, performer, and choreographer (May 5 at 7PM)

Additional Performers: Sofia Engelman, Em Papineau, Skjold Rambow, Justin Sterling


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com

Sophia Parker is a dancer and dramaturg from Berkeley, CA. She received her BFA in Dance from Fordham University/The Ailey School. Sophia has dramaturged works by Scottie Harvey, Amelia Heintzelman, and Sacha Vega. Most recently, she performed in and dramaturged G R A P H, a new work by Sidra Bell, which was presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their Flight Into Egypt exhibition.

Glenn Potter-Takata (Bronx, NY) is a Japanese-American media designer and artist working in performance. His practice is somatic-based, utilizing butoh, improvisation, media equipment, and consumer materials to create performances around the body as a historical site in post-internment America. Preoccupied with the consumer culture runoff from the Japanese archipelago, Glenn juxtaposes the materiality of consumer detritus with his interests in Buddhist concepts of emptiness and Western notions of nothingness. Both rigorous and playful in his process, Glenn incorporates aspects of Buddhist philosophy and pedagogy into his work, but also sometimes performs wearing a giant Pikachu costume. glennpottertakata.com/about

Lena Engelstein is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. Her work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics and lauded as “subtly campy and hilariously queer” by the Brooklyn Rail. She has been part of the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Lisa Fagan, since 2019. Her recent work with Fagan Friday Night Rat Catchers premiered at New York Live Arts in March 2025 and their previous piece Deepe Darknesse was presented in Live Arts’ 2024 Live Artery festival. She has performed work by Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, Brendan Drake, Chafin Seymour, Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present), Isa Spector, Owen Prum + Lili Dekker, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Third Rail Company (Then She Fell company member, 2019-2020). Engelstein has created new works with performer and director Magda San Millan and choreographer Jo Warren. She choreographs for and performs with the band Lou Tides. She has taught dance technique, improvisation, and directing at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Barnard College, University of Maryland, and The Field Center. Lena holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College. www.lenaengelstein.com 

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
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Sun, May 4 at 3PM (w/ Sophia Parker)
Sun, May 4 at 6PM (w/ Glenn Potter-Takata)
Mon, May 5 at 7PM (w/ Lena Engelstein)


Comedy Pilates is a fitness parody, an interview series, and a workout. As instructor and host, artist, choreographer, and certified Pilates teacher Amelia Heintzelman guides humbling exercises while interviewing select participants (maybe even you!) about life, work, and art. Special guests and surprise performances will keep you guessing. Using CPR’s suite of film equipment for a live, multi-camera shoot, each class will be filmed and subsequently edited into a 10-minute Hot Ones-style episode, archiving these intimate and vulnerable conversations between creatives while embracing humor, clumsiness, and humility in the service of physical and professional optimization. No Pilates experience needed, be ready to sweat, costumes welcome.

Comedy Pilates will be a 1-hour class, and will be filmed. Please bring your own mat, and wear clothes (or a costume) that you can move in. There is no shower available at CPR, and please note that there is limited private changing space.


CREDITS

Conceived and directed by Amelia Heintzelman
with Leah Fournier, teaching assistant; Tess Michaelson, dramaturg

Special guests:
Sophia Parker, dancer and dramaturg (May 4 at 3PM)
Glenn Potter-Takata, media designer and artist working in performance (May 4 at 6PM)
Lena Engelstein, dancer, performer, and choreographer (May 5 at 7PM)

Additional Performers: Sofia Engelman, Em Papineau, Skjold Rambow, Justin Sterling


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Amelia Heintzelman is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her work has been shown at CPR – Center for Performance Research, Draftwork at Danspace Project, Lubov Gallery, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Pageant, and Snug Harbor. Her work has been supported by residencies and grants through Atlantic Center for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, UCross Foundation, and University Settlement. Most recently, she has worked as a collaborating performer for Jesi Cook, Ayano Elson, Deborah Hay, evan ray suzuki, and Alexa West. She is on teaching faculty at Movement Research and Pageant, and sometimes/rarely teaches Comedy Pilates. www.ameliakh.com

Sophia Parker is a dancer and dramaturg from Berkeley, CA. She received her BFA in Dance from Fordham University/The Ailey School. Sophia has dramaturged works by Scottie Harvey, Amelia Heintzelman, and Sacha Vega. Most recently, she performed in and dramaturged G R A P H, a new work by Sidra Bell, which was presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their Flight Into Egypt exhibition.

