Bombaya at La Casa Azul

FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD UP: A CITYWIDE FORUM ON CULTURE AND COMMUNITY
Thursday, May 30, 11:00am – 8:00pm
El Museo del Barrio and neighborhood locations

Video of roundtable discussion and performative response 

From the Neighborhood Up: A Citywide Forum on Culture and Community convened people from across New York City to create a vision for the city grounded in the cultural vitality and social networks that make its communities strong. This vision will become the foundation for a shared policy platform to inform our city's leadership transition in the upcoming year.

The forum drew on two key ideas. First, it honored that, as Wendell Berry wrote,"What we need is here." Every neighborhood has powerful assets to contribute to a resilient and thriving New York City. Second, it recognized our interdependence, bringing us together to develop collaborative strategies to engage New York City's opportunities and inequities.

From the Neighborhood Up was sponsored by Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York (NOCD-NY). Arts & Democracy is a founding member of NOCD-NY and a collaborator on the Forum.

FORUM PROGRAM

11:00am: COMMUNITY LUNCHES

12:30pm: REGISTRATION STARTS

WELCOME PERFORMANCE

Oreste Abrantes and members of La Casa de la Herencia

Cultural Puertorriqueña, Inc Bomba Drummers

1:15pm: WELCOME AND FRAMING in El Teatro

Gonzalo Casals, Deputy Executive Director, El Museo del Barrio
Caron Atlas, Co-Director, NOCD-NY and Director, Arts & Democracy Project

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

MODERATORS

Millard “Mitty” Owens, consultant in development, management and philanthropy
Esther Robinson, Founder, ArtHome and filmmaker

PARTICIPANTS

Prerana Reddy, Director of Public Events, Queens Museum of Art
Rosalba Rolón, Founder and Artistic Director, Pregones Theater
Milly Hawk Daniel, Vice President for Communications, PolicyLink

PERFORMATIVE RESPONSE

Maria Bauman, Director of Education & Community Engagement and Interim Managing Director, Urban Bush Women

 

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION SET UP

Gonzalo Casals, Deputy Executive Director, El Museo del Barrio
Tamara Greenfield, Co-Director, NOCD-NY, Executive Director, FABnyc

BREAK (10 MINUTES) Show your nametag or mention NOCD-NY for a 10% discount at El Café

2:45pm: SMALL GROUP SESSIONS

For locations, consult descriptions below and volunteers in the lobby and at elevators.

ART SUSTAINS. COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLNESS
With a focus on how arts and culture are vital yet under-tapped tools for strengthening the overall well-being of communities, this session will explore creative examples from a cross-section of the city.We will consider how locally-relevant artistic and cultural practices are powerful and practical sources of solutions for neighborhoods grappling with issues of holistic community health and wellness. Taller 2 (Workshop 2), 3rd Floor, Take right off elevator to the end of the hall.

SPACING OUT: CREATIVE USES OF URBAN SPACE
Building on NOCD-NY’s yearlong exploration of innovative uses of space (especially underutilized) for cultural purposes, this working session will generate specific recommendations for the City, as well as collaborative actions the arts community can take to facilitate cultural uses of urban spaces. We will bring a specific focus to the gap in what is and is not permitted to identify areas for creative potential. Taller 1 (Workshop 1) 3rd Floor. Take right off elevator to the end of the hall.

AFTER THE STORM: CREATIVE RESPONSES, CULTURAL RESILIENCE AND A JUST REBUILDING 
This working session will focus on the role of arts, culture, and media as part of community resilience and renewal, as well as long-term efforts for equitable change. We will consider how we can strengthen neighborhood cultural infrastructure, social networks, and citywide relationships with colleagues working towards a just rebuilding. El Teatro, off the lobby.

FOR WHOM? ARTS AND CULTURE WORKING TOWARDS EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT
This session will highlight current, real world examples in Manhattan’s Chinatown and Corona, Queens, exploring how arts and culture can inform and benefit from direct participation in planning and implementation. The goal of the working session is to expand awareness of the tools, strategies and relationships needed to achieve more integrated solutions that benefit both new and existing community members. El Cafe, off the lobby.

