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. WO(e)RD-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.
Friday March 29th, 6:00pm
On The Verge Opening Night Party – Gallery Take Over
Opening night reception in the lobby gallery featuring the artwork of:
Nikki Cahill, Darryl LaVare, Madeleine Mackey, Susan Ottaviano and Brelyn Spindel
Friday March 29th, 8:00pm
Ta-TayTriarchy Take it!
An Evening with a variety of song , dance, comedy and performance! Inspired by Taylor Swift and the Powerful Femmes that keep on shining their bright light regardless of all the haters and bullies. Will feature songs a’la Swifty and Gaylor songs with other interpretations and performances!
Featuring:
Laurie Berg, Cary Curran, Viva De Concini, Dexter Driscoll, Susan Hwang, Jessica Kilguss, Elizabeth Koke, Ndanu Mutisya,
Lucy Sexton, Kelley Swindall, Adrienne Truscott, Nora Burns and More ……
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Saturday March 30th, 12:00pm
INCUBATOR – New Play Reading Series
Lisa Clair Group
Written and Directed by Lisa Clair
Performed by Lisa Clair, Ean Sheehy and Zoe Geltman
“1. Get un-haunted, 2. see objectively. This was on the advice of my psychic of course.”
Notes from the Cottage is an unearthing, a ritual, a spell and a confession of a particular place in a particular point in time but also all points in time -the future as well as the past- time as an infinite loop kind of thing.
A psychotopographical romp into the here and now.
#hardcore #cottagecore #fantasy
Or
Some experimental performance prose about where I live.
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Saturday March 30th, 3:00pm
Screenings featuring films from
Heather Maria Àcs, Valeria Avina, Amanda Davier, Julie Hair, Lauren Sowa and Gina Volpe
Gina Volpe
Drink Me
Music by Gina Volpe
Video and Artwork by Stänzii https://www.stanziiism.com
From Gina Volpe’s new album, DELETE THE WORLD
Gina Volpe’ (Lunachicks/Bantam) latest single and video offers a trip down the rabbit hole with themes of obsession, escapism and addiction, and it’s a wild ride!
Shine
Video for “SHINE” from Gina Volpe’s debut “Different Animal” EP 2017
Featuring Militia Vox and Basil Rodericks
Director Of Photography: William Amenta
Editor/Composite Artist: Dan Dome
Song Produced By Barb Morrison
Different Animal
Video for the title track of Gina Volpe’s debut solo EP “Different Animal” 2017
Directed by Ilya Chaiken
Additional Shooting by Lola Rock’n’ Rolla and Krystal Kennedy
Song Produced By Barb Morrison
Heather Maria Àcs
FLU$H
A kinky cadre of queer sex workers have “Stan the ATM” tied up for the night, but when the ringleader invites her hot date to get in on the action, things go hilariously awry!
“Flu$h is the queer punk sex worker comedy we need.” — M. Mosthoff, i-D Magazine
FLOURISH
In FLOURISH, the fabulous drag queen Cristal Visions (Justin Sams, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger) just can’t quit her trans-masculine lover Beau (Becca Blackwell, High Maintenance) who just can’t quit hitting the bottle. While that relationship ruptures, the nonbinary, nonmonogamous Lazer (Poppy Liu,
Hacks) fans the flames of a surprise makeout sesh with their partner and the newest hottie in town. Can the alchemy of the dance floor bring Cristal the clarity she needs to break free and Lazer the confidence to manifest (OR them-ifest!) the three-way of their dreams? The glittering climax of a queer dance party fractures a fabulous drag queen’s toxic relationship and forges a fresh threeway for a non-binary couple.
“Heather María Ács’ vibrant body of work is some of the most exciting, queer cinema out there.”
— Robert J. Torres (Tribeca, TIFF)
Lauren Sowa
Lauren Sowa is a New York-based actor and filmmaker. She is the co-founder of Form & Pressure Films, a production company dedicated to diversity and equality on set and on screen. Their first film, Marisol, won the 2019 HuffPost Impact Award and was licensed by HBO. Other films she’s produced can be seen on DUST, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Omeleto, and at film festivals all over the world. Select festival credits include: Slamdance, NEWFEST, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Soho International Film Festival, Immigration Film Festival, and Cinequest. She is also the co-president of PANO, a non-profit dedicated to women filmmakers.
Marisol
When a young mother takes a risk to provide for her daughter, a stranger turns her transgression into a nightmare.
Maggie in the Attic
Written and directed by Kim Krohn, this slice-of-life dramedy is about a woman whose life is falling apart. She’s back at her parents, going through a breakup and divorce and she just can’t get it together. Then, she gets locked in the attic!
Amanda Daviner
Scorpio
Amanda’s highly anticipated first EP, Catharsis, is out now on all streaming platforms.
Amanda Daviner is a multifaceted talent whose music is a testament to the power of interpretive imagery. Through her soulful vocals and introspective lyrics, she conveys deep emotions that are both relatable and profound. Scorpio is a song about primal desires and how they will ultimately lead to your downfall. It is a story of passion, lust, vulnerability and ultimately, betrayal. I am very proud of this video as I wrote, directed and did most of the editing myself. I collaborated with Emmy award winning Cinematographer and director Eddie Lebron and producer and lighting tech Leticia Buchanan. Together we were able to capture all of the many moods of the song and tell a beautiful and heartbreaking story.
