HOWL! FESTIVAL AND THE JACKIE FACTORY PRESENT
LOW LIFE 6: EAST VILLAGE OTHERS
SUNDAY JUNE 3, 2012
5-7 PM - FREE ADMISSION
TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK, NYC howlfestival.com
"Jackie is just speeding away.."
- Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side (1972)
On June 3, 2012 JACKIE FACTORY producers CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL will stage a be-in of love and glitter for their sixth annual LOW LIFE @ HOWL! FESTIVAL. LOW LIFE is the free and fabulous Sunday evening climax to HOWL! - a two-hour spectacular inspired by East Village decades past.
This year's LOW LIFE 6: EAST VILLAGE OTHERS celebrates the world-changing explosion of East Village culture from 1966-1972. Named for the seminal underground newspaper the EAST VILLAGE OTHER, the show will pay homage to movements and supernovas including the EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE happenings in what became the ELECTRIC CIRCUS, film and performance pioneer JACK SMITH and his Flaming Creatures, THE FUGS song SLUM GODDESS (Of the Lower East Side), the Tompkins Square Park YIPPIES, the FILLMORE EAST and the Bowery-raised Warhol Superstar JACKIE CURTIS with her cohorts HOLLY WOODLAWN and CANDY DARLING.
EAST VILLAGE OTHERS will feature multiple hometown companies including Neue dance ensemble THE RACHEL KLEIN THEATER and butoh greats VANGELINE THEATER (who have performed at all five previous editions). Gender-bending thesbian BRANDON OLSON is creating the JACK SMITH homage with choreography by NYC BALLET and LOW LIFE alumnus ROBBY LAFOSSE and a cast of downtown's most flaming creatures. Also expect musical, burlesque and protest performances from BIG ART GROUP vixen HEATHER LITTEER, MC PAUL ALEXANDER (of JACKIE 60 and the SCISSOR SISTERS) and many more. Bill is still in formation, please check this page for latest additions.
LOW LIFE events were inspired by the seminal LUC SANTE book "LOW LIFE: The Lures and Snares of Old New York" and are produced by local performance collective THE JACKIE FACTORY NYC. The annual LOW LIFE extravaganzas at HOWL! continue a body of work born at the seminal Meat Market nightclub JACKIE 60 in 1997. For the show's producers, East Village residents for over two decades, this annual spectacular is a Valentine to the neighborhood's past, present and future stars.
Photo above: Bows at the 2011 LOW LIFE @ HOWL! Photo by Mark Tusk
Photoset below: Highlights from the 2011 LOW LIFE @ HOWL!
THE HOWL! FESTIVAL, the East Village festival of the arts, was named in honor of the groundbreaking poem by ALLEN GINSBERG and began in 2002. This year HOWL ARTS, INC brings the 9th annual HOWL! to Tompkins Square Park from June 1-3 - moved last year from its former September dates to this early June weekend. This "exceptional, existential and uplifting weekend of cutting edge art, fantasy and fun" arrives just in time to celebrate Allen Ginsberg's 86th birthday on June 3. HOWL! 2012 opens on June 1 at 5pm with the festival's traditional reading of Ginsberg's famed poem HOWL, his impassioned words delivered by his friends and contemporaries led by East Village spoken word guru BOB HOLMAN. This weekend of poetry, performance art, music and dance will once
again feature ART AROUND THE PARK, a two day exhibit of EV/LES artists exhibiting their work as they create it; main stage performances of LOW LIFE and other great shows, and the popular children's attraction, the Great HOWL! OUT LOUD Carnival for kids of all ages. Please visit HOWLFESTIVAL.COM for details on all of the weekend's exciting programming.
THE JACKIE FACTORY is the NYC based nightclub arts collective founded by husband and wife team CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL in 1990. Most famous for the 450 themed editions of its decade-long party JACKIE 60, venue MOTHER, and annual Stevie Nicks extravaganza NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STEVIES, THE FACTORY also creates large-scale spectacles in New York and cities nationwide and worldwide, including LOW LIFE @ HOWL!
