CuRRENT & UPCOMING SHOWS
Big Shoes, Big Moments
A Clown Variety Show That Celebrates Growing Pains
Friday, August 22, 7:30-10:30pm
Delight in reliving the days of Bar Mitzvahs, Sweet 16s, Quinceañeras, Prom, etc. with a group of clowns you will not forget! Featuring acts of physical comedy, clown, music, and burlesque.
The art of clown relies heavily on audience participation, so get excited to be a part of our show!
Stick around after the show to hobnob with hobnobbers!
Content Advisory: While Big Shoes, Big Moments celebrates growing pains, please be advised that the show contains adult content and is not suitable for children.
Featuring:
Zoe Finn
Matthew Silver
Gwendolyn Burton
Anamaria Leon
Leon Masin
Hannah Marias
Dylan Wesley
Rebekah Dawn
Siddharth Raj
Patrick Golden
Sunset
JAZZ
Sunset Jazz is a free, indoor jazz music series every Friday at Culture Lab LIC. Come listen to incredible musicians, have a drink and take in the art.
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Click Here for May-October schedule.
LIVE in
THE LOT
Live in The Lot is our free summer concert series, featuring live music performed outdoors* every weekend!
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​​Click Here for more info!
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*Weather permitting. Schedule subject to change. Be sure to check Culture Lab LIC on Instagram and Facebook for latest schedule and lineup updates.
Hit Out
by Parini Secondo (Italy)
Presented by
DOWN to EARTH Festival
Saturday, August 30, 5:30pm
Sunday, August 31, 6:30pm
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Hit Out is the agile and compact version of HIT, a choreographic and musical project where jump rope activity is used as a percussive instrument to manifest embodied rhythms
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After one year of athletic training, the jumpers on stage perform a rhythmical score in which single-unders, side-swings and double-unders are both athletic and musical elements: combined with voice and synthetic sounds, they harmonize into a true HIT.
The practice of training is elevated into a performative action: the hammering succession of rope strokes is an echo of rebellion against those forces that would have us lying motionless on the ground with our eyes closed.
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DOWN TO EARTH Festival Director and Executive Producer: Elena Siyanko
DOWN TO EARTH Festival Director: Frank Hentschker
Producer and Associate Director of Programs, Segal Center: Meg Araneo
Producer: Natalie Rhine
DOWN TO EARTH, NYC’s First International Festival of Multidisciplinary Creation in Public Spaces, brings world-class international performance, theater, contemporary circus, opera installation, and participatory events—absolutely free—directly to New York City’s vibrant, diverse communities. An initiative that embraces global exchange and democratizes cultural expression, the inaugural festival runs from August 29–September 7, 2025. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center CUNY serves as the festival's curatorial hub, organizational home, and fiscal agent. Here in NYC, partnering with parks in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens and collaborating with more than 10 dynamic cultural and community organizations, we’re staging performances and workshops across multiple urban spaces. Citizen expression beats at the heart of the festival’s artistic vision. DOWN TO EARTH affirms art’s critical role in the economic, social, and mental well-being of all New Yorkers. With a focus on how artistic presence transforms the experience of place, and the powerful role of outdoor creation in transforming communities and spaces, DOWN TO EARTH seeks to expand access to cultural expression, privilege public assembly, and combat the injustices inherent in socio-economic exclusion. Central to the festival's mission is our commitment to dismantling cultural barriers by offering free programs for students, youth, immigrant communities, and families. By attracting a diverse public to free outdoor arts and in-situ performances that are accessible and inviting, the festival will redress the shortcomings of an expensive system of cultural dissemination. Downtoearthfestival.org
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Thursday, September 4, 6:30pm
SANTE! by Le Cirque Kikasse (Quebec)
Presented as part of the DOWN TO EARTH international festival of multidisciplinary performance in public spaces, Downtoearthfestival.org
Elena Siyanko, Festival Director & Executive Producer
Frank Hentschker, Festival Director
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SANTÉ! by Cirque Kikasse (Quebec, Canada) is a dynamic circus show with high-level acrobatics, contagious energy, and breathtaking balancing acts… all on their extraordinary food truck! The troupe transforms tables and chairs into a balancing tower 30 feet in the air, creating comic chaos as they clean their truck and trampoline, and flooding the area with popcorn. A light-hearted tour de force sure to tickle your inner child and thrill your kids. Presented by DOWN to EARTH International Festival of Multidisciplinary Performance in Public Spaces.
