On March 21st 2013 at the Union Hall bar, restaurant, and music venue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, comics creator and TRIP CITY co-curator Dean Haspiel and comedian/actress Katharine Heller launched what may be the first of several salon events featuring comics, comedy, prose, and musical performances entitled “NIGHT JOB”. Though it was a new venture, neither Haspiel nor Heller are strangers to the stage. They were joined by stand-up comedian and writer Molly Knefel of the internet radio show RADIO DISPATCH, indie cartoonist Meghan Turbitt, author Reverend Jen of the long-running “Rev Jen’s Anti-Slam” performance event. Also performing were political satirist and stand-up comedian Angry Bob, and the music group Two Beards One Heart, including Jeffrey Burandt (aka Jef UK of Americans UK), and Peter Boiko, supported by John Mathias and John Thomas Robinette III.
[Haspiel and Heller host the salon]
Though the salon opened to a full basement venue, audience members probably didn’t know quite what to expect from NIGHT JOB, however they might have known some of the performers by reputation. The term “salon” often implies multiple genres in the mix, and NIGHT JOB presented quite a range. Though each of these types of performance have the potential to be very entertaining on their own, it’s a challenge to combine them and create a sense of a cohesive event that, collectively, develops its own personality. NIGHT JOB found its way by emphasizing the raw power of very personal content from its salon members.
[Molly Knefel]
Knefel opened with a stand-up routine spoofing the “war on women” in congress last autumn, pointing out that a “war on anuses” would have had even the most conservative public official scrambling to sign up in protest. Her rapid-fire delivery and observational humor had the audience engaged from the outset, but her sense of personal commitment to the subject matter as a thinking person translating impressions of a bizarre world set the tone for the evening.
[Katharine Heller]
Heller read a selection from her recent project featuring “erotica” geared toward Republican sensibilities, “Tickle the Elephant”, and ingenious attempt to get inside the minds of what appeals to conservative women particularly. Turning the lingo of the senate floor and government catchphrases into turn-ons relentlessly, Heller narrated from the perspective of a conservative seduced by liberalism into a sexual common ground. Heller revealed a rather in-depth knowledge of politics on both sides of the party schism in her artistry, and in her mix of satire and humor, suggested dialogue is possible even in the most heated debates.
[A Turbitt comic panel]
Turbitt presented and performed a wide range of indie comix that appear online, increasingly irreverent to social taboos, particular in expressing women’s lives. From bathroom scenes of an intimate nature to things that most people find adorable but only annoy her, she pushed the envelope on expression and used the comic-panel reveal for shock-value. Her autobio approach struck many of the same chords as Knefel and Heller’s performances, bringing out the sense that discussing deeply personal subjects is still one of the most direct ways to reach an audience, who may be surprised to find out how much they have in common with the stories they hear and see.
[Meghan Turbitt]
Haspiel’s comix performance of “Awful George” from his series STREET CODE took the audience deep inside the strangeness, and the horror of urban stories, reflecting his own autobiographical reaction to witnessing a make-shift attempt to save a hoard of cats that had been wilfully neglected in an apartment, only to be topped by the discovery of a mummified corpse, begging the question, “How do you deal with these kind of realities?”
["Awful George" panel by Haspiel]
The answer from Haspiel is clearly “by expressing them and reaching out to readers”. His debut performance of a newly created Tommy Rocket comic, a spin-off from his BILLY DOGMA web comix, spoke to the twisted aspects of love, and the realities of failure and regret. Haspiel never pulls any punches in his comics, autobio or not, and these hammered home the role of authenticity in performance; getting up in front of a crowd to read your comics demands a kind of soul-baring stance that hits home for the audience.
