Pioneer Works and our Board of Directors invite you to join us on Tuesday, October 8 to celebrate our doors reopening after months of renovations. Raise a glass, enjoy a feast, and support our continued programming, which builds community through the arts and sciences.

The evening will feature performances by Resistance Revival Chorus and DJ Black Helmet, as well as installations by Rachel Stern, Alejandro García Contreras, and Ashcan Orchestra. BITE Catering will provide the meal alongside past-Supper Club Chefs Tara Thomas, Woldy Reyes, and Bad Taste by Jen Monroe.

All ticket proceeds from this event allow Pioneer Works to sustain free, community-driven programs, support our residents and artists, and produce large-scale, accessible programming across the arts and sciences.

About Resistance Revival Chorus

The Resistance Revival Chorus (RRC) is a collective of more than 60 women, and non-binary singers, who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance, and to uplift and center women’s voices. Chorus members are touring musicians, film and television actors, Broadway performers, solo recording artists, gospel singers, political activists, educators, filmmakers, artists, and more, representing a multitude of identities, professions, creative backgrounds, and activist causes. The RRC centers women in music, and addresses how historically marginalized women have been in the music industry.

About DJ Black Helmet

DJ Black Helmet aka Azikiwe Mohammed works fluidly across a wide variety of mediums, making paintings, jewelry, furniture, photographs, tapestries, and sculptures that draw from a set of aesthetics found in the Black home as it exists in America. DJ Black Helmet has been DJ’ing in and around New York since 2000, spinning a mix of deep funk, darker disco tunes and soul bangers.

About Rachel Stern

Rachel Stern (b. 1989, NYC) is a photographer whose work considers the intersection of beauty and power. Her photo-based installations turn to the tableaux and the proscenium creating dialogue between the histories and uses of kitsch and leftist aesthetics. Using materials culled from strip malls and thrift stores she creates images which ask art and visual culture to enter into a discourse of accessibility and, in the spirit of ‘bread and roses’, demand immediate access to beauty. Her work images a world that might be, built out of the world that is. She received her BFA in Photography and the History of Art and Visual Culture in 2011 from the Rhode Island School of Design, attended Skowhegan in 2014, and graduated from Columbia University in 2016 with an MFA in Visual Arts.

About Alejandro García Contreras

Alejandro García Contreras (b. 1982 in Tapachula Chiapas, Mexico) characterizes his creative work by experimentation and dialogue between different materials and technical resources, making his work a mix between various media such as painting, sculpture, photography, video and graphics. The themes of his work are linked to his personality and through his artistic projects, he explores topics and themes inspired by contemporary popular culture, Mexican folklore, myth, occultism and religion.

About Woldy Reyes

Woldy Reyes is a chef, tastemaker, and the founder of the boutique catering company, Woldy Kusina, based in Brooklyn. Woldy Kusina’s cuisine is centered around a simple philosophy — to provide good food and good experiences, with sustainability and culture at the heart of it all. As a first-generation Filipino American, Woldy effortlessly infuses contemporary dishes with vibrant flavors and colors that are inspired by his roots. Using seasonally sourced ingredients, his menus are best described as fresh, natural and fulfilling. Woldy’s debut cookbook titled ‘In the Kusina’ with Chronicle Books is set to debut in Spring 2025.

About Tara Thomas

Tara Thomas is a Brooklyn-based culinary artist and restaurant consultant, renowned for her innovative approach to food. As a dedicated philanthropist in the food sovereignty movement, she passionately advocates for nourishing communities through sustainable practices and intentional collaboration.

About Bad Taste

Jen Monroe is a chef and artist whose project, Bad Taste, is committed to exploring new ways of thinking about food and consumption, approaching food as fantasy and as a transportive medium. Past work has included a dinner about the honey bee health crisis, a 100 square foot edible map of New York City, food installations for fashion week presentations, experimental cotton candy, concept pop-up dinners, a rendering of a futuristic seafood menu in response to climate change, and a series of immersive, monochromatic ten course "color meals." Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Purple.

Unable to attend the event? Please consider making a fully tax-deductible donation.

If you would like to pay via check or wire transfer, please contact us at events@pioneerworks.org for more information.

For sponsorship opportunities or more information, please contact events@pioneerworks.org