There are people who make art and there are people who live it. Kembra Pfahler is one of the latter.
A visual artist, songwriter, performer, performance artist and probably a few other things that we’re leaving out, Pfahler has led “The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black” (TVHKB), the punk-influenced band that she co-founded with guitarist Samoa Moriki over 35 years ago, into the present with a new album in the works and performances that continue to glorify her status as an East Village legend.
Pfahler and TVHKB hit the stage on a pre-Halloween Saturday afternoon in Tompkins Square Park to a packed crowd of old fans and new with a mix of favorites and tunes that will be on the new disc, “The Manual of Action.”
“It’s the best work we’ve ever done,” says Pfahler of the work in progress. “And it was all recorded in the Lower East Side.”
Incidentally, it was crowd-funded through a GoFundMe account (Pfahler has an alternate name for that organization, which isn’t suitable for print), and there will be another round of requests to complete the album soon.
The show, which was hosted by Phantom Creep and presented under the moniker “Psycho Parkula 2025,” also featured Teardrop, Memphis Morticians, Robby Bloodshed and Jess-O-Lantern. Pfahler and Moriki were joined onstage by longtime bassist Gyda Gash and drummer Eric Robel, who Pfahler calls “the best drummer we ever had.”
Also part of the spectacle were Alice Moy and Chloe Blackshire, who were fascinating to watch even when they were standing still.
There was always something to watch, as Kembra loves making handmade props, like the tissue boxes on a “wailing wall” for “Sick Bed,” huge flat flowers for “Shopping Spree,” calculators for “Bills To Pay” and a cooler full of underwear that got thrown one by one into the audience during “Underwear Drawer.”
The band seemed to enjoy the show just as much as the audience.
Bassist Gash said, “There is profound energy of spirit here in the Lower East Side (which drew me down here as a teenager from the Upper East Side). In the earth and trees of Tompkins Square Park, you can feel the vibrations of artists, musicians, poets who homesteaded the neighborhood and built a creative environment that was outside ‘normal’ society. I live here and I revel in the freedom. I have been the bassist in TVHKB for about 13 years. Kembra and Samoa are superb songwriters, and I love playing their music. Being able to play a show for my community of outsiders is a blessing!”
As for the community, they were right there with her.
“Tompkins Square Park shows are always fun, but when TVHKB plays, it reaches a new level. Watching them perform and seeing the faces on the old fans and the uninitiated is magical”, said photographer Alice Espinosa-Cincotta. “Kembra and her crew forever!”
Author Janie Heath, another neighborhood art and music lover, summed up the show by saying, “Beautiful Kembra’s unique and love-filled art in my favorite park was just the right end for an emotional day for me. And, big plus, the legendary Gyda Gash on bass.”
While Pfahler devotes herself to art and music, she finds that something that Genesis P. Orridge once told her has turned out to be true.
“Genesis spoke about how you’re kind of devalued as a fine artist if you’ve got a music practice as well,” she says. “I’m not popular in the art world, and I’m not popular in the music world. We sort of live in this strange in-between phase of weirdness, and I think the people that support us are truly some of the kindest, most wonderful artists I’ve ever met. I don’t think we have any fans. We simply have things in common with the people that come to see us, so it’s more about shared community and shared interests than being fanned out on.”
However you look at it, the crowd at the park (and the previous week at MOMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens) attests to the reason for their longevity, and Pfahler is grateful for the support.
Of the show at Tompkins Square Park, she said, “I felt really, really grateful that there was sunshine in the sky. I felt really grateful for Mike from Phantom Creep; he devoted so much of his life to curating that show. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of happiness, and happiness is very overrated. I don’t think people are happy every day. I think happiness is extremely fleeting, but getting to be able to do your own artwork by invitation – it doesn’t get much better than that.”
You can follow the band on Instagram @tvhkarenblack. Kembra Pfahler has her own Instagram @kembrapfahler_ and she has a book coming out in the spring: www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847865758/