[Dean Haspiel]
Reverend Jen took soul baring to a whole new level by reading from her unpublished novel, memoirs of her life as a prostitute attempting to support her artistic endeavors as a painter. She’s known for her extreme honesty during readings, and her narrative plumbed the depths of tragedy and suffering possible in what seems like an everyday world. Her description of images, as well as emotions, made for a stellar performance of prose. Rev Jen’s motivation in performing, to “get stuff out” of oneself actually also served the function of engaging the audience emotionally and reminding them, perhaps, of human resilience along the way.
[Rev Jen]
Angry Bob, true to his moniker, took on the role of voicing, like Knefel, Heller, and Turbitt, many of the things that people think, but don’t say out loud for fear of being ostracized as freakish. The truth, of course, is that they are not alone and everyone is wonder what’s considered “acceptable” to think or say in social settings. He described himself as someone “rooting through the garbage for shiny objects” like a racoon or other scavenger, and the objects he held up for inspection at NIGHT JOB were the ludicrous aspects of Reality TV, the curse of failed opportunities, and the general rage-inducing capabilities of young children, particularly in public. Angry Bob’s signature delivery, a high-octane rant that frequently addresses audience members directly, had their equally signature outcome: inspiring absolute hilarity at NIGHT JOB.
[Angry Bob]
The evening’s performances closed with the strikingly independent tones of Two Beards One Heart which also managed to match the ambiance of the previous salon members’ presentations. Not just in musical composition, whose sounds were so original as to suggest that the “personal” can be evoked as equally in sound as in words and images, but also in lyrics, Two Beards managed to create their own singular message.
[Two Beards One Heart]
Their first song illustrated rising angst through lyrics despite its melodic construction, while the second contrasted the poetic, upbeat aspects of love with bigger realities and banal conflicts. Burandt’s vocals, far from predictable, were particularly engaging, and contributed to a sense of individualistic expression of life’s perplexing highs and lows.
[Jeffrey Burandt]
One of the most winning aspects of NIGHT JOB, aside from his cohesion as a salon of the personal made public, was the fact that Haspiel asked, repeatedly, if anyone else would like to perform their work, friend or stranger alike. It suggested an open-door to artists of any genre who also had something to share. The tone of the evening, celebrating unique perspectives with communal implications, was as well suited to comics as music and comedy.
[Haspiel delivers an open invitation]
Setting comics alongside other genres in performance is not a new practice, but it’s becoming increasingly popular, perhaps because of the rise of self-publishing and internet sharing of creative work. As comics find their footing among other artistic modes, it’s appropriate to start asking what comics have in common with other formats of expression, and what makes them particularly powerful for self-expression. NIGHT JOB did an excellent job of illustrating the point. Performance art forms are about a meeting of minds between the performer and the audience, and many genres already push the boundaries of inter-personal communication, comics included.
Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.
Earlier this week, Jimmy Palmiotti announced that the noble experiment CREATOR OWNED HEROES would conclude after its 8th issue. Over the course of the magazine’s publication, outreach on social media emphasized the need to raise awareness and increase solicitation from comic shops to keep the multi-contributor series in motion. Consistently strong reviews appeared on media, fan, and blog sites with each issue, and as COH developed, it continued to raise the bar on high-quality content. The ascent has been dizzying, and exhilarating for readers and comics creators alike in an era of increasing awareness about the ups and downs of self-publication. It has been like watching crucial surgery in a live operating theatre in the hands of celebrated practitioners where the audience has come to play an integral role. The life of the patient has depended on their rapt attention in increasing numbers. Depending on your perspective, issue #8 will represent the final bow of an effort exploratory and unique, or perhaps somber flat-lining during a risky procedure that practitioners will attempt to learn from for some time to come. But either way, COH won’t be concluding in obscurity. Ironically, there will be more people in the operating theatre than ever before to witness its final moments and draw their own conclusions.
