Venue: National Sawdust
Town: New York, US

National Sawdust is a nonprofit music producer and venue in Brooklyn, New York with the goal of providing "composers and musicians across genres... a setting where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources essential to create and share their work." The organization is named after its building's original tenant, an early 20th century sawdust factory by the same name. It was founded in 2015 by composer Paola Prestini and attorney Kevin Dolan. Since then, National Sawdust has featured artists and ensembles including Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Nico Muhly, Yo La Tengo, Eydís Evensen, Chris Thile, Pussy Riot, Caroline Polachek, Tanya Tagaq, Agnes Obel, Joan Tower, John Corigliano, the International Contemporary Ensemble, yMusic, Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek, Du Yun, Karole Armitage, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ser Serpas, and Daniela Lalita. The National Sawdust Company was a sawdust factory in operation in industrial Williamsburg, Brooklyn during the late 19th century and early 20th century. It closed in the mid 20th century, leaving the space empty for many decades. The impossibly massive timbers suffered from dry rot and it succumbed like many of the historic industrial buildings in the area to repurposing for residential and commercial spaces, displacing the artisans, fabricators, meat packers, and performers who used the formerly inexpensive spaces for studios, performance centers, illegal apartments and fabrication shops. The end of North 6th Street, once the home of legendary performance venues like Galapagos and Northsix and design collectives Faile, Scrapile, Smiley, Hermann, Brady Dollarhide, Bass Mind, SHINta and Woodylee, now hosts a more elite crowd that demands a contemporary and safer environment. On the National Sawdust block you'll now find high end furniture stores and a Patagonia store. The formerly great Northsix is now Music Hall of Williamsburg, run by the corporate power of Bowery Presents, serving up more politically correct performers. Ga