‘Spirit of Community’ Highlights Period of El Barrio Art

HARLEM — In many ways, Manny Vega sees himself as among the last of a dying breed of visual artists to come out of East Harlem.

“I call it the East Harlem or El Barrio school,” said Vega, who is well known for his public murals and mosaics.

“From the late 1960s through the early 1970s there was this traffic of visual artists. I was young then, fresh out of high school, and developed my chops working with community based organizations.

“It’s very unlikely that that would occur again in this time period,” he said.

Also recognizing the significance of that period is Community Works, which has organized a show featuring Vega and several of his contemporaries — John Ahearn, Diógenes Ballester, Rodriguez Calero, Marcos Dimas, Lina Puerta, Fernando Salicrup and Nitza Tufiño — from that era.

Spirit of Community: Artists of El Barrio & Beyond focuses on the works of these artists and the role they played in making El Barrio the center of the formation of Puerto Rican identity while at the same time transcending those boundaries.

“It’s a remarkably eclectic mix of art that has grown out of this community,” said Barbara Horowitz, founder and president of Community Works. “Sometimes you are close to greatness in your own backyard and you don’t realize it.

“The community knows it but needs to be reminded of it,” she added.

They can be reminded of the works of many of the artists just by walking down the street. Many of those included in the show have made their marks through public art.

“These artists tell their stories in multiple ways and very public ways,” Horowitz said.

In the 1970s, Vega helped Hank Prussin paint the giant “Spirit of East Harlem” mural located at East 104th Street and Lexington Avenue. He was called in decades later to help restore it after it was defaced by graffiti.

Vega’s mosaics can also be spotted around East Harlem, including one of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. Sculptor John Ahearn’s lifecasts can be seen throughout the neighborhood and Tufiño and Puerta are also no strangers to public art.

But the great things about the artists in the exhibit is that they can’t be constrained to small categories and have refused to be “compartmentalized as Latino artists or community artists,” Vega said.

Dimas, Tufiño and Salicrup often used their art as a form of political protest. Many of the artists, including  Ballester, have been exhibited in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia, Horowitz said.

The exhibit explores all of their work in multiple contexts.

“As I’m getting older I’m feeling more global. The more I travel the closer I come to home,” Vega said. “And that’s what I want to share with young people, that it’s important to go out into the world to get a perspective of community so you can come back and build on it.”

An opening reception for Spirit of Community: Artists of El Barrio & Beyond will be held Thursday, April 18 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at The Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Dr. RSVP to (212) 459-1854 or e-mail qc@communityworksnyc.org. The exhibit will remain open through May 5.
Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130418/east-harlem/spirit-of-community-highlights-period-of-el-barrio-art#ixzz2R1yJJLQy

Old, New in East Harlem

Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal
Pedestrians cross Lexington Avenue in East Harlem.

‘When Manhattan Neighborhood Network, a public-access center for cable TV, expanded to the East Side last year by taking over a decommissioned firehouse at 175 E. 104th St., it sent a signal that East Harlem was ready for prime time.

2½-year restoration of the firehouse kept the historic shell but completely retrofitted the interior with production equipment and high-definition studios for use by area residents. But more importantly, it gave the neighborhood access to technology that has long eluded it.

La Casa Azul bookstore on East 103rd Street

“This studio is squarely aimed at breaking the digital divide,” said Daniel Coughlin, MNN’s executive director.

The restoration, however, is also a metaphor for much of what’s happening in the neighborhood these days, as East Harlem becomes increasingly gussied up while its residents struggle to avoid the pitfalls of gentrification.

As development creeps north of 96th Street—the historic dividing line between Spanish Harlem and Yorkville—residents and business owners worry the cultural heritage that so keenly defines the neighborhood will erode. Many locals say they don’t want to see a replication of the gentrification on the Lower East Side.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s El Barrio Firehouse Center on East 104th Street.

