010: Ballpark Figure with Basia Kurlender  

Edited by Lili Leoung Tat
Interviewed by Emma DeAngelo and Lili Leoung Tat
Photography provided by Basia Kurlender 
Interview on 12/10/2025

Back in the fall, Pratt Radio interviewed the Long Island–based artist management company Ballpark Figure, run by Pratt alumna Basia Kurlender. From being a Pratt Radio manager to earning a degree in graphic design, Basia reflects on how her time at Pratt shaped her life and how her creative work now supports communities in need of artistic outlets, while providing a platform for emerging performers and artists.



Lili: Could you share a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Basia: My name is Basia. I am a Pratt alumni and founder and owner of Ballpark Figure Booking and Artist Management. It's a music and arts organization based primarily on Long Island, New York. The booking side of it is a combination of music and art events across Long Island that is centered around creativity and artistship. We did things like the Pathmonk Escape Festival, which was an independent film, art, music, and skateboarding festival. That’s an example of our combo events. We also just do live concerts featuring local DIY bands. We also wrote a grant with Suffolk County, so we have accessible art workshops during some of our concerts that happen in the gallery, so that’s like the art music side of the booking. Then, on the artist management side, we manage fans and artists. And what that really has meant is not like traditional artist management, like, where we're just telling you what to do.  We help with social content, booking, design and art direction, PR and press, career development, and strategy.

Lili: That’s really cool! 

Basia: Thanks!

Lili: How did your time at the radio shape where you are today, and what was it like making the leap from working in college radio to managing artists professionally?


Basia: For a while, I didn't think it was relevant at all. I studied graphic design at Pratt, and I was like, that's what I do, but the other part of me was like, I like playing DIY, which, to explain that a little bit, because I said it before. DIY is an acronym for “do it yourself.” Which is a movement about self-produced art, like removing gatekeepers and self-published art, home recordings in terms of music. That's a movement I really subscribe to, which a lot of my work is based on. So, the DIY movement is kind of like an idea and a movement. And it was a big thing in Brooklyn when I got to Pratt in 2015. Frankie Cosmos was posting van camp recordings constantly, and it was cool to just post not the most perfect, most finished things of self-releases, self-recording was cool. There were a ton of zine fairs, there still are, but, basically, there's that part of me that liked playing those shows that brought, um, that continued a tradition of booking them at Pratt radio and expanded them to booking at more places on campus, and we did 13 bands and a live broadcast radio music festival one year, so I was, like, oh cool, that's like my life at radio and then I was like, but that doesn’t exist anymore and I have to work in design and those things are super disparate, and for a while it stayed like that. I kind of stopped playing shows. The scene was kind of dying, places were closing. I felt like I had to focus on work, which was graphic design. All the while, my life is like art, music, and art music, and it always interplays, so I was always quietly writing music. I worked at Baby’s All Right for a little on and off freelance while I was at other places, but largely I wasn’t playing. Once COVID happened, I wasn’t playing shows anymore. I moved back out to Long Island, and I saw that there was such a need for high-quality creative programming that was culturally rich. I was like, “I can do this.” This isn’t crowded, and there’s a hole, and I can fill the hole. So that’s how it started to kind of come together again. At that point, I was taking a break from working at ad agencies; the other side of me, outside of booking, is that I have a second company, which is where I am a freelance art director and designer. So, to answer the questions about how the radio plays in, now that Ballpark is such a big part of what I do, half of my creative career and career in general is in Ballpark. It's everything. It's like, where I learned how to like, kind of formally, do things like talk to bands, learning within the system of radio promotion, learning about the gear, that’s where I learned how to work a sound board. Rado was everything like, without it, I wouldn’t be here doing this. I just wouldn’t know how.

Lili: Did you meet a lot of people through the radio? Not just like networking, but like that community to back you up?

Basia: Yeah, you know people are so original, right? Long Island is so close to Brooklyn and Queens, but as people stay in their little bubbles, I would say coming to Long Island, I was actually starting new. I did meet a lot of people, part of that was playing in my own band when I was in Brooklyn, and part of it was the radio. There used to be a Facebook group, when that was a thing, and it was called “DIY friends,” and everyone who played DIY music would be in that Facebook group, and they’d post about meeting, or I need a band to support on a show, or does anyone have a van I can borrow? It was actually really cool. It was kind of like a community moment. I used to post there every semester, like, “hey! Booking live sessions, or live performances for Pratt Radio, who wants to play?” And I think I met a lot of people that way. I was going through my drive for you guys for archival stuff, and I found the template that we used to reach out. So that has helped me learn how to reach out and meet people that way. People I’m still in contact with, people I’m still friends with, even on a personal level, but when I was in Brooklyn, I was like, I’m done with DIY, like there’s nothing for me there, and it’s Covid.