CREATOR OWNED HEROES #7 represents a particular crescendo in the magazine’s development, a point at which even those who have been following the series closely lean forward, aware that something unprecedented is unfolding before their eyes. It expresses a remarkable energy and a confluence of its methods and its goals due, in part, to the team of contributors it brings together. As Justin Gray says introducing his Brandon Seifert interview, “When we started Creator Owned Heroes, it wasn’t just a desire to self-publish; it was a multilevel dedication to comics that were being produced outside the work for hire landscape”. Gray also cites “ a fundamental desire to tell stories” as a common feature among the creators chosen as contributors. Issue #7 is a tour de force illustration of those criteria.
The powerhouse comic in the anthology is clearly Darwyn Cooke’s irreverent, rapidly paced and verbally exuberant “The Deadly Book”. Cooke hits high notes across the board of comic storytelling elements, from a lush, contrasty color palette in sky-blue, blood-red, and ink-black, to unexpected vantage points, compressed action, and even a very indie take on relating past events in short form via substantial narrative blocks. The comic displays the best possible outcomes for a skilled creator taken off the leash to tell the kind of story that they want to tell in the way that they see fit to tell it.
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Jerry Lando, and Paul Mountis follow Cooke with “Killswitch” in its 3rd installment of 4. They put the action back in indie in a big way and display a particular virtuosity in reversing a typical paradigm in espionage/hitman themed comics. Rather than telling the story with several panels, if not pages, of heavy exposition followed by the action sequences readers have been waiting for, they manage to reveal a wealth of exposition during an installment that, arguably, is one big action arc. They keep it interesting by demanding the reader put the pieces of information together for themselves, from Kill Switch’s complicated pseudo family life to the developing role of a nemesis. Rather than just telling a story well, which is a quite an achievement in itself, they manage to tell a story differently, once again illustrating the surprising results when creators have sufficient room for experimentation.
Steve Niles and Scott Morse bring an even greater variation in style and content to COH #7, pushing the boundaries of typical narrative structures while giving a nod to still-rich veins of comics tradition. They break down confined panel layout, and do away with textboxes and speech balloons to tell a noirish private-eye tale with disturbing gusto. “Meatbag’s” full page-feel conjures up Eisner’s SPIRIT while the first-person narrator places the storytelling firmly in Raymond Chandler territory. Add to these elements the use of limited color palette, heavy brush-stroke illustration and moody lettering, and you’ve got a finely balanced combination of old and new, making this a 21st century comic with a lot of room for innovation.
Then we have zombies. The subject-matter is in danger of being done into the ground in the TV, film, and comics medium, but in keeping with the challenges set by COH #7, Dean Haspiel and Jeffrey Burandt deliver something readers have simply never seen before, imploding any expectation of the familiar. Haspiel’s zombie artwork avoids the basic emphasis on blood and gore flooding zombie media these days and emphasizes, in a visceral way, the disjointedness of decomposition through trailing limbs and chunks of missing anatomy. This makes Haspiel and Burandt’s heroine seem all that much more solid, active, and vital as she spikes a zombie noggin and blasts through zombie brains. This is zombie-storytelling streamlined to basic psychological elements: loneliness, companionship, and, finally, the pulse-poundingly unexpected that makes the genre so popular. “Blood and Brains” retools zombie narrative by removing excess accretion and celebrating its potential in creator-owned style.
Photo-comic COMPLEX: “Luv_Underscore’s_U” by Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz, and Dean Haspiel reminds us that the comics medium is expansive, varied, and should never feel too comfortable. Katelan Foisy and Miskiewicz star in this futuristic psychological landscape where the solid realities of the photo images help readers keep a grip on the otherwise shifting definitions of reality in the narrative. There’s a subtle ambiguity in the nature and future of technology, it’s use and misuse to contribute to human experience, and on the whole the photo-comic not only tells the reader but shows the reader the spell-like suspension of disbelief comics, in the right hands, are still capable of creating.
