Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

8 pm–12 am

Storefront for Art and Architecture

97 Kenmare Street, New York

It’s time to get REAL.

Halloween is one week before the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Maybe our political context is so surreal that we’d like to believe that more of our Facebook and RSS feeds are just “fake news.” Maybe we’d rather retreat into alternative and virtual realities, the Really Really Free Market, or the comfortable spectacle of the brand (where they’re not shoes; they’re Nikes).

Maybe it’s easier to think of it all as a simulation, in which everything is imaginary and nothing hurts. Maybe, shocked back to reality by a bogus tweet, you’re wondering how it’s possible we got to this level of realpolitik…and what you can do about it.

In 2018, the real can’t be limited to concept; it is more tangible than ever. Real lives are at risk worldwide, from Brazil to Bhutan. As (and in solidarity with) survivors of assault, brutality, and displacement, we need authentic healing at individual, community, and legislative scales.

So this year, we’re changing it up. We’re asserting that, as a society, the most important piece of real estate we can claim is the voting booth. We’re calling out the irrationality of gerrymandering and restrictive voter ID laws. We’re addressing the civic architecture of our time, and, with your help, reshaping it to represent what’s really real this election cycle.

For Critical Halloween: REAL, Storefront partners with the Movement Voter Project, a non-profit that works to mobilize voter turnout around issue-based campaigns in forty states across the country.

Instead of buying a ticket, we’re asking you to become a member of Storefront at any level. For each membership pledge that is made toward Critical Halloween: REAL, an equal amount will be donated to Movement Voter Project in support of issues such as economic fairness, racial justice, gender equality, immigration, LGBTQ advocacy, healthcare access, and environmental sustainability through electoral change.

In other words, your membership to Storefront will have a REAL impact on a broad range of ideas and solutions that cross disciplinary and geographic boundaries, and will simultaneously empower voters nationwide.

On Tuesday, November 6th (ok, so it’s not really on Halloween), we invite you to bring your realest self to Storefront’s gallery space to hang out, watch the results, hear from each other, and have a drink. Come as you are, or as you want to be. This year, renewed aspirations are a critical part of our collective reality.

Let’s make this Halloween REALLY Critical. We hope you’ll join us.

ABOUT CRITICAL HALLOWEEN

Critical Halloween is a space of reflection and action based upon the belief that critical ideas have a place within even the most seemingly carefree manifestations of our culture: the Halloween costume party. Each year, Critical Halloween is a party, an intellectual debate, a costume competition, and space for the expression of radical thought.

This year, it’s also a way to create actual change in our political system.

COSTUME COMPETITION