Shoes Off with Milah Libin

Tell me a little about yourself, what you’ve been working on, where you’re from...

I’m from Brooklyn and I still live in BK now, I currently have been focusing a lot on Dizzy Magazine, which is an art publication that I started with Arvid Logan a little over a year ago. But I do a lot of different things, I’ve directed a lot of music videos, and done photography, and I actually work a day job at this space called Picture Room. I program events there, like poetry readings and book launches, so that’s a nice thing to do a few days a week. I’m trying to not say yes to everything now, and trying to find more time for myself and the magazine. Just trying to be creative and travel a lot. I was just in Japan and I feel like right when I graduated from Sarah Lawrence, I guess that was three years ago now, it wasn’t too far from the city, I actually lived in Brooklyn my senior year and commuted, which was kind of crazy.

Sarah Lawrence is upstate, no?

Well it’s in Bronxville, which is in the Yonkers area. Yeah I really don’t know what I was thinking, but I really wanted to kind of jump start what I was doing here because I had already started to make a lot of videos with Destiny and generally just had a lot going on. I was also only taking classes a couple days a week. So commuting from home just seemed to make more sense at the time, but it was a lot. So right out of school I just started really hard right away working and doing all types of stuff. Now that I’m a few years out I’m starting to be like, wait a minute, I’m still really young, I don’t need to get to serious, because I am a very ambitious person and I want to be successful and do as much as I can do.

What’s your sign?

Aquarius.

I was just about to ask because I saw you had a scorpion (tattoo) on your forearm.

Everyone thinks I’m a Scorpio because I have a scorpion tattoo, but I’m an Aquarius. I’m definitely at a point now where I’m trying to reconnect with some of the stuff I did when I was a kid, like writing. I’ve started writing more. But Dizzy is what I’m really trying to cultivate because I am kind of all over the place and I have so many different interests and in a way, it helps me kind of contain them all into one project. I get to do writing, and photography, and video, and curating and design and all these things but it all has one outcome, so it's been really nice for me to do that. That’s where I’m at these days.

What childhood memory instantly makes you smile?

So I grew up in Brooklyn, and I grew up across the street from a school, 282, and there was always an ice cream truck outside. So just the sound of the ice cream truck always gets me so excited. Because I would always run out barefoot across the street on the pavement and get ice cream, and that was really fun, that makes me happy.

What’s the last book or movie that you saw that really resonates with you?

I just read this collection of short stories called “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpha Lahiri. It was amazing, the author is Indian and the stories were all really different. I really like reading stories from women authors from various perspectives. I’ve been reading so much lately. I also just read this book called “The Summer Book” by Tove Jansson who actually illustrated the Moomin Cartoons, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with it, but they’re really cute Swedish cartoons and that book was so sweet because it was about the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter and it took place on this island in Finland, and it was reminding me so much of being a kid and the magic of creating stories; making a little fairy house out of wood, because I had a backyard growing up so I would do that kind of stuff.

I like what you said about the grandmother and granddaughter just because I feel like that’s such an important and distinct relationship that you don’t have with any other member of your family. But the way it comes across in a lot of movies is just really kitschy and not as deep.

Right! And I also just feel like the parent-child relationship is explored so much more, and your grandparent-child relationship offers such an interesting dynamic because you really came from them. It’s so crazy just thinking about your great grandparents, your great great grandparents, what you inherited from them.

And you often find that qualities and characteristics that you can’t place with your parents you’ve actually inherited from your grandparents.

Well there’s actually this joke that my grandpa tells all the time: I just wish I knew so that I would have had grandchildren first, and I’m like alright grandpa, kind of corny, but beautiful.

I’ve seen your Instagram and have looked into a lot of the work your produce. I feel as though you're in Tokyo a lot.

I’ve actually been twice, but I definitely posted a shit ton haha.

I see that influence on you, though, especially in terms of your aesthetic, even looking around your house. How does your location influence or inform your work and stylistic choices?

That question is interesting because I definitely feel a very strong connection to New York with my work, whether it’s photo, video, or writing, everything, it really informs what I do. But in recent years I’ve been more open to the idea of living somewhere else or traveling more. I feel like when someone grows up in NY, they have such a specific experience and it’s so amazing, it’s diverse, its cultured; you just get something that people, at least in other places in America, really don’t get, and in a way you're kind of sheltered to the realities of the world. For so long I’ve been like, “I’m never leaving New York, this is my home”, but I’m more open to the idea now. Japan is an interesting place because it’s so different, and I think that it’s really important for people of all ages, especially young people, to have different experiences and perspectives on the world. So just for that reason alone it was a really amazing trip.