The prose content of COH #7 also contributes greatly to the purpose of the series, present from issue #1, of taking readers inside the world of creator-owned projects, an on the ground approach that not only educates but instructs. Justin Gray’s interview with Brandon Seifert allows the reader to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, “Want to be a writer? Start writing. It’s that simple, and that hard”. A “social media press conference” included in the issue also brings together advice and insight from creators and Steve Bunche concludes a full-on bootcamp for aspiring comics writers with plenty of solid advice that may seem counter-intuitive like “avoid topical subjects”. It’s clear that the meta-text of COH #7 is not there simply to sell books but to actually aid aspiring creators in avoiding the pitfalls that contributors have faced.
From issue #1, COH has given a strong impression of community among indie creators, and #7 continues to follow through in inclusiveness. A major profile of legendary tide-fighter Evan Dorkin, written by Christopher Irving, and photographed by Seth Kushner, only further illustrates the point. Creator-owned projects may seem like a new thing, maybe even a fad, but they aren’t. They’ve been breaking new ground for some time, and there’s plenty to be learned from observing the struggles of greats like Dorkin. Dorkin’s legacy in brief could be summed up in his statement: “I’ve come to hate when people say ‘Don’t get into comics’. I learned to say ‘Fuck that. If you want to get into comics, get into comics’”. But Dorkin, like many other creators, is also prepared to try to inform readers about what exactly they are getting into because a few tips a long the way can make all the difference.
The combined tone and attitude of the comics and prose in CREATOR OWNED HEROES #7 avoids even the faintest whiff of defeatism. The series’ message is still going strong, and the works it presents don’t even aspire to meet the professionalism of company-owned comics, they aspire to go beyond company-owned projects in terms of high-quality story-telling, artwork and design. After all, what’s the point in trying to keep up with the Joneses when you really want to set a new standard all your own? As an experiment, the COH series is winding down, but the data is being collected, the procedure is nearly complete, and no one doubts the skill of the team involved. The increasing momentum generated in the pages of COH #7 has, certainly, guaranteed that no one will stop reading until the experiment is complete.
Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.
On Saturday, December 1st, the Hamilton Gallery Theater in Caroll Gardens, Brooklyn, hosted a benefit for a Red Hook landmark, Sunny’s Bar, in attempt to help bring it back from the verge of storm-ravaged closure. Sunny’s Bar, only a short distance from the waterfront, was filled with water and sludge by Hurricane Sandy, and its electrical systems, particularly, obliterated. The destruction of Sunny’s hit Brooklyn hard, a punch right in the heart of the artistic community specifically. For many, this was a retreat and a gathering place where memories were made for decades, and, thankfully, they weren’t prepared to let Sunny’s go down without a fight. Marketing, Public Relations, and Event Management professional Anica Archip , and her brother Dmitri Archip, spear-headed the benefit to complement the Sunny’s Kickstarter campaign, still underway, and provided the Hamilton event space. Local businesses donated refreshments, and a devoted arts community supplied over 5 hours of performance in honor of Sunny’s. Emmy-award winning comics artist and arts curator Dean Haspiel rounded up the talent and helped spread the word via social media while Sunny’s staff supported the event through set-up and bartending.
100% of the proceeds went to helping one of the most remote, and most beloved hangouts in Brooklyn back onto its feet. What started out as a small event elicited an overwhelming turnout to the point of rotating crowds off of the event floor to get as many people past the donations table as possible as performances ranged from readings of screen projected comics, poetry, and prose, to comedy performances, and lastly a few hours of wide-ranging musical sets by volunteers. The atmosphere was highly charged, emotional, but also celebratory throughout the night as community support for the benefit became more and more evident. In effect, it became a relocation of Sunny’s own events nights, a home away from home, prefiguring a return to its mecca status in days to come.
