The Phoenix

10/02/2026

We are thrilled to announce that MYRA FLYNN is coming to The Phoenix and your tix will help us cover our lost income and ongoing legal fees from our bad actor landlord Myers Mermel. , the station Mermel now owns and our next door neighbor on Stowe Street, received a staff email from Mermel denying our claims.

Myra reached out to us because she heard about our landlord’s ongoing attempt to push us out of our space (which we pay on time and in full rent for) by blocking us from renting our currently open and empty studio upstairs (despite having a tenant ready to move in). She is playing this show as a benefit so tell your friends and let’s pack it out for a night of sensual and soulful storytelling. This date will be a last minute addition to her fall tour and we couldn’t be more thrilled to host. Thank you MyraFlynn for loving and supporting our thriving arts space here in the center of Waterbury Village, Vermont.

MYRA FLYNN
Sunday, October 18th
Limited seating available so get your tickets early before it sells out. Tix will go on sale starting tomorrow at noon through Seven Days tickets and myraflynn.com. Look for the link in our bio and at thephoenixvt.com.

MYRA FLYNN’s latest album, Shadow Work, was released in the summer of 2023. Margaret Grayson of 7days describes Shadow Work as “... five songs deeply concerned with relationships of all kinds. Flynn, who splits her time between Vermont and Los Angeles, sings of mothers and daughters, romantic relationships gone wrong, and the people who get us through the hardest times.

Currently, Myra Flynn lives a bi-costal life, still holding onto her roots in Vermont part of her year while also working and living in Los Angeles under the guidance of Swift Street Management Team. She has created a jewelry line made from recycled piano parts and recently partnered with Vermont Vineyard, Shelburne Vineyard to create a namesake w**e: FLYNN. She has toured the United States countless times as well as: Whales, London, Ireland and most frequently, Australia. Her motto regarding next steps and fame tends to be: “If you’re doing it, you’ve already made it.” ❤️

09/21/2026

….cont’d from last post. The stay of eviction issued by Judge Richardson, along with the temporary restraining order against Myers Mermel, was effective in protecting the remainder of our leases (or so we thought).

The update, which will be explained in greater detail in a forthcoming article in the Waterbury Roundabout, is that now Mermel has shifted strategies. His newest effort to force us into default is aimed directly at cutting off the income we receive from renting our upstairs studios at 7 Stowe Street (Waterbury Studios). Currently there are two tenants upstairs, OSSO Studios (Greg Montgomery and Kaziah Haviland’s architecture firm) and Sirius Health, Cadence Shae’s holistic counseling practice. We have two other studios available for rent starting June 1st. We put forward a reputable massage therapist who was ready to move in June 1st. Sublease was immediately DENIED (our lease clearly states that approval of new subtenants will not be unreasonably withheld for the stated uses of “office/artist space.” So we went back to advertising the space and found a wonderful local artist and curator (clearly within the bounds of the lease) who was ready to move in September 1st (note we have lost $600/month in rent, which we use to subsidize The Phoenix’s lease, in June, July, August and now September). Shockingly for us, though we are used to this by now, approval was immediately DENIED. The reason for this denial? That we are still in default of our lease, so all of our upstairs leases are invalid. A second studio is opening up October 1st when another tenant is moving out of state, but given that this latest denial was squarely within the stated uses in the lease, we fully expect any tenant we submit will be similarly denied.

So what are we asking of you? Come buy a painting, rent our space for an upcoming event, or give to our “we can’t receive income from our rental spaces and therefore are being forced into default by the owner of our building” rent payment fund -pensak on Venmo. Otherwise we fully expect Mermel will attempt to lock us out of our spaces, claiming we have underpaid our rent (we’ll pay as much as we can).

09/21/2026

Louie and Immy would like to announce that their co-Pawrent Joseph Pensak, co-owner and curator of The Phoenix, TREEHOUSE and Waterbury Studios (AMPS, LLC) will be playing a 24 hour piano concert on the 1929 Steinway at The Phoenix to raise awareness that The Phoenix is once again trying to be forced out of its village center space by our next door neighbor on Stowe Street, WDEV. 9am-9am this Tuesday into Wednesday.

If you haven’t been keeping up, WDEV was sold by the Squier Family to Myers Mermel in September 2025. We sadly did not get an opportunity to put in an offer on our building, as much as we wanted to. After 5 and 7 Stowe Street (to clarify, 7 Stowe is Waterbury Studios, our upstairs gallery space that has four lovely studios for rent as offices and artist studios, and 5 Stowe Street is The Phoenix, which has TURNmusic and TR Risk as our lovely subtenants) sold to Whitehill Invention Five, LLC, Myers Mermel refused to deposit our on time rent checks and also cancelled our only scheduled meeting to discuss any questions he might have had about our leases, since he was becoming our new landlord. I (Joseph) continued to hand deliver our on time rent checks to the WDEV offices at 9 Stowe Street, directly to Caroline McClain, Mermel’s business partner. Each time, I emphasized that Anna Black (co-owner of AMPS and my lovely wife) and I would like to meet and discuss why he was not depositing our checks. Caroline told me each time that she would let Myers know and make sure they were deposited.

