Recess

Political Intimacy At Pratt Manhattan Gallery Windows thru June 22, 2021. (View exhibition and video from the street!) Curated by Amy Khoshbin, Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow, with Brooklyn Engaged: Alexis Laneuville, Erin Benard, Malena Ramsey, Taylor Dean, Zichen Oliver Yuan. Pratt Institute, Fine Arts A collaboration with @recessart_assembly artists and peer leaders Saint Forza, Tyra Gibbs, Princess Kelly, Geremia Romain, and Darrell Santana. Recess Participating Arti...sts: Elektra KB, Ellen Coleman Izzo, Matisse Robinson, Olek, Paperboy Prince, Sarah Kanu, Steve Powers, and The Brothers Sick (Ezra and Noah Benus). Participating Candidates & Representatives: Crystal Hudson, Erik Bottcher, Jabari Brisport, Jumaane Williams, Kristin Richardson Jordan, Michael Hollingsworth, Paperboy Prince, and Phara Souffrant Forrest. "Political Intimacy" demystifies and humanizes the process of running for local office through a series of video interviews between local political candidates and representatives, Recess: Assembly participants, and Pratt Institute students. Recess: Assembly is a youth-focused, artist-led program offering long-term paid training and pathways for reimagining new possibilities through art. The exhibition showcases the final interview video, a seed paper printmaking project, and a series of contemporary artists all addressing issues at the citywide level that were determined to be the most pressing by participants of the project. The handmade seed paper print project was co-created by Recess: Assembly participants and Pratt students, aiming to engage the public while empowering and inspiring youth to push for radical change in our electoral system from the ground up. These prints will be planted at the end of the exhibition, giving back to our community in the form of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Images: Installation views, courtesy of Pratt Fine Arts and Pratt Institute More information at the link in our bio See more

On behalf of Recess and current Session artist, Smita Sen, I'd like to invite you to attend an opening performance and gathering conceptualized by Smita. Activating the Sanctum as a site of gathering and collective healing, Smita presents this simple ceremony of offerings. These first offerings honor the foundations of the land, express gratitude for those who have been a part of the work and those to come, and root the Sanctum’s evolution as a contemplative environment. The ...Manipura Sanctum is a metamorphosing installation devoted to caregivers of all styles, and to communing with the public about the realities of community-driven healthcare. The Sanctum is a realm that not only praises care providers, but undertakes the labor of generating public wellness. It offers balance, attention, and regeneration to all visitors who cross its threshold and seek relief in its embrace. From June 29 August 10, the public is encouraged to make appointments to enter the Sanctum, meeting either Recess staff members or with the artist directly. The public may also contribute to the Sanctum via meditation sittings and events throughout the Session. Performances by Smita, Lavender Suarez, and Trina Basu Ramamurthy are public offerings that will punctuate Smita’s Session, beginning with an honorific initiation and ending with a dedication for all who have been a part of The Manipura Sanctum. Calendly and event registeration links can be found in our linktree Info for this week's event below Opening the Manipura Sanctum: First Offerings, a performance by Smita Sen Date & Time: Friday, July 2, 2021 | 5pm EST Location: 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205 Accessibility Note: All program space at 46 Washington Avenue is fully accessible for wheelchair users. Our restrooms are gender neutral and ADA compliant. Administrative offices are located up one flight of stairs but we offer alternative meeting and workspace on the ground floor. For programs in both of our spaces, we will do our best to accommodate requests for ASL interpretation or captioning. If you have specific access questions or needs please email [email protected]

In The Manipura Sanctum, artist Smita Sen nurtures an altar space that reaches toward contemplative, social healing. Sen’s metamorphosing installation is devoted to caregivers of all styles, and to communing with the public about the realities of community-driven healthcare. The Sanctum is a realm that not only praises care providers, but undertakes the labor of generating public wellness. It offers balance, attention, and regeneration to all visitors who cross its threshold and seek relief in its embrace. On view June 29 August 10, 2021 at Recess | 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205

NYC Primaries are TODAY! Watch this on your way to the polls or better yet, watch it in line Who is running for office, what they believe in, and how their election could shape the future are all essential questions for any voter but the answers, especially in a sprawling city like New York with numerous candidates for each position, can be difficult to access. Over the past few months, Pratt Institute students in collaboration with artists and peer l...eaders with the Recess: Assembly program interviewed representatives and candidates about the issues that matter to them, from reducing the wealth gap to the cuts in the sanitation budget. As part of this art and civic engagement initiative, they created prints to visualize these issues, with their activist artworks joining a video of their interviews in an installation in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery windows. Thank you Darrell, Princess, Geremia, Tyra, Saint, Amy, Camilo and Krissi, for all of the and planning and work that went into this collaboration. #Recess #RecessArt #RecessAssembly #pratt

