Jose Soto, Terminalia: Sculptures of Light. Image courtesy of the artist and Living With Art.
Art Lives Here is thrilled to be back at JVS Project Space presenting a new exhibition featuring three collaborating artist members. Look This Way is an exhibition that takes photography beyond its expected boundaries with sculptures and assemblages that create an unexpected dialogue. In a culture inundated with images, the artists are exploring how visual art informs our perception of essentially everything. Look This Way opening on Saturday, October 8th.
El Museo del Barrio is proud to announce the opening of three new exhibitions this fall: Juan Francisco Elso: Por América, and Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah, and DOMESTICANX. On view in Las Galerías and Room 110, the exhibitions offer new, contemporary revisions on canonical figures and theories from Latinx, Caribbean, and Latin American art history. Juan Francisco Elso: Por América explores the legacy and de-colonial reverberations of the late Cuban artist Juan Francisco Elso (1956-1988), whose work is presented alongside a multigenerational cohort of more than 30 artists from across the Americas. Commissioned in relation to the Elso exhibition, Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah is a digital artwork that explores the epic journey of a monarch butterfly from a poignant, and timely transnational perspective. Concurrently, DOMESTICANX brings together the work of seven intergenerational Latinx artists to expand on artist and critic Amalia Mesa-Bains’s theory of domesticana, first originated in the 1990s.
Reynier Leyva Novo, Methuselah. Image courtesy El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah, from October 27, 2022 to March 26, 2023. Conceived by the Cuban-born and Houston based artist Reynier Levya Novo, the digital artwork virtually reproduces the 5000-kilometer transnational migratory journey of a single monarch butterfly, tracking its travel from southern Canada across the United States to Mexico. Embodied through the life of a virtual avatar, the epic journey is hosted and reproduced in real time on a specially designed, open-access, dedicated website. Commissioned by El Museo del Barrio with the support of VIA Art Fund, the in-person mixed-reality presentation at El Museo debuts in conjunction with the upcoming Fall exhibition, Juan Francisco Elso: Por América.
RSVP for the Public Program & Virtual Project Launch on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 7:00pm Here.
The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), in partnership with the Friends of Harlem Art Park Alliance (FAPA), is hosting its 4th annual AFRIBEMBÉ FESTIVAL: Sankofa! on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. The free, daylong celebration of Pan-African artistry, intellectuality, and musicality will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Harlem Art Park and throughout East 120th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.
The Giglio Society of East Harlem will hold its annual event from Thursday, August 4th through Sunday, August 7th. Established in East Harlem in 1908 by Italian immigrants from the town of Brusciano, Italy, this is a tradition that has been carried out in what use to be known as Italian Harlem.
Casa Latina Music Shop, 151 East 116th Street in El Barrio. This building is currently for sale, along with the three adjacent buildings to the west.
Vicente and Christina Barreiro have owned and operated Casa Latina Music Shop on 116th Street in El Barrio for more than half a century. We were sad to hear that this historic shop will be closing its doors.
Image of Church and Farmlands in 1820. The yellow is the historical boundary of the Harlem African Burial Ground. The blue is the historical boundary of the Cemetery for persons of European decent.
In the summer of 2017, the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force unveiled ten presentation boards in the lobby of the State Office Building on West 125th Street. The boards told an incredible story of a burial ground located on East 126th Street, under the current bus depot, with history dating back to the 1660s ~ and exhumations continuing to this day. This month, The African Burial Ground Task Force updated the community at at CB11 meeting.
Street Games in Thomas Jefferson Park, April 30, 2022. Image credit: Malcolm Pinckney/NYC Parks
NYC Parks celebrated its 13th annual Street Games in Thomas Jefferson Park on Saturday, April 30, 2022.! This FREE family-friendly event featured classic games, including double dutch, pogo sticks, hula hoops, a boxcar derby, and more.
The Exhibition, M from L-R, Artist Katherine Earle, Curator Connie Lee, Artist Carol Paik. Image courtesy Connie Lee and the gallery
With the exhibition Miscreant Matter, artists Katherine Earle and Carol Paik pose the question, “Can we capture all the discarded, rejected, degenerate, degraded and miscreant matter and repurpose it through these small acts of creation?” It appears so ~ today, Earth Day, is the perfect day for this post.
Hi-ARTS has joined forces with Black Women Photographers (BWP) for Center Focus. BWP’s inaugural group exhibition, which showcases the work of seven of its acclaimed and emerging members, will run from April 11 to April 29 at Hi-ARTS.
