Beat Generation Ladies, Get Ready to HOWL!

LOW LIFE 4 performer AMBER RAY as THE BEAT GIRL, photo by ALEX COLBY

HOWL! FESTIVAL AND THE JACKIE FACTORY PRESENT
LOW LIFE 4: BEAT GIRL
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
5-7 PM - WE START AND END ON TIME!
FREE ADMISSION
TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK, NYC
mothernyc.com/lowlife
howlfestival.com

On September 12, JACKIE FACTORY producers CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL will present their fourth annual LOW LIFE to crown the 2010 HOWL! FESTIVAL. LOW LIFE is the free and fabulous Sunday evening climax to HOWL! - a two hour spectacular inspired by East Village decades past. Each year's theme is served up in a lavishly costumed production starring dozens of downtown's finest. This year's LOW LIFE 4: BEAT GIRL pays homage to homegrown fifties beatnik culture and the BOWERY BEATS - the rebel painters, poets and performers drifting east from Greenwich Village. The show also sheds light on the Women of the Beat Generation, often overlooked, and their influence on 50's Burlesque.

The BEAT theme of LOW LIFE 4 will be interpreted by multiple dance companies, in vocal and musical performances, burlesque and drag renderings and of course - spoken word! The bill includes international drag icons JOEY ARIAS and SHERRY VINE, Burlesque Queen DIRTY MARTINI and Boylesque King TIGGER, butoh company VANGELINE THEATER, spoken word icons PAUL SKIFF and BOBBY MILLER, sensationalist AMBER RAY, chanteuse HEATHER LITTEER and the Low Life debuts of BROWN GIRLS BURLESQUE and the RACHEL KLEIN THEATER. As in years past, LOW LIFE features two MCs - recording artist PAUL ALEXANDER (of THE ONES and JACKIE 60) with EMPRESS CHI CHI VALENTI, the show's co-producer.

Dress Up And Join Us In The Park! Wear Beat Girl Glamour, Beatnik Cliches, Bettie Page Boho, Angelheaded Hipster, Black Tights, Abstract Expressionist Bodypaint, Berets, Beat Burlesque (North Beach vs. Left Bank), Existential Trannie, Rivington Street Refusenik or Art School Effects. Carry Sunflowers or BYOB (Bring Your Own Bongos)

LOW LIFE events were inspired by the seminal LUC SANTE book "LOW LIFE: The Lures and Snares of Old New York" and are produced by local performance collective THE JACKIE FACTORY NYC. The annual LOW LIFE extravaganzas at HOWL! continue a body of work born at the seminal Meat Market nightclub JACKIE 60 in 1997, with past editions in London, Minneapolis and of course, the HOWL! FESTIVAL since 2007. For the show's producers, East Village residents for over two decades, this annual spectacular is a Valentine to the neighborhood's past, present and future stars.

THE HOWL! FESTIVAL was named in honor of the groundbreaking poem by ALLEN GINSBERG and began in 2003. HOWL celebrates the East Village and Lower East Side's role as a preeminent locus of culture, with signature events like the group reading of HOWL and ART AROUND THE PARK. Centered in Tompkins Square Park, the festival attracts more than 100,000 visitors to the clubs, galleries, parks, streets, and theaters of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Summer 2009 marked the addition of HOWL! HELP, a year-round emergency assistance and health fund for East Village/ Loisaida artists of all eras and disciplines - visit the howlfestival.com website for more information. The 2010 festival runs for the whole month of September in venues including THEATRE 80 ST. MARKS, BOWERY POETRY CLUB, ELLA, BOWERY ELECTRIC and ST. MARKS CHURCH.

THE JACKIE FACTORY is the NYC based nightclub arts collective founded by husband and wife team CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL in 1990. Most famous for the 450 themed editions of its decade-long party JACKIE 60, venue MOTHER, and annual Stevie Nicks extravaganza NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STEVIES, "the Factory" also creates large-scale spectacles in New York and cities nationwide and worldwide.