Events > Event Archive

First Annual Holiday Party 12/12, 4-8 PM

You are invited to the First Annual Holiday Party at 73 Market St. Join us for a closing reception for the artists, seasonal festivities, live jazz performance by Eldad Tarmu and hot chocolate with rum by Hell's Kitchen.

There will be a door prize. Bring something for a potluck repast, there are rumors of pie.

Artisans include:

Adam Trowbridge
Akirfa Design Studio
Anker West Ceramics in a Hard Place
Bee Storms
Beebles
Bertha Mason Decor
Birds Without Wings
Blue Moon Creations
Challengher
Chauncey Design
Cork and Cotton
Cutie Pie Company
Dandelion Tif
Doris Caçoilo
E. Jan Kounitz
Erin Go Paint
Give Me a Hammock
Gocco Boom!
Illustrated Ink
Isette
J. Morrison
Jessica Gonacha Swift
Julie Floersch
Jypsea
Kim Mazier
Kitchen Kitsch
Metal Taboo
My Needle Habit
Namu
Nancy Tobin
Oh Clementine!
Patricia Davis
Peaceful Traveler
Peter Brauch
Pink Mist Industries
Robert Lach
Rocinante Press
Rollo Tomasi Enterprises
Roni Mocan
Roving Eye
Sarah Nicole Phillips
Six Under a Tree
Stampified
Steven Dressler Limited Demand Editions
Suzanne Kammin Baron
Sweet Buddha
Tara Raye Russo
The Aphrodite Project
The Great Northern Craft Company
The River is Everywhere
Tokyo Inspired
Tracy McEvilly Ceramics
Victoria Hanks
Aferro Residency Open Studios
June 27, 1-4 PM

Current Aferro Studio Residents Kevin Darmanie, Hiroshi Kumagi, Hyo Jeong Nam, Kathryn Okeson and Ryan Roa open their studios to the public from 1-4.

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Spring Artist Talks: 

Andrew Demirjian + Zachary Seldess
Nitrogen Cycles
May 9, 3:30 PM

Tom Block
Into the Singularity
May 16, 3:30 PM

Displacement
Joshua Schwebel
Downtown Newark, NJ
3/19-3/22 and 3/24-3/26

Joshua Schwebel has traveled from Ontario, Canada to Newark to perform Displacement, a thematic exploration of the relationship between event, spectator and artist.

"I propose to challenge the audience to a game of hide and seek. I will publish the city block (giving the co-ordinates of four intersecting streets) and time-frame in the classified section of the Star Ledger under ‘lost and found’. This will define where and when I will be hidden. I will then hide within this outlined space/time block. I will remain in that position until the allotted time has elapsed."

KH Jeron

Will Work for Food in Newark
Bring a can of food to barter with the robots from September 27 - November 22, 2008,
All proceeds to be donated to Newark food banks

"Will Work for Food" is a project by KH Jeron about labour and barter economy. Small robotic vehicles trade their manpower for food. The vehicles can draw and whistle the popular songs “Happy Birthday” and “The Internationale”. People can borrow one of the vehicles and let them work for them. After completing the assignment the vehicles have to be returned or given over to somebody else who needs their skills. Food and beverage offerings can be seen on the artist's website as they come in.

Interactions with the robots throughout Europe have taken the form of small offerings of packaged sweets, regional specialties, homemade foods, and even full dinners. For the context of the urbanism series, Gallery Aferro and KH Jeron will have the robots perform in the gallery as a food drive to question the collective responsibility of a city's residents towards each other.

According to Jeron, the “Will Work For Food” happening deals with the desire to find a new definition for labour and the act of working. “Will Work For Food” (WWFF) takes a position towards the question what role labour plays in a time, when full employment becomes an unattainable utopian conception. It deals with a re-assessment of labour” its disjunction from covering the cost-of-living of the individual.They give an occasion and a space for social interaction and discussion. The WWFF vehicles stand for a guaranteed basic income. 




Alone and Together: Tintype Portrait Studio
Gallery Aferro
October 3 + 4th

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Photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley is inviting the public to have their portrait taken at Gallery Aferro on October 3 and 4th from 1-7 PM. Sitters can come solo or with a loved one. The sittings are free. A print of the image is $10.