Glenn Potter-Takata (Bronx, NY) is a Japanese-American media designer and artist working in performance. His practice is somatic-based, utilizing butoh, improvisation, media equipment, and consumer materials to create performances around the body as a historical site in post-internment America. Preoccupied with the consumer culture runoff from the Japanese archipelago, Glenn juxtaposes the materiality of consumer detritus with his interests in Buddhist concepts of emptiness and Western notions of nothingness. Both rigorous and playful in his process, Glenn incorporates aspects of Buddhist philosophy and pedagogy into his work, but also sometimes performs wearing a giant Pikachu costume. glennpottertakata.com/about

Lena Engelstein is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. Her work has been dubbed “The High Weird” by critics and lauded as “subtly campy and hilariously queer” by the Brooklyn Rail. She has been part of the interdisciplinary performance collective CHILD, headed by Lisa Fagan, since 2019. Her recent work with Fagan Friday Night Rat Catchers premiered at New York Live Arts in March 2025 and their previous piece Deepe Darknesse was presented in Live Arts’ 2024 Live Artery festival. She has performed work by Alexa West, Barnett Cohen, Brendan Drake, Chafin Seymour, Falcon Dance (company member, 2018-present), Isa Spector, Owen Prum + Lili Dekker, Miguel Alejandro Castillo, and Third Rail Company (Then She Fell company member, 2019-2020). Engelstein has created new works with performer and director Magda San Millan and choreographer Jo Warren. She choreographs for and performs with the band Lou Tides. She has taught dance technique, improvisation, and directing at SUNY Brockport, Colorado Mesa University, Barnard College, University of Maryland, and The Field Center. Lena holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Colorado College. www.lenaengelstein.com 

Free; advance registration required at least 24 hours in advance.
RSVP


Critical Race Therapy thinks through methodologies of race treatment(s) or how one might address race as an embodied sense or an anxiety disorder. Treatment 1 (CRT T1) / The Rhythm Treatment will focus on sound and feeling in relationship to race – come make “race songs” with 2024 Artist-in-Residence Kyle b. co.

Private 1-on-1 sessions are available at 11:30AM, 1PM, 2:30PM, and 4PM on the following Sundays:

Sun, March 23
Sun, March 30
Sun, April 6
Sun, April 13
Sun, May 4 (recently added!)
Sun, May 11
Sun, May 18

Private sessions run about 1 hour. Participants may remain anonymous and will receive a recording of their songs. 

With limited 1-on-1 sessions available, we kindly ask that you honor your reserved time. If you are not able to make it to a session, please cancel your reservation through Eventbrite or let us know ASAP at info@cprnyc.org so that we can reopen the slot to another participant.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kyle b. co. is a trans-disciplinary artist, performer, educator, and baker based in Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2024-25 Franklin Furnace Fund recipient, a 2023 Smack Mellon Hot Pick, and were short-listed for the 2025 Creative Capital award in visual arts. They have received a RISCA Merit Fellowship in 3-D Arts and a Providence Arts, Culture, and Tourism Public Art Fellowship. Their work has found kinship at Hera Gallery, RISD Museum, Buoy Gallery, Zimmerli Museum of Art, Westbeth Gallery, Lucas, Lucas, and Grace Exhibition Space, among other spaces. Their practice engages with the task of mapping the present as a method of document and engagement with form. They work with materials of culture and personal history to make monuments of possibility. The matrices that hold an image may not be visible ‘til named. Their practice is one of futurity as they seek what can be sensed, not what is known. In various ways, they try to grasp at the transmission/translation of a feeling. Feeling(s) as a concept is unclear in its relationship to time. When did the feeling begin? Has the feeling ever stopped? Will you have this feeling again in the future? Their work spans both objects/installation and performance, the distinction between mediums not being that important. Their work is about feeling (&) connection(s).