“We need places that are owned and operated by people who know what the community wants and who are answering the call for things that reflect their culture and history,” said Marina Ortiz, executive director of East Harlem Preservation, a advocacy group that promotes the neighborhood’s heritage.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda, a West Coast transplant, opened La Casa Azul bookstore in East Harlem in a two-level brownstone at 143 E. 103rd St. 10 months ago. She was initially inspired to open her store by what she couldn’t find—anything dedicated to Latino literature—and as she developed programming around her customers’ requests, she realized a greater need.

Firehouse Engine 53, on 175 E. 104th Street. Published Credit: FDNY

“There’s nothing that supported the literary arts in the way I was hoping to find,” she said. “We have locals who come in and say ‘we’ve been here for generations and haven’t had a space like this.’ It is a mission to be part of the community, but a major component of that is to be receptive to the community.”

The store has grown into a cultural gathering spot that has hosted 200 events such as children’s workshops, cooking classes, readings and film screenings.

The balance between new development and such organic, community-based growth is but one issue here as multigenerational shops are replaced by polished retail spaces.

East Harlem Wants a Business Improvement District Despite Past Failures

HARLEM — After several failed attempts, East Harlem officials say they want to set up a business improvement district on one of the historic neighborhood’s main commercial corridors.

A portion of 116th Street, Third Avenue or Lexington Avenue are being considered as Community Board 11 begins the process of identifying a group to sell the idea to local property owners and merchants.

“We are one of the only districts in Upper Manhattan that does not have a business improvement district, we do not have a local development corporation or a thriving merchant association,” said Diane Collier, chair of CB 11′s Culture, Tourism and Economic Development committee.

Abandoned East Harlem school building will be transformed into housing for artists, thanks to $52.2 million project

El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109 will provide affordable apartments, artists’ studios and space for cultural groups

Rendering for Artspace PS 109, a $52 million project to transform a long-abandoned public school at 213 E. 99th St. in East Harlem into a residential complex with 90 affordable apartments and space for galleries, which will break ground on Oct. 2, 2012.

Affordable housing for poor artists and their families who live in upper Manhattan has long been an impossible dream as rents skyrocketed and studio space vanished — but now, that dream is about to come true.

Construction is about to begin on a $52-million project to transform a long-abandoned public school in East Harlem into a residential complex with 90 affordable apartments and space for galleries and arts organizations.

The Oct. 2 groundbreaking for El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109, at 213 E. 99th St., will feature Latino salsa legend Johnny Colon & his Orchestra — and a host of community activists and politicians who’ve been clamoring for the project for years.

“It’s a historic project, the first of this size in the city, and it will be an economic engine for the entire community,” said City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito.

“Culture and art will be created,” she added. “Artists will open their live-work spaces to sell their works.”

The fortress-like former elementary school is a five-story, Gothic Revival building that served neighborhood kids from 1898 until it was closed and boarded up in 1995.

PS 109 on East 99th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues is slated for demolition but that process was halted in 2000. Now, thanks to the city Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development, the boarded-up building is being transformed into affordable housing for artists.

Deteriorating and slated for demolition, PS 109 was saved by local preservationists, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and transferred from the Department of Education to the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation & Development.

In late June, HPD closed on $52.2 million in construction financing and turned the parcel over to two nonprofit developers, Artspace Projects, a Minneapolis-based firm, and El Barrio’s Operation Fightback, a community developer in East Harlem.

Where did the cash come from?

“There were as many as 10 different funding sources,” HPD’s Deputy Commissioner for Development RuthAnne Visnauskas told the Daily News.

Among the pieces:
l $24 million in federal low-income housing tax credits, which helped leverage a $15-million bank loan.
l $3.4 million in city capital funds provided by HPD, which also donated the land and kicked in another $1 million in community benefit funds.
l $3.5 million from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
l $1.75 million in discretionary funds from Mark-Viverito and another $1 million from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

When the project opens in the summer of 2014, rents are expected to range from $500 to $1,100 per month; 18 apartments will be set aside for tenants earning no more than $24,900 for a family of four.

Another 71 units will be available for families with household income of no more than $49,800 for a family of four, HPD says.

