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A forgotten carnival filled with colorful attractions is being resurrected at The Shed
An artsy carnival like something out of a dream is heading to Manhattan’s west side this fall.
The Shed just announced its 2024-2025 season programming and, as has been the case since the relatively new cultural destination debuted in Hudson Yards in 2019, the lineup is looking pretty stacked.
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In October, for example, British actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh will star in a production of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Before then, in mid-September, audience members will get to catch a one-night-only reimagining of The Breakdown Odyssey by Ms. Boogie, the iconic debut album by the New York-based rapper.
But its “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy” is what’s really catching our attention. It is basically a massive fun house that will be installed inside the soaring McCourt space at the center on November 20, displaying a vast array of carnival rides and attractions by famous artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delauna, Keith Haring and Roy Lichtenstein, among many others.
From a vibrant carousel boasting chairs painted by Kenny Scharf to a Ferris wheel featuring the art of Basquiat, the exhibit will be filled with the wonderful pieces that first debuted in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987. Although meant to tour the world, the park was never on display again after that original run—until 2023, when it was installed in Los Angeles.
“And then, by a twist of fate, the park’s treasures were forgotten in storage in Texas for 36 years,” reads a press release. “‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ resurrected these artworks, to audiences’ delight.”
“The resulting show is a colorful jubilee of larger-than-life installations, originally created by the artists themselves (you can watch archival footage of Keith Haring standing in front of his carousel with a paintbrush in hand) or artisans at the Vienna opera,” wrote our L.A. editor Michael Juliano when he caught the show in California. “To be clear, you can’t actually ride any of the carnival attractions (though you can walk inside of both Dalí’s and Hockney’s installations if you upgrade to a Moon Pass). Instead, the rides here are presented like they’re in a museum, though one with colorful lighting, whirling motors, jugglers, stilt walkers and musical compositions by Miles Davis and Philip Glass floating around.”
Clearly a feat of visual marvel, “Luna Luna” will likely be one of the most exciting activations of the season, so you might want to, perhaps, set an alarm for when tickets will be available to the general public: at noon on Thursday, September 19.
Step Into A World Of All Things Manga At This Month-Long Immersive Pop-Up
Step into a world of all things manga this October as a fully immersive manga pop-up will take over SoHo for four exciting weeks!
Kodansha, one of Japan’s largest publishers of manga and the creative force behind iconic stories like Akira, Sailor Moon, Attack on Titan, and Blue Lock, is inviting fans to experience Kodansha House: Where Manga Meets. Dedicated to all things anime, the pop-up will take the form of a vibrant meeting place where the world of manga comes alive.
Fans will enter through a giant manga shelf entryway, acting as a portal into a gallery, cafe, lounge, and massive manga library. The month-long programming includes a diverse lineup of activities with everything from live discussions and workshops to date nights, trivia night, and movie screenings, providing a place for manga lovers to connect, create, and celebrate the stories they love.
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Featured activations include:
- Akira Slide Photobooth – suit up in Kaneda’s iconic jacket and goggles, hop onto a stationary Akira bike, and pose against a projected anime background
- Titan’s Fury: Attack on Titan Photobooth – step into a massive, scaled model of the Attack on Titan walled village to become a Titan and act out scenes
If you don’t have anyone to go with you, don’t fret: there will be a fun-filled speed friending event for fans to find their perfect manga-loving match. And those aren’t the only people you’ll meet–four major manga creators will make rare U.S. appearances with Q&A sessions and signings, including Shuzo Oshimi (The Flowers of Evil), Tsubasa Yamaguchi (Blue Period), Makoto Yukimura (Vinland Saga), and Kamome Shirahama (Witch Hat Atelier).
The perfect spot for manga enthusiasts, both new and seasoned, Kodansha House: Where Manga Meets is the perfect place to meet fellow fans, mingle, and dive deeper into the magic of manga. The full programming schedule can be found on their website.
