Walking around the Lower East Side these days, the neighborhood can at times feel like an amusement park stuffed into a history museum, as clubs denominated by shades of fuchsia fill the first floors of century-old tenement buildings. Ironically, when Clayton Patterson and his wife, Elsa Rensaa, arrived on the LES in 1979, the state of affairs could be described pretty similarly, but the amusements du jour were drag clubs, hardcore and heroin, not $15 mojitos. During the 29 years that he has lived there, Patterson has tirelessly documented the neighborhood’s characters, culture and social evolution through video and photography. Today, as the neighborhood is undergoing a frighteningly rapid process of gentrification—risking the effacement of the area’s vibrant and diverse character—his work seems more important than ever.

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Los Angeles’ cache of postmodern performance art troupes seems to be growing bigger by the day, and with Skid Row getting jammed with organic-vegan-yoga-retreat markets à la Bushwick, there seems to be no clear end in site. So I was naturally a little suspicious when I went to see My Barbarian, one of the better-acclaimed groups of the lot, at the New Museum theater. The group, known for its dry humor and campy bravado, gave a 45-minute performance entitled Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT), which was the culmination of a two-week workshop at the museum, in which they collaborated with local artists, musicians and actors who apparently share their love for muted tie-dye shirts and backhanded upheaval against hegemonies.

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