There's an eclectic music venue in Bed-Stuy on Quincy Street, but it's hiding in plain sight. It's the Quincy Atom: An artists' haven on the ground floor of an unassuming townhouse on the residential tree-lined street.
The five-year-old venue — which doubles as a living space for artists — hosts well-attended shows highlighting up-and-coming performers and is infused with a collaborative spirit.
Quincy Atom founders Jon-Delia Freeman and Noah Jodice started living at 181 Quincy St. in the fall of 2018. They played in a band called Doctor Delia at the time and envisioned the Quincy Atom as a community-run space for artists of all types.
“It started from a need for space, for common space and commonality and common ground and love,” Freeman told BK Reader. “Thinking of Trump, and the kind of barren wasteland of what felt like late-stage capitalist America, I just want to create [something that] was sensitive and loving and could provide a caring support network for people. That was my dream.”
To ensure the venue stays accessible and community-focused, all shows at the Quincy Atom are donation-based, with a Venmo code set up unattended by the front door.
“I remember feeling priced out of things a lot of the time in New York,” Freeman said. “I knew that there were members of the neighborhood who would want to come, and I didn't want it to feel inaccessible to anyone, especially having kind of gentrified the neighborhood. … I wanted it to be this welcoming hearth, this place that anyone could come to and feel welcome, no matter what their financial situation or background.”
Jodice and Freeman left New York at the end of 2020 and handed the space to the next generation of artists, hopeful the venue would live on.
These days, there’s an ever-rotating cast of characters living in the house. Freeman appointed comedian Sam Lochs and drummer Andrew Orenstein to run the Quincy Atom in their absence. Lochs and Orenstein are joined by four other tenants: One roommate is a music teacher with a Ph.D., another is a head chef at a restaurant, and two are R&B musicians. Freeman said a podcast host is moving in soon.
The variety of events offered at the Quincy Atom in its post-pandemic era mirrors the diversity of artists involved in the collective. The events run the gamut from concerts to environmentalist talks, stand-up shows, clothing drives, string quartets and open mics.
The neighbors don't mind the townhouse’s after-hours noise, Lochs said.
“Our neighbor on the left has never said anything — he’s the oldest living individual on the block, so he’s pretty much lived here since its heyday,” Lochs said. “Our neighbor to the right of us is our super, and he doesn’t give a shit. Sometimes his tenants will come over and join; sometimes our downstairs neighbors will come up with a bottle of wine and bring their dog.”
Without backlash from neighbors, the Quincy Atom community is all set to keep growing and hosting.
“I’d like to actually be able to pay people, like, a set rate for performing,” Lochs said.
Currently, the venue pays performers by splitting the proceeds from donations; but Lochs is planning on applying for grants that would allow the Quincy Atom to book bigger bands and guarantee pay.
“A lot of event spaces and venues take money away from artists, so we want to change that and put forward that artists should be paid fairly,” Loch said.
For information on upcoming events at Quincy Atom, check the venue's Instagram account.
