Girl Noise Takes the Bowery Ballroom

The year 2026, thanks to the efforts of Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Stevie Nicks, and more at the star-studded and popstar-packed Daisy Chain Fields music festival, has been viewed by many as a huge year for women in music. Why stop at Daisy Chain Fields? Artist Simone, 21-year-old musician and Brooklyn native, has brought the girl power to NYC for the third year in a row. The 47Magazine editors got the chance to talk to Simone about the impact festivals like this can have on young women and local communities. 

Lucy Anderson: What was it like putting together the festival lineup and choosing artists?

Simone: Every time I start planning an event, I have so much fun deep-diving into local bands and artists and seeing who might be a good fit for GIRL NOISE. I’m lucky to be in New York because there’s truly an endless list of talented and inspiring girls here. I do all the booking personally, and it’s a real joy to connect with artists and tell them about our mission. Everyone who plays these shows is really doing it out of the goodness of their heart. It’s really touching, and I’m so grateful to be able to share the stage with them. 

LA: Tell us about Brave House and their mission. What inspired you to collaborate with them?

S: The Brave House was one of the only organizations I reached out to ahead of this event because they were exactly the type of nonprofit I wanted to partner with. They provide a variety of free support to young immigrant women and gender-expansive youth, with a focus on survivors of gender-based violence. It’s been deeply disturbing to see our current administration treat immigrants with such brutality and inhumanity. I wanted to partner with an organization that’s doing work to combat this injustice. What the women at The Brave House do every day is beyond inspiring, and I’m so grateful they decided to work with us. 

LA: What inspired you to start Girl Noise?

S: I came up with the idea in the summer of 2024, right around the time I started writing my album. I was 19 and angry most of the time. I didn’t like how the people around me were treating me, like my voice didn’t matter and my opinion wasn’t important. All I wanted was to find comfort and community, and I realized that I’ve always found those things in women and music. I wanted to create a space where women could feel safe and supported, where they could be their most authentic selves on stage, and where everyone believed in the cause of protecting and uplifting girls. It felt like there weren't a lot of people doing something like this, so I thought, why not just do it myself? 

LA: What has it been like putting the festival together for the third year?

S: With every show, I learn more and more about what works, what doesn’t, how to write a good email, how to not stress out at all hours of the day. I also just learn to love it more and more. It’s been the most rewarding experience watching it grow these past few shows. After selling out our last show in March, we’re playing our biggest venue yet, Bowery Ballroom. I’m so committed to making these shows the best they can possibly be, for our audience and for our artists. It’s always worth it. 

LA: Girl Noise works with a lot of nonprofits; can you tell us about how you’ve connected music and community through this festival?

S: Music and community were really the catalysts for this whole thing. I wanted to make these shows fundraisers because I knew that would help people feel like they were a part of something bigger than just a show - which is true! So much of what community means to me is being proud of who we are and what we stand for. It was also important to me that we supported women in all different ways, which is why, with every show, we spotlight women-owned businesses, women-led music organizations, and women photographers and creatives.

LA: What has been your favorite part about putting Girl Noise together? 

S: Seeing it all come to fruition at the shows is always surreal. Being in a room full of women who want to celebrate each other is the most joyous experience. Talking to the artists in the greenroom, giving stickers and friendship bracelets to the girls in the audience, hanging up decorations with my best friends and my mom. They’re memories I will cherish forever.

LA: Why should people attend Girl Noise this year? 

S: Here’s an actual list, because no one wants to read full sentences anymore:

1. Free shit (stickers, temporary tattoos, zines, bracelets, etc)

2. Great music (I’m biased, but the lineup is STACKED and I never lie)

3. Great cause (all ticket proceeds go to CHARITY, so not only are you going to have FUN, but you’re also gonna be making a DIFFERENCE, and isn’t that just beautiful?) 

4. Community (make friends, bring friends, crack jokes, share secrets, fall in love, experience everything) 

5. FOMO (as in you will have it if you don’t come)

GIRL NOISE is a celebration of women’s voices in music, art, and advocacy. Founded in 2025 by artist Simone Lipkin, GIRL NOISE is creating authentic, community-driven experiences where women and like-minded individuals come together in an empowering environment. The festivals are led and produced by young, ambitious women, with a goal to uplift one another and encourage community and activism through music. The third GIRL NOISE event will take place on Sunday, October 4th, at The Bowery Ballroom, featuring seven local female artists and benefiting The Brave House, a nonprofit supporting immigrant women and gender-expansive youth in NYC.

Link to tickets here.

How to have fun again

Call it what you want: analog, offline, indie summer. What we know is we're missing something.

These are tips on how you can start to regain your independence from the screens and get back into the real world. 

