Today’s Good News: I’m Back, Arts Group Buys NYC Building

I’ve been pretty tied up with the Writers Guild strike.  Now that that’s come to a successful conclusion, and I’ve had a few days off to put my life back together, I’m back to bring you more good news.   Today’s story comes from Wiretap and author Kevin Erickson.  It is the truly heartwarming tale of ABC No Rio, a group of artists on New York’s Lower East Side.  They started in 1979 when the L.E.S. was full of abandoned buildings and junkies.  Somehow they survived the gentrification of the 80’s and 90’s, and bought the building they once squatted in for a dollar in 2006.  You really should read the whole story here.   But here’s a few highlights.

It began on New Year’s Eve in 1979 when a group of artists invaded a vacant storefront on Delancey Street …”The Real Estate Show” was a provocation: why should these spaces [city-owned abandoned buildings] sit idle? … trash was cleared away and art crudely taped to walls. Neighborhood kids joined in the fun, drawing on the walls and interacting with the sculptures…Police padlocked the building and the artwork was rudely confiscated…As one reviewer noted at the time, “the show’s basic ideological premise — that artists, working people, and the poor are systematically screwed out of decent places to exist in — could not have been brought home with more brutal irony.”

After a protest campaign, the city…granted the artists a month-to-month lease for a storefront space a block north on Rivington Street, in an abandoned beauty parlor.

Almost every day of the week, you can find something happening here. Poetry readings, improvised music performances, art shows, Food Not Bombs gatherings, and hardcore [punk] matinees…

[Through the 80's and 90's], ABC No Rio, in addition to its politically oriented cultural programming, served as a meeting place and resource for activists, and became closely associated with the squatters’ movement.

[In 1997, the city tried to force ABC No Rio out by pitting them against an Asian-American group which was building low-income housing...trying to make a deal whereby AAFE could get one building only if it took over another - the Rivington St. home of ABC No Rio.  But once they realized what was going on, AAFE pulled out.]

The [situation] culminated in a sit-in occupation of the NYC Housing and Public Development offices.  Protestors snuck into the office of the HPD Commissioner at the time, Liliam Barrios-Paoli.  [Apparently they charmed her, because HPD offered to sell ABC No Rio the building for a dollar, which took a long time, but finally happened in 2006.  The group now has to renovate and maintain the building, which isn't cheap or easy, but they're doing it.]

While there’s something exciting about reclaiming discarded spaces on the cultural margins knowing that they won’t last, there’s something permanently radical about endeavoring to build a sustainable project.  This means nurturing a long-term commitment to a particular space, digging your heels in and making sure that kids have a safe place to gather, work on creative projects, and develop a critical consciousness about their place in the world.ABC No Rio has soldiered on for years, and successfully carved out a 4000-square-foot chunk of possibility. Even in uphill battles, sometimes the good guys win.

Filed by Karen on February 29th, 2008 under Art, Cities, Progressive Vision, Youth