Midsummer Benefit

On July 26, our Midsummer Benefit will bring together the creative minds who power our organization for a celebratory evening of culinary delights and multidisciplinary performances throughout our garden and building. Join us for a cocktail hour, music and dance performances by past Music Resident Kinlaw, and a seated full-course dinner crafted by Chef DeVonn Francis.

All funds raised through the Midsummer Benefit will support the production and presentation of work by emerging and underrepresented creators while sustaining free community-driven programs.

Unable to attend but would still like to contribute? Make a fully tax-deductible donation to our annual fund here!

Please note: This event is ages 21+.

About DeVonn Francis

DeVonn Francis is the founder of Yardy, a creative studio in New York City. A chef, artist, and first-generation Jamaican-American, he started Yardy as a way to explore his identity through food and events.

Yardy World uses a menu as a tool to understand how food helps us trace the movement of the Caribbean diaspora. In so many ways, Caribbean food is the history of tumultuous global friction and joyous cultural exchange that reminds us that what we taste, smell, feel, hear, and see is an ever-evolving experience. For the Pioneer Works Midsummer Benefit , we pay homage to the vibrant music, color palette, and flavors found across many islands to bring our food history into a contemporary context.

About Kinlaw

Kinlaw is an audio composer, choreographer, and artist focusing on empathic potential and agency developed by performance. Their productions have been featured throughout New York City in institutions like MoMA, MoMA PS1, New Museum, and Mana Contemporary, as well as throughout Europe. Kinlaw is a former member of New Inc at the New Museum, focusing on psychoacoustical research at Bell Labs. Kinlaw is an MFA candidate at Bard College, Milton Avery School of the Arts, and previous April musical Artist-in-Residence at Pioneer Works.

Midsummer Benefit performances include audio composition, choreography, and artistic direction by Kinlaw. Originally developed during their time as a Pioneer Works music resident in April of 2022, this work-in-process performance encourages play in the live intersection of sound, voice, and dance while experimenting with audience sightlines made available in the Pioneer Works space.