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home residency x Tunnel Mobile Karaoke

This November, artist Jevijoe Vitug shares his Tunnel Mobile Karaoke in a series of live karaoke events, public interventions and video archives in collaboration with home residency at various locations in Harlem, New York.

Tunnel Mobile Karaoke (TMK) is a project created by artist Jevijoe Vitug during his 2019 Create Change Artist Residency with The Laundromat Project. The project honors and celebrates the unseen and unnoticed labor of immigrants of color in the United States through a series of karaoke-style music events. In collaboration with home residency and community partners, Jevijoe will host karaoke jam sessions with Harlem residents and passersby, on neighborhood blocks and in community spaces, and encourage participants to sing songs in their mother tongues. Begun in East Harlem, TMK is inspired by “The King of Latin Soul” Joe Bataan, the son of a Filipino immigrant father and an African American mother, who used the tunnel underpasses of East Harlem as “echo chambers” to rehearse and perform his songs. Jevijoe’s wish for the project is to spark conversation and celebration of immigrant histories in Harlem and beyond. Alongside live programs, guests are invited to visit an open studio of the TMK project archive at home residency.

OPENING RECEPTION & OPEN STUDIO

  • Reception: Wednesday 11/20, 7:30pm–10:00pm
  • Open Studio: Thursday 11/21–Wednesday 11/27, 10:00am–6:00pm
    Location: home residency, 2 West 120th St, SW corner of 120th Street & Fifth Avenue. Please RSVP by emailing jessrolls@pm.me to attend the reception and arrange studio visits. Building is wheelchair accessible.

MUSIC EVENTS

All programs are free and drop-in. All buildings and grounds are wheelchair accessible.

TUESDAY 11/19, 6:00pm–7:00pm

  • Karaoke with Jackie Robinson Community
  • Location: Meet at Jackie Robinson Recreation Center entrance, 85 Bradhurst Avenue

WEDNESDAY 11/20, 5:30pm–7:00pm

  • Karaoke with Uptown Grand Central Wellness Wednesdays
  • Location: SW corner of 125th St & Park Ave, by Harlem-125th Street Metro North station
    Uptown Grand Central is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming East 125th Street into a thriving corridor by delivering programs that put advocacy into action through collaborations with businesses, residents and neighborhood organizations across East Harlem.

TUESDAY 11/26, 6:00pm–8:00pm

  • Karaoke and screening of Maureen Catbagan’s “Joe Bataan Fan” with Sisters Uptown Bookstore
  • Location: 1942 Amsterdam Ave, NW corner of 156th Street & Amsterdam Avenue
    Sisters Uptown Bookstore is an Indie bookshop and community hub spotlighting a range or titles and events by and about African Americans. A community resource center for the exchange of information and ideas. Sisters’ motto is “knowledge is key”. Sisters provide an educational, emotional, spiritual and loving environment for diverse community where all are welcome.

For all inquires including access support: jessrolls@pm.me

Special thanks to The Laundromat Project 2019 Create Change Artist Residency Program for supporting Jevijoe Vitug Tunnel Mobile Karaoke and to our community collaborators Uptown Grand Central, Jackie Robinson Community and Sisters Uptown Bookstore for co-hosting events.

For all enquires including access support: jessrolls@pm.me

We hope you can join us!

About home residency

home residency is a pilot artist residency program hosted by curator Jess Rolls in her home and with her neighborhood community in Harlem, New York City, and beyond.

home residency is a curatorial framework to bring artists into community giving them the time and the space to explore their own work and develop new project ideas.

home residency is an artist residency program, project space and home in Harlem, New York, with a flexible model to support artists and communities’ needs. It hosts a free program of public exhibitions and events, with many opportunities to share food and ideas. 

home residency works with New York-based and international artists with an interest in socially engaged art or collaborating with community. In 2019 – 2020 Robert Foster (UK), Jevijoe Vitug (Philippines), Basim Magdy (Egypt), and upcoming Bahar Sabzevari (Iran).

home residency aims to support artists, curators and communities to build up and mediate on new practices of community-embedded programming. It was founded by curator-artist Jess Rolls in 2019 to evaluate her experience of community-arts programming in arts institutions big and small, as well as her current work in public art, social services and public housing. How can we create flexible and useful models for artists and communities?

Thank you to Jackie Robinson Recreation Center (NYC Parks), Seeds of the League (The Art Students League of New York), Sisters Uptown Book Store and Cultural Center, The Laundromat Project, Uptown Grand Central and Wysing Arts Center for providing space, thinking time, partnership and support to our artists’ programs, experiments and ideas in home residency’s pilot year 2019.

FFI: jessrolls@pm.me @home_residency

Jess Rolls is a NYC-based curator and artist with a 10-year career in contemporary art, specializing in public art and socially engaged art. She currently works in Harlem and the Bronx with community-based organizations in public art, social services and public housing. In 2019 she founded home residency, an artist residency program working with artists and neighborhood partners. Jess is originally from the UK and held curator positions at Arnolfini, Bristol, and Futurecity, London and Cambridge

CURRENTLY:

Curating: home residency, New York and internationally (2019 – present)

– With Robert Foster, artist at Wysing Arts Center, Cambridge (UK); Jevijoe Vitug, artist at Flux Factory, Queens, NYC; Basim Magdy, Basel (Switzerland); and upcoming Bahar Sabzevari, Brooklyn, NYC.

Associate Curator, Fordham Bedford, Bronx, New York (2017 – present).

– With Concourse House, Home for Women and Their Children, Fordham Bedford Community Services and Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation.

Faculty Member of Seeds of The League (2018 – present)

– With The Art Students League of New York and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.