Recess

Recess Partnering with artists to build a more just and equitable arts community. Recess Activities, Inc.

offers a new model that gives contemporary and emerging artists space to use as a studio, exhibition venue, or grounds for experimentation.

Join us this Saturday, May 30 for the opening reception of Bel Falleiros’ new Session at Recess — DAWN-DUSK-DAWN— an eve...
05/29/2026

Join us this Saturday, May 30 for the opening reception of Bel Falleiros’ new Session at Recess — DAWN-DUSK-DAWN— an evening of sound, movement, listening, and collective grounding shaped by three artists working across music, sculpture, performance, and embodied practice.

Together, Bel Falleiros, Theresa Bearfox, and Koyotzintli will guide a sequence of participatory activations weaving together body movement, clay instrument sounding, voice, and song.

🌿 Theresa Bearfox will share traditional Mohawk songs honoring relationships to the natural world alongside original compositions rooted in healing, calm, and collective care. Bearfox began writing songs for Kontiwennenhawi (Carriers of the Words), a traditional women’s singing group dedicated to preserving and uplifting Mohawk language and culture. Her music carries forward deep commitments to language preservation, community, and the belief that song can bring people together.

🏺 Koyotzintli, an interdisciplinary artist from the Pacific coast of Manabí, Ecuador, works across sound, sculpture, and ritual performance using hand-built clay instruments and installations. Rooted in research on Indigenous epistemologies across the Americas, her practice approaches clay as both sonic vessel and archival medium—holding memory, vibration, and embodied knowledge.

🌱 Bel Falleiros is a Brazilian artist whose work explores place, belonging, and constructed landscapes, creates spaces for connection with nature, inner life, and one another. Across installations, collaborative projects, and social practice, Falleiros investigates how land, memory, and community shape our understanding of where—and how—we belong.

Throughout the evening, the artists will invite the public to participate through simple sound-making, movement, and collective listening, creating a nurturing atmosphere to reset the body and recharge the spirit together.

Followed by light refreshments.

🗓 Friday, May 30, 12-3pm
📍 Recess | 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn
🎟 Free and open to the public • Link in bio

🌞🌒🌱 Join us Friday, May 30 for the opening reception of DAWN–DUSK–DAWN, Bel Falleiros’ new Session at Recess ✨🕯️🌾For the...
05/21/2026

🌞🌒🌱 Join us Friday, May 30 for the opening reception of DAWN–DUSK–DAWN, Bel Falleiros’ new Session at Recess ✨🕯️🌾

For the opening program, Bel Falleiros (.falleiros) is joined by artists Theresa Bearfox () and Koyotzintli () for an afternoon of collective movement, sound, singing, and installation activation attuned to cycles of time, renewal, and care 🌌

Beginning with a guided movement exercise led by Koyotzintli, attendees will be invited to reconnect with their bodies through breath, sound, and collective rhythm. Theresa Bearfox will then share traditional Mohawk songs honoring relationships with the natural world alongside original compositions rooted in healing, spirit, and togetherness 🌙🌿

Throughout the program, participants will be invited to sound simple clay instruments with their voices and bodies, creating a shared atmosphere of listening, reflection, and restoration. Toward the close of the gathering, guests will take part in a collective activation of the installation—moving through the space to place candles within the work as part of an evolving communal gesture 🕯️⭐🌱

12–2pm — Live program
2–3pm — Exhibition viewing, refreshments, and time to gather in the space ☁️🌾

Recess
46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn

Free and open to all. RSVP at the link in bio ✨

Today, May 15, is the final day of Recess’ Spring Donor Drive, which means you have 1 day left to help us reach our goal...
05/15/2026

Today, May 15, is the final day of Recess’ Spring Donor Drive, which means you have 1 day left to help us reach our goal of $15K and 30 new monthly Sustainers!

Your support helps sustain artist residencies, public programs, youth leadership initiatives, and spaces where communities can gather, learn, and imagine new possibilities together. Every contribution directly supports artists and community-centered programming at a moment when independent cultural spaces need more collective support than ever.

If you’ve been meaning to give to or amplify our Spring Donor Drive, today is the day.

We’re also closing out the campaign with a special community celebration tonight: an Open Mic Night at Recess featuring performances, readings, and gathering with friends and supporters of the organization. We’d love to see you there!

