Extended Play

Extended Play (EXP) was/is a celebration of longer-form audio recordings; it occurs when one of Earth's poles is at max tilt toward the Sun, and takes form as a DJ style event. The first extended play was organized by Ben Sisto, who DJs under the name Robert Rhymin’.

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atac

atac is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization in downtown Framingham, MA. Home to community-centered creative programs, artistic development, and work and volunteer opportunities, atac facilitates new possibilities for their community to access the transformative power of creativity. In different capacities, I worked at atac from the summer of 2022 to the fall of 2023.

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Downstairs Film Club

A few screenings to beat the heat, summer 2018

Downstairs Film Club featured a dozen free screenings on Sunday nights during the summer of 2018. Presented by Ace Hotel New York in partnership with The Breslin and a quartet of big-picture curators — Nordic International Film Festival, NewFest, POV by PBS and CLOG —the series showcases campy cult classics, science fiction, powerful docs and works by emerging indie talents in Liberty Hall. Two beers and a small popcorn for ten bucks.

Program Schedule

  • Nordic International Film Fest (NIFF) Shorts, June 3, 2018

  • NewFest presents: Wigstock: The Movie, June 10, 2018

  • POV presents Quest, June 17, 2018

  • CLOG presents Bladerunner, June 24, 2018

  • NIFF presents Till We Meet Again, July 1, 2018

  • NewFest presents But I'm a Cheerleader, July 8, 2018

  • POV Shorts, July 15, 2018

  • CLOG presents Her, July 22, 2018

  • NIFF presents The Salton Sea, August 5, 2018

  • An Evening of Films with NewFest, August 12, 2018

  • POV presents 93Queen, August 19, 2018

  • Clog presents Westworld (movie) August 25, 2018

Ace Hotel: Reader

 

When I began at Ace Hotel in 2013, the brand had already carved out a unique space for itself in the blogging world, thanks largely to the efforts of Valentine Freeman. Until about 2017, Ace maintained a Tumblr for all interviews, fun posts, and news. Then, I began helping transition away from Tumblr and more towards a stand-alone editorial platform called The Ace Hotel Reader. I left Ace in 2019, and it seems they got Reader up and running a short time later.

My initial pitch was to focus on longer-form editorial, in depth interviews, and to widen the scope of people we were talking to. I developed programs with Justin Strauss (Just/Talk), Sophia Cosmodopolous (Inside Job), and others. Below is a record of some of the subjects; I’m not sure if these are all archived somewhere by Ace.

    • Caroline Polachek, January 2016

    • Anna Sui, February 2016

    • Joakim, April 2016

    • Kim Ann Foxman, June 2016

    • Imogene Strauss, July 2016

    • Wolfgang Tillmans, October 2016

    • Johnathan Galkin, November 2016

    • Todd Terje, January 2017

    • Andrea Anarow, February 2017

    • Bethann Hardison, March 2017

    • Michel Gaubert, April 2017

    • Sparks, May 2017

    • Joe Goddard, June 2017

    • Trevor Jackson, July 2017

    • Nancy Whang, September 2017

    • Matthew Higgs, October 2017

    • BICEP, November 2017

    • Lenny Kaye, January 2018

    • Fab 5 Freddy, February 2018

    • Honey Dijon, March 2018

    • Roisin Murphy, April 2018

    • Horse Meat Disco, June 2018

    • Jerry Schatzberg, July 2018

    • Inflagranti, September 2018

    • Kasper Bjorke, October 2018

    • Jenny Schlenzka, January 2019

    • Raquel Albarran, January 2018

    • Michael Pellew, February 2018

    • Carlo Daleo, March 2018

    • Julia Ross, April 2018

    • Mary T Bevlock, May 2018

    • Tyrone Davis, June 2018

    • Chase Ferguson, July 2018

    • Myasia Dowdell, August 2018

    • Rudy Bansraj, October 2018

    • John Martin, November 2018

    • Frownfelter, December 2018

    • Hector Jones, January 2019

    • Chen Chen, April 2018

    • Erika L. Sánchez, May 2018

    • William Brewer, June 2018

    • Aimee Nezhukumatathil, July 2018

    • Geoffrey Hilsabeck, August 2018

    • Hafizah Geter, September 2018

    • Jenny Xie, October 2018

    • Stephanie Burt, November 2018

    • Wendy Xu, December 2018

    • Jennifer Chang, January 2019

    • Ben Burkert, February 2019

    • Natalie Shapero, March 2019

    • Jose Olivarez, April 2019

    • Got a Girl Crush, 2018

    • Roundtable Magazine, 2018

    • Quoted Magazine, 2018

    • Marti Gould Cummings, March 2018

    • Peter Dunn, May 2018

    • Cory Camperchioli, June 2018

    • James Michael, October 2018

    • Daniel Avery, April 2018

    • Claire Evans, 2018

    • Playlab, 2018

    • Mason Saltarrelli, 2018

    • Camen Winant, 2018

 

