At the center of TORCHES is a series of 36 artist interviews conducted by peer interviewer Kristin Marting. 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 examined in TORCHES. 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.  These oral histories share their vision, ambition and resilience – their ability to create transformative work (often with limited resources) that goes on to reverberate widely in our culture. TORCHES seeks to counter scarcity with abundance, to testify to the artists’ impact and to hopefully fuel a vibrant future for the field. By lifting up artists who just keep on manifesting, we hope to make visible their significance, and help the next generation of artmakers light their own flames.