Space is not neutral. Public space is not equally accessible, but can depend upon race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, economic status, age, and other markers of identity.
The Nonprofit That Puts Art Inside Laundromats (And Wherever Else People Are)
Field Day Festival: Harlem, 2015. The Laundry Room (116th St. & Lenox Avenue). (Photo by Ray Llanos, courtesy of The Laundromat Project) Originally posted at Next City, written by Emily Nonko Risë Wilson developed the concept behind The Laundromat Project in the late 1990s while attending graduate school at New York University and living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Her…… Continue reading The Nonprofit That Puts Art Inside Laundromats (And Wherever Else People Are)
Making Art, Building Community, & Creating Change through Abundance (exhibition)
In the context of the Hindsight 2020 conference, I curated an exhibition celebrating 5 years of the Kelly Street Collaborative. From 2014-2019, The Laundromat Project collaborated with Workforce Housing Group, Kelly Street Garden, Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, among other community based organizations, to transform a two-bedroom apartment and surrounding public spaces on Kelly Street…… Continue reading Making Art, Building Community, & Creating Change through Abundance (exhibition)
Workshop: Practicing Abundance: A Model for Creative Community Building
Led this workshop as part of the Artplace Summit. What can a mindset of abundance, rather than scarcity, do for communities? We’ll explore the Laundromat Project’s engagement with the Kelly Street neighborhood in the South Bronx, showing how Laundromat weaves abundance into its organizing model—and what it means to practice abundance as a way to…… Continue reading Workshop: Practicing Abundance: A Model for Creative Community Building
Making Art, Building Community, And Creating Change Through Abundance
Workshop led for the Artworld Conference Defining Value(s) in the art world Arts and culture institutions wield influence, impacting and transforming social issues in our communities. For an institution to be authentic (honoring mission, values, and communities of accountability), a practice of self-reflection and adaptation is required to ensure inner structures and processes align with…… Continue reading Making Art, Building Community, And Creating Change Through Abundance
Telling Totes at the Essex Street Market
I developed a project called Messages to Go and I interviewed 10 out of 26 the Essex Street Market’s vendors. Through my interviews, I learned about their experiences as business owners and I documented their unique perspectives on the role of the market within the neighborhood. From those conversations, I chose quotes, one per vendor, and designed 10 different reusable bags featuring each person that I had an opportunity to speak with. This was done in consultation with the vendors and approved by them before going into production. In the end, we produced 1,500 bags that were given to the vendors and made available to customers at the participating businesses throughout the market. As a result, the bags become part of a larger network of visitors outside of the Market, amplifying the stories and anecdotes featured in their designs.
The City Amplified: Oral Histories and Radical Archives
The City Amplified: Oral Histories and Radical Archives (edited by Allison Guess & Prithi Kanakamedala) is a book of ten commissioned essays by archivists, activists, artists, and historians that reflects the creative and intellectual energy of the City Amplified working group. The essays explore the meaning of community-centered oral history archives and the ethics of archival work, rooted in a local context. The book also includes a detailed resource guide for those looking to start a community oral history project. The book features representatives of community partners such as The Laundromat Project, Interference Archive, Buscada, City Lore, South Asian American Digital Archive, Urban Democracy Lab, New York Public Library, American Social History Project, and others.
Saying Goodbye to Essex Street Market with Art
The end is nigh. With no Hercules in sight, the multi-headed Hydra better known as Essex Crossing is erasing memories all over the place. In an effort to assuage the inevitable, a final string of art exhibits is about to commence in the soon-to-be-former Essex Market space before it’s demolished.
In, Of, and Crossing Essex
By Fall of 2018, Essex Market will prepare for its relocation as part of the Essex Crossing development. At this time of transition, In, Of and Crossing Essex will present three artist projects by Sonia Louise Davis, Dillon de Give, and Hatuey Ramos-Fermín.
On being an ‘artist and….’
Listen to the podcast at FAB NYC. Elizabeth Hamby and Hatuey Ramos Fermin (also known as Meta Local Collaborative) are Bronx based artists who continue to transform our understanding of New York’s largest public space: its streets. They explore the histories of neighborhoods, create site-specific participatory work, engage a broad range of people, and work…… Continue reading On being an ‘artist and….’
Parade of Perseverance
El Museo prepares for 41st Annual Three Kings Day Parade Story by Gregg McQueen http://www.manhattantimesnews.com/parade-of-perseverancedesfile-de-la-perseverancia/ Four decades later, the three kings (and queens) still reign. The East Harlem streets will once again be taken over by real camels, giant hand-made puppets and live music, when El Museo del Barrio celebrates its annual Three Kings Day Parade on Fri., Jan. 5…… Continue reading Parade of Perseverance
INTERVIEW: THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT
Through a decade, The Laundromat Project worked for the residents of New York’s historic minority neighborhoods to get their voices heard. The tools for it? Art and design.
Bronx Artist Asks Visitors to Share Their ‘Sites of Struggle’ On NYC Map
By Eddie Small For DNAInfo CONCOURSE — A Bronx artist wants to hear about your struggles. Artist Hatuey Ramos Fermín has set up an interactive map of the city as part of the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ exhibit on the Young Lords Organization that asks visitors to write down something they are struggling with on…… Continue reading Bronx Artist Asks Visitors to Share Their ‘Sites of Struggle’ On NYC Map
Artists in the Marketplace at the Bronx Museum
http://youtu.be/sL87bSRKRWE BY MOSTAFA HEDDAYA for Blouin Artinfo The Bronx Museum of the Arts has long distinguished itself by its commitment to the communities that surround it, with its three-and-a-half decade Artists in the Marketplace (AIM) program a leading example of this dedication. The program assists emerging artists of varying degrees of seniority and experience…… Continue reading Artists in the Marketplace at the Bronx Museum
The Young Lords’ Radical Agenda and the Problems that Persist
by Vic Vaiana for Hyperallergic The Bronx Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, and Loisaida Inc. are exhibiting the work of the artists and activists in the Young Lords Party in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York. Curated by Johanna Fernandez and Yasmin Ramírez, the Bronx exhibit aims to give local and global context for Young Lords’s activism while situating the…… Continue reading The Young Lords’ Radical Agenda and the Problems that Persist
DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS: Art in The Bronx
What art market? Hatuey Ramos-Fermín shows us the thriving and diverse art scene in New York City’s Bronx, where community-driven projects create a robust ecosystem, not an economic system.
When the Young Lords Were Outlaws in New York
by Holland Cotter for the New York Times On July 26, 1969, a group of young Latinos stood in the band shell in Tompkins Square Park, in the East Village, and made an announcement. They were founding a New York branch of a revolution-minded political party called the Young Lords. Inspired by the Black Panthers…… Continue reading When the Young Lords Were Outlaws in New York
Revisiting a heated chapter of Bx history
By Shant Shahrigian for the Riverdale Press A large banner with an AK-47 silhouetted in front of a cutout of the Puerto Rican flag greets visitors to the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ latest show, conveying something of the shock New Yorkers might have felt when the Young Lords took the city by storm starting…… Continue reading Revisiting a heated chapter of Bx history
The Art and Activism of the Young Lords
Three New York City venues look back at the Puerto Rican nationalist group By MARK ARMAO for the Wall Street Journal When garbage started piling up on East Harlem sidewalks in the late 1960s because of irregular trash collection, a group of young activists decided to intervene. They dragged the discarded mattresses, old refrigerators and abandoned…… Continue reading The Art and Activism of the Young Lords
