Standing On The Corner is for sale once again.

Come and get a slice.

Instructions: Follow the fire into the door. Meet the Mouse who runs the market. 

A4 brings together Asian diasporic artists from experimental/countercultural music scenes and community leaders to discuss the lack of access Asian diasporic communities have to countercultural arts. Artists in the diaspora, especially those who work within experimental and countercultural scenes, often challenge traditional boundaries of genre and aesthetics. In doing so, they often look inward towards their own cultural roots, as well as practices from various other cultures. It is only natural then that Asian countercultural artists would wish to perform for an audience that would deeply understand the cultural implications of their transgressive work.

Yet in organizing around aesthetic ideologies, countercultural music scenes and audiences, especially in New York City, exhibit a widening class and racial divide. The dominance of white curatorial spaces often distances Asian diasporic communities from artists and venues. Further, who gets to be an artist within countercultures must also be critically examined. While arts movements often idealize working-class politics, the level of professionalization of music writ large necessitates capital investment (in the form of schooling, PR, marketing, agents/managers) to even consider becoming a working musician in any genre, including countercultural ones.

Who is countercultural music for? Who should countercultural music be for? How can we organize in a way that changes who this music scene is being developed by and for? Join us for a panel discussion on these questions, the current state of the problem, imagining better futures, and more.

Panelists include Che Chen, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and curator for Four One One; Amirtha Kidambi, musician, bandleader of Elder Ones, educator, and activist; Thanu Yakupitiyage, also known as DJ Ushka, who traverses genres across electronic club & bass music; and Shahana Hanif, City Council Member for New York City’s 39th District.

The discussion will be co-moderated by Ravish Momin, drummer, producer, and educator; and Leo Chang, musician, scholar of experimental arts, and operations associate at A4. The evening will begin with a short performance by panelists Che Chen and Amirtha Kidambi, followed by an hour of structured panel discussion. There will be time for Q&A and mingling following the panel.

The event is co-presented with the Clemente, a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space rooted in the Lower East Side. This event is open to all, particularly performers, community and arts organizers, and cultural workers of all backgrounds.

This event is FREE and open to the public. We suggest a $5 donation to go towards keeping A4’s programs free.

RSVP here.

Agenda:
6:30-7:00 pm (30 min) – Performance
7:00-8:00 pm (60 min) – Panel
8:00-8:15 pm (15 min) – Q&A
8:15-8:30 pm (15 min) – Mingling

Recording: The panel discussion will be recorded and published on A4’s YouTube channel after the event.

Accessibility: Due to renovations happening at the Clemente, the space is temporarily not ADA accessible. There are five steps leading up to the door of the theater and three flights of stairs to the bathroom. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you need CART Transcription, ASL interpretation, large print, or any other accommodations for this event, please email programs@aaartsalliance.org at least one week before this event.

To keep everyone safe and healthy, if you are not feeling well, please stay at home. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer.

Bios

About Che Chen
Che Chen is an improviser, composer, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and concert organizer based in Queens, NY. An energetic presence in New York City’s experimental underground since the early 2000s, he has tread an idiosyncratic path from noise-song duo True Primes to playing in groups led by drone minimalists and Japanese outsider artists, to studying guitar in Mauritania and improvising with veterans from NYC’s storied free jazz community. Organizing concerts has always been a parallel activity, stemming from a firm belief that music must take place in community: he currently curates for FourOneOne. Chen’s performances explore improvisation as an extension of listening, setting the spontaneous invention of his playing within electronic drones, noise, and an immersive sense of space.

About Amirtha Kidambi
Amirtha Kidambi is invested in the creation and performance of subversive, anti-hegemonic music, from free improvisation and avant-jazz, to Indian carnatic and devotional, experimental bands, electronic music, noise, and new music. She is an educator, activist, and organizer working to challenge systems of white supremacist, colonial, capitalist patriarchy, and is co-founder and co-organizer of South Asian Artists in Diaspora and Musicians Against Police Brutality. As a bandleader and composer, she is the creative force behind the incendiary protest group Elder Ones and has received critical praise for her albums Holy Science (2016) and From Untruth (2019) on Northern Spy records from the New York Times, Pitchfork, Wire Magazine and Downbeat among others.

