First Friday

Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours! Explore the museum’s latest exhibitions and get in on the fun by attending a tour, workshop, performance, or activity throughout the day. Every First Friday is different, offering unique opportunities to engage with rotating exhibitions and the permanent collection. Every First Friday is different–check back soon for a complete list of activities.

Live Letterpress Printing $10 1-7pm
Make your own poster with The Arm! Stop by the museum anytime between 1 and 7pm to crank out a custom poster on a traditional letterpress printer! Participants will have the opportunity to set a line of type on a pre-printed gradient by filling in the blank  “A Museum for _______ Posters”.  Advanced registration is encouraged but not required.

Recycled Bookbinding workshop: $20 2-3:30
Have you ever wondered how bookbinding works? Join this hands-on workshop to learn the basics of bookbinding using recycled materials inspired by Poster House’s acclaimed exhibition We Tried to Warn You! Environmental Crisis Posters, 1970–2020. Participants will try their hands at simple bookbinding techniques using leftover promotional materials from the museum’s public programs. Guests will leave with their own hand-bound. No previous experience necessary; all materials provided. 

Art Deco curatorial tour: 4pm
Join Poster House Chief Curator Angelina Lippert for a guided tour of the acclaimed exhibition Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde. This show chronicles the rise and fall of what would come to be known as Art Deco, starting with the 1925 Paris Exhibition where various factions of the European avant-garde were distilled through commercial endeavors to become the visual language of capitalism, and ending as Deco graphics became more nationalistic in the lead up to World War II. Questions encouraged!

Gettin’ Fishy with Miss Toto: Drag & Tag Presentation and Performance 6:30pm
What do sharks and drag queens have in common? More than you would think! Poster House is pleased to welcome the iconic Miss Toto for a performance and marine science presentation inspired by the hit exhibition We Tried to Warn You! Environmental Crisis Posters, 1970–2020. Learn about Miss Toto’s contributions to monitoring shark populations off the coast of Florida, recently featured in Scientific American.

Songs From If This Be Sin, a Musical by Kirya Traber & Sissi Liu 7:15pm
If This Be Sin is a new musical based on the life of the fat, Black, and butch Harlem Renaissance entertainer, Gladys Bentley. The show is a raucous ride from her infamous performances in Harlem’s most notable clubs in the 1930s to her eventual path to conformity as a “good christian wife” in Los Angeles in the 1950s. This 30-minute presentation will feature three songs from the musical in development, performed by Shari Gill and Denise Manning. It will be followed by a short discussion of the work with co-creators, Kirya Traber and Sissi Liu.

Kirya Traber is a writer, performer, and cultural organizer. She was a 2021 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, New York Stage and Film’s 2020 Founders Award recipient, and Lincoln Center’s lead Community Artist in Residence from 2015–2020. Her collaborative work with Ping Chong + Company, Undesirable Elements: Generation NYZ, was a NYTimes Critics Pick in 2018. She received a NY Emmy Nomination in 2018 for her work on First Person PBS. Her plays include the play-with-music Both My Grandfathers (workshop production, Lincoln Center in 2015), Ready or Not (formerly Lucky development reading, NYSAF 2020), and the musical If This Be Sin (development workshops at Hi-ARTS and the Kennedy Center 2021). Her debut novel, based on the play Ready or Not, will be published by Dutton Books. Throughout her ambitious artistic career, Kirya continuously advocates for social change. More at kiryatraber.com

Dr. Sissi Liu is a composer-lyricist and dramaturg whose work has been seen on the stages of the Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and Times Square Alliance, among others. She is a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) certified designer. Her writings on musical theatre appear in leading academic journals such as Studies in Musical Theatre, Theatre Topics, Performance Research, as well as several edited volumes. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and has taught at CUNY colleges and Brown University. She is currently a Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. Her book, Designturgy: the Drama of Design, will be published by Bloomsbury. Her alter ego, Lusi Erling, is a painter. More at sissiliu.net.

Accessibility Note: Masks and clear masks are available free of charge at the museum. Assistive listening devices and stools are available. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is available upon request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event related questions, please contact info@posterhouse.org