Live In-Person Event
Fri, June 13 at 7PM
Tickets $0-$25, pay what you can
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Virtual Live-Streamed Episodes
Sat, May 3 at 10AM
Sat, May 17 at 12PM
Sat, June 7 at 12PM
Free. Tune in virtually via Instagram Live @crackheadbarneyandfriends__ or Twitch @crackheadbarney


Live from Crackhead Barney’s sweat-soaked mattress comes In Bed with Crackhead Barney: The Bed Wench Podcast, a series of conversations with fellow artists, derelicts, sworn enemies, and strangers from Plenty of Fish, consummating her signature ambush street interviews under the sheets. 

After getting down and dirty with guests during three steamy Saturday virtual broadcasts, 2025 Artist-in-Residence Crackhead Barney invites the public into her conjugal bed for a live, in-person podcast event at CPR on Friday, June 13, celebrating the imminent success of her 10,000-man Birthday Gang Bang Challenge.

Surprise guests to be announced.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Crackhead Barney was born in Jamaica, Queens to strict religious parents who immigrated to America from Northern Nigeria. She was raised in a one bedroom apartment with her siblings in an era before wokeness and identity politics ruled the cultural landscape and was always taunted for her immigrant African roots and dark complexion. She studied Fine Arts and Media at Hunter College and was told her artwork wasn't shit. Rejected from museums and galleries, she decided to take matters into her own hands and use the streets of NYC as her canvas, painting pictures with her body across the landscape without the need to satisfy the desires of the cultural institutions. Her street performances garnered attention and she began to go viral all over the Internet with people reacting in confusion, laughter, anger, pity, concern, and all the other emotions available to humans. Rejecting any hierarchies that didn't feature her at the very pinnacle, she naturally was attracted to social media where she could form a universe centered on her performance art. She began a “Crackhead Barney and Friends” account on Instagram and TikTok where she’s developed a cult of personality supportive of her creative practice.

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
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In the event that advance tickets are sold out, an in-person wait list will open at 6:30PM.


Doors will open at 6:30 P.M. for the beginning of the performance installation.


closed mouths dont get fed is an immersive performance installation by 2024 Artist-in-Residence Dorchel Haqq that explores the genesis of human consciousness. In a two-part experiential journey, the work examines the formative moments when we first recognize our desires and develop the autonomy to express them. In a world constructed through sculpture, movement, and sound, Dorchel navigates a home environment where objects become metaphors for the emerging weight of consciousness of a NYC upbringing where one is influenced by their environment, and illuminates the profound developmental milestone of finding one's voice and agency through play and participation.

Dorchel is in collaboration with Hakeem Olayinka for installation art and Kneaku Ashe for the soundscape.

Featuring performance artist: Nailah Murray
Artist talk facilitated by: Christian Allen

Ask and you shall receive.

View the Program

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dorchel Haqq, raised in Harlem, began to embody history at the Dance Theater of Harlem. With an education from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts then later at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College, Haqq initiated her discovery of the body as a political statement. While studying at Purchase College, Haqq’s education expanded at Korea National School of the Arts. The development of Haqq’s movement practices induces an imaginative world focusing on the care of the nervous system. Haqq explores fantasy and abstracts the echo of transgenerational trauma in her body of culture through film, sound exploration, and object investigation. These explorations were made possible through the Springboard-curated Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation Founder’s Residency, Gallim’s Moving Women AIR, Leimay’s Incubation AIR, a City Artist Corps grant, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts emergency grant. Haqq is an adjunct lecturer at Purchase College. Haqq performed with AIM by Kyle Abraham for two years before immersing in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More in Shanghai. Haqq expanded her sensory research in 2024 as an AiR at CPR – Center for Performance Research and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Haqq is currently a guest artist in Emursive Theater’s Life And Trust and a 2025 Movement Research Van Lier Artist of Color Fellow. 

Tickets: $0-$25, pay what you can
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Artist, designer, creative technologist, and beloved former Production and Facilities Manager at CPR Nico Cabalquinto guest curates OPEN STUDIOS, inviting multimedia artists Fernando Gregório, Kevin Peter He, and MIZU to share works in development.

