Formed in NYC in 1993, the improvising collective No-Neck Blues Band (NNCK) favors anonymity, autonomy, and obfuscation. Alongside founding member Keith Connolly (2016 AIR), they return to open ISSUE’s Fall season at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn.
ISSUE presents the first commission from Eden Girma (2026 AIR). Part dreamscape and part summoning circle, an intimate diasporic familial archive is pieced together through the eyes of a five-year-old child.
In partnership with Franklin Furnace as part of their 50th anniversary commemoration and November release of "Back to the Present: 50 Years of Free Expression with Franklin Furnace" ISSUE presents an evening of performance and conversation.
Incorporating elements of noise, trance and minimalism, Sergei Tcherepnin (2012 AIR) presents new work for Serge Modular synthesizer.
Charmaine Lee presents her third and final work as a 2019 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence, Laminals III, the last of three movements of a new long-form piece for solo voice. The evening concludes with a trio of improvised music featuring Tyshawn Sorey (percussion) and Ikue Mori (laptop).
ISSUE welcomes pioneering French composers Beatriz Ferreyra & Christine Groult, presenting new solo and collaborative work. The evening marks an exceptionally rare opportunity to hear the work of two major figures in the development of musique concrète, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music.
Rena Anakwe presents the final work of her 2019 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Ogwu (the healing), an immersive purification ritual inspired by the element of fire, staged in collaboration with lighting designer Kelley Shih.
FOR/WITH concludes with a solo trumpet premiere composed for Nate Wooley by Sarah Hennies, followed by von da nach da by Eva-Maria Houben performed by Sara Schoenbeck, Mariel Roberts, and Russell Greenberg. The festival concludes with an ensemble performance of Sarah Hennies' Fleas
The first evening of FOR/WITH, a mini-festival featuring commissions and works by iconoclast composers Eva-Maria Houben, Katherine Young, and Ryoko Akama. Now in its third year, the series celebrates the collaborative process between performer and composer.
ISSUE is thrilled to present an epic, career-spanning durational performance by longtime friend William Basinski. Taking place at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Theater from 6pm until 2am, Basinski takes listeners through a marathon sequence of past, recent, and new work featuring light artists Seth Kirby & Brock Monroe.
American poet & painter Christopher Knowles reads new poetry and plays vinyl records. Knowles’s performance departs from an art practice broader than any classification suggests -- spanning text, sound, painting & sculpture. Choreographer/performer Will Rawls also presents a new iteration of his Cursor project.
ISSUE presents an expansive gathering of NYC artists working across disciplines. Leila Bordreuil and Lee Ranaldo debut an improvised duet, and are then joined by Stephan Moore. Asha Sheshadri stages a new iteration of her essayistic performance practice and The New York Review of Cocksucking also perform.