A number of the comics and prose performers hailed from Brooklyn’s own digital literary arts salon TRIP CITY, including co-curators Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz, and Jeffrey Burandt, joined by TRIP CITY member Jen Ferguson, and Brooklyn poet Denver Butson. Haspiel performed a comics meditation on Brooklyn and Manhattan during a time of crisis, Beef with Tomato, while also previewing a new creator-owned comic appropriately titled RED HOOK. Photographer and writer Kushner presented an event-inspired essay “My Brooklyn” with slides from his photo book Brooklynites, while writer Miskiewicz provided a haunting narrative set at the bar itself, “Last Night at Sunny’s”. Ferguson, an artist, narrated a CulturePOP photocomic featuring her own Brooklyn Bridge artwork, and writer and musician Burandt presented a recent Brooklyn-set comic “Bibbin’s Bodega” to the accompaniment of a mellow bass-line. Butson proved that poetry could hold its own as performance art with startling observations about the secret emotional and imaginative lives of ordinary citizens. The thematic pieces were well chosen, highlighting the role of community and geography as inspiration for creative work.
The comedy performances of the evening were raucous and added to the positive vibe building up during the benefit, turning the fund-raiser into an affirmation rather than a reflection on the devastating effects of the hurricane. Brooke Van Poppelen brought a Brooklyn perspective to the vagaries of working in Manhattan and commented on the increasing gentrification of Brooklyn itself, subtly asserting that enduring “real” Brooklyn culture continues in the face of change. Angry Bob came out from Queens to punch holes in the political climate of the recent elections and present the all-too human reactions to hurricane damage including outrage over cable outages in less affected areas. Meanwhile, donated beer on tap was flowing, along with wine, and the crowd situation on the floor was becoming intense. Between performance blocks rotation provided access to Sunny’s supporters.
The musical portion of the evening showcased an astonishing breadth of local talent, including the newly formed band Two Beards: One Heart with lead-singer Jeffrey Burandt debuting new material, John Pinamonti, The Black Coffee Blues Band, and Smokey Hormel supporting The Luna Sisters, many of whom perform as regular bands at Sunny’s on its own event nights. While blues music was particularly appropriate, The Luna Sisters, including Sunny’s proprietor Tone Johansen, really stole the show with their nostalgic and hypnotic performance of classics like “It’s a Wonderful World” and “Bye, Bye Blues”. “Yes, even after Sandy”, Tone declared, “it’s a wonderful world”. Proprietor Sunny himself too the mic to conclude the event, offering his heartfelt thanks and astonishment at the monumental support demonstrated for Sunny’s Bar. Appearing weathered, wearing waterproof clothes, he was nevertheless unbowed by the natural disaster that had struck at his life’s work. It was clear no one really wanted to go home, having missed gatherings at Sunny’s since the storm, but the owners vowed that next time the party would be “at home” when Sunny’s doors, aided by a big push from its denizens, opened again.
The evening came off without a hitch, and the funds raised were the best possible scenario for what started as an ambitious exercise in elbow grease. Anica Archip and Dean Haspiel agreed to tell me a little bit about what Sunny’s means to them and why they poured so much of their time and creativity into making the benefit happen. Archip and Haspiel, like many, have their own deeply personal memories of the beloved bar.
Anica Archip: I’m a Brooklyn, Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens neighborhood native, Red Hook, Gowanus, and Brooklyn Heights was part of my playground. I remember the first time I set foot in Sunny’s Bar, it was a late summer afternoon around 1994. My car was towed from my street in Carroll Gardens and the lot where the city kept towed vehicles was located directly across the street from Sunny’s. My husband and I (I was married then ) were picking up the car and we were laughing over the whole incident because the day prior we were searching hours for the car convinced that we forgot where it was parked, versus the reality that it was towed. Anyway, as we exited the lot the door to Sunny’s Bar was open and we walked in for a drink. The bar was empty yet magical. The bright setting sun poured in through the window and once my eyes adjusted to the room, I realized we entered a realm frozen in time, a waterfront bar scene from the 1950′s. Behind the counter was a gentle faced man with long hair who looked like he stepped out of 1968, it was Sunny. We sat at the counter, told him of our car adventure and began to chat. I mentioned that my brother tends bar on Atlantic Ave, and just at that moment Sunny looked into my eyes, cupped my face with his large hands and said in his sweet tone, “I know who you are, you’re Dimitri’s sister.” Sunny’s Bar was instantly “home” – a place of comfort, where I could relax and I knew belonged. Needless to say I’ve been going back since.