If you were a shoe, what shoe would you be?

Oh, damn, deep as shit ha. Well right now, I’m wearing velvet, ruby red slippers, and I was obsessed with the Wizard of Oz ruby red slippers when I was kid. Lowkey I used to wear my platforms all the time but now I almost only wear sneakers, which is so lame but they’re just so comfortable. Regardless, I feel like ruby red slippers are my shoe.

Do you think you become your name, or your name becomes you?

Well I was named after a family member, my great great grandmother, so that question for me is interesting because I got my name from a fully-formed human being and feel very connected to it. I think I became my name in a way, because hearing the stories of the woman I was named after, she was super weird, rebellious, kooky, creative, and because I’ve been given that name, I think I’ve subconsciously embodied those qualities. I’ve never really thought about it that way, I like that question.

What do you think about the relationship between intention and reception as someone who works in a predominantly visual realm?

I think it’s important. I’m not gonna lie, I care what people think; with a lot of my work I intend to cause some sort of resonance with other women. I definitely think that relationship is something I bear in mind when I’m creating.

Cool. How much does language affect your work, or your thinking?

Well one of my first creative outlets was writing, that is something very important to me, so in that sense I feel like I’m thinking a lot about the poetics of images, and definitely thinking about it in a textual way. Language in my work I guess has more of a literary element, but I definitely think about language and its importance living in a place as linguistically diverse as New York.

Which fictional character would you grab a drink with?

Maybe Pippi Longstocking because she’s wild, and I feel like we would get in a lot of trouble together.

Fate, or chance?

I don’t like the idea that we are bound to a certain narrative, I like the idea that I’m in control. I’d like to think that there’s more chance involved than fate, I guess. I feel like the reality is that it’s fate, but I just choose to believe I have a choice!

What is something about yourself that you’ve always disliked or been embarrassed about, or just an aspect of your personality that you have recently learned to embrace, and that has actually been really positive and beneficial?

I actually have two answers. The first one is more surface-level and the second one is a little deeper. One thing that has been hard for me is something that I actually mentioned earlier, that I have so many interests and so growing up I was a little all over the place. I wanted to do all these different things, and I feel like maybe in a way this quality never gave me the chance to focus and really hone my craft in one area. But now, with Dizzy and just with the culture of creative youth, I definitely think that it’s helpful to have so many different areas that I am interested and involved in. On a deeper level, I don’t open myself to people a lot, but I’m really good at making people feel like I am.

Ok, now for some word associations:

Warm - Hot, haha oh jesus.

Texting - Annoying.

Home - Berkeley.

Universal - Important.

Spicy - Yummy.

Limits - None.

Hair - Powerful.

Power - Hair...no just kidding! Hmm, power...sexy.

Love - Boundless.

Window - I’m being so corny with my answers! Breezy.

Penis - Conflicted.

Smile - Teethy haa.

Mother - Heart.

Vanilla - Chocolate.

Ally - Important again, I guess.

Close - Working on it, haha.

Censored - Oh, one word is hard.

It doesn’t have to be one word, it can be a thought.

So bigotry should be censored, to an extent, but free thoughts shouldn’t, but if its hurting someone — racist, sexist, anything like that — then we don’t want to hear your shit. It’s so complicated now with free speech blah blah, but if your being a biggot, it’s not so simple. I don’t know, the internet is crazy.

Heavenly - Earth.

Childish - Forever.

Culture

The Club Is Coming to the Stage

We enter and make our way to what is approximately front left of the DJ booth, where we’re accustomed to dancing at clubs in New York. “So is this a techno club or a dance performance?” yells an uncertain participant in my boyfriend’s ear. He laughs, bouncing along to Ben UFO, and yells back, “It’s both!” The club has long been a hot topic in European contemporary dance but it is only now making its way into New York performance venues, largely through transatlantic tours. R.O.S.E. follows recent examples like Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1 (May 2024), (LA)HORDE’s Room with a View at NYU Skirball (October 2023), and Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd at BAM (October 2022).

