Loisaida Inc.

Pasado y Presente: Art After the Young Lords
2019-05-03 | Nathan Cummings Foundation, 475 10th Avenue, New York, NY, 10018, United States
Pasado y Presente: Art After the Young Lords
On View at Nathan Cummings Foundation
475 10th Ave., 14th Floor
New York, NY 10018
May 3rd – October 25th, 2019.
Viewing is by appointment only.
Second site exhibition at Loisaida Inc. Center, opening to the public June 3rd, 2019

The Loisaida Inc. Center in partnership with the Nathan Cummings Foundation, are pleased to announce the opening of Pasado y Presente: Art After the Young Lords, an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Young Lords Organization in New York that will be on view at the Nathan Cummings Foundation offices through October 25, 2019. Active between 1969 and 1975, The Young Lords described themselves as a revolutionary party fighting for the liberation of all oppressed people. Their spectacular demonstrations, artful self-presentation, and masterful deployment of DIY media via their newspaper, Pa’lante, brought international attention to demands voiced in black and brown communities across the United States for cultural equity, equal rights for women and the LGBTQ population; communal control of housing, healthcare, education, sanitation; alternatives to methadone; and independence for Puerto Rico and other subjugated nations.
Spanning different generations, nationalities, and ethnicities, the artists displayed in Pasado y Presente represent a creative community that is connected to the Young Lords by their passion for art in the service of social justice and vanguard aesthetics. The work displayed here illuminates the influence that the Lords have had on activists and artists far beyond their six years as a formal organization. Featured in this exhibit are documentary photographs of Young Lords activism by Máximo Colón and Luis Carle and vintage posters from Taller Boricua, an East Harlem print collective that was allied with the Young Lords. Additional artists on display include: AgitArte, Pepe Coronado, Sophia Dawson, Marcos Dimas, Hatuey Ramos Fermín, Miguel Luciano, Carlos Jesús Martínez Domínguez, Shellyne Rodríguez, Adrián Viajero Román, Juan Sánchez, Nitza Tufiño, Rafael Tufiño, and Valor y Cambio.
The Loisaida Center will also be the first host-site of the VyC (“Valor y Cambio”) machine, an ATM-style device, which will travel to various locations distributing bills and, in return, gather stories on video about what people value.
Pasado y Presente will be accompanied by a booklet and a related exhibition at the Loisaida Center by AgitArte, Coronado Print Studio, Sherezade García, and Valor y Cambio that explores migration, movement, intra-diasporic Caribbean identity in NYC, alternative economies, story-telling and decolonial narratives. On Sunday, May 26, several participating artists in Pasado y Presente will take part in interactive urban interventions during the 32nd Annual Loisaida Festival.
Additionally, Nathan Cummings and the Loisaida Center will host a series of public programs investigating topics such as history and influence of the Young Lords in New York, feminist and LBGTQ activism in Latinx communities, cultural production and organizing in Puerto Rico post-Maria, the intersection of environmental justice with anti-displacement efforts in NYC’s poor and working class neighborhoods. Updates and dates of programming will be posted on the Nathan Cummings and Loisaida Center websites.

To set up an appointment to visit the exhibit, contact exhibits@nathancummings.org
The related exhibition at the Loisaida Center will be on view starting June 3rd, Mondays through Thursdays from noon to 4pm, and by appointment. Contact info@loisaida.org for scheduling.

Related Programming:
The Liquid Highway
Sunday, May 26th, 2019 at Loisaida Inc. Center’s Courtyard (710 East Ninth Street near Avenue C) from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm.
Developed in collaboration with No Longer Empty and taking place during the Loisaida Festival, The Liquid Highway is a participatory printmaking workshop that celebrates movement and migration. Artist, Scherezade Garcia, will be on site leading an interactive installation of marine landscapes on inner tube material presented as scrolls. This urban intervention and printmaking workshop honors our shared collective history and the commitments we have to one another. Through the act of printmaking, the public will have the opportunity to print a section of the landscape and own their own piece of this complex history.
Valor Y Cambio – NYC Launch
Sunday, May 26th, 2019 at Loisaida Festival STEM Zone (between 6th and 7th Streets on Avenue C) from 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm.
Valor y Cambio (#valorycambio) is a story-telling, community-building, and solidarity economy project started by the artists Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Sarabel Santos Negrón. It raises the question of what Puerto Ricans value as a society and introduces a community currency—pesos of Puerto Rico—as a means of change, in the sense of both money and social transformation.
After its successful February 2019 launch in Puerto Rico, the community currency interactive project will make its NYC debut during the Loisaida Festival, as part of the Eco- STEAM zone.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”
