Performance Space 122’s Mobile Walking Tour connects the history of performance with the history of our neighborhood through a free self-guided mobile tour. Users are led to several locations around the Lower East Side which were each home to seminal moments in performance history.
Each location features site-specific video content playable on your smartphone discoverable via links marked by a chalked stencil design and can be navigated through the mobile site.
The East Village sites featured in the tour are:
1. Performance Space 122, 150 1st Avenue (at 9th Street)
2. Tompkins Square Park, entrance at 9th Street and Avenue A
3. Pyramid Club, 101 Avenue A (bet. 5th and 6th Street)
4. Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project, 6 E 1st Street (bet 2nd Ave & Bowery)
Featuring interviews from prominent artists and curators reflecting on the unique history of the East Village such as John Collins, Jack Ferver, Dean Moss, Katherine Profeta, Salley May, Mark Russell, Kaneza Schaal, Lucy Sexton and more!
Join us for the kick-off event on Sat. May 7th at 2pm!
Meet at Performance Space 122 with reception nearby post-tour; Reservation Required
RSVP HERE
To Launch Tour go to:
ps122.org/walk
Tour runs May 7-31
starting point at:
Performance Space 122
150 1st Avenue in Manhattan
Tour requires 45 minutes of light walking and access to a smartphone with data
Presented as part of LES History Month
Performance Space 122 (PS122) was founded in 1980 by four performance artists as a part of the burgeoning East Village arts scene. During this period, the empty former Public School 122 on the corner of 1st Avenue and 9th Street became an ideal home base for artists working across all genres and mediums to connect to audiences who shared a spirit of inquiry and openness. These artists flocked to the East Village to participate in the American Avant-Garde movement, engage in Experimentalist practices, and discover the impact and potential for a raw kind of presence and authenticity. Out of this time period the Performance Art and the new Contemporary Performance forms of today were born. As a squat in those early days, PS122 helped make the community an artistic haven for performance-makers who were pushing the boundaries of dance, theater, and other live art forms by providing space for experimentation and a place to present early work to adventurous audiences. More than 35 years later, the neighborhood has changed dramatically, and PS122 has grown into a world-class performance hub while remaining committed to the spirit of the East Village where it began.
Creative Direction, Editing: Alex Reeves
Concept and Communications: Jeso O’Neill
Creative Production: Elisabeth Conner Skjærvold
Concept: Bevin Ross
Director of Photography: Mehmet Salih Yildirim
Assistant Editing: Gina Chang
Archival Footage courtesy of David Leslie, Larry Fessenden, PS122 Archives
PS122’s Mobile Walking Tour was generously supported by The New York Council on the Humanities.