Fast forward four months to December 22nd, 2025, we received an emailed (and mailed by certified mail) eviction notice (linked pdf available to download in our insta profile) three days before Christmas.

Anna and I received no prior notice that this eviction was coming and we spent our entire holiday putting together a 200 page complaint with photos and videos of our hand delivered rent checks as exhibits. Thankfully Judge Richardson responded with a stay of eviction and a temporary restraining order against Myers Mermel, as we clearly proved that we had leases in hand…..tbc

08/29/2026

08/29/2026

Again, you need sleep on a Friday night Waterbury? I think not. You’re doom scrolling let’s be honest. What if you sweated it out instead? Your village loves you more than you know. Til 2 you sillies. One foot in front of the other. You can dooooo it. TIL 2

08/29/2026

Ya’ll didn’t believe us we goin til 2 so come on back out you sweethearts

08/13/2026

Thanks Alice Dodge Alice Dodge and Seven Days for the killer review of MARY LYNN BURKE: SENSITIVE SEEDS. Always thoughtful and detail oriented, so very much appreciate having great art writing in Vermont. Come see the show and snag a piece for your home or business, it will elevate your daily experience of your space, support brilliant art shows continuing in Waterbury and contribute to a hardworking artist’s craft. Link to read the review online in bio.

08/07/2026

We’re thrilled to announce our 2nd annual ARTY BLOCK PARTY in Waterbury Village, Vermont. Free art opening above the Phoenix followed by two dance parties happening across the street from each other. $20 cover gets you in to the full night of fun. Come DANSE with us and celebrate all the art and artists we represent in our three AMPS, LLC village center spaces!

6-8pm at the HESTERLY BLACK (above the Phoenix)
ELISSA LINCOLN: CUT AND CARRIED
ART OPENING, FREE, at WATERBURY STUDIOS

$20 >>> ONE COVER >>> TWO DANCE PARTIES

> 8-10pm at TREEHOUSE (above McGillicuddy’s)
DJ FELT [late 90s/early 00’s club/techno]

> 8pm-late at THE PHOENIX
FLOW STATE
with 360 sound + 2 subsonic amps
PHILTHY BEETS [house]
FEVER DREAMS [house]

Tix $15/17/20 advance/week of/day of
Link in bio to buy tix on Seven Days

07/31/2026

Walk through of MARY LYNN BURKE: SENSITIVE SEEDS, current daily soundtrack on loop is Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick’s new record Tragic Magic Mary Lattimore julianna barwick

SENSITIVE SEEDS is a show to be experienced in person. For those Vt locals still unaware, particularly all our lovely wellness, massage therapist and acupuncture business neighbors: for over a year and a half now we keep the Phoenix open intentionally unstaffed (monitored by security cameras TREEHOUSE ) to create a sanctuary-like experience with the art. We mention our therapist neighbors because we can’t think of a better post-appointment activity than a quiet walk through of our village center art gallery. The ambient soundtrack is 🤗

This model was inspired by the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Tx, where our owner/curator Joseph Pensak spent two annual week long study retreats. The loveliest part about this model is that it makes the Phoenix truly in line with our intentions of starting the Phoenix almost four years ago—to be a commonspace for free and public enjoyment of museum quality art shows and music that you’d get in NYC, Chicago or Montreal. If you’ve never seen yourself as an art gallery person, our goal is for you to see yourself in an art gallery, at the Phoenix! Weekly. Make it part of your Wednesday evening Passeggiata, your one hour “I need a break” village stroll or your Sunday afternoon “I just woke up and want something quiet and reflective and sacred” (open 12-6 every Sunday, 12-6 every other day except Saturdays and Mondays).

Lastly, if you are retired or otherwise free on Saturdays, we would like to start regularly staffing volunteer gallery sitters/docents so if you’d like to do a regular shift for one or two hours, learn about contemporary art/what it takes to sustain an art gallery in Vermont and be a part of this special commonspace we have in the center of our village, we’ll give you all the training you need! Our desk and iMac are avails for you to get some work done or just bring a book and read! What a dream space to hang out in, while having fun convos with the walk-ins, letting them know about the art/artists and all we do

07/25/2026

FLOW STATE gettin cranked