The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) announced the signing of a 49-year lease at the organization’s newest location, where they will continue to foster space for cultural equity and racial and social justice in New York City’s arts and culture community. Located at One East Harlem, 201 East 125th Street, the new cultural center will expand CCCADI’s footprint and provide a space where African descendants with diverse cultural expressions and contributions can gather to exchange, search, and affirm their roots.
The Abyss of the Ocean: Cuban Women Photographers, Migrations, and the Question of Race focuses on identity and resistance through the creative practices of five artists living and working in the United States, Mexico, and Spain. The exhibition reveals the experiences and strategies of survival of María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Coco Fusco, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Gertrudis Rivalta, and Juana Valdés within the matrix of Latinx Art. Through their work, these artists challenge the concept of Latinidad and its relationship to Blackness in the modern/colonial project. Unsettling the totalizing definitions of Cuban, Latin American, and Latinx Art, The Abyss of the Ocean presents key photographic series produced since the 1990s. These photographs lay bare the nuance of the artists’ multiple Diasporic identities while confronting racist and colonialist stereotypes of women’s bodies.
Raphael Montañez Ortiz with Archaeological Find #22, 1961. Image courtesy El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present Raphael Montañez Ortiz: A Contextual Retrospective, from April 14 to September 11, 2022, the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to the artist, activist, educator, and founder of El Museo del Barrio, since 1988. Curated by El Museo’s chief curator, Rodrigo Moura, and guest curator Julieta González, the exhibition spans several decades of his production, from the 1950s to the early-2020s, in different media such as film, painting, photography, video installations, documents, and assemblages. This is the largest exhibition-to-date dedicated to the artist.
Hi-ARTS, New York City’s premiere incubator for urban art, recently announced its new cohort of artists-in-residence. The East Harlem nonprofit helps artists — like Radha Blank, Ebony Noelle Golden, Nona Hendryx, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Dominique Morisseau — develop their works of art into masterpieces, whether they be theater, music dance, visual arts or multi-media. Other artists who have performed or been involved with Hi-ARTS include the late Chadwick Boseman, Yasiin Bey/Mos Def and Sarah Jones.
First up is Friday Lynton, a Brooklyn-based Guyanese-American metal artisan known for her amazing sculptures. Lynton is a resident of SKY LAB, Hi-ARTS’ program that supports socially engaged artists who center community in the development and research of their work, including practitioners who create outside of the traditional studio or theater.
The Africa Center and Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) will kick-off Black History Month with the opening of African/American: Making the Nation’s Table. This exhibition will highlight the many ways African culture has influenced African American Cuisine, and how those traditions have blended to create the foundation for American food.
Empty lot at 1638 Park Avenue and 116th Street.. Image via Google Maps.
Yimby gave a glimpse into the future of the empty lot located on the corner of Park Avenue and 116th Street, announcing that permits have been filed for a ten-story mixed-use building with affordable housing at 1638 Park Avenue. The lot is one block west of the 116 Street subway station, serviced by the 6 train. Bernard McNamee, Managing Director of Affect Property Group is listed as the owner behind the applications. Marin Architects is listed as the architect of record.
Three Kings Day Poster Illustration by artist Daniel DelValle. Image via El Museo del Barrio.
The 45th Annual Three Kings Day will be celebrated virtually, with some in-person programs in El Barrio this year, with the fitting theme: Samos el Cambio: Protecting the Environment for Future Generations, honoring the work of those who call on us to sustainably steward our environment, and help foster cultural transformation through community empowerment and artistic expression. The Event also takes into consideration the health and safety of the community by celebrating on-line, and presenting a series of activities spread out over several weeks.
Harlem Night Market 2019 courtesy Uptown Grand Central
From tamales to coquito, sorrel to sweet potato pie: The Harlem Night Market at La Marqueta is back for the 2021 holiday season, to celebrate the diversity of cultures that make up East, Central and West Harlem.
Launched to great success two years ago, the market was suspended last season due to the pandemic, but is back in action this December thanks to creators Uptown Grand Central, TBo Harlem, Union Settlement and NYC Public Markets (operated by the NYC Economic Development Corporation).
After the loss of Serengeti Tea and Rite Aid on 125th Street, we were sorry to see all the empty shelves at Harlem Fresh, suspecting the worst ~ But delighted to hear that the market will close in late November for a complete renovation, to reopen in January, 2022.
Did you know that an Arnaldo Pomodoro sculpture is on the Nathan Cummings Plaza on the Fifth Avenue side of the Guggenheim Pavilion of Mount Sinai Hospital? We were intrigued and found the following information on this commissioned piece in the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine.