Use this as a starting base for a detox, intertwine it with a 75 soft (or hard) challenge, take some, leave some.

Just consider the ways you use the screen, and the way the screen uses you. 

Social media stays home (not on your mobile phone)

Connection has become too convenient; This doesn't include the fandom and worldwide connections made possible through social media; I mean the negative side of connection.

It's not supposed to be this easy to know everything about someone.

Sharing online used to feel more meaningful, but now it feels like a job, or sometimes it actually is one needed to survive. 

The social media market grows and changes exceedingly fast, and to keep up with it is running against a never-ending train; some make it on, others get crushed. At what point do we ask ourselves what we're really chasing?

Rethink how you go online.

Are you trying to "be an influencer," or does your authenticity and creativity help you build an online community, instead of just an audience?

Instagram, Twitter (X), TikTok, and all the other social media apps that keep changing in an attempt to keep us happy and entertained; miss the mark, and we can't help but stay. However, lately, being online has begun to lose meaning and value.

AI has made being on the apps annoying and weird. It's stolen pieces of the internet that made it entertaining. Bots have infiltrated so much that comments and posting risk reaching an audience that makes the trouble not worth it. 

When I think of how I want to spend my time online, I want to feel inspired and intrigued; I want to meet new people with the same interests and discover my own taste and preferences. Instead of spending hours on socials, get into new websites. rabbit hole on Wikipedia, discover new artists on NTS Radio, join scenes on Perfectly Imperfect. Discover new blog sites, independent magazines (wink wink), get back into gaming and forums, explore and have fun, and then log off.

Go outside. Reconnect, and decenter social media.

Replace getting social handles; instead, make a note page of tags/contacts/emails you meet out, connect with them online when you make it home, and eventually get used to asking "Can I have your number?" or " Can I have your email?"

Disconnect from the discourse and connect more purposefully by separating from socials.

Exist beyond the feed.

From "network" to community 

Connect and share with intention; it's more interesting, more meaningful, and takes away a lot of the stress of social media when you're not over-cultivating an aesthetic. Constantly having 24/7 access to each other, continuous updates, endless scrolling, and ads has tainted sharing online. It's competition, comparison, and evaluation. Add some separation. Go more analog 

No matter how high-tech things get, analog has a charm you can't replace. With the lack of new analog in exchange for new digital, the decline in useful, less expensive products in comparison to the mass production of digital makes this easier said than done.

There is a nice middle ground: phone as a tool, calculator, maps, etc, and separate it from the things that keep you overly attached to it. 

Look at your phone: what apps would you miss if it turned off? Get a music backup, thrift an old mp3 and fill it with the music you like, burn cd's/swap them with friends. Show off your playlist skills and make a mixtape.

Models: Sophia Deaver, Hillary Castillo Marte, Mickey Tegegne Photos By Toni Desiree

Get a puzzle book or a word search. Swap a notes app for an on-the-go journal; write your thoughts, your schedule, and contacts you meet. Ditch overpriced reading apps and get a library card, get a book for on the go, and a book for at home. Get magazines, read obnoxiously, get well-read and educated, and reject the rise of ignorance and inconsideration. 

I don't care if it looks performative. Before, people brought books with them on the go, packed notepads, and walked around with portable CD players all the time, before it was all optimized. 

I don't think you should be shamed for going back to wired headphones because people think it's a little corny. 

Go out of your way to experience a life detached from the feed. 

Boredom is just a sign. Follow the way and see where it leads. Talk to strangers, join community groups, go to places alone, and open your eyes to the world again.

Movie Theaters Around New York City to Beat the Heat that Aren’t AMC or Regal

In Texas, the summers are suffocating.

The only way to escape the sweltering southern heat is to beat it by staying inside with solid air conditioning, and as a child my personal safe haven was my local movie theater.

There was nothing I enjoyed more than catching the latest summer blockbuster with my parents, and then sitting in the back seat of the broiling car telling my dad my favorite parts.

As a superhero-obsessed middle schooler, meeting my best friends on the curb with my mom waving goodbye, saying she’ll be back in a couple of hours to pick me up. Finally getting my driver's license and maximizing my free will to see movies that no one else was interested in alone. 

When I moved to New York City for college, it took me exactly one month to bite the bullet and see a movie alone in a brand new place.

On a Wednesday before my 6 pm lecture, I took myself to Regal Union Square to see Venom 2. And just like all those years prior, everything that made me fall in love with going to the movies as a child was now an even bigger part of what would come of my new adult life in New York City.

Whether it's seeing a cinematic classic that's been on my watchlist for months or catching the latest indie feature debut from a young director, going to the movies is akin to going to church for me. Going at least once a week makes all feel right in the world. 

