abc no rio
MISSION & PURPOSE
ABC No Rio is an arts center whose offices and zine library are temporarily located at the Clemente while we construct a new building for projects, programs and operations.
For 40 years ABC No Rio has been a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support. Our gallery and performance space was founded by artists committed to an engaged culture that promotes critical analysis and an expanded vision of possibility for our lives and the lives of our neighborhoods, cities, and societies. We've retained these values to the present.
Over the years ABC No Rio presented a wide range of artistic expression dealing with war, homelessness, drugs, sex, violence, and the politics of housing and real estate. In the late 80s No Rio helped energize the burgeoning East Village performance scene and was instrumental in the resurgence of spoken word and performance poetry. In 1990 No Rio became active in the hardcore music scene, instituting a policy of not booking racist, sexist or homophobic bands and carving out a welcoming space in that scene for young people of color, young women, and gay and lesbian youth. ABC No Rio is one of the best-loved punk venues in the world.
In 1999 No Rio expanded its programs throughout its building on Rivington Street. Our facilities and resources included a zine library, darkroom, screenprinting shop, and computer center. Through these facilities and resources we provided classes in photography, drawing and screenprinting to neighborhood youth and others. These classes were traditionally free, and use of our facilities by the general public were either free or for very modest fees. Events programming at ABC No Rio included exhibitions, poetry readings, performance, concerts, film and video screenings, forums and workshops.
In June 2016 ABC No Rio vacated its building on Rivington Street in advance of demolition and construction. During this period ABC No Rio exhibitions continue "in exile" at other venues and in collaboration with other organizations, providing a renewed focus towards collaborative work that brings ABC No Rio back to its roots - ABC No Rio was founded as a project of the 1970s artist group Collaborative Projects.
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ROOM 305
Installation view, from the exhibition TAKING IT TO THE STREETS! The Art + Design of Posters and Flyers on the Lower East Side in the 80s + 90s; ABC No Rio in Exile at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS)
Artist: Mike Estabrook; Title: Lace KKK (Detail)
Mixed Media; 2015-2017
From the exhibition Judgment Day; ABC No Rio in Exile at Bullet Space/292 Gallery
Zines: Proud to be Retarded (Autistic Pride in a Neurophobic World) and Your Neurodiverse Friend by Killer Banshee Studios; From the exhibition Sickness+Health; ABC No Rio in Exile at Bullet Space/292 Gallery
Artist: Manju Shandler; Title: The Big Bad Wolf Ate Betsy Ross's Ghost
Mixed Media; 2018
From the exhibition In the Bardo; ABC No Rio in Exile at 519 Evergreen
Excerpted page from exhibition brochure for History in a Box (Exploring the culture and politics of lower Manhattan in the late-80s and 90s, as expressed through zines and neighborhood newspapers from the ABC No Rio Zine Library and the archives of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space).
ABC No Rio in Exile at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS)