Meet Me On The Internet
I’ve recently had the very strange experience of starting a new job in the midst of the pandemic. With the majority of work still being done remotely, this meant jumping into a new role completely virtually; it meant meeting a new slew of co-workers and collaborating on projects all on some video conferencing platform or another.
I initially approached this method of working with a sense of dread. The thought of trying to engrain myself within a new community completely online felt awkward. The task of learning a new culture and building new connections solely through video seemed implausible.
But what struck me is that when I finally met a few of these new co-workers in person, it didn’t feel like the first time we were meeting face to face. All that digital interacting had in fact laid solid ground work for an IRL relationship. We totally hit it off, drank way too much mezcal and stayed out way too late. The next morning we went back to our digital office, joking over video conference about the evening we had had.
We often have a tendency to face our digital realities with a sense of fear, trepidation, and cynicism. Even being a millennial myself, I’m prone to nostalgia about the dial-up internet age, of landlines and late night phone calls with friends (whose home phone numbers I can still repeat by heart). Our fear of the new is somewhat founded, when we learn what all the voluntary distribution of our data can mean for democracy and our privacy. But there is so much upside to what digital connectivity can mean for establishing new relationships and empowering our most vulnerable communities.
For this reason, when Dani Slocki, a college friend turned kick-ass New York ARTivist babe, took me on a tour of her latest endeavor vSpace, an accessible 3D video conferencing platform built by PixiDust.io., I was genuinely excited to see her smiling face waiting for me in the corner of the virtual room. We ‘walked’ up to each other in the space, while being able to turn, look around, and take in our surroundings.
We were meeting here, in the pixelated ethers of cyberspace, to catch up on the pending fundraiser that was to take place in the space some handful of weeks later. It was surreal; instead of the static, gridlike interface we’re all used to, vSpace is a fully built-out, responsive environment. We wandered over to the digital firepit, after passing 3D art and flashing lights. The space was in the middle of being built for the upcoming 4th annual Prophets Over Profits fundraiser event, Dani’s Brooklyn based art collective that raises money and awareness for marginalized voices.
Log-In, Show Up, Do Good.
Prophets Over Profits is an annual grassroots art and music nonprofit that provides resources for 501c3 programs and communities in need. Originally started as a way for Dani to use her birthday party as a mechanism for raising donations for the causes she cared deeply about, the event has grown in scale, scope and impact.
Every year musicians, DJs, producers, bartenders, and allies volunteer their time and talents making Prophets Over Profits possible. This year P.O.P has partnered with fiscal sponsors Brooklyn Arts Council, Founders Brewing, and Ilegal Mezcal to fundraise for those 50+ local volunteers, artists, and activists.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit arts communities particularly hard. While there has been a huge focus on what the closure and loss of restaurants means to the city of New York, struggling in the margins have been artists, activists and allies a.k.a ARTivists.
“To lose these ARTivists we’d lose the vibrancy of our great city. If the government won’t cancel rent, provide healthcare, or support community organizers, we have to take care of our neighbors ourselves” says Dani.
What is typically an in-person, art-filled rager will become this year a digital festival–with a headlining DJ set by SOFI TUKKER, musical sets by Lion Babe, Kat Cunning, Tony Award Winner Lena Hall featuring Dave Navarro, DJ set by Jadalareign, drag performances by Madame Vivien V and an array of multifaceted entertainers. Attendees can watch digitally or join the vSpace viewing party to engage in virtual mingling, fireside chats, and purchase art for sale.
The video will premiere in vSpace as well as live streamed via the House of Yes, Bust Magazine, and NYC Nightlife United Instagram accounts. P.O.P will also upload the content via the website www.popdonate.com for a limited time. All digital venues will launch at 6pm EST on April 11th.
Looking Ahead
On Easter Sunday, returning from a weekend upstate to celebrate my fiancé’s birthday, we drove past Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The scene was undeniably New York: a retrofitted vintage camper van was parked out front with half-naked dancing bunnies gyrating on the roof. A handful of similarly dressed onlookers bopped happily to the music blaring from the van. Mere feet away was a collection of flower covered protesters demanding economic support for undocumented immigrants, a group that has been mostly side-lined from COVID recovery efforts.
New York has a fighting spirit. We show-up and, to quote the popular protest sign, put our bodies where our beliefs are. The ARTivist is central to the identity of this city, and core to constructing and realizing a more just and equitable society as a whole. We need painters of dreams and weavers of new realities to move us forward. It’s these people with vision who help us see in the dark to chart a new way forward.
If we lose our visionaries we lose our way.
For more information on PROPHETS OVER PROFITS visit: www.popdonate.com For more information on Brooklyn Arts Council visit: www.brooklynartcouncil.org