Soapbox Gallery New York

Arts presentations

Geoffrey from New York

About me I travel to discover how people elsewhere live, how they manage living with low incomes in expensive cities, how they grapple with hard times and failing economies, how they deal with ageing or crumbling families and how they themselves age and adapt. Knowing and loving New York comes from having lived through many of its manifestations while witnessing its changes....
""Soapbox Gallery" in New York City is a renovated gallery that serves the neighborhood's needs: it's also a live music, lecture & performance space..."

My friend, Jimmy---a sculptor and musician---renovated a gallery space in Brooklyn to serve the neighborhood’s growing needs, those being a live music, lecture and performance space, with a studio for himself in the back.

The space is dead simple---white, not over lit, and beautiful with Jimmy’s work adorning the walls. In fact, at the performance I attended the other night, the two musicians, though plainly visible, were beautifully silhouetted against a dimly lit wall making it the color of beeswax. Soothing, it was.

Hayes Greenfield, the saxophonist, normally plays as a soloist but this time a drummer accompanied Hayes, who keeps close at hand a suitcase full of electronic gear that allows him to modify his sound, create loops and multiple tracks so that he can accompany himself.

I was reminded of Charles Lloyd’s “Forest Flower”---recorded back in the sixties---lonesome and transportive sounds, mostly in a lower register, that transfix me.

At other times Jimmy presents poets, politicians, pianists and drop-in artists who are all announced on his website.

Refreshments are usually available and there is a charming pie and coffee shop a few doors along the street called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Very Brooklyn.

If you are already hoofing around Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, or The Staples Center neighborhood, that is a good reason to attend. Headline acts can be heard in every city but you won’t rub elbows with locals and performers---both in the audience and onstage---elsewhere, like you will here.

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New York Spotter Geoffrey

About me I travel to discover how people elsewhere live, how they manage living with low incomes in expensive cities, how they grapple with hard times and failing economies, how they deal with ageing or crumbling families and how they themselves age and adapt. Knowing and loving New York comes from having lived through many of its manifestations while witnessing its changes. Why New York I love New York because of its broad cultural spectrum realized in all forms of the arts, food, technology, politics and transportation, and its easy access to the beautif...

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Oct 4, 2025

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