About Shahana Hanif
Council Member Shahana Hanif represents New York City’s 39th Council District, which includes parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and the Columbia Waterfront. She is the first Bangladeshi and Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council and the first woman to represent the 39th District. Born and raised in the 39th District to Bangladeshi immigrant parents, Council Member Hanif has dedicated her career to advocating for working-class families and advancing a city built on care, equity, and safety. Her personal battle with Lupus, diagnosed at age 17, and her experiences with the challenging healthcare system and City services, inspired her commitment to public service.

About Ravish Momin
Ravish Momin is an Indian-born drummer, electronic music producer, and educator residing in New York City. Momin studied privately with US Jazz master-drummer Andrew Cyrille while he worked as an engineer in New York City in the late 1990s. A Structural/Civil Engineer by training, he quit his engineering practice in 2003 to become a professional musician. His current projects include duos with dragonchild (DA Mekonnen of Debo Band) and Faraway Ghost (Iranian singer/songwriter Kamyar Arsani.) As Sunken Cages, Momin plays electronic drums. While rooted in Indian and Black Music traditions, he is also influenced by the street sounds of underground dance music from Sao Paolo to Durban to Mumbai.

About Leo Chang
Leo Chang is a Korean improviser, composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. Born in Seoul, Leo lived as an expat in Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai, until moving to the United States in 2011. His art is an act of homemaking inspired by various musical and ideological movements that have sought to question power dynamics and imagine egalitarian possibilities. His primary methods are free improvisation, written text, graphical notation, and electronic processing. In the past six years, he has been focused on building electronic performance setups derived from Korean folk practices and instruments. Leo holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also A4’s Operations Associate, where he manages grant reports and various administrative responsibilities.

A soloist on stage in a duet with an invisible counterpart. The musicians are separated by place, time, and war. One plays live in New York, the other appears via a recording made earlier in Kyiv. This format was first realized in November 2024 as a “signal” from wartime Kyiv to peaceful Berlin. In its current edition, that same signal now travels across the ocean to New York. The Ukrainian musician does not know whether the dialogue with his counterpart will succeed. In New York, it unfolds as a conversation the other side cannot hear.

The musical experience of the evening will suggest a complex entanglement of pieces from composers Anna Arkushyna, Ihor Zavhorodnii, and Albert Saprykin in their attempt at personal and collective research on the topic of fragile connections and uncertainty in dialogue during the war and beyond.

Presented by Leah Batstone and the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in collaboration with Kyiv Contemporary Music Days, in partnership with The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center.

RSVP here.

About the Artists:

Kyiv Contemporary Music Days (KCMD) produces festivals, concerts of chamber, orchestra, and electroacoustic music, live streams, masterclasses for composers and performers, and lectures for professional musicians and a wider audience. Since February 24, 2022, we also try to preserve the Ukrainian music community and make sure Ukrainian voices are heard internationally.

Founded in 2020, the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (UCMF) is dedicated to showcasing Ukraine’s complex and diverse contributions to contemporary music through performances, educational opportunities, and community engagement with composers, scholars, and performers. The Festival is one of its kind in North America, actively engaging the intersection of new music, current events, and Ukrainian culture.

Nazarii Stets is a Ukrainian double bass player focused on contemporary music and the promotion of modern Ukrainian repertoire. Born in 1991 in Kopychyntsi, Ukraine, into a musical family, he began his musical journey on the violin before switching to double bass after seven years. He studied double bass at the Ternopil Music College under Vasyl Felenchak and then earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees at the National Music Academy of Ukraine named after P. Tchaikovsky, studying with Oleksandr Melnyk from the National Opera of Ukraine.

Gleb Kanasevich is a clarinetist and composer based between Detroit and the East Coast. As of July, 2022, he is a permanent member of Detroit-based Hub New Music, with whom he tours regularly and performed at many of the country’s most renowned concert series, venues and festivals. He is an active soloist and session musician, having recently worked with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, Cleveland-based death metal band Noxis, and on soundtracks for Netflix and A24 films. He has been closely working with the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in New York City since 2021, frequently covering the festival’s electronic and live sound needs, concert production, and clarinet duties.

