House of Yes (Brooklyn)

The House of YES is an artist collective with a performance venue and art space in Brooklyn, New York. It was founded in May 2007 in Ridgewood, Queens, as a work and play space, as well as home to some of its founders and participants. It hosted numerous underground art and music shows, fashion shows, dance parties, and most prominently, circus arts performances. The venue as an organization also provided classes and trainings for people interested in circus-related arts. The Maujer Street house closed on August 31, 2013.

History

The project to establish the House of Yes grew out of Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova’s earlier Boring Incorporated and Make Fun ventures.^[1] The former was a creative way to bring socially conscious performance art to the streets of New York, while the latter was originally a home-based weekly sewing and crafting event in the basement of Kae Burke’s apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant.^[2]

In May 2007, the House of Yes was founded in Ridgewood, Queens, along with a couple of founders and participants. The house combined the previous ventures of the founders into one space, including a sewing studio, a recording studio, an art space, a party space, as well as practice spaces for stilt-walking and fire-spinning.

On April 22, 2008, the House of Yes was destroyed by fire, caused by a toaster in the kitchen.^[3] The collective lost nearly everything in the fire, including hundreds of costumes, DJ equipment and loudspeakers, aerial silks, theater lights, as well as their house cat named Pilgrim. Nobody except Pilgrim was injured in the accident.^[4] The collective held fundraisers at venues like the Pussycat Lounge, Galapagos Art Space, Spiegeltent and Southpaw, in addition to accepting donations, supplies and volunteer hours.^[5]

J.B. Nicholas, contributing to The Villager under the name Nick Brooks, took top honors for Picture Story in the New York Press Association’s 2008 Better Newspaper Contest.^[6] for his photos of the female performance artists and aerialists from the House of Yes posing amid the charred ruins of their building the day after a devastating fire. ^[7]

In June 2008, the collective had found a new space, and invested thousands of dollars and hours turning an empty, raw warehouse into a suite of offices and performance space. Renovations included the installation of a Broadway-quality, 30-foot-tall, aerial truss, which would be used prominently in the shows in the following months.

On May 4, 2009, Kid Koala presented "Music to Draw to..." at the House of Yes, where there was strictly no dancing, but instead people were invited to draw on their sketchbooks with a free cup of hot chocolate.^[8]

Facilities and Events

• Lady Circus: A performing arts troupe in New York City composed of eight ladies who perform solo, in small groups, or in a variety show setting in their entirety. Lady Circus, self-described as "an intoxicating cocktail of riot and glamour," considers themselves to be, "a mix of sideshow, brooklyn grit, and 1920's gilded decadence finished off with a modern edge."
• The Sky Box: New York City's first and only dedicated aerial theater and performance space, founded and directed by Jordann Baker and Anya Sapozhnikova. Created in response to the growing needs of the expanding aerial community, The Sky Box aims to provide aerialists with a comprehensive array of resources to enable top-notch aerial performance from inception to post-production. The Sky Box hosts classes 6 days a week and a monthly variety show.
• Make Fun Studio: An on-site costume and prop workshop, as well as a sewing studio.
• Recording Studio
• "No Parking on the Dancefloor" A monthly dance party that encourages social responsibility and using the dance floor for which it was intended.
• Venue: The Maujer Street house grew immensely until it housed professional theatre lighting, curtains, adaptable stage, fog machines, and anything else needed to create the ongoing over the top productions that occur their on the regular. Parties, Benefits, Plays, musicals, Birthday Parties, sideshows, and an annual Christmas Spectacular and Haunted House.

References

1. "Fun House". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
2. "Maison d'Ordure". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
3. "there was a fire @ the House of Yes (a Brooklyn loft/performance space)". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
4. "Reborn House of Yes feeling positive on their new show". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
5. "Benefit for House of Yes fire victims". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
6. "Villager wins 11 awards, ranks with state’s best". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
7. "House of Yes, scene of hot hipster parties, is toast". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
8. "Kid Koala Blog". Retrieved 2009-06-01.

Related links

• http://www.houseofyes.org/ - Official Website
• http://www.myspace.com/theyeshouse - MySpace
• http://www.theskybox.org - The Sky Box