Valeria A Avina
FilmMaker, Actor, Director, Producer, Voice Teacher and Clown.
Do you Believe Me Now
Do you believe Now is an experimental piece shot during the pandemic. Since March is the women’s history month, I made this film to create a conversation about violence towards women and or trans women. In Mexico there’s a high percentage of femicides killing 10 women a day. I wanted to expose a piece with the question of “if you get to see what happens to them, what’s your excuse? is it because she is a woman? Because she was drunk? Because of the clothing? did she ask for it?. This piece is also a true event in my home country Durango Mexico, this happened to someone I knew when I was 14 years old.
This piece won Flow Film Festival in 2021 and 3 more selections.
Hechas
Episode 2 “Sin Querer, Queriendo” In the midst of exercising her psychic abilities, Chispita unintentionally harms her beloved Rolly. In come La Chupes y La Carrera are ready to help….in the best way they know how. Hechas Episode 2 is the second episode of a series we created back in 2018 inspired by the Mexican Clown ‘Chapulin Colorado” a slapstick comedy. ‘In the world of irrational injustices, three New Yor-exicans decide to take matters into their own hands by continuously attempting to summon and embody their childhood superhero.
Julie Hair
I have explored personal and political issues such as mental illness, addiction and the military industrial complex through varied mediums. In my first years in New York I created an installation for the pivotal Times Square Show, and later collaborated with David Wojnarowicz on street art including a guerrilla installation made up of stencils and bloody cow bones in the stairwell of the Leo Castelli gallery. I worked with Lucy Lippard on P. A. D. D. (Political Art Documentation/Distribution) and I worked at Printed Matter. I continue to make art with no intention of participating in the business of being an artist. I am currently serving on the board of ABC No Rio, a center for art and activism in New York’s Lower East Side, as it navigates the construction of a new facility.
Foot Fetish
(Isolation Society)
This video was made in Bushwick at the start of the Covid lockdown in 2020. The footage documents me walking down the street to mail some stickers to a fan, interspersed with glimpses of some of the ways that we as individuals were impacted by the lockdown. Shortages of toilet paper and ammunition, freezer trucks used as morgues outside of overcrowded hospitals, are combined with snippets from press conferences given by our former president.
Yellow Sunday
This minimal video is about observing subtle emotionality and being watched. Body language. self awareness and how women and girls present themselves to the world are captured in a single subway ride.
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Saturday March 30th, 7:00pm
Feature Film Evening
‘My Name is Andrea’
Brought to you by Women Make Movies
‘MY NAME IS ANDREA’ is the story of controversial feminist writer and public intellectual Andrea Dworkin, who offered a revolutionary analysis of male supremacy with iconoclastic flair. Decades before #MeToo, Dworkin called out the pervasiveness of sexism and rape culture, and the ways it impacts every woman’s daily life.
Written and Directed by Pratibha Parmar
Based on the writings of Andrea Dworkin
Produced by Shaheen Haq
Executive Producers:
Regina K. Scully, V (formerly Eve Ensler), Gloria Steinem, Kimberly Agnew, Jenny Warburg, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Mona Sinha, Amy Scholder, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Simon Kilmurry, James Costa, Matthew Perniciaro, and Shelly Leslie.
Lead Cast(in order of appearance):
Ashley Judd, Soko, Amandla Stenberg, Andrea Riseborough, Allen Leech, Christine Lahti
Director of Photography – Kartik Vijay ISC
Music by Nitin Sawhney
Sound Designer by Udit Duseja
Production Designer by Shaheen Haq
Costume Designer by Ami Goodheart
Edited by Anne Fabini and Pratibha Parmar
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Sunday March 31st – 7pm
WO(e)RD (Woman of Experience Read Downtown)
Reading Series
The original series night of “sisters with a downtown state of mind — rebels, revolutionaries, and rock stars!” that inspired the festival, featuring….
Jennifer Blowdryer, Cynthia Carr, Christen Clifford, Cynthia Ross and Kate Valentine
W.O.(e).R.D. is an evening that celebrates the literary works published, unpublished, and works in progress. Focusing on the written word in all forms – fiction, non – fiction, drama, poetry – the series highlights the voices of the LIVED experience and provides the freedom to have a platform for sharing work and experiment in a supported environment. W.O.(e).R.D, the springboard for the entire On the Verge festival, was started by Litteer in 2006 when she realized how underrepresented the woman the femme voice was while performing at a poetry reading. Initially performed at the Black and White bar and Howl Gallery, the series has had a home for nearly 10 years at wild project.
COVID Safety protocols at wild project
Hand sanitizer stations are installed throughout the building for your convenience.
wild project’s performances will be presented in accordance with applicable public health requirements as of the date of the performance. As this is an evolving situation, our health and safety policy will be updated accordingly.
Masks will be optional for performances.
wild project
195 E. 3rd Street
New York, NY 10009