kick•back

featuring music by Lila Bloom

poetry by Ethan Kogan

short film by AnA Collaborations

Welcome back to the kick•back salon at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre! A world-class innovative third space, serving up a slice of home-cooked creativity to the NYC arts community scene.

ORDER OF EVENING

7pm Decompression Session - Attendees can enjoy couch, floor cushion or cocktail table seating while they write, draw, color, read or just kick back and unwind. A light ambient soundscape and fresh food art served on site will set the mood for us all to relax, together.

7:45pm Short Film Screening - The evening’s entertainment will begin with a screening of a hand-picked short film for your viewing pleasure. This time we’re featuring Now I Hold You Close (2021) by AnA Collaborations.

8:00pm Poetry - Multi-talented artist Ethan Kogan takes the stage to grace the room with language and heart.

8:15pm Live Music Feature - Our headliner, Lila Bloom, takes the stage with her band to share stories, songs and space with our community of artists and attendees.

9:00pm Third Space - The last hour of the evening is a place and time for us all to make a new friend, hatch a new idea for a project and grow our understanding of the artistic landscape we all inhabit, together.

about the artists

Lila Bloom (Music) merges “psychedelic folk jazz” with raw emotional storytelling. A born-and-raised New York force, her fluid guitar work — echoing the intricacy of ‘60s greats — anchors songs that shift from haunting stillness to volcanic vocal improvisations. With a diamond cut voice that soars and dances like a jazz oracle, she transforms stages into sanctuaries of poetic, sonic watercolor.”

Ethan Kogen (Poetry) is an experimentalist working in both musical and literary dimensions. As a writer, his early work included anthropological research at Columbia University, where he received Departmental Honors for his thesis on a New York street performance of bucket drumming, acrobatics, breakdancing, and comedy, in which he played drum set. Subsequent work included a short submission included in Ghanaian cultural legend and guitar pioneer Koo Nimo’s autobiography, Six Strings and a Note: Legendary Agya Koo Nimo in His Own Words, as well as liner notes for saxophonist Chase Baird’s recording A Life Between, featuring jazz icons Brad Mehldau and Antonio Sanchez. More recently, he has delivered poetry and prose with Nu Music, his project combining acoustic and digital improvisers to create unlikely text-pieces, as well as songs with Slumpwick Grummo, his rock band. He is honored to present his poems. For updates on his latest work, visit Ethan’s Instagram: @groove_md

AnA Collaborations (Film) Audrey Rachelle and Alex Oliva co-founded AnA Collaborations in 2015 upon discovering their shared passion for visceral, risk-taking, collaborative approaches to interdisciplinary dance-making. They have since choreographed, directed, and produced over 25 multidisciplinary movement-based works both on and off screen, collaborating with dancers, filmmakers, musicians, composers, visual artists, writers, actors, photographers, and set designers. The duo maintains a commitment to honest storytelling and the merging of diverse people and practices.

Rebecca McCartney and company performing at our August kick•back (photo by Matthew DeNicola)

Max Raymond (photo by Matthew DeNicola)