45 Grand Street, SoHo
Wednesdays to Sundays in October, opens October 4th
12 pm – 9 pm
For more fall happenings: 13 Fall Festivals Coming To NYC You Need To Check Out
The post Step Into A World Of All Things Manga At This Month-Long Immersive Pop-Up appeared first on Secret NYC.
This new art work at Penn Station is truly larger than life
One of the many things that makes New York a world class city is the fact that you can stumble on prolific art in the most seemingly mundane places—including during your morning commute.
If that sounds exciting, you might want to reroute to Penn Station for the next few weeks to gaze at the new large scale sculptures by artists Chitra Ganesh and Eirini Linardaki.
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Ganesh’s new work was commissioned by Amtrak and it is called Regeneration. It features natural elements created in a graphic style that evokes comic books. The plants depicted have deep spiritual significance: the Welwitschia, for example, represents resilience in some southern African cultures. The sculpture also features some plants that you might find in New York City, like dandelions and irises.
Through the artwork, Ganesh seeks, “to remind viewers of the vibrant life that thrives in nature, and to reconnect them with elements that transcend the limitations of humanity, ultimately encouraging a regeneration of perspective and a reset of both the mental and the physical,” according to an official statement.
Linardaki’s work, on the other hand, pays homage to the people who make Penn Station run day in and day out. The Greek-French artist photographed some of the station’s workers, including electricians, cleaning personnel and train conductors, and features them in the exhibition, Working Background. Linardaki was inspired by the nearby Garment District and used fabrics that calls out to some of the clothing she saw commuters wear in the station to create large-scale mural panels depicting the workers.
The homage was informed by her own upbringing: Linardaki’s dad worked as a bus driver and, as a child, she spent long hours riding in his bus. Her intimate knowledge of the inner lives of transit workers is palpable at first glance.
The two new works of art are part of a series called “Art at Amtrak,” curated and produced by Debra Simon Art Consulting. The program launched in June 2022 and has brought some of the most exciting emerging artists to Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall.
Brooklyn Museum just underwent a major rebrand and has a new logo
What’s in a name? Well, a lot.
Brooklyn Museum, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, just unveiled a new logo and branding it says will bring its past, present and future together in one look.
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The new logo uses modern sans serif typeface, new ligatures and incorporates the two dots that surround each name—of ancient philosophers, playwrights, and poets—on the building’s facade.
“This reference to writers and thinkers links to our beginnings as a library and to the intersectional nature of the arts,” the museum said in a press release. “In every application, the dots appear at least twice, an echo of the two O’s in Brooklyn.”
The double O’s in Brooklyn are now intertwined M’s and U’s in Museum are linked. There’s a new color palette too, which incorporates the grays of its limestone building and brighter colors for a “distinctly Brooklyn vibe.”
“The two dots, overlapping letters, and kaleidoscopic colors all convey the Brooklyn Museum’s identity as a place where a multiplicity of ideas, identities, and points of origin converge,” the museum said. “These design elements nod to the encyclopedic collection as well as the interconnected roles the Museum plays for its multifaceted audiences: art museum, educational center, forum for ideas, weekend hotspot, and many more.”
The new logo and branding was designed by Brooklyn-based graphic design studio Other Means with help from in-house designers after more than a year of research and discussion.
Last time there was a major museum brand redesign that made headlines, it was 2016, when The Met introduced its new logo. Its new M was made to look like da Vinci’s work, but Vulture called it “a red double-decker bus that has stopped short, shoving the passengers into each other’s backs.” Other critics aired their grievances and The Met justified its decision in the Times.
“It’s a changing institution; the world is changing around us, and I think it’s time for the Met to move forward,” said Daniel Brodsky, the museum’s chairman, back then.
The Brooklyn Museum said something similar today.
“The ways that audiences are engaging with museums are expanding, and we needed a new brand that meets the demands of the day, honors our rich history, and brings a whole lot of energy,” said Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum. “And there’s no better time to launch it than our 200th anniversary!”
