[New York, NY]

Out of Print: An Evening With Ugly Duckling Presse
May 9, 2011, 7:00 pm
at The Kitchen

Perhaps you've wondered what's up with that extra “e” in Ugly Duckling Presse? It seems that to publish is to present, to bring to the public... and the page can be both the means and the ends of that process. Known for poetry and translation, UDP also publishes books by artists, the Emergency Playscripts series, and keeps a Paperless Books Department. For this special occasion at the Kitchen, UDP presents recent and forthcoming authors: A text for speaking by playwright and performer Kristen Kosmas; a sound-space intervention by No Collective; a slide show and reading by artist Erica Baum (joined by poet Kim Rosenfield); and Yevgeniy Fiks with a queer guide to Moscow's communist monuments. ABOUT THE PERFORMERS: Kristen Kosmas is a writer and performer. Her plays and solo performances have been produced at theaters in Seattle, Austin, Boston, and Chicago, and in New York City at venues including PS 122, Dixon Place, Little Theater, Barbes, and the Ontological/Hysteric Downstairs Series. As an actor, Kristen has appeared in many new plays including Mark Smith by Kate Ryan, The Internationalist by Anne Washburn, ASTRS and Some Things Cease To Be While Others Still Are by Karinne Keithley, How To Act by Jim Strahs, Playstation Levels 1 – 4 by Judy Elkan, The Florida Project by Tory Vazquez, and Hurricane by Erin Cressida Wilson. She is currently touring her multi-voice performance text, This From Cloudland. No Collective (You Nakai, et al.) makes music performances which explore and problematize both the conceptual and material infrastructures of music and performance. Since its inception in 2006, members of No Collective have varied both in quantity (from one to twenty) and quality (from reluctant music novices to professional instrumentalists) according to each works’ objective and situational conditions. Following founder You Nakai’s relocation from Tokyo to New York in September 2009, the works of No Collective have shifted to a comparatively individual scale, addressing the physical conditions (medium specificity) of the performer/instrument, and consequently the border between public and private (the dividuality of the individual). Most recent works include <lulkanto>, in which You Nakai did not sleep for the number of days it took him to learn how to play a lullaby on the piano, and then, in this sleepy state, performed the piece until he fell asleep. Erica Baum received a B.A. in Anthropology from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Photography from the Yale School of Art. She has exhibited in New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Kansas City, Berlin (Germany), Italy, and Mälmo (Sweden). Her work was included in the book Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography (Phaidon Press, 2006). She was a 2008 fellow in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2009 she presented a solo exhibition of new work at the New York Gallery Dispatch. She lives and works in New York City. Yevgeniy Fiks was born in Moscow in 1972 and has been living and working in New York since 1994. Fiks’ work has been shown internationally, including solo exhibitions in New York at Winkleman Gallery and Common Room 2. His work has been included in the Biennale of Sydney (2008); Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007); and Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007 and 2005). Fiks is the author of two books: Lenin For Your Library? (2007, Ante Projects) and Communist Guide to New York City (2008, Common Books).