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Join us on Thursday, September 4, 6:30pm at Culture Lab LIC for an outdoor experience you won't forget. Festivities begin at 6:30PM and are free to the public.
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DOWN TO EARTH Festival Director and Executive Producer: Elena Siyanko
DOWN TO EARTH Festival Director: Frank Hentschker
Producer and Associate Director of Programs, Segal Center: Meg Araneo
Producer: Natalie Rhine
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DOWN TO EARTH, NYC’s First International Festival of Multidisciplinary Creation in Public Spaces, brings world-class international performance, theater, contemporary circus, opera installation, and participatory events—absolutely free—directly to New York City’s vibrant, diverse communities. An initiative that embraces global exchange and democratizes cultural expression, the inaugural festival runs from August 29–September 7, 2025. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center CUNY serves as the festival's curatorial hub, organizational home, and fiscal agent. Here in NYC, partnering with parks in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens and collaborating with more than 10 dynamic cultural and community organizations, we’re staging performances and workshops across multiple urban spaces. Citizen expression beats at the heart of the festival’s artistic vision. DOWN TO EARTH affirms art’s critical role in the economic, social, and mental well-being of all New Yorkers. With a focus on how artistic presence transforms the experience of place, and the powerful role of outdoor creation in transforming communities and spaces, DOWN TO EARTH seeks to expand access to cultural expression, privilege public assembly, and combat the injustices inherent in socio-economic exclusion. Central to the festival's mission is our commitment to dismantling cultural barriers by offering free programs for students, youth, immigrant communities, and families. By attracting a diverse public to free outdoor arts and in-situ performances that are accessible and inviting, the festival will redress the shortcomings of an expensive system of cultural dissemination. Downtoearthfestival.org
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Culture Lab After Dark presents
Nice One! Comedy
​Laughs meet art at Culture Lab LIC, where stand-up comedy takes center stage in a vibrant gallery setting!
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Upcoming Dates:​
September 4, 8pm
September 18, 8pm
Thanks to our sponsors:
Plaxall Inc, TF Cornerstone, Steve Madden, Howard Gilman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts
ReproEco
Six Short Plays with Dance
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Friday, September 19, 7pm
Saturday, September 20, 3:30pm
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MultiStages, ReproFreedomArts.org, and Culture Lab LIC are joining together to present ReproEco, a collection of six short plays written by six fabulous women that connect our reproductive health and the environment.
Through humor, mythology, Afro-futurism and drama, we look at toxins, our bodies, our communities & our futures.
​Playwrights Diane Breeser, Cindy Cooper, Alinca Hamilton, Mildred Inez Lewis, Cassandra Medley & Laura Shamas.
ReproFreedomArts.org commissioned these talented playwrights, who represent a cross-section of America, to create new works inspired by investigations and conversations with experts in reproductive rights and environmental justice.
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This presentation includes original dances created by Jennifer Chin to accompany the plays.
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Co-produced by Cindy Cooper and Lorca Peress
Directed by Lorca Peress & Allison Astor-Vargas
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Music composed by Sun Hee Kil
Dramaturgy by Lisa Lindstrom
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The Plays:
"Maybe Our Baby" by Diane Breeser: A pregnant woman has a comical nightmare after reading an article on forever chemicals in her doctor's waiting room.
"Until the Change Comes" by Cindy Cooper An advertising duo begins to question their work after an uninvited visit from Theo Colborn, a woman scientist from years gone by who became the first to identify toxic harms to health.
"Always Never Really Here" by Alinca Hamilton Monica and Gabrielle Tompkins, a mother and daughter, face the harsh realities of living without clean running water in the verifiably real town of Sand Branch, Texas.
"Through Water Into Blood" by Mildred Inez Lewis After a devastating miscarriage, a West Virginia woman confronts her birth doula and they both realize the role toxic chemicals may have played.
"We Are Our Ancestors Reasons for Living" by Cassandra Medley In an Afro-futurism style, intergenerational women experience an altered world in which nature is so degraded that the out-of-doors must be delivered and enjoyed virtually.