The even cooler thing is that you can grab some sweet merch featuring the new logo and colors at the museum’s shop, including T-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, tote bags, stickers, mugs, key chains and more.
What do you think of the new branding?
Out Late: Inside Dick Appointment’s fifth anniversary party
“Out Late” is Time Out’s nightlife and party column by DJ, Whorechata founder, and Staff Writer Ian Kumamoto, which will publish every other Tuesday. The previous edition was a practical guide to staying safe while partying in NYC.
When can a party claim that it’s “underground,” and at what point is an event too popular to shed that term and transition into mainstream status? That question was at the center of a conversation I first had with Christofer Medina—one of the leading members of the Black and queer-centered party Dick Appointment—who wasn’t quite sure where exactly on the underground-to-above-ground spectrum Dick Appointment fell (and thus, whether it was even worthy of coverage as an underground party).
It makes sense why he’s confused: If you’re a queer Black person living in New York, you’ve almost definitely heard of Dick Appointment, a fashion-forward function that mixes techno and club beats with the likes of Sexxy Red. It’s collaborated with HBO Max and Telfar has DJed for them (yes, he does that). And yet, it retains a certain rawness and energy that is so quintessentially New York that it would be impossible for anyone to argue that they aren’t the source from which a larger culture is being born, the root of a new queer Black nightlife movement. And roots, by definition, almost always exist below ground.
Dick Appointment was founded in 2019 by DJ Kenni Javon, an Ohio native. The party’s provocative name was its initial draw, but it was the community that formed around it that allowed it to grow. “When I started Dick Appointment, I was trying to fill a void,” Kenni tells me. “I like ghetto music, and I like techno music, so I wanted to merge those into one.” He describes the vibe of the party as “medium ghetto,” which he explains as mixing “untz untz” basses with the type of music Black people in other parts of the country might hear at predominantly Black events.
Every step is really intentional.
But just as important as keeping Dick Appointment Black is making it inclusive for all corners of the Black queer community. Libby Brothers, also known by her DJ name Pinkyy, runs Dick Appointment’s marketing and social media, and points out how they make sure that everyone they work with is also a part of the community they throw parties for. “Not just even with the lineups but behind the scenes too, we make sure we’re working with people across the LGBTQ spectrum when it comes to design, when it comes to lighting, when it comes to people who are actually taking photographs,” she says. “Every step is really intentional.” Their stance on creating an explicitly queer space has been clear in the marketing from the beginning, which leans heavily on replicating the interface of hookup apps like Jack’d and porn sites like RedTube, with their talent displayed as users on grids. It sets the tone for a party that is supposed to be sexy but safe, consensual but raunchy.
There’s a rawness and anything-can-happen attitude that many commercial parties lack.
I think it’s safe to say that for better or worse, Dick Appointment is an underground party. There’s a rawness and anything-can-happen attitude that many commercial parties lack. “People can hop on the mic or the CDJs and just do their thing,” Medina tells me. “There’s elements of playing with range and volume.” Bit its undergroundness is also the reason that the party is not always taken seriously by the establishment—They’ve been lowballed by sponsors and venues they’ve tried to work with. Kenni, Libby and Chris are keeping their crowd Black and queer, and that’s not something they’re going to compromise on, even if that means limiting how fast they can grow and how seriously they’re taken. Still, despite the many barriers they’ve faced while throwing the party, they’re excited about the future—a future where I predict they’ll be calling all the dibs. “A lot of people don’t see it for us,” Kenni tells me. “A lot of the people we’ve tried to work with, they don’t see it for us, but we’re gonna make them see it.”
On August 30, Dick Appointment had their fifth-year anniversary party at the expansive nightclub Good Room. Here’s how it went.
