Streaming on this webpage and Vimeo.

Justin Allen continues his 2020 ISSUE Project Room residency with the premiere of Bass (October 8) and Drums (October 15), a performance stemming from ongoing research into how to emulate, experiment with, and better understand the performance practices of punk singers. This performance is co-presented with The Chocolate Factory Theater, and will be streamed from their theater in Long Island City, New York.

Building on his work Explain Totality (version 4) in which he performs as a singer of a four-piece punk band, Allen is preparing a series of performances in which he sings and experiments with screaming vocal techniques, accompanied by three isolated instruments: electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. The performances focus on the individual instruments, incorporating both rehearsed and improvised material as well as movement. The second performance of the series, Bass, will feature electric bass by multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and vocalist Taja Cheek. The third performance of the series, Drums, will feature drumming by drummer, composer and producer Savannah Harris.

This performance will be audio described and captioned.

[Image description:Justin, a Black person in a yellow shirt, holds a microphone up to a megaphone in a dark space. The megaphone emits light that partially illuminates Justin’s body and the paneled wall of ISSUE’s 22 Boerum theater.]

ISSUE Project Room‘s annual Artist-in-Residence program provides New York-based emerging artists with a year of support, offering artists access to facilities, equipment, documentation, pr/marketing, curatorial and technical expertise to develop and present significant new works, reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience.

ISSUE Project Room plays a vital role in NYC’s cultural ecology, facilitating the commission and premiere of new works and presenting a diverse array of artists working across sound, movement, film, performance and literature. Programming aims to bring recognition to artists whose important contributions fall beyond infrastructural boundaries of discipline or genre, elude audience expectations, or are otherwise underrepresented as a result of bias within the fields of art and performance, and broader histories of social and economic participation. Through the cultivation of innovative new work, ISSUE Project Room performs an essential research and development function that fosters a dynamic influx of ideas into the local, national, and international creative landscape.