The Response: Echoes Beneath the Rain

When: Thursday, July 17, 2025 @  7:00 – 9:00 PM

Where: Flamboyan Theater @ The Clemente

Live performances by: Olive Toran, Natie , Brittany Harris

RSVP HERE!

Join us for an immersive sonic installation by Olive Toran in collaboration with Rainproof NYC and Rebuild by Design.

 Let the storm speak. Rain is more than weather-it’s memory, warning, and connection. This immersive installation weaves sound, images, and community voices to explore how water arrives, disrupts, and how we respond. 

Plus: A spotlight on Rainproof NYC Partners driving local solutions to flooding.

Acrylic Painting Nach dem Sturm “After the Storm” by Marie Amoyi

*Attendance is limited, and registration is required to confirm your place. Only registered guests will be admitted.

ARTIST BIOS:

Olive Toran is a multidisciplinary artist and environmentalist, working with poetry, photography, storytelling, and music to explore the emotional and ecological landscapes of our time. Her work centers memory, connection, and renewal, inviting audiences into spaces of reflection and healing. Her works include Inner and Outer Transformations: The Climate Crisis, an immersive multimedia exhibit on personal healing and climate action. Olive’s work has also appeared in Culture Push Issue 21: Community and Climate Adaptation and is shaped by years of hands-on learning, including time in India exploring participatory development and waste management systems. Her art is grounded in over a decade of lived experience, working across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean in climate and health and climate adaptation. Olive created the People’s Toolkit for Flood Mitigation and leads networks to amplify community knowledge and climate action. She is a certified herbalist and board member of Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS). She currently serves as the Atlas of Disaster Outreach Coordinator at Rebuild by Design.

Explore Olive’s work here>>

Natie is a creole musician/singer-songwriter from Reunion Island, based in NYC. After a world tour in Beyoncé & Jay-Z’s band in 2018, Natie launched her solo career with the release of her music video “Identity” & her debut EP “In the Key Of Fall.” Through her music, Natie aims to share the experience of being creole (mixed race) and uprooted, with authenticity and grounding, in the hope of fostering more openness and belonging. With these values in mind, the artist has launched her own festival, Kréol Fest, an artistic celebration of creole culture from around the world. Her multilingual/soothing EP “Home: a place within aux parfums d’ailleurs” also came out last year with a stunning cinematic music video shot in both her homes, untitled ‘Ter La’. Natie’s recent performances include Global Fest with the Ragini Ensemble, Summerstage with Ganavya, and a solo performance for 100 Years 100 Women at Lincoln Center. She recently performed in her home island for the 20th anniversary of the festival Sakifo.

Instagram | Spotify | Youtube | Explore Natie’s work here>>

Brittany Harris is a Detroit native with dual Bachelor’s in Music Education and Cello Performance (Western Michigan University) and a Master’s in Film Scoring (NYU, 2022). Since 2015, Brooklyn-based freelance, recording, touring, and off-Broadway cellist. Performed at SNL, The Tonight Show, Carnegie Hall, The Apollo, Lincoln Center, and on tour with Escape The Fate and the Emo Orchestra. Brittany performs with FEMPIRE (with Sarah Overton) and as a solo artist, blending classical, rock, jazz, indie folk, and soul. Works as a TV/film/media composer, sound designer, studio/touring cellist, music copyist, arranger, transcriber, and music analyst for Ethos. Credits include work for Babyface, Loren Allred, Rob Lewis & Orchestra, Broadway/off-Broadway, Machinal (MTC City Center), and co-creating the podcast Good Night Black Child—a space for bedtime stories and meditations centering the Black and Brown diaspora.

Explore Brittany’s work here>>

IX Kerouac Festival: New York

When: Thursday May 8th @ 6 - 9 PM

Where: Flamboyan Theater @ The Clemente

Organized by: Culture Lovers (Vanesa Álvarez & Marcos de la Fuente)

Participants: Live Poetry by Hala Alyan, Manuel Mata, Cristiane Bouger (w/ band), Paola Assad & Inés López, Elisabeth Sweet | Videos by: Emmanuel Vizcaya, José Lameiras , Warren C. Longmire | Art Installations: The Whispers by Ismael Faro, HOWL CAMERA by The VERSEverse

The Kerouac Festival of Poetry, Music, and Performance returns for its 9th edition in New York on Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9. This vibrant two-day celebration of experimental poetry, live music, digital art, and community will bring together voices from across the globe. Hosted and curated by Galician-Brooklyn-based poet and performer Marcos de la Fuente, the festival continues its mission to honor the rebellious spirit of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation through boundary-breaking artistic expression.

