JACK is an award-winning performance meets civic space located at 20 Putnam Ave in Brooklyn. We present over 80 theater, music and dance performances a year and hold community conversations on issues of importance to our neighborhood. ​

JACK's original co-founders include Alec Duffy, Mimi Lien, Steven Leffue, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Nikaury Rodriguez, Prentice Onayemi, Ike Ufomadu, Amy Laird Webb, Jennifer Kidwell and Andreea Mincic.

JACK is named after founder Alec Duffy’s grandfather — a minister, labor activist and lover of the arts.
​We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

mISSION

Our mission is to fuel experiments in art and activism, collaborating with adventurous artists and our neighbors to bring about a more just and vibrant society.

VISion & values

JACK is a Radical Experiment in programming and operations.  

Inspired by Angela Y. Davis’s idea of “radical” meaning “grasping things at the root,” we at JACK define radical as being centered in grassroots practice and challenging the status quo in our thinking and programs. We do this by presenting risk-taking live performances and community practices that provoke deep reflection and social change. 

We embody justice practice through inclusive collaboration and a culture of care. 

By inclusive collaboration, we mean that we center voices systematically excluded from experimental performing art spaces in New York City, particularly BIPOC artists, providing them space and resources to make art on their own terms. From our internal decision-making to artist/neighbor partnerships, we strive to create a space where all voices contribute. 

By culture of care, we mean that we recognize that all arts workers (including artists, administrators, and production team members) as well as audiences, funders and board members are part of an interconnected ecosystem that depends on one another’s well-being. We are working towards a culture where all of us are healthy, thriving, and where joyful and provocative creation is possible.    

By embodying justice practice, we mean that we are invested in forwarding creative works, organizational culture, and community practice that embody solidarity in resisting systems of oppression while striving for collective liberation and dignity for all.

Who we are

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Where we are

JACK is located on the land of the Munsee-Lenape people. JACK recognizes that our programming takes place on unceded land and acknowledges the generations of displaced families who have shaped, built, and continue to maintain the land now known as New York City. As one small step of acknowledging the indigenous people whose lands we occupy JACK donates 5% of the all ticket sales from our paid programming to Lenni Lenapexkweyok a collection of Lenape matriarchs organizing to increase Lenape presence in their homeland immediately and in the long term. This effort is being stewarded by River Whittle, community liaison for Emily Johnson/Catalyst and the Branch of Knowledge. Learn more here.