Artists, Karen Fitzgerald & Jaynie Gillman Crimmins. Image courtesy of the artists.
We first came upon the work of Jaynie Gillman Crimmins last year in the group exhibition ‘Form, Paper, Scissors, at Living With Art Salon. In that exhibition, Crimmins displayed creations from two of her major series ~ ‘In Search of Beauty’ and ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost.’ Beautiful and thoughtful pieces. So when we heard that she had an exhibition opening this month ~ we were all ears.
The name of the current exhibition is Matter and Spirit. These two entities have a long history of being deeply intertwined, and for good reason. As we engage with the world around us, we also sense something more than what our eyes can see. What that other dimension is has been the subject of many explorations in verbal language – poetry, philosophy, metaphysics – as well as in the visual language of art.
The Studio Museum in Harlem announced its fall programming, kicking-off the season with Thomas J. Price: Witness, the artist’s first solo museum presentation in the United States. As part of the Studio Museum’s ongoing inHarlem initiative, the nine-foot-tall bronze sculpture entitled The Distance Within (2021) will depict a young Black man looking down at his cell phone. The large-scale artwork celebrates a familiar form rarely monumentalized within a public setting and continues the artist’s exploration of blackness and Black masculinity as it relates to presence, movement, and freedom.
We knew there had to be a story behind an installation named ‘Flowers of Turtle Island‘, and so it is that artist, Naomi Lawrence, created her large-scale floral installation based on the folkloric tales told by the Lenape and other tribes of indigenous Americans, passed down verbally from generation to generation.
Flowers of Turtle Island becomes the 4th temporary public art installation that appeared in the neighborhoods of Harlem this Summer. Installed at Eugene McCabe Field, the Fiber Art mural completes the public art gallery curated by Connie Lee that begins in Harlem Art Park with Capucine Bourcart’s Plastic Fantastic!, winds through Marcus Garvey park with Susan Stair’s Ascending the Mountain, and ends at Collyer Brothers Park with Julio Valdez’s I Can’t Breathe. An additional art installation will be added this fall.
Beginning with the first of three panels along 121st Street, the image above (corner of Park Avenue) begins with the Black-Eyed Susan; Aster Blue Violets; Echinacea Coneflowers; and Cow Parsley.
Concrete Safaris in East Harlem is hitting the streets this month with three dates for kids to save. Friday, August 6th and Friday, August 13th, get ready for Youth Host Jungle Gym 2021; On Friday, August 13th explore the Youth Host Photo Expo and Streetscape Garden Tour.
Update ~ This event has been cancelled for August 12th due to safety precautions related to the heat index.
As we approach August, and the return of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Summerstage, and Jazzmobile’s Summerfest, ~ Uptown Grand Central and Jazzmobile announced the August 12th commemorative street co-naming of East 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues. Art Kane Harlem 1958 Place will be named on the 63rd anniversary of the gathering of the 57 jazz luminaries in the iconic East Harlem photograph taken by Art Kane ~ A Great Day in Harlem.
Logan Hicks: Tunnel Vision in East Harlem. Images via Taglialatella Galleries
The largest stenciled mural in the world was completed this week by (who else would you expect to do it?) artist, Logan Hicks, located within the East River Plaza complex on 117th Street in East Harlem. How cool is that!
“This started with a vision of going beyond making just a mural. I wanted to make an environment where people could forget they were in the middle of the city – even if only for a minute.” ~ Logan Hicks
The Manhattan Community Board 11 Environment, Open Space & Parks Committee present an El Barrio Parks Tour, exploring 14 parks in northern East Harlem!
Zemi Cohoba Stand, creative sculptural expression for the Taino peoples. Image via The MET
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Civic Practice Partnership Artist-in-Residence, Miguel Luciano, is having a party and we’re all invited! The block party is a celebration of his new exhibition, on view at Hope Community Inc.’s Galeria del Barrio, and it is also a celebration of the culmination of Luciano’s there-year residency at The Met.
Capucine Bourcart: Plastic Fantastic! at Harlem Art Park. Image courtesy of the artist
Harlem Art Park unveiled its latest temporary public art installation, Plastic Fantastic! With a kaleidoscope of color, artist Capucine Bourcart encourages the viewer to evaluate their own environmental footprint. The large-scale installation measures over 66-feet wide and 7-feet high, demonstrating the abundance of single use plastics and its impact on our public spaces and our environment. Plastic Fantastic! interacts with Jorge Luis Rodriguez’s permanent sculpture, Growth, installed in 1985, along with the unique architectural elements that make this park a hidden gem in East Harlem.