This portrait series is made with the wet plate collodion process, the leading mode of photography in the 1850's and 1860's. Tintypes are positive images exposed onto metal. This historic process has a different relationship to time than digital or film photography. The chemistry is hand-mixed and poured onto the plate in front of the sitter. As soon as the exposure is made in the wooden view camera, the plate must be taken to a portable dark box to be developed and fixed. The wet plate collodion image captures a pose held over several seconds or even minutes. This prolonged gaze creates a tension between the sitter and the camera. While a snapshot captures a moment about a 1/1000 of a second long, the tintype process allows for a portrait of a person or a couple to unfold over time; the image produced can then slow down our looking. A viewer sees the hard lines of bone structure, wrinkles and blemishes, but also sees bright, focused eyes staring back intently. This process allows the photographer and the viewer to stare, but it is not entirely voyeuristic, as the sitter stares back. The act of taking someone's portrait can once again be an event. 

WAX : Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees
 Screening July 12, 3 PM
New Media Room

David Blair’s 1991 full-length film WAX : Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees was created over 6 years with 3D military VR footage, live footage shot at actual US nuclear testing facilities and archival materials.

Featuring a cameo by William S. Burroughs, WAX is the first independent feature film to have been edited on a digital non-linear system. It is also the first film (independent or otherwise) to have been re-formatted as hypertext and posted on the Internet. The New York Times recognized the accomplishment, and ran the article "Cult Film is First on the Internet" in its May 23, 1993 business section. The result is an obsessive, artificial history, which has been fastidiously detailed with fragments of real and imagined facts.

The film’s convoluted storyline concerns a beekeeper’s transformation upon discovering that his bees communicate between the living and the dead. The beekeeper protagonist (played by Blair) experiences hallucinations via the bee’s television, and is finally lead by the bees to their subterranean home: an enormous cave below the Alamagordo desert. In the cave it is revealed to him that he must actually become a Desert Storm-era weapon and destroy his "target" in Iraq, before rebirth as a fragmented soul in several bodies, including that of a Middle Eastern woman.

The intricacy and scope of the film allows questions as to the collective and individual value of life to be raised.  
 


Michael Amter: Video Work
Studio 411
June 6, 2008, from 7-10pm
Video work by Michael Amter
Studio 411, 411 Monmouth Street, Jersey City, NJ as part of JC Fridays



June 11
Queer Black Cinema
Gallery Aferro New Media Room
8 PM
Free

Curated by Angel L. Brown, QBC film programmer.
Screening is followed by a Q&A discussion with filmmaker Charles B. Brack.

Never Forget
Angel L. Brown | USA 2008 | 5 min | World Premiere Special presentation
A tribute to Sakia Gunn, a 15 year old lesbian who was tragically killed in a hate crime, and to all the fallen LGBTQ youth whose lives have been cut short due to homophobia and the lack of respect.

Pariah
Director: Dee Rees| USA 2006 | 28 min. 
In this empowering coming-of-age tale, 17-year-old shy, black lesbian goes to great lengths discovering her butch/femme identity while hiding her lesbianism from her parents.

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project
Charles B. Brack | USA, 2008 | 55 min | Special Pre-Screening
A documentary honoring the life of Sakia Gunn, Dreams Deferred investigates the effects of her loss on family, friends, and other LGBT youth of color.
  Roghie Asgari Torvund
Insanity, Victims, and Childhood, in Short
April 18, 7 PM

Gallery Aferro will be curating a night of Red Saw's Filmideo, an annual event taking place on every Friday in April.

Artists:

JiHyun Ahn, Penelope Cain, Colette Copeland, Bang Geul Han, Kensuke Koike, Norene Leddy, Agnes Nedregard, Julia Oldham, Matt Ortega, Jean Gabriel Periot, Molly Schwartz, Martin Sulzer, Roghie Asgari Torvund, John Waters, Tamara Yadao
Matt Broach
Storefront Films
March 15 + 22, 2008
7- 11 PM

Artists: Matt Broach, Michelle Levante, Jia-Jen Lin, Siri Ekker Svendsen, Brooke White, Andrew Wilkinson
Flat Black at Aferro
February 29, 7 PM

Rodney Gilbert of Yendor Productions will be performing his one-man show, Flat Black, written by Alysia Souder with poetry based on the autobiographical writings of Jerry Gant.



