Saturday, April 18th, 3:00pm (Free)
Rent Control: Housing, Gentrification, Community
@ St. Marks Church (Parish Hall), 131 E. 10th St. at 2nd Ave.
Out of the Global City and the Rent Control: NYC Documented and Imagined (In Association with the Left Forum) co-present:
Some Place Like Home
Dir. Kelly Anderson, 2009, 40 min.
Deborah Tillman, a long time Fort Greene resident, walks through her neighborhood to point out shuttered “Mom & Pop” stores. She sends a message to developers: “You’re not just tearing down buildings; you’re tearing down the people, too!” Narrated by noted activist and author, Kevin Powell, Some Place Like Home highlights a community’s fight to protect its history, its culture and to determine its own future. Executive produced by Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE).
Re-Zoning Harlem
Dir. Natasha Florentino & Tamara Gubernat, 2009, 40 min.
A recently updated version of Rezoning Harlem follows longtime members of the Harlem community as they fight a 2008 rezoning that threatens to erase the history and culture of their neighborhood and replace it with luxury housing, offices, and big-box retail. A shocking expose of how a group of ordinary citizens, who are passionate about the future of one the city’s most treasured neighborhoods, are systematically shut out of the city’s decision-making process, revealing New York City’s broken public review system and provoking discussion on what we can do about it.
Panel:
Caron Atlas, cultural organizer and community media pioneer, is director of Place + Displaced, a community mapping project of Fractured Atlas, and also of the Arts & Community Change program of the Pratt Center for Community Development. She has worked with several intiatives and organizations inlcuding Appalshop and Animating Democracy.
Representatives of FUREE which, for several years, have been organizing residents, business owners, and other stakeholders in Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene to fight against gentrification and for community-led development.
Natasha Florentino, Co-director of Rezoning Harlem.
Monique Washington, The Coalition to Save Harlem.
Amanda Alexander, Associate producer of The Wake Up Call (WBAI 99.5 FM)
Out of the Global City is a project of the Foundry Theater in partnership with the Nation Institute and the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at CUNY Grad Center.
Spanish-English interpretation & Childcare provided
Free and Open to the Public.
RSVP to info@thefoundrytheatre.org or call: 212.777.1444
harlemite
April 21, 2009
We live in a free market society. A capitalist system where only the strongest survive. Regardless of what race the business owner, it is the business itself that needs to be smart and change with the times.
Take for instance – Harlem Vintage – successful wine store that opened a few years ago and is black owned (although that makes no difference).
Then see the contrast in that sad Suge’s (sp?) record store on 125th st that no one ever visits and had to close because the rent was raised. That business was closed because they didn’t have business not because of your stated “ethnic cleansing.”
Get out of your racial narrow minded head and start looking at the bigger market forces at work. And deal with change like Harlem Vintage has.
Anonymous
April 16, 2009
“….Harlem has come a long way in the last 5 years -…”
_
….you forgot to mention the numerous Black owned business that have operated here for decades that have been eliminated, the escalation of rent levels making Harlem unaffordable for a teacher for example, or a social worker. or a civil servant.
yeah, harlem has come a long way…..in “ethnic cleansing”…..woo hoo.
harlemite
April 14, 2009
The Coalition to Save Harlem is a horrible name.Imagine if a suburban town in Ct. or Long Island saw an increase in Black and minority population and a group called Coalition to Save Great Neck or Coalition to Save Darian started? Nonsense – they would be shutdown and Rev Sharpton would be picketing.
Harlem has come a long way in the last 5 years – preserving the culture and expanding historical buildings and districts are one thing everyone wants, but when groups like this come into protesting Upper Middle Class condos and prevent those people from purchasing homes in the area – it smells of racism – pure and simple.
There are so many things Harlem needs help on. How about a Coalition to Stop Harlemites from Littering on Their Own Streets or Coalition to Help Harlem Parents Keep Guns Out of Their Children’s Hands – those would be smarter than most of the groups out there.
oni
April 13, 2009
Oh I see – thanks
anon
April 13, 2009
because it’s not just about harlem.
oni
April 13, 2009
Glad to hear that such an event is happening (I plan on attending), but I’m curious as to why this is not being held in Harlem…