Artists and residents of East Harlem’s Community Board 11 will get first preference for PS 109’s 50 studio apartments, 18 one-bedroom units and 21 two-bedrooms.

Said George Sarkissian, CB 11’s district manager: “This will allow the makers of art and culture in our community to continue living in our community.”

dfeiden@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/abandoned-east-harlem-school-building-transformed-housing-artists-thanks-52-2-million-project-article-1.1169139#ixzz27tYu0zaV

Diaspora From Midtown: Caribbean Diaspora Museum Moves to East Harlem

The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute is making a mass migration uptown, taking its art and its artifacts and its programming from the small brownstone at 408 West 58th Street that has housed the museum for decades to a temporary place on Park Avenue and 125th Street.

The transitional space at 1825 Park Avenue will put the institute much closer to its final destination—a 8,500-square-foot firehouse on 125th Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues. Apparently the museum was just really, really eager to get out of Midtown, even if its new home wasn’t quite ready yet.

“We are where we need to be,” institute president Marta Moreno Vega said in a statement about the move. “In our location in Midtown Manhattan, gentrification changed the whole environment. El Barrio retains the feel of neighborhood and the cultural identities that speak to the diversity of the Diaspora, and we are proud to be located within our community.”

Indeed, gentrification is the primary factor pushing people to new corners of the borough and beyond these days.

The institute decided to make the move after netting a $5.2 million grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation in 2008. It also won a $70,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Partners in Preservation Program. Denham Wolf is renovating the charming red-brick firehouse, which will offer ample exhibition and performance spaces, offices, meeting rooms, multipurpose areas, a cafe and a museum shop.

“Being physically located in the cultural arts corridor of 125th Street provides us with an even greater opportunity to bridge the experiences of the Diaspora from West to East,” Ms. Vega said.

This year, the Institute is releasing two new publications (a book on community arts organizations and a collection of essays and poems about Latina women of African descent), and is working on an upcoming exhibition about Dutch Caribbean art.

kvelsey@observer.com

MNN Opens New State-of the-Art Studio in East Harlem Firehouse

HARLEM — The old hay loft at the landmarked El Barrio Firehouse once had a state-of-the-art system in the 1800s to pull its canvas hoses up to dry.

But it took a total renovation by public access TV’s Manhattan Neighborhood Network to get the decommissioned firehouse back to featuring cutting-edge technology.

“There were dead pigeons and God knows what up here,” said Dan Coughlin, executive director of MNN, which took over the space at 175 E. 104th St., between Lexington and Third avenues, in 2007.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network's new El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center at 175 E. 104th St., between Lexington and Third avenues. (DNAinfo/Jeff Mays)

The new-and-improved El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center is now filled with three high-definition live broadcast and production studios, as well as editing and training facilities. Residents will be able to learn how to produce a television show and then use the equipment and facilities at the media center to do so.

The space also houses a youth media center that will give residents aged 12 to 25 a chance to learn digital production skills and produce up to 25 hours a week of programming.

“We are not just into teaching production skills but critical thinking,” said Iris Morales, who will serve as director of the El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center.

Morales, a lawyer who previously served as executive director of the Union Square Awards, which has distributed more than $16 million to grassroots non-profits, is from East Harlem and has an activist background.

“We want young people to use the skills they acquire here to tell stories from the perspective of their community. It’s part of an educational process that says, ‘Your community has value. You don’t need to replicate what you see on reality television,’ ” Morales said.

Bringing services to the Harlem community has been one of MNN’s long-term goals. Harlem residents are the biggest users of MNN’s 16,000-square-foot studios in Midtown West, at 59th street between 10th and 11th avenues.

“Traditionally community access is used by communities that don’t have access,” said Coughlin, who added that MNN reaches 620,000 cable subscribers in Manhattan. But with live video webcasting, that audience becomes global.

Inside the 10,000-square-foot space, the colorful design and high ceilings give the space an airy feel. Designed by Kostow Greenwood Architects, which has designed studios for CNN, MTV and WNYC, the space allows for multiple activities, from live broadcasts and editing to training classes, to occur at the same time in the five-story space.

