Contact: Ayesha Williams and Melissa Liu 718.574.0798 ayesha@laundromatproject.org melissa@laundormatproject.org View Select Photos (Contact for proper crediting)
THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT ANNOUNCES THE 5TH ANNUAL FIELD DAY 2017 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS SEPTEMBER 16, 23 & 30 Using creativity to build spaces of refuge, care, and self-determination. Showcasing and amplifying the rich spectrum of local arts and culture in Bed-Stuy, Harlem, and Hunts Point/Longwood. All Field Day Programs Are Free Of Charge And Open To All Highlights Include: Housing Not Warehousing! Citizen led tour and performance through East Harlem with Picture the Homeless. Immigrant-centered story circles with Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). The Free Black Women's Library–an interactive biblio-installation containing 800 books written by Black women. Music as a form of healing with Uptown Vinyl Supreme And more! Events held at: Hancock Community Garden, Brooklyn Kelly Street Collaborative & Kelly Street Garden, The Bronx Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem And various other locations... New York City (September 1, 2017)–In direct response to our rapidly shifting political and cultural landscape, The Laundromat Project (The LP) has dedicated the 5th Annual Field Day Festival of Neighborhoods to creatively exploring and building spaces of safety and refuge in our anchor neighborhoods of Bed-Stuy, Harlem, And Hunts Point/longwood. Whether through private gatherings
created for support and affirmation, or public convenings to share empowerment tools, resources, and strategies, Field Day will serve as a moment to highlight and amplify the resiliency of our shared communities. Join us for a three-day community-centered celebration of solidarity, community-care, love, and joy in Hunts Point/Longwood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Harlem. On September 16th, 23rd, and 30th (respectively) from 2-6pm, The LP will showcase the 2017 Create Change public art projects as well as community art workshops, neighborhood walks, and much more. Activities are facilitated and led by The LP’s current and alumni artist cohort, community members, and community partners. Annually, through our Create Change residencies, commissions, and fellowships, The LP supports up to 20 artists whose practice is centered in socially-engaged creative endeavors. Over the course of six months, artists develop community-responsive art projects that make use of the unique social space of their location (i.e. a local laundromat and other local spaces) and engage their neighbors, reflecting shared community concerns. Projects are activated during the Field Day Festival of Neighborhoods. All Field Day events are FREE; no tickets or passes required. Program details listed by neighborhood in chronological order follow in this release. Spread the word, and bring a neighbor! V isit: laundromatproject.org/field-day-2017 for a detailed schedule of events and program updates. View photos from Field Day 2016 here. SEPTEMBER 16, 2-6 PM HUNTS POINT/LONGWOOD “UBUNTU” I AM BECAUSE WE ARE by Create Change Artist-in-Residence Ahmed Tijay Mohammed “Ubuntu” I Am Because We Are is a large scale project and installation anchored in West African cultures and traditions. "Ubuntu" (an African proverb meaning humanity towards others), focuses attention on the South Bronx’s connections to migration and creates a gathering space to celebrate women, particularly those living in the community. Throughout the day, participants will create mixed media portraits of loved ones, neighbors, and other women in their life. The project will be facilitated by a group of women from the neighborhood who have undergone a skill exchange workshop with the artist. Commissioned by The Laundromat Project in partnership with Mothers on the Move, ArchCare Senior Life (PACE), Africa Life Center. THE LP @ KELLY STREET There is always an array of creative abundance on Kelly Street and it is no different on Field Day. Join us for a series of drop-in community art workshops! ●
Scarecrow Story Circle. The Create Change Fellows invite youth and families of color into a craft workshop and story circle at the Kelly Street Collaborative. While decorating scarecrows for the Kelly Street Garden, participants will be asked to share what threatens our communities, and what inspires us about them, while decorating scarecrows for the Kelly Street Community Garden. The workshop will build awareness around shared fears and aspirations.
●
Catsuit Gardening Red Carpet Veggie Pick Up with Catsuit diva Ayana Evans! Come for the fruits and veggies, walk the red carpet and gather your harvest. Your most flamboyant and GLAM outfits are encouraged, but be comfortable. Pick up your veggies in style. Evans wants to encourage us all to infuse bold joy into our everyday lives, diffuse the pressures of the week, and reinforce community togetherness and healthy eating. This is a kid friendly event.
●
Music as healing workshop with Uptown Vinyl Supreme. Participants will be guided through an interactive history lesson of vinyl and an open discussion about music that has helped in
healing. Participants will then be led through a meditation using music from selected records. The meditation will utilize sonic sound waves to move any blocks or stagnation, and get energy flowing. ●
StoryBlock/Bronx Community College Archive. Bronx Community College's Archives will exhibit stories from the newly acquired StoryBlock oral history collection at Kelly Street Garden for Field Day! StoryBlock is an oral history and visual community archive that celebrates the cultural richness of Kelly Street residents living in the Longwood section of the South Bronx. This project was commissioned by The Laundromat Project's Create Change Program and is now currently archived at Bronx Community College's Archives. These narratives shed light on the past, present and future of Kelly Street, the South Bronx, New York City, and the diversity and beauty of our individual and collective stories. For more about the Archives visit http://bcc-cuny.libguides.com/archives.