Do these performances compromise the club’s spirit — a space idealized for its anonymity, dark lighting, and thundering music? The notion of the club as a utopian escape is admittedly just that — an ideal — because of how its intense conditions can create barriers to entry. Still, the club remains sacred for many, a place to forge connections and embrace an alternative state of being. Looking at how performances transfer this spirit to new settings reveals what aspects of the club are essential and those that aren’t.

Sharon Eyal, R.O.S.E. 2024. Photography by Stephanie Berger, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory.

Eyal’s dancers make their entrance. The lighting shifts from roving blue to yellow spotlights as Ben UFO’s tracks transition to more melodic beats. Clad in deconstructed lace Dior lingerie with dark red tears painted on their faces, the dancers move cautiously in a tightly maintained pack, slicing paths through the horde with hoof-like steps and jerky leg extensions. After around ten minutes of this controlled choreography, the dancers vanish as the lighting shifts back to blue and Ben UFO picks up his dubby beats. The club, as we knew it, resumes. This cycle of tightly executed movements and free-flowing club-goers repeats several times, each time emboldening the dancers to plunge further into the crowd.

Clubbing in a building once built for the U.S. Army National Guard on Manhattan’s Upper East Side turns out to be surprisingly successful — at least for the audience. What starts as an awkward, scattered group searching for their non existent seats gradually gels into an engaged, bouncing crowd that erupts in cheers each time the dancers enter and exit. Performance patrons who might never step foot in a club find themselves swept up in its potential for communion, moving in unison with fellow ticket holders. But it isn’t until the very end of R.O.S.E. that the dancers finally break free from Eyal’s choreography and join the fired-up audience in a brief moment of improvisatory movement with the music. By keeping her dancers at arm’s length, Eyal seems more interested in the club as a backdrop for her signature movement style than wholly as a space with meaningful stories to be told.

Michele Rizzo, HIGHER xtn. 2024. Photography by Cameron Kelly courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Back in May, I attended Wire Festival, a multiday electronic music event at Knockdown Center that had no shortage of organically united dancefloors. It attracted a crowd of seasoned ravers who were eager to celebrate the start of spring as they danced alongside DJs who played well into the daylight. I left Wire in an afternoon daze to see Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1. My sleepless euphoria only deepened as the performance unfolded, starting with a lone dancer who looked plucked out of the festival.

The dancer, dressed in sneakers, baggy jeans, and a tight tank top, shuffled slowly into the gallery, perfectly in sync with the looping bars of an understated electronic melody. Soon, other dancers, clad in the same staple rave uniform, joined him — each having traveled from Europe for the U.S. museum debut of HIGHER xtn., which premiered at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam in 2018 and quickly became a fixture at kunsthalles and festivals across the continent. As the score’s tempo climbed, the choreography locked into a 16-count sequence, which the dancers executed with precise synchrony. They remained intensely focused, never making eye contact with each other, as they sought release in the endless repetition of synthesized beats. Once the dancers reached their limit, they stopped the sequence and exited the gallery, one by one.

HIGHER xtn. used the focused daylight of the gallery to highlight the meditative release found in the repetitive movements that dominate dark dancefloors. The performance’s restraint brought more consistency and intentionality than Eyal’s all-encompassing club construction in R.O.S.E. Yet both performances offer enticing entry points into club culture for those who may not frequent raves. Rizzo’s ecstatic, hypnotic repetitions reveal how the club can mirror other meditative practices, while Eyal’s interpolation of performance and clubbing helped hesitant audience members blossom by the end. Still, both works overlook one of the most underappreciated aspects of clubbing — its potential for individual expression. HIGHER xtn.’s pristine uniformity especially risks promoting the outdated techno trope that there’s a “right” way to dance to electronic music.

Maybe this shortcoming is, in fact, a benefit. For habitual ravers jaded by one too many sunrise sets, it’s a reminder to return to the club with more intention. If you pause and peer through the darkness, you’ll see hundreds of people moving to the same beat, each with their own subtle variations. This collective choreography is a ready-made spectacle that doesn’t need validation in a theater or museum. And when the music shifts slightly, you can watch the ripple effect sweep through the crowd while feeling the new beat in your body. Maybe this small bit of magic is best left on the dance floor.

Culture

Real Slick, Jack: Psyche Organic Arrives in New York

Shop Psyche Organic at Happier Grocery and Dimes. Coming soon to @citarellagourmetmarket @unionmarket @gourmetgarage @deciccos @fairwaymarket plus many more.