All: *Laughs*

Basia: But when I came back to Long Island, I was like, wait, there is this spirit of DIY, and it’s not highly oversaturated. And it felt special and vibrant, not that Brooklyn's not vibrant, it’s just different, a little scrappier on the island, people care more in some ways. But on Long Island, I didn’t have my people; my contacts weren’t out there. I felt like I was starting over net new, and also, there are a lot of gatekeepers out there that I found to be on a gender basis. Like I’m a girl, I feel weird at some of these shows which are largely emo and hardcore which is cool, I like those things, and I really grew to like them when I came out to Long Island because it’s so entrenched in culture, but there’s like a lot of misogyny engrained in those things and the lyrics that kind of come out in how you get treated. I think at those shows, in my experience, at least being a girl at the hardcore show, on of like 10 and there’s like 200 people there, and you’re getting looked ar weird, like It wasn’t supposed to be comfortable for me at shows which also like kind of why I was like you know what, I’ll just book my own shows. I know how to do this from the radio. So that’s the real origin story.


Lili: That’s so great! What was a memorable moment from your college radio day that still sticks with you today?


Basia: There are two that immediately come to mind. One was the most successful show we ever put on. I think in my time, I mean, I love doing the live sessions, which is when a band would come in and play a song. We talk, play a song, we talk, and I remember feeling just like in general for those, they'd be like Saturday morning or Sunday morning, like it was really cool to do, but it was so much work, and we were always so stressed because it was like, boom, you're Live. It was a lot of stress as the interviewer, the sound person, the coordinator, and the booker. It's a little like what I do now, like I do everything. Now, all those roles and more, like at the show, taking iPhone videos like a real DSLR, running to the sound board, settling with the house, I'm running around like a maniac *laughs.*  Eventually, I'd like to hire for some of that, but at the DIY level like that's what it is right now, but the point here is that we used to have live sessions they were really great, but a lot of work, and they would be broadcasted, but one really special one we had was with Poppy Red, the Spookfish, and Gray on Green. Poppy Red was like a friend of the Spookfish; this guy, Dan, he's my friend. He played a show at the Ballpark recently. Gray on Green is like one of my besties, Scott, who has an ambient keyboard project, and the spookfish is like tape loops experimental. It’s a little Pop-y. It's cool. But the point being, those were people I knew from around. They were friends. We were like, let’s do a live session, but at night, and let’s invite a million people. And we did. This was before the Pratt buildings had the swipe. Like, you could just get into Pratt Radio. It was just really magical. Like, there are pictures of it still on Tumblr, I think, and it’s like all these people packed into this room.  And it's people playing this, ambient, special, touching music. So, that was one all-time memory. The other one was Katixa, the former general manager, and I, when I was outgoing as general manager, and she was incoming towards the end of my term. We're just like, “should we have a music festival in two months, like that's broadcasted?” We're like, “yeah,” and then we got 13 bands to play across two days.

Lili: Wow, that’s crazy.

Basia: I don't think we advertised it super well, and I think the poster could have been clearer. I mean, I was sure that's on me; it was also like on Easter weekend, so people listened in. And also, we didn't mic it very well, like those recordings are online, so you can find them. I'm really happy we did it, but like, now knowing what I know I’d do a million things different, but that was really important, and I think it gave me the confidence to just be like I can do whatever, like I, I can do whatever I want, like In a in a cool way, like I can make whatever I want. I can create however I want when given the freedom. So I'm grateful to Pratt radio and Pratt for allowing us to do that, or at least looking way enough.

Lili: Going back to the management company, can you share more about how you bring the Arts and Music together through the events you are working on?

Basia: Totally! Yeah, so on the booking side. As I said before, my life is just like art, music, art, music, and that's how I wanted it. That's how I've kind of set it up. I think I'm the happiest at these events. And I think people respond to them the best, there were some really great shows that are like just five bands, and it's just special because of the bands. And that's special in a different way, but people seem to respond best to these innovative, combined programs. These shows are happening in spaces that are non-traditional. Like, sometimes they have art up. We do a lot of them in an art gallery, an art museum called the Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island. But that's kind of just like the setting is nice, and it's nice to have art up. Recently, we did a kind of fusion event. A book launch for the author, Liz Pelley, for her book, Mood Machine. Which, if you're like, oh, I like, I keep seeing this stuff like artists are getting off Spotify, people are saying, it's bad, she’s the reason, that book is the reason. That's my friend Liz, actually, whom I met at shows in Brooklyn.

Emma: That’s so cool.

Basia: *Laughs* To actually let us have a Pratt radio-like off-campus event at Silent Barn, which used to be like a really cool DIY space in Bushwick by Rebecca's. We did a book reading for Liz Pelley, which started with her reading, then we had an all-female music journals panel, and then we had four, like deep local, and from Brooklyn DIY bands, and the room just packed out, and it was like the most special thing. We did a skateboarding festival, so that was like combining skateboarding and an independent film screening that my friends made about the man who skateboarded across the United States in 57 days. He's from Long Island. So, my friends made a film about it. They flew out and met him a couple of times while I worked on the film. They needed help with a film screening. I have a lot of local partners that I'm so lucky to work with. Private non-profit governmental, like a lot of different types. And the Patchogue Arts Council, which is one of my non-profit partners. I was, like, “Hey, do you think we could screen this at the theater next to you (another non-profit partner, Cinema Art Center)?” We basically just went crazy, and we had a skateboarding festival, and we had a music festival, and it just kept building, and we got rails for skaters, and there was music, and there were a lot of film screenings. As a result of the Suffolk County cultural competitive Grant, which is a grant that we applied for and got. We did a free junk journaling Workshop, while bands got to play and we paid them, and it was really cool. We provided all the materials for the public, and like 75 people were in the room at one point. And it was a small room, and people were like this is packed so that felt really special. Sometimes you’re like, do people really want to do this? And then they come out. 500 people came to the skate Fest.