This year’s edition features an exciting international lineup including Hala Alyan (USA-Palestine), Mónica Carrillo Zegarra (Perú), Nancy Mercado (USA-Puerto Rico), Cristiane Bouger (Brazil), Essau Landa (Mexico), Gabael Otzoy (Guatemala), Isabel Castelao-Gómez (Spain), and more. Performances blend poetry with music, cello, DJ sets, and visual media—making Kerouac NYC not just a reading, but an immersive experience in different languages.

More info HERE!

VOICES OF RESISTANCE AND HERITAGE: Stories of Kurdish Women and Culture

When: March 8 @ 7pm
Where: The Flamboyan Theater @ The Clemente

Featuring: Shero Hinde, Nadia Derwiş, Alba Sotorra and Halime Akturk
Curated by: Xeyal Qertel

Co-presented by: ArteEast and The Clemente

RSVP and tickets Here!

Join us for an in-person screening of Ezda by Halime Akturk and Jinwar by Nadia Derwiş

Followed by a Q&A with Halime Akturk and Rez Gardi, moderated by the curator Xeyal Qertel. Musical Performance by: Cihan Çelik and Sama Ali.

This program celebrates the courage and resilience of Kurdish women who have fought for freedom and self-determination amidst war and revolution. It also shines a light on the rich cultural heritage of the Kurdish people, including the ancient tradition of Dengbêj and the enduring spirit of the Yezidi community. Together, these films weave a powerful narrative of resistance, leadership, and cultural preservation. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast.

*Please Note for the In-Person Screening:

Attendance is limited, and registration is required to confirm your place. Only registered guests will be admitted.

• This venue is temporarily not ADA-compliant.

• The closest restroom is a portable restroom located outside on Rivington Street. Alternatively, the audience can use the 4th-floor bathroom via the main entrance.

—-

Online Screening Program: March 14 – 23, 2025
RSVP: artearchive.org
Available worldwide
FREE / $5 suggested donation

Commander Arian, Alba Sotorra, Spain, Germany, Syria, 2018, 85 mins.

Kurdish and Arabic with English Subtitles
Documentary 

30-year-old military Commander Arian leads her battalion of women as they fight ISIS. For her, the armed struggle is the only path to emancipation from a deeply patriarchal society. At her side, director Alba Sotorra documents the liberation of the city of Kobane and uncovers the reality of life at the frontline. Wounded by five bullets, Arian is forced to deal with the wounds of war, both visible and invisible, and to find new ways to fight for women’s freedom.

Love in the Face of Genocide, Shero Hinde, Rojava (West Kurdistan), 2020, 52 mins.

Kurdish with English Subtitles
Documentary

Love in The Face of Genocide is a documentary exploring the oral literature of the Yazidi Dengbêj in Shengal, Kurdistan, produced by the Rojava Film Commune. The Yazidis’ isolated homeland in the mountains of Shengal has faced more than 74 massacres throughout its history, the most heinous of which were carried out by ISIS in 2014. Love in the Face of Genocide explores the impact of suffering, religion and cultural difference on the songs of love in Shengal, and documents how the Yazidis maintain their heritage and tell their stories of love and sorrow through their survival song.

Jinwar, Nadia Derwish, Rojava (West Kurdistan), 2024, 41 mins. 

Kurdish and Arabic with English Subtitles
Documentary

In 2017, a group of women set out to create an all-women village in North-East Syria (Rojava). They built it using traditional materials and techniques. Once completed, Jinwar welcomed women refugees from male violence. By participating in the common life, based on agriculture and handicrafts, women villagers forge new identities and build better lives for themselves. At the same time they create a new world. 

Ezda, Halime Akturk, Canada, 2023, 14 mins. 

English and Kurdish with English subtitles
Documentary

 A Yazidi survivor of ISIS’s genocide recounts her experiences during nearly three years of captivity and strives to come to terms with her trauma while forging a new path for herself and her children in Canada.