How a Handful of Williamsburg Artists Built the Summer That Saved the Venues

When the doors of Music Hall of Williamsburg finally reopened in spring 2023, the venue's owner Maria Santos faced an existential question: how do you rebuild an audience that learned to live without live music? Rather than wait for promoters to return, Santos joined forces with a loose coalition of artists, curators, and community organizers operating out of converted lofts and church basements across North Brooklyn. Their answer became the template for what is now early summer's most anticipated event series: the Newtowner Collective's "Convergence" festival, which launches tomorrow night at multiple venues across Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Astoria.

The collective's origin story is distinctly local. In late 2024, Santos convened monthly gatherings at her venue with DJ and producer James Chen, muralist-turned-curator Sofia Morales, and nonprofit director Kwesi Adeyemi, whose nonprofit operates programming across the Astoria community centers. What began as four people drinking coffee and brainstorming evolved into a volunteer network of over 60 artists, sound engineers, and logistics coordinators. "We couldn't wait for the old system to restart," Morales recalls of those early planning sessions. "The venues were empty. The artists were scattered. We just started where we were."

Convergence 2026—now in its second iteration—reflects that grassroots ethos. Tickets are capped at $25, with sliding scale options available. Rather than programming major-label acts, the festival prioritizes emerging Brooklyn-based musicians, visual artists, and performance collectives. Last year's inaugural event drew nearly 8,000 attendees across four weekends, generating approximately $340,000 in revenue that was reinvested directly into participating venues and artist stipends.

This year's lineup spans 47 events across 12 venues, including the newly reopened Basement Collective in Greenpoint, venues along Franklin Street in Greenpoint, and the historic Kaufman Astoria Studios facilities. For many of the participating artists—many of whom have spent two years working survival jobs—the festival represents their first paid performance opportunity since 2020.

What distinguishes Convergence from other Brooklyn summer fare is its deliberate rejection of sponsorship deals and corporate partnerships. "We learned we didn't need them," Chen says. "The community funds itself when you actually invest the profits back."

The festival opens tomorrow at 6 p.m. with a street fair along Bedford Avenue, running through July 27 across all venues. For most of New York's cultural institutions, summer is an afterthought. For Santos, Morales, Adeyemi, and Chen, it's proof that something broken can be rebuilt, if the right people simply decide to build it themselves.

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