Lili: That's so good! Everything sounds like it’s been super successful.


Basia: Oh, that's not true at all. Oh my gosh, that's so not true. I’ve put a lot of time into the promotion, so I am on the street team putting up flyers. I’ll take a day from work and do that. And sometimes stuff flops, like if they all hit, that would be weird. I’ve had one or two major flops. Pratt Radio, I’ve had some flops, but I was grateful for this space to learn. That’s being a student, I think.


Emma: But it’s still good that you're providing that space for those events and for those people to come, and you know, once in a while it doesn’t work, and that's just the toll you have to pay.


Basia: And I always learn. Alright, maybe this time of year isn’t good. Maybe we're in a recessionary environment, and I have to expect this a little. I learned this from one of the grant shows, where one was not super well attended, and it’s not because the bands aren’t good. It’s not because the event isn’t good. I noticed people were like oh it’s ten dollars like I can’t. I was like hey can we make the last event free?  So, we figured out a way to make the last one free of the Grant series, and then boom, 75 people. So failing helps me learn. I lowkey don’t love it, but at the end of the day, I try to get into a situation where I’m not leveraging such a high room fee. That’s also why coming to Long Island helps people. The room fees are a little less, and partners are willing to be more flexible because there’s a need. It’s not just like everyone’s doing it. I try not to walk away, and if no one comes, I’ll owe like 500 dollars. And even if five people come, at least those five people had a nice night. They learned something, and they saw bands that they connected with. There was a show that had really low attendance. This audience member said to one of the performers, your songs touched me, like I felt the feelings you were singing about. So those two people got a lot out of it, even if there weren't hundreds of people. So that’s my thought on failing.


Lili: Honestly, when it’s less people, it feels more intimate.


Basia: I would go to DIY shows like the weird ones where there were only three people there, and those would always hit the most.


Lili: Beyond Ballpark Figure booking, what other projects are you working on right now that are exciting for you?


Basia: Honestly, Ballpark Management is taking so much of my time, which is great. As I said before, it’s really more like just a boutique service for brands, social media, career development, or direction. So it's also like a subscription model. I’m learning how things work, you know, later I have to find a new payment processor for recurring payments, as it is taking up a lot of time, and there's no God for it. I'm working for the city of Kingston in my other business. Designing a PDF for them because they have a report about how their downtown, technically Midtown area, has been revitalized in the past couple of years, how they’re taking polluted land called Brown fields, and what it’s turning into. It’s really cool! But I’m working on that; it’s like 250 pages. The thing I really wish I could do right now, but I really cannot, is sew clothes. I really wish I could finish them. Like, I’ll do like alterations, like making them bigger or smaller, or I got a stain on my sweatshirt, and I was like, I’m totally going to weave over this. I really want to do that, but I haven't had the time or the energy. I have a jelly plate, which is like a print-making thing. I haven’t had the time to do that, but I really want to. I want to set up a silk screen studio. I recently bought a bass from my friend Jordan, and I bought a bass amp too. One can play bass. I don't really have the time or energy, but on the weekends, when I get a free moment, I'm not overworking (because I usually work on the weekends). It does rip to play, make jelly prints, and sew my clothes.


Lili: Yeah, it’s always hard to find moments for your little hobbies.


Basia: The things that are not easy to pick up and put down, but then it’s so much sweeter when you get them.


Lili: I think we have one more question.


Basia: Sounds great!


Lili: If you could offer one piece of advice to WPIR today, what would it be?


Basia: As you guys are all creatives, you’re all obviously at Pratt, you’re all super talented, and a career in the arts is never easy. Think of it like the starving artists or the system of patronage that has been with us for centuries. It’s just not easy, but it is always worth it. Use whatever you have and just keep making things. Trust me, it doesn’t all work; it’s taken a lot of tries to get there. Like I’m 28, and I’ve tried a lot of different things, but they all stick with me, and they all help me every day. Everything that I tried that didn’t work out. I come back to those learning processes. Keep trying different things and try all the time, and try when it feels like you suck and try when it feels like you're great. Try when you have no time. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t keep throwing shi* at the wall. You have power. Use your power. Be scrappy. Do whatever you can and keep trying.

Lili: That’s honestly so helpful, and especially starting the radio from the ground up. There was a huge break after COVID, and I think you guys were the last ones running it before us. And we were so lost. We were just like what do we do? And to just keep trying and maintain the stamina and passion to drive the radio forward is really great advice.


Basia: “Keep trying” is such normal advice to give, but it’s important. Keep using your power and keep trying to do good as much as you can.