"Priorities" by Laura Shamas In a dystopian future, two gynecologists and a midwife meet in secret to prioritize the needs of their pregnant patients, so they can escape to a better environment.
Samuel Beckett's
Happy Days
Starring Pamela Rickard
& Stephen Wangh
Directed by David Grove
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Winnie is literally and figuratively stuck in place, using humor and memory to keep her fears at bay in the face of an uncertain future.
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Friday, September 26, 7:30pm
Saturday, September 27, 7:30pm
Friday, October 3, 7:30pm
Saturday, October 4, 7:30pm
"Oh, this is going to be a happy day! Another happy day!" So announces Winnie as she begins another day in Samuel Beckett's absurdly profound and darkly comic masterpiece, HAPPY DAYS. Clinging desperately to the ephemeral presence of her husband Willie as memories surface and stories repeat, Winnie tries to maintain a normal life in a strange new world. She soldiers on, no matter what… fighting the emptiness both within and around her.​
Dating App Disconnect
The Rhythm of Connection with Cultura Pa' Lante and The Full
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Thursday, October 23, 7-10pm
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Let’s put passion back in motion.
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Join us for a night of rhythm, romance, and real connection. We’re trading swipe fatigue and speed dating for salsa steps -- with live music and a community of people who are ready to feel something real.
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What’s in store:
- A short guided panel about reconnecting with your passion
- A mini salsa lesson (no experience or partner needed!)
- Live romantic Latin music and dancing
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Culture Lab LIC will be offering a cash bar to keep the night flowing.
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Ticket proceeds support live musicians and local artists.
A Minor Relief
Multi-disciplinary artist, ayo ohs, debuts her first album, A Minor Relief, with a site-specific night of music, dance, and theater. Along with musician Treya Lam, ayo weaves personal stories and songs together with humor, incisiveness, and grace.
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Through this site-specific journey, ayo guides the audience through life experiences in identity and freedom in a rapidly-changing world. Personal and relatable, ayo’s lyrics explore silence and agency, in an effort to find voice. Both playful and contemplative, ayo asks us to reflect and reject where we are today, to find a little relief.
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Friday, October 17, 7:30pm ​
Saturday, October 18, 7:30pm
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Stay late on Friday for an after-show mingle & album opening party. Stay late on Saturday for a conversation with the artist.
ayo ohs (A.O./she/they) is a socially engaged artist, performer, and director working with movement, music, and healing arts in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY. ayo has presented choreography and spatialized audio compositions in venues in NY and San Francisco, where their work was described as “feisty, clever and poignant” by the SF Bay Guardian. In 2023, ayo released the public art project, The Silent Unseen Audio Tour: An Embodied Introduction to Asian American History, an audio tour tracing histories of Asian American immigration through Flushing Meadows Park and the Queens Museum.
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In theater and installation, ayo has collaborated extensively with Andrew Schneider, including: HERE (Jacob’s Pillow 2025), NOWISWHENWEARE (BAM 2023), NERVOUS/SYSTEM (BAM 2018) and AFTER (EMPAC/The Public Theatre 2018). In dance, ayo was an original cast member in Faye Driscoll’s Thank You For Coming series (2013-2018) including performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, the Venice Biennale, and additional international and US tours. ayo is a founding member of Movement Research’s Artist of Color Council and has been an artist in residence at New York Live Arts (Fresh Tracks), Yaddo, Groundworks Space, and an Engaging Artist’s Fellow at More Art. They hold a BFA summa cum laude from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Experimental Theatre Wing. Find ayo under “ayo minor” on most major music-streaming platforms. A Minor Relief is their first EP of music.
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Photography credit: Maria Baranova
Album cover artwork by Victoria Ravelo
PERFORMING ARTS At Culture Lab LIC
Culture Lab LIC is passionate about supporting emerging artists and fostering ambitious work. Over the past four years, our directors have helped produce over 25 professional productions. We have supported original and in-development work, presenting the premiere productions.
We have provided rehearsal space for over 20 theatre/dance and music groups and produced hundreds of events. In 2024 alone, we donated over 1,000 hours of rehearsal space to local theatre and dance companies. Over the past three years, we have created an amazing space for performing artists to learn, grow, take risks and make work. We are proud to create affordable opportunities for our local artistic community here in LIC!
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