Resist & Build: Land & Space in NYC

For the series kick-off of Art.coop’s “Art Worlds We Want" at CTHQ, Creative Time's new gathering space for art and politics, grab your popcorn because we’ll be screening the powerful film, “Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square,” and talking to two organizers featured in the film who have been deeply involved in the fight to transform Cooper Square into the community-controlled land that it is today in downtown - Tito Delgado and Valerio Orselli. We’ll also meet Emilie Miyauchi from the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC). She will give us a lay of the landscape of the solidarity economy movement in New York City. There will be popcorn, time for Q&A with our panel and the opportunity to connect.

About “Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square”

In 1959, the City of New York announced a “slum clearance plan” by Robert Moses that would displace over 2,400 families and dozens of businesses in the Cooper Square section of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Guided by the belief that urban renewal should benefit, not displace local residents, a working mother named Frances Goldin, along with her neighbors, formed the Cooper Square Committee (CSC) and launched a campaign to save the neighborhood. The film tells the remarkable story of the community’s successful battle for housing rights through the eyes of unflinching radical activist, Frances Goldin. Goldin’s legacy is one of pragmatism in neighborhood planning. Her initial battle with Robert Moses was only the start. She and her community fought five New York City Mayors, the real estate industry, and they endured several social scourges that decimated their neighborhood. However, after 53 years of grueling battles, Frances Goldin and the CSC found their salvation in an innovative new legal tool called the Community Land Trust. Today the Cooper Square Community Land Trust gives residents control of the land that is proposed for development in their neighborhood. This legal tool had been wielded to create truly affordable housing for Cooper Square residents. Today Cooper Square stands as the only racially diverse and affordable area in NYC for low-and moderate-income residents, right in the middle of the most gentrified section of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Watch the trailer below.

About Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC (CEANYC)

The Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) strengthens and expands community-led, democratically-controlled initiatives — from worker, financial and consumer co-ops to community land trusts and gardens, mutual housing, and low-income housing co-ops. Our goal is to build an economy based on values of social and racial justice, ecological sustainability, cooperation, mutualism, and democracy.

Instagram: @gocoopnyc

Speakers

Emilie Miyauchi educator and organizer at CEANYC

Tito Delgado longtime organizer, Cooper Square Community Land Trust board member

Valerio Orselli founding member of Cooper Square Community Land Trust and This Land is Ours

More About the "Art Worlds We Want" Series

This event is the kick-off to Art.coop's series "Art Worlds We Want" at CTHQ, Creative Time’s new gathering space supporting artists working at the intersection of art and politics as they continue to plot, orchestrate, and recharge from cultural, political and social organizing work.

Why are artists on strike right now? What do we want instead? How are artists using their collective power to resist dominant systems of exploitation and build what we need to support our creative practices with care at the center? Over the course of 10 weeks, Art.coop will be holding space at CTHQ for “Art Worlds We Want.”

We believe it’s clear that artists need an economy rooted in solidarity if we are to overcome our status as exploited workers. Likewise, the solidarity economy movement needs artists if it is to prevail. We believe that culture—visual arts, music, culinary arts, literature, theater, television, Web content, and more—is the key to sparking the collective imagination of what’s actually possible when there is community control of our economy, culture, and spirits. There have never been radical movements without radical creators at the helm— we need artists to lead us towards reimagining, resisting, and building.

Join Art.coop in person at CTHQ for collective inquiry, discussion, network building, and practical ways to shift from individualism towards solidarity in your lifestyle and creative practice:

September 30 - Resist & Build: Land & Space in NYC

October 14 - Resist & Build: Visual Arts & Music

November 4 - Resist & Build in Journalism & Media

November 18 - Resist & Build in Fashion

*Office Hours with Art.coop @ CTHQ - weekly, Tuesdays from 11am - 3pm, beginning on October 3rd until December 5th*

About Art.coop

Art.coop is a hub for artists who are fed up with the current system who want to connect, get money, ideas, and tools to strengthen their communities. They exist to grow an arts/culture movement within the solidarity economy by centering artists and cultural workers who make systems-change irresistible. Art.coop core organizers are Ebony Gustave, Natalia Linares, Caroline Woolard, Robin Bean Crane, Marina Lopez, and Sruti Suryanarayanan.

Accessibility

CTHQ is located on the 7th Floor of 59 East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. The building entrance has no steps and elevator access is provided directly to CTHQ. Service animals are welcome.

This event is low light, meaning there is ample lighting but fluorescent overhead lighting is not in use. A variety of seating options are available including: wooden chairs with backs and wooden benches and stools. This event begins at 1 pm and ends at 4 pm. Please arrive early and let us know if you can't make it, space is limited. The event will not be recorded.

Accessibility Requests

If you have any questions regarding accessibility or to request specific accommodations, please email: [email protected].

Transportation

Parking in the vicinity is free after 6 PM. The closest MTA subway stations are: Astor Place on the 6 line, 2nd Avenue on the F line, and 8th Street-NYU on the R Line. These stations are not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are: Bleecker Street on the 6 line and Broadway-Lafayette on the B/D/F/M line, with an elevator on the north side of Houston St. between Lafayette St. and Crosby St.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

CTHQ, 59 East 4th Street 7th Floor, New York, United States