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.
Artists-In-Residence 2018
Improviser, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Brandon Lopez opens his 2018 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Fairer Than Tongue, a solo piece for improviser in three movements. The evening also features a duo performance between Lopez and celebrated Detroit-born jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver.
ISSUE is pleased to present Sarah Davachi and Gabi Losoncy performing new work. Their varying practices span Davachi’s disclosure of the delicate psychoacoustics of intimate aural space to Losoncy’s unlayered, utilitarian audio experiments -- both charting critical new contexts for composition & sound art.
Artists-In-Residence 2017
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste completes his ISSUE residency in collaboration with LaMont Hamilton January 19th - 20th at The Kitchen. The performance features the duo sequentially performing all five of their previously staged “parts” of Julius Eastman’s 1979 composition “Evil Nigger” as a 24 hour interpretive cycle.
ISSUE is pleased to screen Brooklyn-born film pioneer Ken Jacobs’ 3D film A Primer in Sky Socialism, presented alongside the premiere of a film score by Aki Onda + performed live in collaboration with musician & writer Alan Licht. Baltimore-based pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn performs solo before the film.
ISSUE commemorates the close of the 2017 season with a special year-end event with acclaimed composer and electronic musician Tyondai Braxton and extended technique vocalist, composer, and performer Like A Villain (Holland Andrews), co-presented with BOMB Magazine.
The second presentation of Feelings Are Rooms features a continued investigation of the unique architectural acoustics of ISSUE's theater space. Kabir Carter draws upon his recent research on spatial acoustics in anechoic rooms and underwater acoustics to produce a temporary sound installation.
Antenes’ ISSUE residency culminates in the presentation of a time-based “audio museum” reflecting her visits to the NOKIA Bell Labs Archives -- a research process that has run parallel to her practice of appropriating antique or otherwise obsolete objects in ways that reference and extend their original functionality.
December 2nd, Byron Westbrook premieres Interval/Forum. The work completes a series of conceptual environments that collaborate with audience perception and participation, making use of the theatrical setting of Irondale Arts Center to focus the perception of audience presence as a dynamic performance element.