About this Event
Showcasing over 130 artists, musicians, poets, writers, and exhibitors who defy categorization, Press Play invites you to discover new ways of reading, listening, creating, and complaining about culture. ★ With curation led by Micaela Durand, Pioneer Works Associate Director of Publishing, the fair’s theme this year is Crashout. We live in a time of public meltdowns, quiet desperation, and collective burnout. We’re overloaded. Some of us take Adderall just to keep up, the rent keeps getting worse, and we dance anyway. Are you crashing out a little? If not, maybe it’s time.
This year’s featured exhibitor is RATSTAR Press—the Brighton Beach imprint founded by artist Ryan Foerster in 2012, with over 100 titles spanning art, poetry, environment, humor, politics, and social commentary. RATSTAR takes its name from the palindrome “rats live on no evil star,” and Foerster has designed a limited-edition Press Play bag that reimagines the story of Adam and Eve where Eve gives birth to a rat. RATSTAR is where the cursed and the weird belong.
Press Play 2026 also features:
- A lounge designed by Ruben Gutierrez, Tom Hancocks, and Crystal Geller.
- The debut of Broadcast Issue 04, featuring Jeff Mills and Kameelah Janan Rasheed; essays on nervous dogs, genetic blueprints, and Kim Gordon’s eternal renaissance; whales, Mars, and mathematical jewels; Lucy Sante on summer rage; and more.
- The launch of , from Pioneer Works Press.
All talks are open to the public with admission and will be livestreamed on , a New York–based experimental broadcasting and performance platform. The full program will be announced in November 2026.
This year, Saturday tickets are $12, or grab our $40 Bundle: Saturday admission, the RATSTAR x Press Play bag, plus a copy of Broadcast Issue 04. Sunday is free and open to all, as part of Second Sundays.
Press Play is organized by Pioneer Works. Publishing at Pioneer Works includes our imprint, Pioneer Works Press, and magazine, Pioneer Works Broadcast, the new print issue of which will debut at Press Play.
Press Play 2026 is generously supported by Feeld and A Fucking Magazine (AFM), with additional support from Commercial Type and Legion Paper, media support from Perfectly Imperfect, and radio and livestreaming support provided by Montez Press Radio. ★
Event venue & nearby stays
Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Brooklyn, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.