In 1995 I became an active member of the Brooklyn arts organization BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists’ Coalition). Their yearly art show was held in the warehouses on the piers of Red Hook around the corner from Sunny’s. We would hang out at Sunny’s on Friday nights (the only night it was open back then) and listen to live music, it was impromptu not planned; talk with the neighborhood old timers; drink some Pabst or Schlitz beer, and just hang into the wee hours of the morning. You never arrived before 10pm, it became packed with artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and local neighbors by midnight and then closed about an hour or so before sunrise. And Sunny was always there to greet you with a big warm hug. Sunny’s hugs are special, just about everyone wants to be hugged by Sunny. It’s even listed as one of the items people can receive if they pledge a donation on the “Bring Sunny’s Back Home!” Kickstarter site:
Dean Haspiel: When I first moved to Brooklyn in 1997, I heard whispers about an old bar in Red Hook that hadn’t aged. When I first entered Sunny’s, it was like stepping into the past. An era I never lived in but always wanted to visit. And, it was one block away from the sea. It was the first bar I ever went to where the goblins in my head were quelled by the folk art and bluegrass music. I would just melt into the background for hours. It was a destination spot for people who wanted to get away and raise their glass to the Statue of Liberty and toast to an era of New York City that artists and blue collar workers could afford and pontificate a week of hard work.
Sunny himself would often appear like a specter of levity and brighten the room with his long hair and infectious smile. I got friendly with the bartenders and eventually met Tone, Sunny’s wife, who sings songs and curates the art shows in the back of the bar where musicians assemble and play music. I remember when Michael C. Maronna, star of the 1990′s kids TV show THE ADVENTURES OF PETE & PETE, would tend bar. Sunny’s is where my pal, Jonathan Ames, introduced me to actor/song writer, Jason Schwartzman, right before we started shooting HBO’s “Bored To Death.” In fact, a scene from “Bored To Death” was shot at Sunny’s. These days, I’ll occasionally bump into actor Michael Shannon and trade late night quips. But, more importantly, Sunny’s draws people who are worth their salt because it’s not easy to get to. Sunny’s is the last bar at the end of the world and when the apocalypse happens, that’s where you’ll find me.
Haspiel and Archip also commented on the strange genesis of the idea for the event, which easily might have fallen by the wayside as Brooklyn, and the rest of the East Coast pushes to rebuild the essentials as quickly as possible.
AA: A small group (4 people + 1 cat) of Red Hook artist friends took refuge at my house when they had to evacuate due to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The morning after the superstorm hit we walked over to Red Hook to check out the damage and check in on other friends. What we saw was unexpected and shocking. My childhood friend’s home was severely damaged, people were coming out into the streets in tears, huge trees were ripped off their roots and power lines were left dangling. The streets were slicked with a coating of oil from boilers that were damaged and destroyed. The air was thick with the smells of oil and gas from spills that now settled in the streets of Red Hook. Block after block looked like aftermath of a war. I knew I had to check in on Sunny’s because they’re located at the very edge, just where the water meets the land. When I arrived Tone was standing outside with a look of horror in her eyes, tears started to flow from her face. We immediately embraced and she muttered, “Water is still rushing into the basement, the water is still coming in, I can’t stop the water.” A few people now gathered in front trying to help her and I overheard someone say that the water main pipe that connects to the building broke. They needed to shut off the city line from the sidewalk. An emergency vehicle, I think it was a utility company, pulled up in front of the bar and Tone ran to tell them of the problem. As I walked back home in silence my mind was racing with all I had witnessed and I felt helpless.
