The Lo-Down Culture Cast

This week on The Lo-Down Culture Cast we spoke the trio behind the new documentary, Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World . Filmmaker Michael Fiore , who wrote, directed and produced the film, joined host Traven Rice, along with Tom and Jason Birchard, the 2nd and 3rd generation owners of Veselka , the restaurant, to talk about the experience of making the film right as the...

This week on the Culture Cast we spoke with Steven Matrick, Co-Founder of The New Colossus Festival , which is happening at eight different venues on the Lower East Side from March 6 - 10. Over 130 bands from all over the world will be playing at Arlene's Grocery, Pianos, Rockwood Music Hall, Mercury Lounge, Heaven Can Wait, Berlin and Baker Falls. The festival was started in 2019 in an effort to...

An assemblage piece in Bonnie Lucas' exhibit, "Small Worlds," currently showing at Trotter&Sholer (168 Suffolk St.) This week we spoke with artist Bonnie Lucas , who currently has a show at the gallery Trotter&Sholer on Suffolk Street. Bonnie has been creating intricate assemblages, collages, drawings and paintings that deconstruct the cliches of girlhood for the past five decades.  We fir...

Kicking off our next series of interviews with culture changers in downtown New York is our conversation with gallery Founder and Director Hannah Traore . She's an up and comer in the NY art and fashion scene who's been widely recognized for taking "old guard" gallery owners to task, especially when it comes to artist representation. Host Traven Rice spoke with her about putting down roots in the...

Host Traven Rice speaks with Niki Russ Federman for episode 11 of The Lo-Down Culture Cast. She's the 4th generation co-owner of the esteemed appetizing shop, Russ & Daughters . Known for the best bagels, lox, herring, caviar babka and other traditional baked goods and smoked fish in New York City, the landmark shop has been in the same location at 179 East Houston Street since 1914. Russ &amp...

Host Traven Rice speaks with tattoo artist and historian Michelle Myles . Michelle started tattooing on the Lower East Side in the early 1990's, before it was legal. She opened Daredevil Tattoo in 1997 with her business partner, Brad Fink. Michelle was one of the first female tattoo artists around. Brad has always been a collector. They ended up with so many interesting historical tattoo artifacts...

This week we spoke to Orchard Street Runners Founder, Joe DiNoto.  DiNoto created a weekly running group that has blossomed into an organization that is known globally for its creative, high intensity, late night (threshold pace) races that take place on the live streets of NYC. A born and raised New Yorker, Joe DiNoto founded Orchard Street Runners after a successful yet unfulfilling career in ar...

Host Traven Rice speaks with Whitney Browne , an experimental and commercial photographer whose work explores themes of movement and gesture as reflections of mental states. Best known for her involvement in the dance community, she currently works in New York City and Los Angeles. She has spent the last decade developing her own experimental movement photography methods, working to build a visual...

MM Serra joins host Traven Rice to talk about her career as an avant garde and experimental filmmaker. Serra has been based on the Lower East Side for over three decades. She is also an author, curator, and professor at Parsons at the New School. For 32 years, she was the Executive Director of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative , the world’s oldest and largest archive of independent film. Serra has crea...

Host Traven Rice speaks with the folks from Nonhuman Teachers , a new non-profit that takes a creative approach to ecological storytelling.  Executive Director Christian Cummings, Events Coordinator Joey Valley and Board Director Sandeep Rangi spoke with host Traven Rice about the newly formed project that aims to help deepen the relationship between humans and the natural world. The non-profit sp...

Host Traven Rice speaks with Yin Kong , Director and Co-founder of Think! Chinatown . Yin is a community-based designer and curator living and working in Manhattan's Chinatown. Think! Chinatown is the culmination of her work in urban design, museum, culinary & cultural instruction, and community engagement.  Think! Chinatown is an intergenerational non-profit based in Manhattan’s Chinatown, wo...

Host Traven Rice speaks with Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe's Pub at The Public. Joe’s Pub is an eclectic downtown cabaret space that was named for Public Theater founder Joseph Papp. Since it opened in 1998, Joe’s Pub has been supporting an array of artists at different stages of their careers, offering an intimate space to perform and develop new work. They present a wide variety of live music,...

Host Traven Rice speaks with photographer Destiny Mata for the latest episode of The Lo-Down Culture Cast. Mata is a rising star who grew up in the neighborhood. She is a Mexican American photographer and filmmaker who focuses on issues of subculture and community. After studying photojournalism at LaGuardia Community College and San Antonio College, she spent 2 years as Director of Photography Pr...

Host Traven Rice speaks with artist and documentarian Clayton Patterson . Patterson has been living and working on the Lower East Side since 1979. He's known for his portraits of the wide array of people representing the street culture of the LES in front of his front door on Essex Street as well as his rebellious designs for what became known as the "Clayton Cap," which he created with his long-t...

Host Traven Rice kicks off The Lo-Down Culture Cast with a conversation with gallery owner Natalie Kates. She's the founder of Style Curator, Inc. and co-founder of Kates-Ferri Projects . An early supporter of urban art, Natalie has established herself as a leader in discovering and promoting emerging artists.  She has curated numerous exhibitions and site-specific art installations, developed clo...