Zine 1: "Do Me Justice"

Welcome to New York City, where the Ghost of Tin Pan Alley still lurks.

This is an NYC tale about an EVIL force that threatens performers along the Mohican Road (The Bowery / Broadway). As the demon makes the author ill, she finds a balm- A SALVATION - in the performances of Fall 2023. One by The Mary Wallopers, one by a dance group doing a musical dance show called Arena. Both groups BATTLE the old cold thing.

The author illuminates histories of Black and Irish stereotypes in American Sheet Music.

8.5in x 11in, staple bound, printed on 80lb un-coated paper with a 100lb glossy cover.

Zine is full color baby, 44 pages

Trust me, you will love it.

This in an elite zine.

Limited Edition First Run of 51 Prints.

Original Working Title: The Mary Wallopers & Arena & Vaudeville Clairsentience in NYC

Pre-Order My Zine!

ZINE 1: The Mary Wallopers & Arena & Vaudeville Clairsentience in NYC

This zine will blow your mind, feel good to touch, and rest wonderfully in your hands.

It concerns Irish American and Black American performance in NYC, specifically two shows I saw in fall of 2023.

Show One: The Mary Wallopers and Sam Shackelton at Irving Plaza.

Show Two: “Arena”, by Artist Derek Fordjour, Choreographer Sidra Bell, and Composer Hannah Mayree performed at Petzel Gallery.

Seemed like the Vaudeville was alive in well, but in a way that felt very surprising and releasing. The possibilities for a collective de-colonial explosion seem high. Are the forgotten vaudeville thoroughfares - The Bowery, 14th St./Union Square and Tin Pan Alley - actually still running shit?

FIND OUT!

Working Melanie Magic Into The Architectural World - Fall Newsletter, 2023

Telling you is like confession or something. The architecture dream is so deep-seated and quiet in me. I've hinted to it some over the years I've known you. I care about buildings and history. Maybe that's why I always snuck into abandoned ones as a kid. Who am I kidding. I still sneak into them. I care about what went on here before. I care about the conversations that were had and the songs that were sung and how those words may still be echoing about in the present.

Just the other day I got in trouble for trespassing at Chatham Towers, trying to get a good glimpse of the piece of earth that used to be "The Old Brewery". They just put Gangs of New York on HBO, so this nerd has been lurking around the old Five Points looking for ghosts in the walls and sidewalks. ANYWAY.

My purpose came clear during my last sixth months of meditation. Sometimes the directions roared through my deep breathing like a freight train. (If you like freight trains, I recommend this awesome train hopping memoir, Sunset Route by Carrot Quinn.) The messages I received out in the world only served to solidify my new path. I've tried to ignore them.

"That doesn't make sense, I'm but a folk singer!"

But the voice comes from a deep well within me. It's too loud. It doesn't care that I've just become the other half of a new band called The Jersey Sures (available for all gigs!). When I get so quiet I can hear only silence, the message I get is to work my unique brand of Melanie magic into the architectural world.

It's more than preservation I'm interested in. It's creating an entire framework for architecture, building, and construction - one that takes into account cultural context and the specific character of place. One that bites back at white supremacy and capitalism and throw away culture (other great books on these subjects are Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong and Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu). I'm so into this.

Over summer I went through entrepreneurial training as part of New York State's Self Employment Assistance Program. I got a letter in the mail one day telling me I'd qualified for this program. Sometimes I don't know what to do next. The letter made it clear. I enrolled. By following the SEAP's guidelines all summer and working with mentors and coaches at SCORE and The Women's Business Outreach center, I've started a business called Wall Nectar.

At Wall Nectar, I get to combine the things I love to do and am good at doing into one service. I get to work toward my dream of experimenting and creating a culturally sustainable architecture model. My first experiments with this were, like so many of us, on The Sims. Thank you, The Sims.

So here's what Wall Nectar does:

We create interior murals by conducting living history research and putting on a public musical performance on site. Clients may be restaurants, historical buildings, entire neighborhoods, theatre companies, organizations, shops, public or civic buildings- I am not sure. I am currently searching for my first clients. This entire process- from research to performance to painting- is called a Wall Channeling. Wall Channeling is the signature service of Wall Nectar.

The closest thing I've ever done to a Wall Channeling before is People's Beach Day. So if you liked People's Beach Day, you're going to LOVE Wall Channelings. It's taken me some time to feel confident spelling the word Channeling. And yes, I still have my job at Montclair State teaching College Writing. You can tell, because my writing is PERFECT. It is NOT full of RANDOMLY capitalized WORDS, for example.

So here I am world. I am Melanie Beth Curran, surrealistic Founder and CEO of Wall Nectar in Brooklyn, New York. Wall Nectar was baked here in the apartment where I live, and at the BOC in the Bronx, and in the offices and zoom rooms of architects and experts who guide me.

So please, if you or someone you know has a building, has a special place, has a budget to cover art and performance that celebrates regional identity and history, get in touch with me. Also just here if you want to talk about your feelings.

Thank you for supporting me and my work throughout the years,

-Melanie

Riding the subway with pincurls, because I still religiously adhere to 1940s beauty routines. Thank you to Katie Lomax for the Cloisters photo up top. Please go the The Met Cloisters one day if you haven't (not a real convent).