Dean & I had touched base in the days after Sandy and we briefly talked about what we saw and the damage to our beloved Sunny’s Bar. I then received an email from Dean about his idea to help Save Sunny’s, he asked if I was interested in helping and I knew that I could execute his vision. I immediately said Yes! And then approached my brother about having the benefit in our home.
A side bar note here is that Dean & I would occasionally meet up at Sunny’s throughout the years – we still do. In the early 2000′s after hangin’ at the Smith Street bars, on a Friday night, we’d sometimes do the Red Hook scene - which was Lilly’s Bar (now closed) and of course Sunny’s. You always ended the night at Sunny’s. Dean would ride over on his bike and I’d either walk it or take a car service. Attached is a b&w photo circa 2004(?) taken by my photographer friend Judy Parker (who was visiting from the Bay Area with her sister) of a Friday night walk along Beard street from Lillie’s to Sunny’s. Pictured is me, Dean’s bike and his cast shadow – sometime after 1am. I don’t think Dean’s ever seen this.
DH: A couple of days after Superstorm Sandy annihilated New Jersey and ravaged NYC, I rode my bike over to Red Hook and saw everyone’s destroyed basements on the sidewalks. When I finally got to Sunny’s, I saw the staff pumping water and made eyes with Tone. Sunny’s basement was a box of sludge, the boiler was busted and the electricity panels were destroyed among other flood damage to the bar. And, to make matters worse, the foundation was compromised. I knew right then and there that I had to do something. As Brooklyn began to rally relief, I made it my mission to help out the place I call home on the Friday and Saturday nights I unchain myself from my desk. I contacted my pal/publicist/event manager/and longtime friend of Sunny’s Bar, Anica Archip, to ask if she would manage and host an event [along with her brother Dimitri] to help promote and raise funds for Sunny’s. Anica immediately said “yes” and we approached Tone who said “yes,” offering to staff the night with the actual staff from Sunny’s. We co-curated the event and I designed a poster with Seth Kushner but it was Anica who truly handled all the nuts and bolts. Along with select TRIP CITY curators and contributors reading prose and comix (Jeffrey Burandt, Chris Miskiewicz, Jen Ferguson, Zees Moreno), local bands, poets, and comedians (Denver Butson, Brooke Van Poppelen, Angry Bob, Black Coffee Blues Band, Smokey & The Luna Sisters), we created a stellar evening that would bring people and diehard Sunny’s patrons together for a donation based evening where we provided entertainment and drinks. Jeffrey Burandt debuted his new band, Two Beards One Heart, and I debuted my new comic, The Red Hook. We gave them a little bit of Trip City to nosh on while recreating a night at Sunny’s. It was glorious.
Following the event, Archip and Haspiel reflected on the highlights of the evening that meant the most to them and made it all worthwhile.
AA: This one’s easy. Seeing the happy faces of Sunny’s clientele – his family of friends - my friends. A month had passed since Sandy hit and everyday in Red Hook has been devoted to the clean up. Pumping water, throwing out damaged personal items, family treasures, furniture, vital equipment, parts of your house, applying for help, filing papers. Sleep, rinse, repeat. But on this one night friends gathered, took a break, met up as they normally would at Sunny’s. They enjoyed the entertainment, had a beer or two, were greeted by a smiling, happy Tone, chatted with their favorite bartender and got their hug from Sunny. Helping to reunite this community of friends was worth it all.
DH: Besides witnessing all the support for Sunny’s, I think my favorite parts of the night were hearing Tone sing with her wonderful Luna Sisters and seeing Sunny end the evening with his gracious praise and infectious smile. He reminded us that this wasn’t for Sunny’s Bar but for us. All of us. Sunny’s Bar isn’t just another ancient watering hole. It’s an everlasting community.
Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.
Beautifully written! This manages to capture how truly amazing the evening of performances was. Hope there are more salons like this one!