Loisaida Inc. and Atomic Culture are proud to present:

Walled Worlds: Border Publics, Cultural Activism and Urban Planning.

Renowned scholars, artists, cultural activists and critics–Ricardo Dominguez, Teddy Cruz, Fonna Forman and Ed Morales–ccome together to discuss their distinct yet cross-cultural perspectives on the intersections of arts and culture, activism and policy, and forced migration and community building, utilizing examples of neighborhoods including the Lower East Side.

We will consider how might our cultural activism, advocacy, and participatory planning begin working to create stronger collaborative movements and build solidarity within and beyond our multiple communities?

In the face of political uncertainties, we will also consider what tactics and strategies work to strengthen cultural equity advocacy, to influence policy and to advance equity principles as part of what should be enshrined in NYC’s cultural plan. A report-back on the discussion will be included as a set of recommendations to the New York City Council’s 10 year Cultural Plan.

FREE

Please RSVP, limited capacity!

Loisaida Inc. and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation are proud to present:

Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York City

The Lower East Side in the 1980s and 90s was home to a radical squattingmovement that
blended urban homesteading and European-style squatting in a way never before seen in the
United States.

Ours to Lose takes a close look at a diverse group of Lower East Side squatters who occupied abandoned city-owned buildings in the 1980s, fought to keep them for decades, and eventually began a long, complicated process to turn their illegal occupancy into legal cooperative ownership.

In this multimedia event Starecheski will use oral histories to explore the complicated
relationships between homesteading and squatting on the Lower East Side, and in American
history.

Amy Starecheski is co-director of the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia
University. She received a PhD in cultural anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center, where
she was a Public Humanities Fellow. In 2016 she was awarded the “Will the Next Margaret
Mead Please Stand Up?” Prize for public anthropological writing.

Check out video of the talk below: