BOOK.
Kristin Marting contextualizes the oral histories into a thematic book.
TORCHES:
30 YEARS OF DOWNTOWN PERFORMANCE IN NYC (1990S-2020S)
As co-founder of HERE Arts Center – described by the OBIE committee as “a lasting home for the weird and wild in downtown performance” – I’ve spent the past three decades immersed in making, witnessing, and supporting groundbreaking performance in NYC. TORCHES is a much needed exploration of New York City’s unique and influential downtown performance world.
Part memoir, part oral history, and part cultural inquiry, TORCHES weaves my personal journey as a downtown artist and arts leader with in-depth conversations with 30+ of the most imaginative and boundary pushing artists working in the field today. These include writers, performers, directors, designers, composers, and genre-defying creators who have shaped the ecosystem of contemporary performance from the 1990s to the present.
TORCHES asks: Why do artists come to New York City—one of the most expensive, chaotic, and competitive places in the world? How do they influence each other? How do artists keep making work—often in the face of financial instability, institutional neglect, and political upheaval? How does their work go beyond NYC to influence the field and impact our culture?
Using intimate artist conversations as a jumping off point to explore themes like identity, risk, scarcity, collaboration, and activism, I hope to illuminate the choices and challenges artists face—and to spark a deeper dialogue about how art evolves in the crucible of NYC, the impact of that work on the field at large, and the role of art in our culture.
Inspired by Gloria Steinem’s words—“There is no one torch; I’m using my torch to light other torches”—TORCHES is both a living archive and an offering for the future. Learning about these artists and their work is not just looking back; it can ignite what’s coming next. They are not only inventors of form—they are keepers of community, fire-starters for our future.
Whether you're an artist, arts student, or art lover, TORCHES offers insight, inspiration, and a rare window into those who’ve shaped the downtown scene and, in fact, our creative ecosystem— and continue to light the way forward.
WHY THIS BOOK? WHY NOW?
NYC downtown alternative performance is a relatively young field, born in the 1950’s with Joe Cino’s café on Cornelia Street. The forebears are only one to two generations from the artists and works I will examine in this book. Yet today, the ecosystem faces growing precarity, shrinking free expression, undervalued creative labor, vanishing venues, and fragmented audience attention – amid widespread anxiety about the future of art (and of democracy itself). But the artists are not despairing. After more than 30 years in the field, I remain astonished by their vision, ambition and resilience – their ability to create transformative work (often with limited resources) that reverberates widely in our culture. TORCHES seeks to counter scarcity with abundance, to testify to the artists’ impact and to hopefully fuel a vibrant future. By lifting up these artists who just keep on manifesting, I make visible their significance, and help the next generation of artmakers light their own flames.
BOOK OVERVIEW.
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: ORIGINS & IDENTITY
Why we create, where we grew from, how we evolve
Artistic Influences / Mentors, Artistic Identity (race, gender, sexuality, class, ability), Why NYC?
PART II: MAKING WORK
How we build, collaborate, risk take, evolve
Artistic Practice, Inspiration & Collaboration, Risk & Failure
PART III: CONTEXT OF WORK
Landscape and economics of making art
Artists & Organizations, Resources, Compensation & Sustainability, Audiences (& Critics)
PART IV: ARTISTS IN THE WORLD
Art as activism, response, social force
Activism, Innovation & Technology, Legacy
PART V: LIGHTING OTHER TORCHES
Looking ahead
Advice for Emerging Artists, Reflections
KEEP UP WITH TORCHES.
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