User:Jasonfb/Dumba
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DUMBA is a collective living space and anarchist community center that was part of the queer, riotgrrl, punk, and independent film scene in Brooklyn, New York between 1995 and 2006. dumba was the site of many types of events, including many fundraisers for political causes.
Located in Brooklyn, the name was a feminized version of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), a name for the neighborhood between Fulton Landing and Vinegar Hill. The group who founded the space included Scott Berry, Brian Kay, Kabier [last name], Vincent [last name], and others. dumba was first known for putting on all-ages punk shows, which were promoted by word of mouth and simple photocopied flyers displaying a DIY aesthetic. Some thought dumba stole the fire from ABC No Rio, the older anarchist space that also put on all-ages punk shows, in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Bands and performers that played at this all-ages space include The Need, Los Crudos, Limp Wrist, Nedra Johnson, the Spaceheads, Octant, God is My Co-pilot, Tribe 8, Kaia, Patsy, the Lookers and many more. Justin Bond and Penny Arcade performed there at the first ever Gay Shame event in June 1998. Brooklyn Babylon Cinema was born at dumba, and continued for several years, presenting such events as Times Square Sinema (May 7, 1999), a tribute to the Deuce's seedy past, and Caught Looking (March 2000), a program about voyeurism, curated by Aaron Scott, which included two video programs, and installations by Rob Roth and others.
The second iteration of Queeruption was largely housed at dumba October 7-11, 1999. Hundreds of activists came from across the USA and even from Europe for this free, radical queer "encuentro" that was part skill-share, social event and conference, featuring over 60 workshops, as well as films, performances and parties. There was a conflict over unequal representation by people of color, and at one point the scheduled proceedings were halted for an impromptu discussion, during which some people of color walked out in frustration. There was also a Columbus Day action in Central Park, led by mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore (see Transgressional fiction), in which city vehicles were "ticketed" for parking on stolen land, and to protest the arrest of a gay man, allegedly for cruising in the park although he claimed to be urinating.
Another landmark event was the first-ever concert by Le Tigre on April 21st, 2000. The loft was over-packed that night, so much so that there was a live video feed of the band from one room to another. The band donated the door proceeds to the collective.
In 2000 and 2001, DUMBA was home to the Lusty Loft Parties.
The Times Square Sinema event (which featured a kissing booth, and encouraged fraternizing) and the Saturday night party at Queeruption laid the seeds for the first Lusty Loft party on September 9, 2000. These parties were amazingly successful, and were even written up in the Village Voice several times, notably by Guy Trebay and Tristan Taormino. What made them unique was the combination of music (always several DJs a night), film projections on 8mm, 16mm and video, artwork, performances, vegetarian food, no alcohol sold or provided, and the freewheeling erotic atmosphere.
The NY Press once called dumba the worst live-music venue in New York, because of its weird shape and poor sightlines.
Other significant visual aspects of dumba included the retro fridge in the front kitchen, the map camera room, and, in later years, a Kodak vending machine that dispensed Super8 film, and the Adult Books sign liberated from a Manhattan sex shop on 14th Street.
John Cameron Mitchell's film Shortbus (2006) was partially shot at dumba in 2005. In the film, a hyperbolized dumba was the site of Justin Bond's salon. Some people associated with dumba even appear in the film, in small roles.
The inaugural program of Brooklyn Babylon Cinema included the following text, which was sort of a manifesto, inspired by the New American Cinema Group's forceful language: In these days of Mayoral fiat and rampant real estate speculation (the result of runaway capitalism), the people of New York City find themselves under attack in our own home, and alienated from our happily hurried way of life. This screening sets out to demonstrate how the excesses of the 80's homophobia, overspending, genocide by inaction are not so far removed from today. Tonight's selection of films shows that AIDSphobia is STILL being used to desexualize gay culture. The juxtaposition of explicit lesbian sex films (from 1973 and 1993) shows how incendiary this imagery remains. AIDS lingers on and even while the mortality rate is declining, the infection rate continues apace. So we present the somber meditation of TWO MARCHES, which reminds us that dashed expectations are nothing new while Stuart Gaffney's video essays pull us into the present dilemma of problematic AIDS treatments. Jan Oxenberg's classic A COMEDY IN SIX UNNATURAL ACTS is disruptive of homosexual complacency, underscoring the need for a dynamic identity politics that embraces the stone butch as much as the trans-lesbianism of Texas Tomboy. This program is defiantly experimental, because we believe that the narrative strategies employed by even such "transgressive" and "controversial" films as Happiness and Boogie Nights serve to comfort the viewer and distract the authentic expression of the individual. These films are the color of blood.
[edit] References
- Trebay, Guy; "Queers in Space DUMBA Takes Off"; Village Voice, May 12, 1999.
- "Still, real life and faux life merged while making the movie—the sexed-up loft scenes were shot in DUMBO at the DUMBA artists' space, and guess what: "DUMBA—where we shot it—has been shut down," Mitchell says. "The neighbors complained about parties and sex parties. The lease is up this December."
- Romana, Tricia; "Riding the Shortbus"; Village Voice, Oct 3rd, 2006.
- http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0640,romano,74622,15.html
- http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0125,prideguide,25720,1.html
- http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0135,taormino,27630,24.html
- http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0646,taormino,74993,24.html
- http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0646,taormino,74993,24.html
- "The Need and Le Tigre play Brownies April 7 and Dumba April 21 [2000]"
- "NYC Grassroots Media Conference... Opening-night party is Friday at 7:30 at Dumba Queer Arts Collective, 57 Jay Street, Brooklyn."
- "Sienna lives and paints at the dUMBA Queer Performing Arts collective in Brooklyn, a place they describe on the Internet as “run by a loose-knit collective, usually made up of visual artists, media artists, writers, songsters, dance fanatics, flirty bohemians, political and cultural activists, and otherwise socially boisterous girls and boys.” They have sex parties and art shows, and above the bathroom door, instead of GIRLS or BOYS, it says TRANNIES."
- "Gay Shame was born in New York in 1998 at queer collective performance-living space DUMBA..."
- "DUMBO'S LUSTY LOFT: The final days of the DUMBA collective." {WARNING: this article may contain factually untrue information
- "MOMENTO MORI: THE FILMS OF JIM HUBBARD / Documentaries by co-founder of the NY Lesbian/Gay Experimental Film & Video Festival; Dumba, 57 Jay St. (betw. Front & Water Sts.), Bklyn., 718-670-3719; 9, call for price [through Fri.]. "
- http://nypress.com/14/5/listings/filmlists.cfm {event listing}
- "THE WOBBLIES / 1979 doc. about Industrial Workers of the World, complete with labor struggle history dating back to turn of 20th-century; Dumba, 57 Jay St. (betw. Front & Water Sts.), Bklyn., 718-670-3719; 9, $5. "
- http://nypress.com/13/31/listings/filmlists.cfm {event listing}
- "SPIN CYCLE: THE GAME / Improved mix of coffee hour & kidnapping; DUMBA, 57 Jay St. (York. St.), Bklyn., 646-319-5829; Fri. at 8, Sat. at 2 & 8, $5."
- http://nypress.com/13/20/listings/performance.cfm {event listing}