Justice Outloud
as part of the ACLU's conference, Race Still Matters

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The Platform Shoes: (a monthlong event)

Fulbright Fellow and Eyebeam artist Norene Leddy will be offering the public the opportunity to try on "hacked" platform heels that feature an embedded LCD screen, GPS transmitters and an audible alarm. As featured in Wired and Make Magazine, their functionality is based on extensive interviews with sex workers, and can be viewed as an extended mediation on pleasure and danger.

The Platforms Store is open: Try on the Platforms sandals Sept. 15, 22, and 29 from 12-6pm. Take them for a spin around the block, and let us know what you think. Demo sandals are available in a variety of sizes up to a women's 12 / men's 10. Aphrodite Team members will be on hand to guide you, answer questions and to take custom orders.

To schedule an appointment, call us at (646) 652-7186 or email us at appointments AT theaphroditeproject DOT tv. Walk-ins will be accommodated when possible

Audible Alarm Demonstration Sept. 29

Sept. 29 at 4pm we will hold a live demonstration to show how you can build your own personal audible alarm system for around $10. The system is easy to assemble and uses parts available from RadioShack. No soldering or special skills are required. In addition to shoes, this alarm can be used in handbags, jackets and other clothing. Email diy-aferro AT theaphroditeproject DOT tv for more info and a parts list.



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June 12
Queer Black Cinema
Gallery Aferro New Media Room
8-10 PM
Free

Featured Films:
Keith & Greg Directed by Ken Jackson
Brooklyn Bridge to Jordan Directed by Tina Mabry
Ready, Set Flow (Trailer) Directed by AB
and films by Queer Youth Cinema

June 13
Civil Unions Fashion
7 PM

June 15
Film Screening & Youth Discussion
Gallery Aferro New Media Room
4-7 PM
Free

Topic: LGBT Youth & Violence, screening of HIP-HOP: Beyond, Beats & Rhymes A Film By Byron Hurt
Sponsored by True Colors


Black Rock Events

All Saturday Events Begin @ 1 pm


Saturday, February 3, 2007
Black Renegade Remix: Spirits and Rebels and Sex
Films:
 
Afro Punk by James Spooner
66-minute documentary that explores race identity within the punk scene.
 
Quilombo Country: Afro-Brazilian Villages in the Twenty-First Century with Chuck D by Leonard Abrams
No other film currently in release addresses these communities and illustrates all of these important Afro Brazilian contributions to Brazilian and world culture. It is narrated by Chuck D, the legendary poet, scholar, media commentator and front man of the iconic hip hop band Public Enemy.
 

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Black Power! Black Comics Reception-Panel
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Desert Blooms: Black Women's Stories of Resistance, Healing and Growth
 
Films:
NO! A Rape Documentary by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
NO! is a feature length documentary about rape and healing in African-American communities.
” If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would save itself, it must complete the work this film begins."
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize winning author, The Color Purple
 
 Sunshine Boutique by Kagendo Murungi
Sunshine Boutique, premiered at this screening, is experimental documentary film that celebrates the values of African life and the leadership of African Women of all sexualities around the world.
The film depicts how these artists manage and portray intersections between racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia through their art and activism.
 
Saturday, February 24 2004
Restless Love...Defending the Beloved Community - Panel
Mr. Devious – My Life by John Fredericks
 
Mario ”Mr. Devious” van Rooy, an enigmatic hip-hop mc, is stabbed to death in his neighborhood of Beacon Valley, Mitchell’s Plain, leaving a deafening silence. Filmmaker, John Fredericks struggles to make sense of his close friend’s untimely
passing. Honoring a pledge, John comforts Devious’ wife, Natalie, who is left to fend for her three kids. As Devious in his own words, takes us into his life, Natalie and John discover the legacy of a fiery street poet. Natalie takes charge of her life as she boldly picks up the mic & music of her late husband.
Newark Artist's Collective
On Sunday January 28th Gallery Aferro will host the monthly meeting of the Newark Artist Collective at 1:00 PM on the first floor. Speaker: Noelle Lorraine Williams of Reborn