Culture

Porsche SCOPES Brings Art, Music, and Design to Toronto

The festival was a full immersion into Toronto’s dynamic creative energy. Day one set the tone with DJ collective Living Room, followed by an experimental performance by Claire Rousay that captivated the crowd. Jewelry designer Steff Eleoff unveiled her Porsche Taycan 4S art car installation—a bold fusion of automotive and wearable art inspired by her Sedona ring—while OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and DVSN wrapped up the night with powerful, genre-defying performances.

We witnessed SCOPES Toronto bridging underground and mainstream with day two’s lineup. DJ Korea Town Acid’s set paved the way for Angelphroot and Dameer’s debut of BASSMATI, a track blending South Asian influences with bass-driven sounds. Chippy Nonstop’s return to Toronto and Richie Hawtin’s extended set were milestones of the evening, proving that the city’s underground scene has a global resonance.

The final day featured standout performances from local pianist Harrison, Indigenous artist Tia Wood, and hip-hop visionary Sean Leon, who elevated his set with a live choir. Moonshine Collective’s film and musical performance explored themes of African utopia, showcasing art’s power to bridge culture and technology. Rising Toronto star SadBoi, who paused her tour to perform at SCOPES, further underscored the festival’s commitment to nurturing local talent.

Throughout the weekend, we experienced installations from artists like Mitsu Mitsu and culinary creations from Bar Mordecai, capturing the multifaceted creativity Porsche SCOPES brought to Toronto. This milestone 10th edition, open to all, allowed Toronto’s vibrant arts scene to thrive, underscoring SCOPES’ mission to celebrate local talent while connecting it to a global audience.

office had the chance to connect with rising star SadBoi ahead of the event. In our conversation, she shared insights into her creative journey and reflected on what performing and growing up in Toronto means to her and her work.

How are you, and where are you at right now? You told me you were traveling.

Um, I’m good, I’m feeling really good right now. I’m traveling back to Salt Lake City. I had a show yesterday in Seattle. I’m on tour right now with Coco and Claire.

How is touring life treating you? Do you like it?

I love being on the road. To be honest, I feel like I don’t know—like I’ve had good experiences and bad ones—but this time it’s really fun, especially with the people I’m surrounded by. It’s also the longest tour I’ve been on; I have about four more weeks to go. I’m trying not to think about how many days I have left.

Do you feel homesick?

Yes, because when I start thinking about how many days are left, I start to miss my dogs. I’ve just been trying to stay in the moment—I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest with you.

Oh, sweet! What are your dogs’ names?

Jillian and Winston. I know, they’re crazy names.

You’ll be performing at SCOPES in Toronto, which is where you grew up. Do you feel like the crowd is different when you perform in Toronto compared to other cities?

Yes, I mean, Toronto just feels different because it’s home. Every time I come back to perform, something in my career has changed. The last time I performed in Toronto, people just wanted to have a good time, and I’m excited to perform back home again to see everyone’s reactions. I know it’s going to be different from the last time. It’s exciting to see your own growth. Toronto is a tough crowd, though. If we’re with you, we’re really with you.

So, they’re super picky? You have to gain their respect, or what is it?

I think Toronto people are in their own world, but when something really connects with them, they’ll lose themselves in the moment. But it takes something to bring them out of that. Toronto crowds are tough because even if they like you, they won’t show it outright until they’re really vibing with you.

It’s like a vibe check, right?

Exactly. They’ll enjoy your performance, but it’s hard to explain. When people visit Toronto, they often say, “Oh, you guys are so nice,” and I’m like, “I don’t think we’re that nice, we’re just polite.” Like, you can walk down the street, and no one will say anything, but it’s just our mannerisms.

You mentioned Toronto can have a moody energy, especially at night, and that the underground night scene there really inspires you. Can you talk more about what makes Toronto's nightlife so influential for you?

Absolutely, Toronto has this unique energy that comes alive at night. Similar to New York, there are the popular clubs everyone knows, but you need to find your niche—the people who know where the real parties are. I remember going to raves in high school yards, sneaking in because I wasn’t old enough. Events like Baby, Jerk!, and Yes Yes Y’all were pivotal, exposing me to DJs blending dancehall with EDM—something I hadn’t seen before. Toronto nightlife is moody and intense, but when everyone’s out, it’s like the whole city is alive.