Bound by Chance

 

A dice-rolling zine for Ace Hotel, 2014, 2015

Concept and Production: Ben Sisto
Layout and Design: Peter Bowen
Author Curation: Word Bookstores and Book Riot

 

Dice and Staples

At the invitation of Ace Hotel New York and Word Bookstores, 16 authors crafted short works in the second-person narrative voice. Each begins and ends with the entering and exiting of a room. Where one story ends, the next starts. Quantum Leap-style, sort of. 200 copies of each were printed and assigned a number, 1 – 16. These stacks were positioned neatly down the grand study table in the lobby of Ace Hotel New York.

Local artists Dhemerae Ford & Sarah Awad designed a custom 3D-printed, large format dice which was placed on one side of the table. At the other, a stapler and some stamps. Event guests — a mix of people who came specifically for Bound by Chance and general passers-by — were asked to roll the dice 8 times. With each roll, they received a corresponding page. Those 8 pages got stapled together with some cover stock and, there you have it.

Since you are wondering, if a participant rolled the same number twice, that page was given twice. A return to a previously-visited location of the labyrinth. Possibly, one remain stuck in the same room forever.

If a “W” was rolled, then the participant won all 16 pages. If, over the course of their turn the letters A, C, and E were all rolled, we gave that guest a delicious coffee.

Live events took place on March 8, 2014 and August 29, 2015

 

2014 Photos

 

Participating Authors

    • Bill Cheng

    • Myke Cole

    • Nick Douglas

    • Chad Felix

    • Rachel Fershleiser

    • Roxane Gay

    • Chelsea Hodson

    • Kat Howard

    • Edan Lepucki

    • Thomas Page McBee

    • Sarah McCarry

    • Dolan Morgan

    • Travis J Nichols

    • Raj Paremeswaran

    • Danniel Schoonebeek

    • Emma Straub

    • Emily Asher-Perrin

    • Justina Ireland

    • Alaya Dawn Johnson

    • Liam Lowery

    • Nina MacLaughlin

    • Jenn Northington

    • Diana Pho

    • Stephanie Saulter

    • Bijan Stephen

    • Charles Yu

 

Bingo

Ben and Lee Sisto at Russell Janis in Brooklyn, New York. The exhibit features a handful of works on paper, mostly made with bingo markers and crayons. Ben is 40, Lee is 2.5. Reception June 26, 2020 from 11am - 12pm.

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Color

 
 

In early 2000s Boston, Joseph Colbourne and I worked on an indie dance party together for a bit called Dynasty. Towards the end, he was digging more into Italo, disco, funk, soul and boogie and wanted to have a more explicitly queer/friendly space, so we transitioned into a new project called COLOR. Short-lived but super fun, at The Milky Way in Jamaica Plain.

 
 

A piece on Joseph from The Weekly Dig

Some of Joseph’s promo mixes for COLOR:

 
 

Awesome Foundation

 

As of August 2023, I’ve started up a Rhode Island chapter of Awesome Foundation! We are looking to start accepting grant proposals in early 2024 and are looking for Trustees. Please visit awesomeisland.org to learn more!

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From July 2015 - August 2016 I was a trustee at the New York chapter of Awesome Foundation, a global community acting on behalf of awesome, $1,000 at a time. Below are projects I helped fund. Each fully autonomous chapter supports projects through out-of-pocket micro-grants, usually given out monthly, and in total AF's given away over $5m. These are no-strings-attached funds given to people and groups working on awesome projects.

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Murals for a Queens Supportive Housing Facility
August 2016

AwesomeNYC is pleased to support artist Laini Nemett's mural project in a new supportive housing facility for Transitional Services New York (TSINY) in Jamaica, Queens. While our grant will fund the creation of the paintings on the first floor, the entire building has been created with art in mind, with 18 "art niches" designed into the structure's 7 floors.