Join artist Capucine Bourcart for Opening Reception and Preview, Thursday, July 8, 2021 from 5-7pm at Harlem Art Park ~ CANCELLED due to weather.
It’s back! The Giglio Society of East Harlem announced this week that the annual celebration will take place this from August 5-8, with a free Freestyle music concert on Friday night, and a Children’s Giglio lift on Saturday, followed by a Sausage & Peppers Eating Contest sponsored by Premio Sausage ~ and Sunday, August 8th,The Giglio Lift! Donations will be collected for the American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer and for the Alzheimer’s Association.
Lunch at Ginjan Cafe’ in the historic Harlem Corn Exchange Building, East Harlem
In 2019, Mohammed and Ibrahima Diallo ~ also known as the Ginjan Brothers opened the popular Ginjan Cafe’ in the historic Corn Exchange Building in East Harlem. Opening early every day, they were the place to go for your morning coffee/cappuccino, pastries and Crepes. You may also know them from their popular cold-pressed West African juices (that, by the way, can now be found in all 145 Whole Food Stores in the North East).
CALLING ALL ARTISTS: The Grandscale Mural Project is BACK. And this year, we’re going bigger than ever before — with murals on East 125 stretching all the way from Fifth to Madison, Park, Lexington and Third avenues.
Architect Frida Escobedo. Image via raycommunnity.com
When the National Black Theatre announced its intention to develop its current site, concerns about the interior (and exterior) artistic treasurers were of great concern. The property, which was purchased by the Theatre’s founder, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer in 1969, houses the largest collection of Nigerian New Sacred Art in the Western Hemisphere. Hand carved wood totems and copper, aluminum and brass relief were created for the Theatre by traditional Nigerian artisans from the Sun-Oshogbo Sacred Grove. They carved these works using tools and methods which spanned seven generations. With its founder, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, dedicated to the preservation of this unique spiritual tradition, it is no wonder that the upcoming project, demolishing the current structure, and creating a new, would present questions about the preservation of the artwork.
Ribbon Cutting . Photo credit: NYC Parks/Daniel Avila ~ Thomas Jefferson Park.
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, yesterday joined elected officials and community members to officially cut the ribbon on improvements to playgrounds at Morningside Park and Thomas Jefferson Park in Harlem. The projects are two of more than 800 completed under Commissioner Silver’s leadership, advancing the City’s mission to build a more equitable 21st century park system.
Taller Boricua kicked-off 2021 with the online exhibition, Women on the Edge of Time, featuring a collection of art by members from the prestigious and long-standing New York arts organization, New York Society of Women Artists(NYSWA). The exhibit went live, online, during Women’s History Month in March, with 36 member artists expressing their thoughts on such issues as social justice and the struggle for equality through their work.
124-132 East 125th Street, Streetview via google maps ~ The property includes the old Apple Bank building and building east (left) which is adjacent to Lexington Avenue
Real Estate Week reported that MADD Equities is moving forward with a new Harlem development, after closing on a $15 million loan for the acquisition of the final site ~ with the entire lot encompassing 124 – 132 East 125th Street, which includes the old Apple Bank building. Demolition expected in 2022, with anticipated completion in 2024.
According to Urbanize, the new 100,000 square-foot structure will include office, retail and a community center. Here’s a first look. The complex will be designed by Aufgang Architects, who redeveloped the historic Victoria Theatre, on the other end of 125th Street in Harlem.
The Africa Center, along Museum Mile at 1280 Fifth Avenue at 110th Street in East Harlem
Today, YIMBY posted that the Africa Center has commissioned Caples Jefferson Architects to complete new spaces within the property to support a lush calendar of exhibitions, performances, and educational events. Located at 1280 Fifth Avenue at 110th Street in East Harlem, The Africa Center occupies 70,000 square feet of the building and is spread across three floors.
Dominique Duroseau; b. 1978, Chicago, IL; raised in Haiti; lives and works in Newark, NJ
On March 13, 2021, El Museo del Barrio will open its doors to Estamos Bien ~ La Triennial 20/21, the museum’s first national large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art. The exhibition will feature more than 40 artists from across the United States and Puerto Rico.
The much anticipated Carmen Herrera designed mural, Uno Dos Tres, was unveiled today (November 5, 2020) in East Harlem’s JHS99, which houses semi-autonomous ‘mini-schools.’ Through the spring and summer of 2020, the artist worked with the nonprofit Publicolor to install the 54-foot wide by 17-foot tall artwork, which was meant to be installed last May in celebration of Herrera’s 105th birthday.