Cinephiles living in NYC suffer no shortage of great movie theaters in every borough.

From historic one-screen auditoriums to newly-furbished warehouses, there’s no better independent scene than here in the city.

Here are some of the best New York City independent theaters to defend yourself from the stuffy streets. 

Manhattan:

Film Forum

This theater is arguably the most important and deservedly popular independent cinema in New York City. From its opening in 1970, Film Forum has remained a cinematic staple, yielding praise from prolific filmmakers and actors alike, Agnes Varda to Ethan Hawke.

A large part of its praise is due to the programming; Film Forum screens American independent, documentary, and international feature films, as well as impressive and carefully curated repertory series. If the history and everything the Film Forum has to offer still isn’t convincing enough, they also have incredible popcorn. Don’t waste another movie night in the city anywhere else. 

Angelika Film Center

Similar to Film Forum, Angelika Film Center stands as a pillar of New York City, with two locations outside of its original Houston street location. What was originally a … has now become a staple in NYC moviegoing culture. Constantly screening a range of new independent releases and retrospectives, there’s something of interest for everyone.

This summer, Angelika worked alongside the Criterion Collection to run “Lynchian: A David Lynch Retrospective”. Seeing the works of the incomparable late filmmaker on the big screen is an essential for any film lover. 

Metrograph 

Compared to Film Forum or Angelika, Metrograph is a baby independent theater, with its doors having opened just ten years ago. However, within those ten years, Metrograph has solidified itself to be one of the most popular independent theaters in New York City and for good reason.

Their film-only programming is mainly a repertory one, with the occasional new release and Q&A between two screens. Settled inside a refurbished warehouse in the Lower East Side, Metrograph also has an upscale food selection and two bars, inspired by Hollywood's golden age. 

Paris Theater

If you have ever thought to yourself that a Netflix original film would be better to experience in a dark auditorium while sitting in a cushy red velvet chair with a crisp soft drink, then Paris Theater is the place for you.

This single-screen theater is the longest-running arthouse cinema in New York City, and after being bought by Netflix in 2019 screens limited engagements of films made for streaming, as well as running programs curated by filmmakers and other retrospectives. In mid-July, Paris Theater and the Film Noir Foundation are running “Noir City: New York” a traveling celebration of film noir, which includes 32 feature films on 35mm print.

IFC Center 

In the heart of Greenwich Village, IFC Center has been highlighting independent films since 2005. Alongside their usual theatrical distribution of independent, foreign, and documentary features, they also present theatrical productions of National Theatre Live and host DOC NYC every November.

They also feature two series, Waverly Midnights and Short Attention Span Cinema. Waverly Midnights focuses on cult classics, screening at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, while Short Attention Span Cinema screens short films before features. 

Brooklyn: 

BAM Rose Cinemas 

The Brooklyn Academy of Music hosts art across multiple mediums, spotlighting everything from film to theater to dance and live music.

Their film programming is nothing short of impressive, screening both new releases and carefully curated and niche series that center on various topics. In mid-July, BAM will be presenting "Electronica" a series that features films with electronic-heavy soundtracks, and then following that, they will be screening a series of contemporary Arab cinema. 

Syndicated Bar Theater Kitchen

If the classic popcorn saturated in butter and overpriced fountain drink don’t tickle your fancy, then Syndicated is the perfect cinematic outing for you.

Like chains such as Nitehawk and Alamo Drafthouse, Syndicated has a full drink and dinner menu, and it accompanies their one screening a day. To keep up with their screening schedule and programming, which floats between new releases and repertory, follow them on Instagram for updates! 

Queens:

MoMI

Surrounded by the magical works of Jim Henson and quirky rotating exhibits is a massive screening room that contains some of my personal favorite programming around the city.

With an exciting “De Palma: Summer of Suspense” and “Culture Wars” series running through late July, the Museum of the Moving Image is an absolute essential for any film lover in New York City. Start your day learning about the technical histories of cinema and make your way through the exciting exhibits, such as “Overexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body” and  “Sense of Nowhere,” an interactive VR technology experience, then make your way to the auditorium to catch a film. 

Low Cinema  

Small but mighty, Low Cinema is located in Ridgewood with only 42 seats and features a wide range of programming. Partners John Wilson, Davis Fowlkes, and Cosmo Bjorkenheim are driven by their love of cinema and their neighborhood, and in an effort to keep moviegoing alive and well, they opened Low Cinema in May of 2025.

Their programming contains anything and everything from obscure documentaries to hit romantic comedy blockbusters; this quaint cinema needs to be on everyone’s radar this summer. 

Go to the movies and support arthouse cinemas! Happy watching.