The 21st annual Under the Radar Festival has announced its programming for 2026, which will take place at numerous venues around New York City January 7–25, 2026. The festival is dedicated to spotlighting experimental work from the U.S. and abroad.
Among the works will be Data Room from artist/UTR co-director Kaneza Schaal, which will be a series of public conversations at the Performing Garage about how we exchange knowledge, preserve creative lineage, and build shared meaning in a time of fragmented attention and digital overexposure.
Other announced works include Dream Feed from The HawtPlates, an electroacoustic song cycle that drops audiences into the humor, terror, beauty, and allure of an active mind within a slumbering body. This live concept album will be performed at HERE Arts Center.
The dance piece DARKMATTER, performed by Cherish Menzo and Camilo Mejía Corté, will see the two trying to detach their bodies from public perception and their daily reality. DARKMATTER will be performed at Performance Space New York.
In Voyage Into Infinity, Brooklyn-based performer Narcissister pays a feminist homage to the 1987 film The Way Things Go to explore states of impending collapse, with a live score performed by Holland Andrews. It will be presented by NYU Skirball. Also at NYU Skirball will be Mami, from Albanian-Greek director Mario Banushi, billed as a hymn to the mother-child bond.
Finally, Lisa Fagan, Lena Engelstein, and Marianne Rendón will perform the physical theatre piece Friday Night Rat Catchers, where a disco-themed 1976 game show goes from glittering spectacle to surreal collapse. It will be presented by the Live Artery Festival at New York Live Arts.
Additional programming, to take place in over 20 NYC venues, will be announced at a later date.
Under the Radar also announced a new leadership model: Co-Creative Directors Meropi Peponides and Kaneza Schaal join Founder and Artistic Director Mark Russell to form the first of what will be rotating cohorts of festival curators, ensuring that the festival’s programming is ever-evolving and of-the-moment. The festival is produced by Thomas O. Kriegsmann and Sami Pyneof ArKtype.
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