Calendar

Harlem is Healing: Art and Community

Containing disease and re-starting the economy have been the prime twin goals of coronavirus efforts locally and across the globe. But dealing with our emotional and community responses have been important as well, particularly among artists who have been sidelined by lockdown orders.

Reflecting how artists are responding has been one of the results of a new digital campaign by Community Works and New Heritage Theatre Group to celebrate local Harlem heroes in a time of coronavirus. Through posts on Facebook and Instagram, the campaign is building on the spirit of the 20-year effort to spotlight local heroes, famous or not, who are making a difference through the pandemic. It is getting a lot of response.

Over two decades, Community Works and New Heritage have sought to display the transformational power of art in social justice and in building community.

Andrea Arroyo’s paintings, for example, remind us that art can help healing. Her latest works are from a series she calls PAUSEd in NY to record her own and others’ experiences in the virus lockdown, and to encourage widespread acceptance of the Stay at Home message as help to front-line treatment of those caught up in contagion. Arroyo is an award-winning artist who works in a variety of media. For a long time, I have been making art that addresses social justice. This is a worldwide problem that requires just such a message. The idea is to provide a service,” she explains. ““Sheltering in Place and enraged about incompetence of federal government,” she says. “Wherever you are, Please STAY HOME! Social distancing saves lives. Let’s assume we are ALL carriers and protect each other. When tempted to go out, let’s ask ourselves if it is worth risking someone’s life.”

From the earliest days of coronavirus in New York, it was clear to photographer Lisa Dubois, curator of X Gallery, that people were not wearing masks, and it bothered her that they were not protecting themselves – or her. So, she launched a personal campaign to hang masks from statues--people of note, actually, who might draw attention in the area, including Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln. It was a case of the Harlem-born, messaging artist to creatively point out a way to keep healthy, if only we listen. “This coronavirus is a State-of-the-Art pandemic, something we haven’t seen or

will see in generations,” Dubois noted, adding, “It is terrible that it has had such bad effects, but for artists, poets, songwriters, artists of all kind, it is a chance to think about making art without interruption.” So, she has made a call for images of coronavirus-themed art from near and far, works that she wants to display on her gallery website, perhaps even with a video.

Keeping up cultural spirit is at the heart of healing, as is looking to the creativity of the arts, “not just because things are visually appealing,” but because that feeling of being engaged is what is central to our lives. EnterMichelle Bishop, a premier fiber arts artist and executive director of Harlem Needle Arts, an organization that is holding online workshops during enforced stays at home for emerging artists using thread and needle. “The health aspect is in using our hands,” said Bishop. “We want our Mantra Mondays, as well call them, to be a gathering space that create a space of healing,” she explained, adding that “continuous spinning is the mantra of the stitch. Everyone is looking at a sewing machine.”

The yarn crochet work is across from Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, a sign that readsEl Barrio ❤ YOU to thank front-line coronavirus health workers. It is the work of fiber artistNaomi Lawrence and five

neighbors known as El Barrio

Crochet Collectivewho decided that they needed to do something public to bring notice and to contribute to the healing of the neighborhood. Their colorful acrylic yarn pieces – Lawrece makes large yarn flowers hung on fences, among other public places, are about healing without a political edge, she explained, but definitely not about beautification. “It became as much about supporting each other as it was to make the piece,” she said, noting that one contributor’s grandmother had contracted COVID-19. “What’s behind my public art is always about some kind of healing and making peo136 th Street, where coronavirus forced delays in anything but

ple smile.”

The disease has prompted Harlem’s activist people and institutions from medicine, the arts, education, food service, religious life and environmentalism to undertake work to help keep our community healthy, particularly in exploring the data showing that the virus is disproportionately striking black and brown communities.

You can see these stories at https://www.instagram.com/harlemishealing/ and at https://www.facebook.com/ CommunityWorksNYC/

These stories and those that follow will become part of exhibitions known collectively as Harlem is . . . Music, Theater, Dance and Community. A website will launch in coming weeks with a section devoted to Harlem is . . . Healing. Eventually, the exhibition will complete installation at Harlem Hospital at Malcolm X Boulevard at

medical treatment.

Through all of these exhibits, Community Works and New Heritage Theatre Group have maintained a common mission to use the arts, performance and workshops to unite communities across differences and to share the legacy of local heroes in the blossoming of a unique neighborhood we see in Harlem.

For information, please email Barbara Horowitz, Founder and President, Community Works at bh@communityworksnyc. org, call 917-757-2242 or visit https://m.facebook.com?CommunityWorksNYC/