The firehouse dates back to the late 1800s when it was designed by Napoleon Le Brun & Sons, the official architects of the New York City Fire Department. El Museo del Barrio was the previous owner.

The project was funded with public money from the Manhattan Borough President’s Office and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, as well as funds from cable operators.

“The community wanted this to retain the public service component that the firehouse had,” Coughlin said.

Many details of the landmarked fireplace have also been kept intact or repurposed. On the elevator, tin-ceiling panels decorate the walls. Much of the wood flooring was preserved. Outside, the bricks and decorative sconces were repointed and preserved. The stained glass was retained.

“It’s important for a community that has not had access to have a facility where the community can take pride in the quality. We wanted to send the message that you are important,” Coughlin said.

Morales said she is most excited about seeing the ways in which young people will utilize the facility.

“All of my work has been community oriented,” she said. “When I came into the space, it spoke to me about possibilities.”

Morales envisions young people coming to the studio and becoming empowered and inspired to seek details about their neighborhood and, subsequently, the world beyond.

“They should be examining issues like gentrification, but also looking to understand corporate media, how messages are crafted and why it costs so much to run for office,” Morales said.

“We see this as a place for young people to learn to look at the world differently and dream about how the world can be different,” she added.

“If you can’t dream, you are doomed.”

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20120126/harlem/mnn-opens-new-stateof-theart-studio-east-harlem-firehouse#ixzz1kcBn7D31

Poet’s Den Theater and Gallery – Harlem Travel Guide – Sutro World

Come a see a raising star

A star was born in El Barrio and it is the Poet’s Den Theater and Gallery. The theatre and gallery space has emerged as a major force in East Harlem. The beautiful theatre space is decorated with vintage furniture and with state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems. This is the birthplace of the renowned East Harlem International Film Festival and is also used for performances, readings, and poetic expressions. The gallery space, warm and inviting, is used by local, national and international artists to showcase their work. Check their calendar of events because something is always going on here and it is worth the trip across town.

Satisfy that sweet tooth with a luscious custard filled pastry from La Tropizienne Bakery. This authentic French bakery also has breads, sandwiches and cookies. Nearby Piatto d’oro 11 Ristorante serves up old world “cucina con amore” dishes. There’s also outdoor seating as weather permits.

Transportation: Bus—M101, M102, M103. Subway—6 to 110th St.

Enjoy the show

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If Park Slope gets a bike lane, why not East Harlem?

City Council member says poor and minority communities deserve the same amenities

Kathy Willens/AP The Prospect Park West bike lane.

In October, Manhattan Community Board 11’s Transportation Committee and Full Board voted in support of protected bike lanes on First and Second Aves. from 96th to 125th Sts. Since then, a small group of local business owners has sought to stymie the process, peddling misinformation that has helped sway some community board members to vote to suspend support of the bike lanes pending further investigation.

This is bad news for East Harlem.

The addition of protected bike lanes — which have barriers to make riding safer for cyclists and drivers alike — is nothing short of a social and environmental justice issue. Until recently, nearly all of the proposed locations for these lanes were in primarily white and higher-income neighborhoods — from the East Village to Chelsea to the upper East Side to Park Slope.

But all along, communities of color like El Barrio/East Harlem have needed these lanes too. Despite the stereotype that bikes are mainly used by wealthier Manhattan residents and Brooklynites, my constituents want to bike to work and for recreation, too. They ought to be able to do so safely. And even those who don’t currently do so ought to be encouraged.

Protected bike lanes improve the overall health and safety of a community by encouraging a greener and healthier form of transit, creating islands to help pedestrians cross the street and adding left turn lanes to improve traffic flow. Our community has among the highest rates of asthma and obesity in New York City. Encouraging a culture of safe cycling on our city streets can only help reverse these trends.

Some local business owners are arguing that bike lanes will lead to an increase in car traffic and the emissions that come along with it; thus, they claim, the asthma rates will worsen.