BREAK (10 MINUTES) Show your nametag or mention NOCD-NY for a 10% discount at El Café.

4:00pm: ART EXPERIENCES
For locations, consult descriptions below and volunteers in the lobby and at elevators. To maximize your engagement, we ask that you commit to one experience, alphabetically listed, below:

TYQUAN (aka HAPS) CARTER • Red Hook, Brooklyn • Film
This young rapper, filmmaker, photographer and community advocate will screen the short documentary Tyquan’s Hook: a True Storm Story, depicting the unfolding events and aftermath of Super Storm Sandy in Red Hook. Meet in El Teatro, off the lobby.

DOWNTOWN ART • East Village/Lower East Side • Theater 
Based on a LES housewives’ rebellion–the 1902 Kosher Meat Boycott–this outdoor music/theater work features young performers in an inventive mix of live action and mp3 players; street theater reimagined.Meet in the lobby.

SANDY STORYLINE • Multi-Media
Rachel Falcone and Michael Premo of Sandy Storyline offer a workshop experience of this award winning participatory documentary project that collects and shares stories about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on our neighborhoods, our communities and our lives. Meet in El Cafe, off the lobby.

TATTFOO TAN • Staten Island • Art
This Laundromat Project workshop, New Earth MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat), explores disaster preparation through a process of hydrating shelf-stable foods prepared by the artist. Meet in El Taller (TheWorkshop), 3rd Floor. Take a right off of the elevator to the end of the hall.

URBAN BUSH WOMEN • Fort Greene, Brooklyn • Dance
Dance for Every Body. This movement jam embraces the ideas that each individual has a unique and
powerful contribution to make, and that our bodies are a powerful source of agency. The goal is for “every body” to find their level of challenge and comfort and partake according to their abilities, and to appreciate the groups’ diversity as an attribute to their community. No prior dance experience is needed! Meet in the Black Box Theater, 3rd Floor. Take a left off of the elevator, door on the left.

 

4:35pm: SMALL GROUP REPORT BACK AND PRIORITIES

Kemi Ilesanmi, Executive Director, The Laundromat Project
Anusha Venkataraman, Director, El Puente Green Light District

RESPONSE

Carol BeBelle, Co-Founder and Executive Director,Ashé Cultural Arts Center, New Orleans
Teresa Rivera, Program Assistant, W.O.M.E.N. (Where Our Minds Empower Needs)
Clyde Valentin, Executive Director, Hip-Hop Theater Festival

VISUALIZING OUR PASSIONS

Maria Bauman, Urban Bush Women

6:00pm: CLOSING PARTY Follow us to this remarkable community site for empanadas and drinks.

La Casa Azul Bookstore, 143 East 103rd Street, just west of the Lexington Ave (6) train

MANY THANKS TO

NOCD-NY funders
The New York Community Trust and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Creative Innovation Fund. Additional thanks to The Ford Foundation.

El Barrio partners and performers
El Museo del Barrio, Art for Change, Casa Azul, Community Voices Heard, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Media Noche,MNN El Barrio Firehouse, La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña, Inc

Caterers East Harlem Café and Conchita Natal

All of the Forum speakers, workshop leaders, and performers

NOCD-NY working group members and our citywide partner Social Justice Artists’ Collaborative

Forum Volunteers

The Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group (NOCD-NY) is a citywide alliance of community based cultural networks and leaders that has joined together to revitalize NYC from the neighborhood up. LEARN MORE ABOUT NOCD-NY: www.nocdny.org | nocdny@gmail.com. Organizational members include:

Arts & Democracy Project
Bronx Council on the Arts
Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc)
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center
Laundromat Project
El Museo del Barrio
New York Chinatown History Project
THE POINT CDC
El Puente
Queens Museum of Art
Staten Island Arts
Urban Bush Women
and at large members Michael Hickey and Betsy Imershein

NOCD-NY staff
Co-directors, Caron Atlas and Tamara Greenfield
Coordinator, Tom Oesau
Event Manager, Anna Glass Coquillot

El Museo del Barrio staff
Deputy Executive Director, Gonzalo Casals
Youth Program Coordinator, Maya Shugart