An hour-by-hour account of an evening at Dick Appointment
1:02am
I pull up to Good Room in Greenpoint with some friends and there’s a line out the door. We run into our friend, Armana Khan, who is an up-and-coming DJ in the scene. We get escorted in.
1:10am
We go up the stairs and the venue is packed. We start out in the main room, the Good Room, and it’s all high energy. A Beyoncé remix plays and everybody sings along. Then, we make our way to the other room, The Bad Room, where LITNEY, a Dominican DJ based in Toronto but in town for the weekend is tearing it up on the decks.
2am
We take a break from dancing and on our way to the bathroom, we run into the Busy Boys, a group of queer podcasters who are hosts for the night. I end up seeing a lot of people I know while waiting in line—old friends, new friends, former friends, and an ex—and it’s clear that we’re amongst community, for better and worst.
2:30
At this point, I dissociate and just feel the music. Mazurbate, who is known for producing the soundtrack for countless fashion shows, is spinning.
Seeing so many familiar faces makes me feel like this is a real community affair. There’s a sense that everyone is included and everyone has an unspoken role to make the vibes good. There are people dancing in the VIP area and around the DJ, and I know for a fact some of them don’t have backstage passes, but no one cares. It really fells like a family function that has gone off the rails—once the people are lit, all rules go out the window.
3:30am
I would say the peak of the night happens at this point, and I’m saying that because people are dancing on tables.
4:30am
There’s so many people past the regular closing time that the venue lets Dick Appointment stay open until 5. I don’t usually stay out this late anymore, but the energy and the vibes of everyone surpass most parties I’ve been to all summer. People compare Dick Appointment to GHE20G0TH1K, the party that defined NYC club culture in the 2010s, and it’s a comparison I can agree with. It’s late though, so I call my Uber home.
How to catch the next Dick Appointment
Where: Check Dick Appointment’s Instagram to get its next location.
When: Keep an eye on its Instagram for upcoming events.
Cost: $20+
How to get in: Buy a ticket from the link in bio whenever it announces an event.
The vibe: Clubby, fashion-forward and sexy.
What to wear: Whatever you would wear to an actual Dick Appointment.
Live Like A Wizard At This Quidditch-Inspired Airbnb Tent On The East Coast
Transport yourself to the Quidditch World Cup with this whimsical Airbnb stay in Asheville, North Carolina—just a two hour flight from NYC. Tucked within the Blue Ridge Mountains, a tent known as “Alchemy” may look meager, but what lies behind the flaps is anything but!
Upon arrival, guests will have to slide down a 12-foot spiral slide to enter into the Airbnb’s living quarters, situated with a full bathroom, Queen-size bed, and a fold-out futon if you’re bringing the kids. Admire the mountain views with expansive windows while you cozy into the intimate space and pretend you’ve escaped to the Wizarding World.
Alchemy is one of the “Earth & Sky Dwellings” properties. Outside of this Airbnb, guests will find another tent for their enjoyment, known as “Enchantment,” which boasts a homey sitting area, perfect to relax in. Plus, when the sun finally sets over the mountains, you can sit by the fire pit and roast marshmallows for s’mores.
The entire property is fit for a total of four people, and ranks as a guest favorite on the home-sharing platform.
“With only 1000 characters to write a review, I doubt I will be able to do this place and experience justice,” wrote Ana, a former guest at Alchemy on the Airbnb listing. “The small details and hidden surprises we found during our stay were everything! Caroline and Mike have created something so special that can only be understood when you visit.” She recommends you stay more than just one night.
A single night in the Quidditch-inspired Airbnb will run you about $480. And since the tent is so popular, you’ll definitely want to make your reservation in advance!
If that’s not in your budget for fall travel however, you can find some of the best deals in the country during this time at this seaside town outside of NYC.
In other news: 5 Whimsical Airbnbs Near NYC To Cozy Into This Fall
The post Live Like A Wizard At This Quidditch-Inspired Airbnb Tent On The East Coast appeared first on Secret NYC.