This Juneteenth consider supporting these incredible Texas organizations Swipe to learn more about each organization's rich history List compiled by Recess Assembly Program Coordinator, Stephanye Watts (@bereelblackcinemaclub)... Links and tags below galvestonoldcentral.com/fundraising @rbhy_museum | https://www.rbhy.org/give @buffalosoldiermuseum | https://www.buffalosoldiermuseum.com/1866-campaign/ missouricityjuneteenthcelebration.com/ @texassouthern | https://giving.tsu.edu/ @texascollegenews | https://texascollege.edu/ @wileycollege1873 | https://www.wileyc.edu/donate/

Recess gratefully acknowledges the responsibility of receiving unrestricted funds from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett. We have begun discussions with our community of staff, artists, young people, and board members to develop a plan that situates Recess as a conduit for delivering funds and building wealth among community members on the ground. This contribution invites us to redouble our long-standing commitment to our own framing of systems change and wealth redistribution ...in a manner that foregrounds care and accountability to our community and works toward an abolitionist horizon. Implicit in this process is a reminder of all the individuals and grassroots organizations that have suffered from structural inequity. Nonprofits like Recess have been operating in a scarcity model for so long that it is easy to forget that there is more than enough for all of our communities and our partners to thrive. With this in mind, we urge all philanthropists toward a tipping point in which swift and trusting redistribution is the only option.

This Saturday June 5th, join Recess Session artist Sophia Giovannitti, harm reductionist Ripley Soprano, and nurse/ street medic Syd Prescott, for a free harm reduction training and resource share. When: Saturday June 5th, 2-4pm Where: 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205 Note: Masks required. Please refrain from attending if feeling symptomatic. ... This event is intended as a space of care specifically for sex workers, however we encourage anyone who may find this event helpful to attend. To register, or for more information, click the linktree link in our bio. All program space at 46 Washington Avenue is fully accessible for wheelchair users. Our restrooms are gender neutral and ADA compliant. Administrative offices are located up one flight of stairs but we offer alternative meeting and workspace on the ground floor. For programs in both of our spaces, we will do our best to accommodate requests for ASL interpretation or captioning. If you have specific access questions or needs please email [email protected] id: two images of Sophia in the Session project space. A bed is visible in the left bottom corner of the image. Dried roses hang from the ceiling. Large photos of Sophia hang on the walls. Sophia stands next to a sofa in the Reading Room. She is barefoot and wearing a white dress. : @johnny_romani

Honored to this work together

The vessel became named Xochitl the world for flower in Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan indigenous language). Xochitl is a very common Mexican name for a woman, ceramic Xochitl is a common tobacco copal smoke deity. I built her and now I serve her, I light sacred calming smokes on her clay body and it fills the vinyl cube she sits in. artist Marcela Torres @_____marcelatorres______

Large vessel, requires offerings of flowers placed on her. Her ceramic body is dry and sucks out the moisture of the flowers. At any given time the vessel hold fresh, dry and floral dust. artist Marcela Torres @_____marcelatorres______

Following this similar aztec iconographic language form depicting sacred events, I began making an illustrative map of the Recess space. This series of painted images shows the gallery sectioned off into three ritual spaces, initiated and prepare for the housing of deity objects. Each deity and space with its own daily ritual, plants and scents becomes part of the sensorial lightpath through Petiion. artist Marcela Torres @_____marcelatorres______

During conquest indigenous libraries and books were burned with only a small fraction stolen and preserved by the colonizers, renamed European titles. The Codex Borgia depicts pre-columbian spiritual services and histories through unique iconographic language. The images on each page represents complicated services and have an illustrative flat style. artist Marcela Torres @_____marcelatorres______

In tandem with our newest Critical Writing release, "Transitory States, Intimate Matter: Smoke and Scent in Petición; for Exorcism" by Alexis Wilkinson (link in our linktree), tonight we're sharing some never before seen pics from previous Session artist Marcela Torres' project "Petición; for Exorcism" along with some background, facts, & annotations from Marcela herself. Image: Establishing shot of the gallery activation, Peticion; for Exorcism in its early days. Various fl...owers sit on shelves mounted to the walls. Copal, incense, and matches are tucked between flowers on certain shelves. On the floor, all around the room, there are clay vessels shaped by Marcela's hand. On the left wall towards the back of the room are paintings on canvas cloth. On the right side of the room there is exhibition text written in irridescent vinyl. In the center of the room, burning incense sit on the various crevices and surfaces of a large hand-sculpted clay figure. The figure rests atop a lit white platform and is enclosed by floor to ceiling vinyl curtains. See more