Destroyed By Madness: NYC's Howl! Festival of East Village Arts 2004

by Brighid Mooney

New York's East Village has always been a neighborhood of colorful characters, but for one week in August they descend upon the neighborhood in droves to celebrate art, music, film, poetry, politics, and the enduring legacy of East Village greats like Allen Ginsberg, Charlie Parker and Joey Ramone. For decades, the East Village has been home to artists of all mediums, both inspired by and inspiring the diverse and eccentric culture that the neighborhood is known for. Produced by the Federation of East Village Artists (FEVA), the Howl! Festival of East Village Arts is a chance for thousands to gather and partake in all that the East Village, and New York City, has to offer. This year’s second annual Howl! Festival continued a long enjoyed tradition of culture and counterculture in one of New York's most eclectic neighborhoods. Eight days, seventy venues, fifteen hundred artists, and well over four hundred events, the Howl! Festival is a relatively new, but already un-missable cultural extravaganza, and is sure to continue for years to come.




Here are just a few of the highlights of Howl! Festival 2004:



Howl! Benefit Art Auction

The festival kicked off with an opening night party and art auction at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. The party featured an art auction, video shows, dancing, and performances, and was DJ'd by K-Rock's Liquid Todd. Dozens of artists took part in the auction, including Jim Jarmusch, Mark Mothersbaugh, Michael Roman, and Spider Webb.

Howl! Film Festival

The Howl! Film Festival opened with a viewing of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (The Director’s Cut). After the film, there was a Q&A session with director Jerry Aronson. Other featured films included Queerfest, an exploration of gay and lesbian film, and a double bill of political documentaries: Independent Media In a Time of War and We Interrupt This Empire; the former, about the role of the media in a healthy democracy, and the latter, the political protests in San Francisco just after the US-led invasion of Iraq. Many of the films shown in the festival were of a political nature, carrying on a theme prominent in the week-long duration of the Howl! Festival.

The Three Terrors

“A vaguely annual song extravaganza,” The Three Terrors vs. NYC featured The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, along with Dudley Flute and LD Beghtol. The Three Terrors are as unlikely a group as one would ever expect to see, dutifully absurd and surreal. Website www.thetripwire.com described it as a bizarre combination of “Pee Wee's Playhouse and Sid and Marty Krofft's show on a hundred hits of acid," and that's probably all you really need to know about that.

Allen Ginsberg Poetry Festival

Of course, anything called the Howl! Festival would be incomplete without a resounding tribute to the festival's inspiration and namesake. The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Festival took place in Tompkins Square Park and was hosted by singer/songwriter/activist Steve Earle. After a curtain-raising dance performance, and a reading of some of Ginsberg's work by Earle, various readings by Kazim Ali, Erica Kaufman, C.A. Conrad, Anyssa Kim, Denize Lauture, Janine Pomy-Vega, Edwin Torres, Tracie Morris, John Giorno, and Bernadette Mayer took place.

Way the F**K Off Broadway

Performance art taken to its most extreme level. Several of the Village's most inventive artists use performance to “disrupt, challenge, disturb" and entertain. Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, Hungry March Band, Radical Faeries, zero boy, The Impact Addict and Hyperextravaganzalists, and many more performed at the Bandshell in Tompkins Square Park, ending with Reverend Billy's First Amendment Mob, which featured full audience participation.

All Star Poetry Jam

Hosted by Bob Holman, the All Star Poetry Jam featured a host of famous names, from Moby to Suzanne Vega, and included another special tribute to Allen Ginsberg. The Poetry Jam was a direct benefit for FEVA and took place at the legendary Joe's Pub. Ed Sanders, Edwin Torres, Jonathan Ames, Karen Finley, and Carl Hancock Rux also took part in this all star poetry extravaganza.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

Another festival within the festival, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival covered two days of Howl! and went from Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park back downtown to Tompkins Square Park. Featuring Frank Morgan, Kenny Garrett and Terri Lynn Carrington one afternoon, and Jimmy Heath, Donald Harrison, Vanessa Rubin and Rachel Z the next, the festival was a fitting tribute to Charlie "Bird" Parker, and included the one man show "Live Bird," which was written, directed and performed by Jeff Robinson.

For more information on the annual Howl! Festival and FEVA visit http://www.howlfestival.com.