Tonight, Friday, May 15

Doors Open: 5 pm | Show: 5:30–8 pm

Recess, 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Donate & RSVP at the link in our bio

Images: Recess team, fellows, and board members, followed by a graphic sharing the Donor Drive

Young people deserve more than access—they deserve investment, trust, mentorship, and spaces where they can grow into th...
05/15/2026

Young people deserve more than access—they deserve investment, trust, mentorship, and spaces where they can grow into themselves as artists and leaders.

Swipe to hear directly from Fellows about what Recess has made possible in their lives:

“Assembly has helped me improve myself more than I ever expected & I’m forever grateful.” — Noah

“Recess didn’t just give me space to create, it gave me a place to belong.” — Shamar Amir

“In Recess I understood that to create is also to listen and build something that exists beyond oneself.” — Diego

At Recess, economic justice means resourcing young people not only to participate in culture, but to shape it.

We’re raising $15,000 and welcoming 30 new Sustainers by May 15 to keep this work going.

Whether you can give $10, $25, $100, or more, every contribution helps sustain mentorship, workshops, artist opportunities, and youth programs year-round.

Become a Sustainer today. Link in bio.

✨ We’re raising $15K + welcoming 30 new sustainers by May 15!Recess exists because artists trust us with their ideas and...
05/12/2026

✨ We’re raising $15K + welcoming 30 new sustainers by May 15!

Recess exists because artists trust us with their ideas and communities.

This Spring Donor Drive, we’re reflecting on what it means to build a space where artists can experiment, question, collaborate, and grow in public. Over the years, Recess has supported artists working across performance, sound, film, installation, community organizing, abolitionist practice, and beyond.

As past Session artists remind us:

“Recess resources artists and their communities by making space to ask difficult questions and stay with those questions together, instead of rushing toward answers.” — Miriam Simun

“Recess believes that artists are the innovators amid this change. Creatives who build the future we have yet to see.” — Christopher Udemezue

“The program offers a lot of capacity-building resources while supporting fellows in their autonomous creative pursuits.” — Kriss Li

“Recess staff show up for real conversation and exchange… humble enough to listen and learn how to be more effective.” — Pia Monique Murray

If you believe in supporting artists and cultural workers—and in keeping experimental, public, artist-centered spaces free and accessible—we hope you’ll contribute to our Spring Donor Drive.

Every gift helps sustain future projects, public programs, artist stipends, Assembly fellowships, and the space for artists and audiences to gather together.

🔗 Donate via link in bio.

🎤🔥 THIS FRIDAY: OPEN MIC NIGHT AT RECESS — A FUNDRAISER 🔥🎤Our legendary Open Mics are back — and this one is extra speci...
05/11/2026

🎤🔥 THIS FRIDAY: OPEN MIC NIGHT AT RECESS — A FUNDRAISER 🔥🎤

Our legendary Open Mics are back — and this one is extra special!

For years, Recess Open Mics have been a space for wild experiments, first performances, vulnerable poems, screaming saxophones, last-minute freestyles, new collaborators, packed rooms, and the kind of creative energy you can’t manufacture. (iykyk.)

This Saturday’s edition is a community celebration and the final push for our Spring Donor Drive.

🚨 We have ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT to reach our goal:
💥 $15,000 by May 15
💥 30 new Sustainers

Right now we’re at:
⚠️ just $1,800 raised
⚠️ only 5 out of 30 sustainers

We need our community to show up.

Join artists, alumni, fellows, friends, and first-timers for an evening of music, poetry, performance, experimentation, and collective support for the future of Recess.

🎟 Suggested donation: $15–$30
🚫 No one turned away for lack of funds
🎤 Performing counts as contributing

PLUS: donors + new sustainers will be entered into an Assembly Art Giveaway featuring works by artists from our community.

Recess has always been about resourcing artists directly — especially emerging artists, system-impacted youth, and cultural workers building new ways forward. This event helps keep our programs free, public, experimental, and alive.

Come perform.
Come donate.
Come scream-sing a poem.
Come support the space that supports so many.

🗓 Saturday
📍 Recess | 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn
🔗 Donate + RSVP via link in bio

⏳✨ Last chance to experience Zeelie Brown’s A sonata to seed whatever flourishes after the end of the American empire at...
05/08/2026

⏳✨ Last chance to experience Zeelie Brown’s A sonata to seed whatever flourishes after the end of the American empire at Recess.

After weeks of sound, reflection, research, and collective gathering, the project comes to a close this weekend.

