The Segal Center celebrates the historical past of legendary CLUB 57. In 1978, a Polish emigré Stanley Strychacki rented a basement house of the Holy Cross Polish National Church at 57 St. Marks’ Place with an intention “to create an surroundings for artists so they may meet, collaborate, and create.” With founder Stanley Strychacki, Dany Johnson, Ande Whyland and April Palmieri. Moderated by Frank Hentschker. Event is co-curated by Tomek Smolarski (Polish Cultural Institute NY).
Club 57 thrived on St. Mark’s Place from 1978-1983 and supplied an early platform for the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, in addition to composers and musicians like Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Cyndi Lauper, and performers Ann Magnuson, Joey Arias, Wendy Wild, RuPaul, John “Lypsinka” Epperson (who began doing drag there), Dany Johnson, Fab Five Freddy, Holly Woodlawn (a Warhol famous person), Michael Musto, and April Palmieri. Dany Johnson, Ande Whyland, and April Palmieri carried out often on the Club 57 and Pyramid as members of the all-female band, Pulsallama. Additionally, Dany appeared as a DJ at each golf equipment, whereas Ande and April documented the scene as a photographers.
Photo courtesy of Ande Whyland.
Bios
Zbigniew “Stanley” Strychacki
Zbigniew “Stanley” Strychacki was born in Piotrkow Trybunalski in 1937. He spent his youth in Klimontow, and after the struggle he moved along with his mother and father to Gdansk, the place he graduated from a development technical faculty and labored as a development supervisor. Disillusioned with the communist system, he emigrated to the United States in 1972 on the MS “Batory” ship. He started his profession within the US as a salesman. Later he ran a Polish restaurant situated on First Avenue in Manhattan (as we speak there’s a Korean restaurant there). In 1973 he based a Polish cultural middle – the “Renesans” membership in New York’s Greenpoint. The earnings from concert events held there fed the Rosa Czacka School and Educational Center for Blind Children in Laski.
In 1978 Zbigniew Stanley Strychacki opened the “East Village Club” within the basement of the Polish church at 57 St. Marks Place. The membership modified its identify over time to “Club 57.” It was the place the place Cyndi Lauper, Klaus Nomi, The Cramps, B-52s gave their first concert events, and performers RuPaul and Lypsinka carried out. Installations and work have been created by artists akin to Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Every Tuesday, it hosted the weekly “Monster Movies Club,” the place horror movies have been proven. Until it closed in 1983, the membership was a spot the place different and punk tradition flourished. You also can find out about its historical past from Zbigniew Strychacki’s web site.
In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a short lived exhibition “Club 57 – Film, Performance and Art within the East Village, 1978-1983” devoted to the membership’s historical past.
Dany Johnson
DJ/Percussionist Dany Johnson received her begin as resident DJ at Club 57 and went on to DJ at different iconic downtown Manhattan golf equipment, together with the Mudd Club, Area, and the Pyramid. With Ann Magnuson, she was a founding member of Pulsallama, the all-girl percussion spectacle of the early Eighties. Dany was editor of Sister, the lesbian aspect of Les (Linda) Simpson’s My Comrade zine and partnered with him for the Channel 69 weekly occasion of the early 90s. Dany created the Dyxploitation webzine that ran from the late 90s to 2001. She was the very long time stage supervisor of the Wigstock pageant, seeing it develop from Tompkins Square to the westside piers. She nonetheless DJs for pop ups and particular occasions just like the Club 57 opening at MoMA and the Keith Haring opening at Bozar Brussels. Dany is a founding member and assistant director of Fogo Azul NYC, the 100 member all ladies and nonbinary samba reggae drum line. She nonetheless lives within the East Village together with her spouse, photographer Ande Whyland, and kitty Gigi.
Ande Whyland
For a long time Ande Whyland has documented New York City’s downtown efficiency scene, from the stage artists, to the drag queens, to the burlesque stars and every thing in between. Her lush visible file of those flourishing instances in NYC advantages from her distinctive place each as participant and photographer. She was an early member of the legendary Club 57, a co-founder and performer with the no-wave band Pulsallama, home photographer at The Pyramid Club, coat verify at Jackie 60, bartender at The Boy Bar, simply to call a number of. Many of the photographs from her e-book Shots, 1980 – 1986, have been featured at MOMA, The New Museum, Bozar Museum, Tate Museum Modern, Art Forum, a BBC documentary, and quite a few books, motion pictures, magazines, and solo exhibits. The extraordinarily private imaginative and prescient mirrored in her pictures brings endearing humanity to unique artists like Wendy Wild, John Sex, Keith Haring, Ann Magnuson, and Kenny Scharf, simply to call a number of.
Aprili Palmieri
April is a high-quality artist dwelling in Brooklyn NY and a local New Yorker. She graduated from the School of Visual with a level in high-quality artwork. She began going to the Monster Movie Club at Club 57 in 1978 and joined the Club 57 Ladies Auxiliary of The Lower East Side. Eventually April Palmieri participated in artwork exhibits just like the Keith Haring Xerox Show, performances, and created occasions at Club 57 together with The Lamp Show with Diana Lillig and The Science Fair. She was additionally a member of John Sex’s rock-pop-cabaret present John Sex and the Bodacious Ta Tas and a member of Pulsallama created by Ann Magnusson which was an all feminine efficiency band that received signed by British label Y Records. Both teams had success in NYC night time golf equipment, made recordings and carried out throughout the USA and toured internationally. She was additionally a photographer on the Club 57. In 2019 her photographs have been included as a part of the Keith Haring exhibition at Tate Liverpool UK, June by means of November 2019 and featured within the New York Scene/Unseen as a part of the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool UK curated by Suzie Zabrowski in 2019. Her photographs have been additionally proven in a digital format at The Museum of Modern Art, from 2017 to 2018, for the exhibition: Film, Performance, and Art within the East Village, 1978–1983. Lately, she is portray in acrylic and watercolor, making nonetheless life work at house and stepping exterior to have interaction in plein air sketching and portray in New York City and in Maine.
Tomek Smolarski
Tomek Smolarski is Film and Performing Arts curator on the Polish Cultural Institute New York, with over 20 years of expertise in manufacturing of worldwide cultural occasions and he has intensive information in cultural diplomacy. He initiated and executed tasks with companions all around the US akin to BAM, MoMA, Film at Lincoln Center, Museum of the Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, NYU Skirball, Abrons Arts Center, Martin E. Segal Theater Center, La Mama Theater, Joe’s Pub, RedCat, Odyssey Theater, Berkley Arts Museum and Pacific Film Archives, Chicago Cultural Center, and plenty of others.