NYC Rat Academy ~ Matthew Chavez ~ Johannes Labusch ~ Karen Holmberg

Urban rat defense tactics (humane, strategic, slightly rebellious), participatory art featuring a giant rock-paper-scissors tournament, an intimate musical offering, and a living-room dive into volcanoes, climate, and how we survive shifting ground.

Jealyn McFadden ~ Michelle Martinelli ~ Tarynn Dier ~ Leila Olsen

Salon 4J: After Dark Edition — love songs that linger, tarot with a wink, a striking examination of the body and queer kink community, and a soft unraveling of intimacy, instinct, and the texts you draft but don’t send.

The Vanishing Act ~ Riley Soloner ~ Ana Ratner ~ Mark Collins

Musicians moonlighting as magicians (with intentionally questionable magic), corporate clowning, a history of the almanac featuring artifacts, & a story of an angel who gently unthreads a curmudgeon.

Blake Chernin ~ Noah Schamus ~ Erik “Lionheart” Slavin ~ Janae Imani Marable (DJ Ellen.J)

Salon 4J: After Dark Edition — a sensual story, a theory on why cinema got less horny, yoni massage 101, and a soundscape to guide us through the choreography of a dance-floor makeout.

April Gulotti ~ Nadirah Farah Foley, PhD, MsED ~ Kylie Mitchell

A personality test scored by classical violin (Mozart for the optimists, Beethoven for the dramatics), followed by a convo on meritocracy (or the myth of it), and unsettling history of taxidermy’s colonial roots and its afterlives in the contemporary art world.

Mango Dreamgirl ~ Nadia Amokrane ~ Riley Soloner

Baroque pop to set the mood, a scientist explaining how research ideas actually happen (feat. a rare neurological disorder), and a clown teaching us the power of the mask, and the moment it slips.

Sara Camnasio ~ Clifford Thompson ~ Jack Adams

A seaside presidential race — Seagulls for “Traditional Values” vs. Flamingos for “Your Beak, Your Choice” — followed by a story that chuckled its way into something deeper, and an exploration of where poetry meets song, scored by acoustic guitar.

Nahia Orla ~ Frankey Smith ~ Dylan A. Smith

Bilingual music in the presence of an eclectic art installation, representation and responsibility in the comic world and a story of New York’s water supply—where it comes from, and what it carries.

Salome Egas ~ Lori Felipe-Barkin ~ Alex Chisholm, PhD

A one-woman piece rooted in the Ecuadorian immigrant experience, new scenes unfolding from a play in bloom, and a scientific (and slightly smoky) exploration of marijuana.