Join us tonight for the culminating reception and live performance premiere, where Zeelie Brown and collaborators will activate the gallery through voice, strings, electronics, and improvisation—bringing the installation’s evolving ideas into a final shared listening experience.

🗓 Closing Reception + Performance — Tonight
📍 Recess | 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn

Run of Show:
🚪 Doors Open — 5pm
💬 Artist Talk — 6pm
🎻 Live Performance — 7–7:40pm
✨ Reception — 7:45–9pm

Featuring:
— Alana Colvin
— Rena Anakwesound — Yatta Zoker
— Bella Malika Shelby
🌟 Special guest appearance by Dre Cardinal

Can’t make it tonight? The installation remains open for one final day of open hours:

🕛 Today + Tomorrow | 12–5pm

Spend time with the artworks, records, altars, and collective writing prompt that helped shape the work throughout the Session.

🎟 Always free and open to the public.

🎻✨ The finale is here.Join us for the closing reception and culminating performance of A sonata to seed whatever flouris...
05/03/2026

🎻✨ The finale is here.

Join us for the closing reception and culminating performance of A sonata to seed whatever flourishes after the end of the American empire, Zeelie Brown’s Session at Recess.

Over the past weeks, Zeelie has transformed the Session space into a site of listening, research, rehearsal, and collective reflection. Now, the project reaches its final public form with the premiere of a new sonata developed over the course of the exhibition.

Performed live in the gallery, this one-night-only presentation brings together an extraordinary ensemble working across voice, electronics, strings, and movement—expanding the installation into a rich, immersive sonic landscape.

Featuring:
🎸 Alana Colvin () — guitar
🎛 Rena Anakwe () — electronics
🎤 Yatta Zoker (.sound) — vocals, electronics
✨ Bella Malika Shelby ()
🌟 Special guest appearance by Dre Cardinal

Together with Zeelie, these artists will activate the gallery through sound, collaboration, and improvisation, drawing together the materials, questions, and energies that have shaped the Session from the very beginning.

Arrive early to spend time with the installation. Stay after the performance for conversation with the artists.

🗓 Friday, May 8
🕕 5-9pm
📍 Recess | 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn
🎟 Free and open to the public

One night only. Don’t miss it.

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for the opening reception of Zeelie Brown’s A sonata to seed whatever flou...
04/10/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for the opening reception of Zeelie Brown’s A sonata to seed whatever flourishes after the end of the American empire, on view at Recess now through May 9.

During the evening, Zeelie shared a brief cello performance, situating the project within its research into—and reverence for—Black Southern tradition and sound. It created a truly memorable moment to enter the work together.

View the installation during our Open Hours! Spend time with the artworks, listen to selections from Zeelie’s personal record collection, and contribute to the collective writing prompt that will continue shaping the project:

💬 “Please write down something that you need to leave behind for you to be free. Set it by the light.”

🕛 Open Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 12–5pm
📍 Recess, 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn

Free and open to the public.

Drop in Thursdays–Saturdays, 12–5pm to experience Abolition Film Society: Recess by artist Kriss Li & .The Session space...
03/05/2026

Drop in Thursdays–Saturdays, 12–5pm to experience Abolition Film Society: Recess by artist Kriss Li & .

The Session space operates as a living production studio and archive—filled with workshop materials, brainstorm notes, screenplays, storyboards, and the growing collection of props, costumes, and set pieces created through a creative exchange between Recess Assembly Fellows and writers inside Eastern Correctional Institution.

Also on view are earlier chapters of Li’s ongoing Abolition Film Society series:

Volume 1 shared experimental films from the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center with incarcerated members of the Prisoner Correspondence Project—circulating screenshots, transcripts, and audio fragments through mail and phone calls. Participants were invited to respond in writing, creating new interpretations from partial, multimedia encounters.

Volume 2 was developed with incarcerated collaborator Amber Kim, resulting in a two-channel silent film distributed into prison as flipbooks, transforming cinematic time into a tactile format that could travel across prison walls.

🗓 Thursdays–Saturdays | 12–5pm
📍 Recess, 46 Washington Ave, Brooklyn
Free and open to the public.

Images: Visitors to the Session space read script excerpts and writings from incarcerated artists. Photography by Manuel Molina Martagon.

Address

46 Washington Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
11205

Opening Hours

Tuesday 12pm - 6pm
Wednesday 12pm - 6pm
Thursday 2pm - 8pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 6pm

Telephone

+16468633765

Website

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