They have it exactly wrong.

The pedestrian strips associated with bike lanes will be beautified with new trees, with each tree removing one year’s worth of car emissions from the air. Additionally, having fewer automobile lanes could reduce overall traffic in communities sandwiched between the FDR and these busy avenues. This is what experts call the “traffic calming effect” of bike lanes.

This gets to the heart of the issue: Some business owners believe that the decline in traffic and loss of parking spots under this plan will impede their ability to attract customers that drive to their businesses.

There are clearly a number of pressures on local businesses in my community, but it is hard to believe that bike lanes could make or break their ability to continue to turn a profit. In fact, the protected bike lanes have the potential to encourage cyclists from other neighborhoods to visit our community, try out the restaurants and check out the local stores and cultural attractions. This has been the result in other cities, where bike tourism has brought more affluent consumers to neighborhoods that they would not otherwise have visited were it not for convenient bike lanes.

The truth is that bike lanes make sense for El Barrio/East Harlem. We deserve the amenities that other communities take for granted as a way of improving the health of our community and encouraging a culture of cycling, particularly for our youth. These bike lanes are already working well in neighborhoods throughout Manhattan. We must not allow a vocal and self-interested minority to prevent these important transportation improvements from reaching our community.

Mark-Viverito is a councilwoman who represents parts of Harlem and the South Bronx.

By Melissa Mark-viverito / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Theater at East Harlem’s Julia de Burgos Cultural Center Gets New Operator

Taller Boricua co-founder Fernando Salicrup outside the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center.

HARLEM—The city’s Economic Development Corporation picked two local East Harlem groups and a national Latino organization to operate an underutilized theater at the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center.

The Julio de Burgos Arts Alliance will be comprised of the East River North Renewal, which hosts live music and domino tournaments at La Marqueta; Los Pleneros de la 21, a performing arts group that already rents space at the center; and the national organization, The Hispanic Federation, which provides grants to Latino nonprofits.

The groups will reactivate the 2,800-square-foot theater and multi-purpose space at the center, located at East 106th Street and Lexington Avenue, by providing programming and opening the space up for use by community groups, EDC President Seth Pinsky told DNAinfo on Monday.

“What we ended up with will be a huge benefit to East Harlem,” Pinksy said. “Upper Manhattan and East Harlem has a vibrant cultural scene. The fact that this theater was dark for a long period is unfortunate. The community is excited.”

The new consortium will provide 1,700 hours of programming at the center during the first year, including more than 700 hours in the theater space.

The announcement comes a year after a controversial decision by EDC to not renew the lease on the space with Taller Boricua, which translates to “Puerto Rican Workshop.”

The beloved 40-year-old arts organization was not fully utilizing the space and did not have clear guidelines for renting the space out to community groups, said East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito.

Taller Boricua founders Fernando Salicrup and Nitza Tufiño said the loss of the space would crush the organization.

They still maintain space in the cultural center.

However, the theater needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs such as soundproofing. That was one of the reasons it was not always programmed, Salicrup and Tufiño said.

They also said they charged groups based on what the organizations could afford to pay, but they had to cover $50,000 per year in rent to the city and $20,000 in insurance costs.

Members of Community Board 11 and other local leaders criticized the EDC’s process, saying Taller Boricua was not given a chance to explain the situation or make any changes.

“It’s really clear that it was an undemocratic and untransparent process that reflects politics as usual,” said Marina Ortiz, founder of East Harlem Preservation, a neighborhood advocacy group.

She was also concerned that the involvement of a national organization, the Hispanic Federation, removed the influence of local groups such as Taller Boricua which fought for the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center to be created for the community.

“With La Marqueta, 125th Street, East River Plaza and the Corn Exchange we have huge parcels of land being turned over to outside entities. Our community is being parceled out bit by bit,” said Ortiz.

Mark-Viverito disagreed with the assesment about Taller Boricua being left out.

“The leadership of Taller Boricua never reached out to me as a local elected official to seek assistance — financial or otherwise — at any point along the way in this process or prior to this process being initiated,” she said.