OPEN STUDIOS is a series of work-in-progress showings held regularly throughout the year, organized by guest curators, and serves as an incubator for new work, inviting the public into the artistic process.

View the Program

PROGRAM

Fernando Gregório: bichinha

In Brazilian Portuguese, bichinha is a slang term that can mean “little fag” or the feminine form of “little critter”. In this work-in-progress performance, Fernando plays an augmented DJ set in a territory where forbidden words need noisy spaces to survive.

Kevin Peter He: Vestige (WIP)

Kevin Peter He’s work sits at the intersection of performance, cinema, and interactive technology. Rooted in freestyle hip-hop dance, he approaches movement not just as physical expression but as a way of shaping images in real time. He's audiovisual performances unfold like live cinema—he constructs and manipulates virtual worlds inside a game engine with a series of custom controllers, directing the camera and environment improvisationally to the music. The result is a constantly shifting, immersive world where bodies and landscapes emerge and dissolve. This work-in-progress expands He’s virtual performance practice by introducing a live dancer on stage. Projected onto a large screen behind them, the visuals function not as a static backdrop but as an active presence—at times a second dancer, an evolving environment, or an abstract force that guides or resists movement. The performance experiments with different modes of interaction: moments of mirroring, tension, and transformation that blur the lines between physical and digital embodiment. By weaving together real-time visuals, improvisation, and choreography, this piece explores new ways of storytelling—where body and image merge, and where the boundary between human and virtual presence remains fluid and unresolved.

MIZU: Forest Scenes Live

MIZU presents a cinematic realization of her sophomore album Forest Scenes, featuring a companion film by director Dan Silver.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Nico Cabalquinto is a Brooklyn-based light artist, designer, creative technologist and production manager who uses audiovisual equipment, interactive technologies, and digital fabrication tools for their light sculptures and installations to transform public spaces, blur material boundaries, and enhance live performances. They completed their postdoctoral artist residency at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where they earned their Masters of Professional Studies. They have shown their light and sound installations at Knockdown Center, Elsewhere, National Sawdust, and in various art and music festivals.

Fernando Gregório, aka DJ FeG, is a Brazilian mixed media artist and experimental performer based in Brooklyn, NY. Meditating on the binaries between humans, nature, and technology, he works with augmented reality while playing with a navigational model in which “augmentation is neither a more nor a better, but an elsewhere.”

Kevin Peter He is an NYC-based, Shanghai-raised artist working across film, live performance, and game engines to create living stories—narratives shaped not only by human intent but by the evolving systems, infrastructures, and technologies that sustain them. Rooted in the cinematic language and shaped by procedural systems, his practice explores how agency is modulated by the structures we build, the tools we wield, and the ecologies we inhabit. Kevin’s work constructs environments where narrative is not imposed but emerges—an unfolding dialogue between participants, digital frameworks, and the logics that govern them. The camera, a recurring presence, functions not just as a recording device but as an embodied interface—framing, mediating, and actively shaping the world it observes. Kevin’s work has been showcased at SIGGRAPH, MUTEK Montreal, Tribeca Festival, NOWNESS, and Onassis ONX, with recent projects including Passage_SoftRains, a sensor-driven installation where a digital ecosystem reshapes itself in response to human presence, and Flux, a live audiovisual duet where improvisational movement collides with machine perception. The former creative director of ZeroSpace, he has collaborated with institutions such as Lincoln Center, Cartier, and Nike, bridging emerging technologies with experimental storytelling. Kevin holds a Master’s from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where he also teaches, and a Bachelor’s in Film from USC.

“Frequently gorgeous, at times unsettling, and constantly in flux” (Pitchfork), MIZU explores themes of transformation and the infinite possibilities of self through her singular cello playing and daring performing. Trained as a cellist at Juilliard, her experimental practice sees her transforming self-recorded explorations on her instrument into bold and distinct soundscapes. Her works 4 | 2 | 3, Forest Scenes, and Distant Intervals received critical praise and attention from platforms such as Pitchfork, The FADER, NOWNESS Asia, Bandcamp Daily, The New York Times, New Sounds, Stereogum, and Them.