Awesome Link

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ID Shop
July 2016

AwesomeNYC is pleased to support the 2016 edition of ID Shop, artist Sue Jeong Ka's project that operates as a liaison between art and public institutions to help homeless and immigrant youths apply for federally issued ID cards.

Awesome Link

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Queer Kid Stuff
June 2016

Queer Kid Stuff is a new educational web series creating LGBTQ+ videos for kids. Queer representation and content for children is scarce and Queer Kid Stuff aims to eliminate stigma by educating future generations through free and entertaining videos. The project allows young people to have access to a queer resource that is specifically made for them.

Awesome Link

NYC #popscope
May 2016

When was the last time you looked at the craters on the moon, the rings around Saturn, or the four moons around Jupiter? #popscope — which stands for “pop-up telescope” — brings free astronomy nights to the public. When the skies are clear, we “pop-up” in different neighborhoods to promote community-building through science.

Awesome Link

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Cello Without Walls
April 2016

In his project Cello Without Walls, Jacob Cohen conducts music workshops and live concerts for teens and young adults in jail on Rikers Island. Jacob has been volunteering on Rikers for the past year, inviting young people to recite poetry, freestyle rap, dance, sing and make art together. Besides reducing stress in a notoriously violent jail, Jacob’s program has helped young people leaving the justice system find programs in education and mentoring after their release.

Awesome Link

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Amateur Science Meets Superconductor Research
March 2016

Superconductors are materials that allow for the continuous transmission of electric and magnetic fields without loss of energy. They have numerous applications to industry, transportation, power generation, and medicine. This Awesome Foundation grant has been awarded to continue research on superconductor production methods which will could allow for the production of irregularly shaped superconductors. These irregular shapes could be utilized in power transmission, magnetic levitation trains, medical devices, and in plasma reactors.

Awesome Link

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The Harlem Free School
March 2016

The Harlem Free School is a series of place-based micro-sessions designed to encourage freedom of the mental, emotional and social dispositions of Harlem residents. In the spirit of the historical Freedom Schools of the 1960’s, this two-day intensive presents itself, in the form of workshops, gatherings and collaborative creative sessions, to diverse range of Harlem residents at no cost.

Awesome Link

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SLIME - Students of Long Island Maker Expo
February 2016

SLIME (Students of Long Island Maker Expo) is an interactive Day of Making for students, parents and educators from across Long Island, taking place on May 7, 2016. Students, parents, educators, and other community members come together from various school districts to participate in hands-on activities promoting imagination and creativity.

Awesome Link

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Gender Amplified
January 2016


Gender Amplified is a movement that aims to celebrate Women in music production, raise their visibility and develop a pipeline for girls and young women to get involved behind the scenes as music producers.

Awesome Link

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Swale
December 2015


Swale is a sculptural floating island containing a public food forest that will dock at various piers around New York City’s harbor in 2016. AwesomeNYC's grant will underwrite a series of educational/community workshops taking place at locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. 

Awesome Link

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Visioning the adaptive reuse of the Montauk Cutoff
November 2015

Across the Newtown Creek from Greenpoint in Long Island City, Smiling Hogshead Ranch has shown what can happen when a group of people can organize and work together with each other and with the city agencies to form a thriving community space. 

Awesome Link

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Mobile Print Power + Combat Paper + Interference Archive
October 2015

Mobile Print Power is a multigenerational collective bringing mobile printing carts into communities, collecting ideas, and turning them into collaboratively generated designs. Along with Interference Archive, Combat Paper will invite veterans to pulp their uniforms into paper as a medium for expressing their experiences.

Awesome Link

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The Free Portrait Project — Crown Heights
September 2015

"The Free Portrait Project paints a portrait of a place through it’s people by giving oil-painted portraits to residents of Crown Heights for an entire year, creating a physical record of who we are now amid shifting demographics..."

Awesome Link

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ACCESS N. BK: Flushing Avenue J/M Station
August 2015

ACCESS N. BK plans to take a creative and light-hearted approach to raising public awareness of the issue of closed, bottleneck-causing / dirty subway station entrances. They will be orchestrating  events combining street art, theater and tech with old-school community organizing tactics to the people in the affected communities and beyond.

Awesome Link

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Alliance for Girls in STEM
July 2015

"We are a publisher of picture books that show girls as the main characters in stories with science, technology, engineering, and math themes. Our target audience is girls from 4-9 years old, with an emphasis on girls from underrepresented minority groups."

Awesome Link