Taller Boricua was also free to respond to EDC’s proposal request, said Mark-Viverito.

“I believe that the consortium selected has a fantastic proposal, including a strong community access plan, that will ensure that this building becomes the vibrant, active cultural space it was always meant to be,” said Mark-Viverito.

She said the Hispanic Federation will provide a “solid organizational base” for the effort as it has done with other ventures. The Hispanic Federation helped to launch the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance in 2007.

“The Federation has stepped up to help incubate this alliance and provide technical assistance, as it’s done for many other ventures in our communities,” said Mark-Viverito. “I believe this is a model that will work and will provide a strong foundation on which to build to ensure the future viability of the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center.”

Community Board 11 Chair Matthew Washington said in a statement he hopes the new agreement will “ensure that fair and equal access is granted to all potential users.”

Pinsky said the EDC worked closely with the community to gain their feedback during the selection process.

City capital funds will be made available to make repairs to the theater, said Pinsky. The new consortium will also be able to produce more revenue and reduce the gap between the center’s operating costs and the subsidy the city has to provide to cover the shortfall.

The group has agreed to a five-year lease with an option to renew for another five years.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111121/harlem/theater-at-east-harlems-julia-de-burgos-cultural-center-gets-new-operator#ixzz1eUiskDhi

Piri Thomas, Harlem-Born Author of ‘Down These Mean Streets,’ Dies at 83

Piri Thomas and his wife Suzie Dod Thomas with young poets at McAteer High School in San Francisco in 1996. (Cheverote.com)

HARLEM—Piri Thomas, the Harlem-born author of the classic autobiography “Down These Mean Streets,” died Monday from pneumonia at his home in El Cerrito, CA. He was 83.

Thomas was born in Harlem Hospital in 1928 to a Puerto Rican mother and Cuban father. In 1967, Thomas chronicled the early years of his life growing up in East Harlem in “Down These Mean Streets,” his most popular work.

“We all read “Down These Mean Streets” growing up. If you speak to any Puerto Rican or Latino writer or journalist they’ll say he inspired them,” said Marina Ortiz, the founder of East Harlem Preservation who is also a journalist.

“He taught an entire generation of people from East Harlem to make moves in their lives and to document their history.”

“Down These Mean Streets” tracks Thomas’ coming of age in El Barrio. The book chronicles his life of poverty, involvement in gangs, heroin addiction and eventual imprisonment for shooting a police officer, in intimate detail.

The autobiography also examines themes of race and class in America but is ultimately a tale of redemption.

Thomas also published two novels — “Savior Savior Hold My Hand” and “Seven Long Times”— several plays, short stories and poems. He recorded two CDs of poetry and music and was the subject of three movies.

“Growing up in East Harlem, the things he wrote about were absolutely true. It wasn’t an easy time,” said Ortiz. “But he showed that you can be honest about your life and you don’t have to hide what you’ve experienced.

“He showed that those things can make you stronger and you could use those experiences to teach people.”

Thomas worked on many social justice campaigns while “encouraging a whole generation of young people to be socially responsible in their career choices, and to write and perform poetry, which subsequently birthed the new wave of “spoken word” that has appeared throughout the country,” according to a statement on the National Institute for Latino Policy’s website.

Ortiz said she had the opportunity to interview Thomas for radio station WBAI in the early 1990s and he was extremely generous with his time, sitting down with her for two hours to talk about his life and work.

“I’m completely grateful for the work he has done to motivate Latino and Black youth and bring more understanding about what life is like for poor people and people of color,” said Ortiz. “He will always be in our hearts in East Harlem.”

Thomas is survived by his wife Suzie Dod Thomas of El Cerrito, CA., six children and seven grandchildren. Memorials are planned for New York, the Bay area and Orlando, Fl.

Dates for the services have yet to be announced.

October 20, 2011 6:38am | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111020/harlem/piri-thomas-harlemborn-author-of-down-these-mean-streets-dies-at-83#ixzz1bMrCkBY2