The artist passed away, a year later on February 13, 2022 at the age of 106. She passed away in her loft in Lower Manhattan that had been her home for sixty years.
#FlowerFlash from Lewis Miller Design at Ralph Lauren Center in East Harlem
The heavily trafficked East 124th Street, just off Marcus Garvey Park, was treated to a #FlowerFlash today by our favorite Flower Flash design company, Lewis Miller Design.
Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center, 69 East 125th Street.
In anticipation of Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway, an MTA community information center with rotating exhibits is open to the public on East 125th Street, steps from the MTA Metro North Station, and halfway between the #2/3 and #4/5/6.
Update November, 2021: MTA officials are “now bullish on getting early $3 billion from the federal government to cover half of the potential cost of extending the Second Avenue subway, indicating that we are now in the Engineering Stage of Phase 2.
As we all navigate through the trials and tribulations of COVID-19 and social distancing, a very cool activity has emerged ~ Open Streets. Each weekend, some of our favorite restaurants open from Friday through Sunday, outdoor seating and eating, sidewalk chalking, board games and much more is happening on the car-free streets of East Harlem.
New York City delights in its myriad of neighborhoods, each with its local restaurants and shops of all kinds. As we hold our collective breath on the survival of our favorite local haunts, we breath a grateful sigh of relief when lights go on, and doors open ~ even if only for take-out.
And so it was with great relief when we learned that the historic East Harlem Market, La Marqueta, would be opening its doors again, with one of the best-kept-bakery secrets in town, Sprinkle Splash Bake Shoppe.
Oh, how New Yorkers enjoyed the gourmet bistro, Amuse Bouche, when they opened their doors in the historic East Harlem La Marqueta Market last year. It quickly became a go-to place for a wide selection of tempting treats, fresh baked goods, sumptuous prepared meals, finely brewed coffees and teas ~ and a great place to meet for Sunday Brunch.
The Museum’s physical reopening will be celebrated with Taller Boricua: A Political Print Shop in New York, the first monograph exhibition in three decades about the East Harlem-based Nuyorican collective workshop and alternative space. Curated by Rodrigo Moura, Chief Curator of El Museo del Barrio, the exhibition had been postponed due to the temporary closure, and is now on view as of September 12, 2020 through January 17, 2021.
NYCEDC issued this request for proposals on behalf of the City of New York. They are seeking qualified proposals from community organizations, consultants, agencies or companies with experience in event planning and execution, marketing, branding, public relations, food and beverage sales and marketing, and/or community outreach to serve as a Community Partner for La Marqueta Public Market (“La Marqueta”).
Image of Mayor Edward Koch who was the originator of the Percent for Art Program, along with Bess Myerson and the artist, Jorge Luis Rodriguez at ribbon cutting for ‘Growth’ in 1985 in the Art Park. Image via New York City Percent for Art courtesy of the Artist
*A 2021 Update ~ Art Park will be celebrating the 36th Anniversary on Saturday, June 26th from Noon to 5:00pm with art, music and more.
On June 26th, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Percent for Art Program, and its first art installation, Growth, by sculpture artist, Jorge Luis Rodriguez. Here are some wonderful images of the artist and Growth as it was being created, and a few thoughts on this historic occasion by the artist when we visited his studio in May, 2020.
Due to bad weather, the celebration has been rescheduled for Sunday, July 5th from Noon to 2:00pm. Stop by and meet the artist, Jorge Luis Rodriguez at Art Park. Please remember to wear a mask. Social distancing will be in place.
Update September 17, 2020 ~ Lights on….Doors open ~ Reopened!
Closed due to COVID-19. Waiting for an update.
This well-established, family-owned bakery, Zaro’s, first opened its doors in 1927, shortly after arriving from Eastern Europe, through Ellis Island. In the 1950s, the next generation expanded the business, and in 1977, opened the first of its four Grand Central Station shops ~ then Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, with a total of 11 ~ until last week when they opened their doors along 125th Street in East Harlem.
El Museo Del Barrio Presents The 43rd Annual Three Kings Day Parade which will be held on Monday, January 6, 2020. The Parade, entitled Nuestros Barrios Unidos: Celebrating our Collective Strength, will celebrate immigrant and migrant communities of past and present that continue to keep history alive by celebrating the cultural traditions of El Barrio and beyond. Grand Marshall will be Marco Saavedra, Immigrant Rights Activist and Member of “The Dream 9”.
