On The Verge
NYC Women’s Arts Festival
MARCH 7-9, 2025
Carted and Hosted by Heather Litteer
Actress and downtown personality, Heather Litteer expands her beloved WO(e)RD reading series into a full, four-night festival of art and entertainment called ON THE VERGE. Litter started WO(e)RD (Women of Experience Read Downtown) more than a decade ago to highlight femme and non-binary artists that “walk a bit off the beaten path and color outside the lines.” Her new festival aims to do the same and will bring together women from a diverse range of backgrounds and creative disciplines. ON THE VERGE will provide a platform for exciting women to meet, experiment, collaborate, and inspire one another through the sharing of ideas in a positive environment. Litteer’s intent with the festival is to cultivate a safe place for expression and risk taking that is free from societal restraints.
March 7th
Gallery Take Over
Opening Reception 6-8pm
A champagne toast celebrating works from:
Kitty Boots, Bambi The Mermaid, Sandy Hirshkowitz, Eva Mueller, & Madeline Mackey
Red, White, and You – Variety Night
8pm
$15 advance tickets, $20 at the door
Red, White and You, Whatever That Means To You,
It is the theme for this year’s variety show,
Since its election year and takeover year,
It’s theme and a play on American ideals or not
it’s a simple prompt, and I’ll let the ladies take it from there,
Let It out!
Featuring Eszter Balint, Briget Barkan, Beth Bliss, Yoshiko Chuma, Anna Copacabanna, Cary Curran, Laura Kenner, Jessie Kilguss, Margo Luxlun, Stephanie Marie, Kelley Swindall, Yang Sun, Tammy Faye Starlite and Lucy Sexton
March 8th
ACTION! ON THE VERGE – Short Film Festival
3pm
$15 advance tickets, $20 at the door
With Filmmakers
Letty Buchanan, Katrina Del Mar, Jaqueline Fouasnon, Julie Hair,
Julie Atlas Muz, Romy Nordlinger, Angel Rose, Anni Rossi, Sequinette, Heidi Sjursen, S. Tricker, and Shoshanna Withers
March 9th
Literary Night
7pm
$20 adv $25 at the door
Reading from writing published works (and soon-to-be)of poetry, playwriting, manifestos, novels and novellas!
Summer Hart– Author of Boomhouse (2023), winner of the 2024 Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize. Summer is an enrolled member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.
Susan Hwang – Founder of Bushwick Book Club contributor Bust Magazine
Catch her shows for literature-inspired performance series, The Bushwick Book Club. Read her illustrated story in “Coinky Dink” and her interview with Maya Hawke in BUST Magazine.
Christina D’ Angelo -Contributor of Jezabel Magzine, Author of “A Complicated Woman”- “It’s kind of a big deal to write about something so intensely personal and about a mother who loved me and fought for me fiercely — eventually. I hope this resonates with people: that most relations with our parents are complicated and most of them deserve a chance at redemption.”
Dael Orlandersmith – Dael’s plays include Stoop Stories, Black n’ Blue Boys/Broken Men, Horsedreams, Bones, The Blue Album, Yellowman, The Gimmick, Monster, and Forever. Ms. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Yellowman and the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick and so much more..
Pamela Sneed – Pamela is an American poet, performance artist, actress, activist, and teacher. Her book, Funeral Diva, is a memoir in poetry and prose about growing up during the AIDS crisis, and she was the winner of the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian poetry, other works include “Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery” ,”Kong”, anthologized in The Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays, “Parable of the Sower”, “Survivor” “Born Frees”,”Never Again” and “I Can’t Breathe”, and so much more.
Curator’s Statement:
“We are ON THE VERGE!
Let’s Shine a light together and celebrate Women’s History Month and the Downtown Cutting Edge with some of the most innovative women, femme, and non-binary artists in New York City! Join us at ON THE VERGE, a 3-day festival with over 35 artists working in film, music, storytelling, and literature, running the gamut from A to Z and highlighting the ripple effect of sisterhood, support, and of course a little laughter.
On The Verge, formerly known as W.O.(e).R.D., was born from the Antagonist Art Movement in 2006. My goal was to bring together artists I admire from diverse cultural, societal, and educational backgrounds, to create a platform where we can meet exciting new artists, collaborate, share, and speak to each other. I wanted to highlight my sisters, the femme gaze, period— Women who like to color outside the lines – my sisters, mentors, collaborators, inspirators, instigators, revolutionaries, and rock stars- and have a downtown state of mind to read aloud and let the inside animal out.
We are here not only to celebrate all these writers and artists, but to shine a stage light on Saving Wild Project. We are still here, we are queer, and we are a woman-owned theatre. With our artistic director Ana Mari De Quesada, Wild Project has made it to the other side after these trying years, and right now we are trying to save the building from being sold. They have the opportunity to buy their space, and we need $$$$$$$ now to SAVE THE WILD PROJECT! We are still here, we are queer, and we are woman-owned! We’ll continue to fill this East Village jewel so we can continue to experiment, create, and inspire.
We also want to give love and hope to all of our families and all LGBTQIA+ and undocumented families in the US with the incomprehensible political takeover happening right now. We are fighting to find safe spaces to be our human and authentic selves in this world which continues to crack open in unprecedented ways in my lifetime.
We are holding a safe place here at On The Verge
To Let Go—
We Got You.
Let’s Fall into each other’s arms or raise a fist in defiance—Listen, Be Open, Be Affected, and continue to fight for what is right.
ON THE VERGE— a place without judgment—
Where we are free to voice our “lived” experience
Whether it be your ferocious or soft power
Where the women always come out on top.”
– Heather Litteer