ABC No Rio

156 Rivington Street
ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. They are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture. ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and they retain these values to t... more
ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. They are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture. ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and they retain these values to the present. To put it simply, Bush is not welcome here. ABC No Rio features a wide range of public events in their Gallery/Performance Space. Regular events programming includes exhibitions of visual art; weekly open poetry readings and other literary events; a HardCore/Punk Matinee every Saturday; and COMA, a weekly series of experimental and improvisational music. They also host film & video screenings, performance events, workshops, forums and benefits. Click on the schedule link above for details or visit their website. Their mission is to seek to facilitate cross-pollination between artists and activists. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community. They believe that art and activism should be for everyone, not just the professionals, experts, and cognoscenti. The ABC No rio community is defined by a set of shared values and convictions. It is both a local and internati... more

ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. They are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture. ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and they retain these values to the present. To put it simply, Bush is not welcome here.

ABC No Rio features a wide range of public events in their Gallery/Performance Space.

Regular events programming includes exhibitions of visual art; weekly open poetry readings and other literary events; a HardCore/Punk Matinee every Saturday; and COMA, a weekly series of experimental and improvisational music. They also host film & video screenings, performance events, workshops, forums and benefits. Click on the schedule link above for details or visit their website.

Their mission is to seek to facilitate cross-pollination between artists and activists. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community. They believe that art and activism should be for everyone, not just the professionals, experts, and cognoscenti.

The ABC No rio community is defined by a set of shared values and convictions. It is both a local and international community. It is a community committed to social justice, equality, anti-authoritarianism, autonomous action, collective processes, and to nurturing alternative structures and institutions operating on such principles. Their community includes artists and activists whose work promotes critical analysis and an expanded vision of possibility for our lives and the lives of our neighborhoods, cities, and societies. It includes punks who embrace the Do-It-Yourself ethos, express positive outrage, and reject corporate commercialism. It includes nomads, squatters, fringe dwellers, and those among society's disenfrachised who find at ABC No Rio a place to be heard and valued.


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Lower East Side Description

ABC No Rio is located in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. While this could apply to most neighborhoods in this guide, the Lower East Side might be the best example yet of an area that was once down-at-the-heels, full of recent immigrants striving towards the American dream and long-time residents just trying to make ends meet, and is now as expensive as anywhere else in Manhattan, filled to the gills on weekends with the bridge-and-tunnel crowd looking to eat fancy and party hard. The Lower East Side is boxed in between Alphabet City and Chinatown and between Little Italy, Nolita, and the East Rive, running roughing south from Delancey Street to FDR Drive and from the East River west to Allen Street. In the last 150 years, the Lower East Side has been populated by successive waves of lower-income German, Irish, and Jewish immigrants, and has seen extensive immigration of Chinese and Latin populations in recent decades. Although the well-known Tenement Museum on Orchard Street chronicles the historically difficult, even squalid, conditions in the neighborhood’s tenements, rents have risen to four, six, even eight times what they were just five years ago. Today, Ludlow and Orchard Streets reflect the newest wave of immigrants: the dot-com and downtown crowd. In fact, an unbelievable array of new boutiques, restaurants, stores, fabulous bars and music clubs compete with the area’s long-established tailors, fabric dealers, button wholesalers, religious artifact suppliers, pickle vendors, and Kosher wine distributors. The neighborhood’s crowded parks and outdoor recreation areas reflect the pastiche of New York’s ethnically diverse groups, especially in summer, and a dizzying array of music from around the world can be heard literally on every corner. Take a stroll around to see some of the city’s oldest synagogues, famous delicatessens, shopping streets, and hang out with the hippest crowds. Art enthusiasts will be interested to know that the mother lode of art galleries in New York's Chelsea neighborhood has seen tectonic shifts, albeit slowly, to the Lower East Side, with trendy smaller new galleries popping up here and there. Many attribute this gallery migration to the Lower East Side to the presence of the New Museum of Contemporary Art on the Bowery, the first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in this neighborhood. Nightlife on the Lower East Side, especially on the weekends, is always rocking, with almost as many people cruising its narrow streets as there are inside its numerous bars, restaurants and live music venues. Up and coming alternative rock bands play at Bowery Ballroom on Delancey Street and Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, while lesser known acts perform at smaller venues, such as the performance space in Pianos and the Living Room on Ludlow Street, or by booking Arlene's Grocery on Stanton Street. If you're looking to grab a bite to eat before concert-hoping from venue to venue, try Apizz, which features great Southern Italian cuisine and Prune, which is renowned for its fine American dining. The Lower East Side is definitely moving upwardly in its hotel and real estate offerings. The growth of this neighborhood has brought several new luxury boutique hotels, including Hotel On Rivington and the deluxe boutique Blue Moon Hotel on Orchard Street.

There are no events taking place on this date.

Info

156 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 254-3697
Website

Editorial Rating

Admission And Hours

Varies by event, but often free
In their building you will find a silkscreen PrintShop; our Darkroom; the ABC No Rio Computer Center; and a Zine Library. Each of these facilities is either free, or require very modest fees for use.

Nearby Subway

  • to Delancey St\r\nJ/M/Z to Essex St\r\nF to East Broadway\r\nB/D/Q to Grand St\r\nJ/M to Bowery\r\n4/5/6 to Spring St\r\n6 to Bleecker St\r\nB/D/F/G to Brdwy/Lafayette St\r\nJ/M/Z to Canal St\r\nN/R

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