SOUTH BRONX LOVE LETTER with the Five Boro Story Project Celebrate the spirit and community of Hunts Point and Longwood with storytelling and poetry performances. Write a love note to your neighborhood, and share your Bronx memories, stories, poems, songs, and more in our open mic. The S outh Bronx Love Letter is presented in association with The Laundromat Project's Field Day in Hunts Point and Longwood. SEPTEMBER 23, 2-6PM BEDFORD-STUYVESANT THE FREE BLACK WOMEN'S LIBRARY by Create Change Commissions Artist OlaRonke Akinmowo The Free Black Women's Library is an interactive trading mobile library that features a collection of 800 books written by Black women. All are welcome to trade books written by Black women with the library and take part in creative and fun exercises that explore themes in Black women's literature. The purpose of the library is to center and celebrate the brilliance, diversity and creativity of Black women as well as provide access to books and stories rarely told. WE THE NEWS STAND by Create Change Artist-in-Residence Lizania Cruz We the News will host a reading of two zines created through a two-month series of immigrant-centered story circles. Participants will be able to react to the stories by writing down words that resonate with them on a collective sheet of paper. They will then trace and map the connecting narratives and reflect in a moderated conversation. Commissioned by The Laundromat Project in partnership with Black Alliance for Just Immigration. STORYFOLKS: STORYTELLING FOR SELF AND COMMUNITY-CARE at Concord Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center Create Change Fellows in partnership with Concord Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center residents and staff, and Concord Baptist Freedom School Scholars will create a space for caring by sharing stories, hopes, and dreams. During Field Day, the inter-generational Concord Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center and Concord Baptist Freedom School community will exhibit art and photography, share free snacks and hor d'oeuvres with the larger community, offer a drumming circle, singing circle, pop up art presentations, and help facilitate art and storytelling activities that help families engage in self and community-care. WEAVING HISTORIES: MAPPING OUR JOURNEY TO SANCTUARY at Hancock Community Garden This site specific installation will be built throughout the day as the Bed-Stuy community participates in a workshop facilitated by local weaving studio, Weaving Hand. P articipants will create flags affirming their presence in the Bed-Stuy community. The space itself will be modeled after a domestic scene with
the dining table loom anchoring the center of the space. Residents will collectively build a sanctuary space through weaving and contributing personal objects (book, pot, piece of fabric, etc) and stories of building community. This workshop will celebrate the parallels between the experience of building and preserving community in the face of rapid gentrification and the immigrant experience of preserving culture and identity. SEPTEMBER 25, 2-6PM HARLEM THE BLACK SCHOOL PRESENTS: THE BANDANNA QUILT PERFORMANCE by Create Change Artist-in-Residence Joseph Cuillier and Friends The Bandanna Quilt Performance is a live quilting ritual which will use poetry, chants, and music to activate student artwork created in The Black School's summer 2017 workshops at The Brotherhood Sister Sol and other locations around Harlem. The piece is a co-creation of a short performance residency with an ensemble of poets, artists, and musicians facilitated by The Black School. Live quilting and an installation of the quilt will be used as a site for a series of performances. Commissioned by The Laundromat Project in partnership with The Brotherhood Sister Sol. HOUSING NOT WAREHOUSING! NEIGHBORHOOD WALK lead by Picture the Homeless and the Rude Metal Orchestra The walk will focus on the role of vacant property in East Harlem, past and present, and highlight the neighborhood’s rich and impactful history of housing organizing. Whether through urban renewal programs that were never completed, or through the warehousing of vacant buildings by private landlords and speculators, the tour will highlight the ways in which big real estate, elected officials, and urban planners have been “banking on vacancy” in East Harlem for decades. Each stop along the tour will be feature a special performance. This tour for anyone who wants to see what visionary, community-led urban planning can look like in the city of New York--and who wants to be a part of a fun and dynamic, arts-based visioning process to open the channels and reimagine what is possible on New York City’s vacant lots! ABOUT THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT The Laundromat Project brings art, artists, and arts programming into laundromats and other everyday spaces, thus amplifying the creativity that already exists within communities to build community networks, solve problems, and enhance our sense of ownership in the places where we live, work, and grow. While The LP works citywide, our core programs are rooted in the three culturally rich neighborhoods of Hunts Point/Longwood, Bed-Stuy, and Harlem. Anchoring our work in these neighborhoods allows us to get to know and support our neighbors over the long term as we make the strong, resilient communities we want to live in together. In our first decade, The LP has directly invested nearly $700,000 in 150 multi-racial, multi-generational, and multi-disciplinary artists, 62 innovative public art projects, three diverse anchor neighbors, one creative community hub, and 34,000 New Yorkers, equipping and emboldening them as creative change agents in their own communities. The Laundromat Project is supported through the generosity of A G Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Brooklyn Community Foundation, David Rockefeller Fund, Dedalus Foundation, EILEEN FISHER, The Ford Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Materials for the Arts, Muriel Pollia Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, The New York Community Trust, New York City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, Jr., The New York State Council on the Arts, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Tecovas Foundation, The Theo Westenberger Estate, Variety the Children's Charity of New York, The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, and individual supporters like you.
Connect with Us! FB: @TheLaundromatProject Instagram: @laundromat_proj Twitter: @laundromatproj Website: laundromatproject.org Tag a Neighbor! #LPFieldDay ***