The facts about the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center

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NYCEDC Announces Selection of Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance to Expa...

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NYCEDC Announces Selection of Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance to Expand Cultural Programming in East Harlem November 17, 2011

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New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) today announced the selection of the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance (JdBAA) to lease and program the theatre and multi-purpose event space at the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center (Julia de Burgos) in East Harlem. JdBAA will provide over 1,700 hours of cultural, arts, and community programming in its first year of operating the spaces, with nearly 700 hours of the programming specifically planned for the

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previously underutilized theatre space. As part of its lease, JdBAA has also agreed to a community access plan which will ensure that the community has maximum opportunity to experience the arts, cultural, and community activities at Julia de Burgos.

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“Today’s selection is a major step forward in our efforts to ensure the

Patrick Muncie (212) 312-3523

future viability of this historic cultural center,” said NYCEDC President Seth W. Pinsky. “As Mayor Bloomberg has repeatedly said, improving New Yorkers’ quality of life is sound economic development policy. By supporting and fostering important institutions such as Julia de Burgos for the benefit of community members and community organizations, we are making East Harlem an even more attractive place in which to live, work, and grow a business. I would like to thank the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance for their commitment to this neighborhood as well as our City.”

"This is a great day for the cultural community of El Barrio," said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. "The Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center will move one step closer to fulfilling its original vision as a vibrant, active space that will benefit all members of our community. I stand in strong support of the decision made by the Economic Development Corporation regarding the future of the Center and thank them for their hard work on the RFEI process. I also thank all of the cultural organizations that make up the incredible partnership that will now operate in this space and look forward to seeing all of the exciting programming that they have planned for our community."

“Expanded programming by the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance will insure that dynamic cultural organizations are part of the Julia de Burgos Center’s commitment to vibrant art, creativity and service to the community,” said Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.

"Community Board 11 looks forward to working with the new operator and the Economic Development Corporation to ensure that fair and

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NYCEDC Announces Selection of Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance to Expa...

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equal access is granted to all potential users, capturing the original vision of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center as a space available to all to promote the cultural depth, richness and history of the East Harlem Community," said Matthew S. Washington, Chair, Manhattan Community Board 11.

“The Julia de Burgos Center is an outstanding asset for the residents of El Barrio,” said Kenneth J. Knuckles, President & CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corp. (UMEZ) “We are delighted to know that the space will be filled with a variety of cultural activities and organizations, particularly through the community access plan, which will highlight the extraordinary talents of the neighborhood.”

The selection of JdBAA to operate the theatre and event space at Julia de Burgos is the result of a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) issued by NYCEDC in September 2010. The goal of the RFEI was to further activate Julia de Burgos with additional programming, increase access for local community organizations, and to strengthen local arts and cultural organizations. Activation of the theatre space was a top priority of the RFEI, which up until now, had been underutilized.

JdBAA is comprised of local East Harlem groups East River North Renewal, and Los Pleneros de la 21, as well as The Hispanic Federation. East River North is a nonprofit housing development program in East Harlem that for the past five years has organized and sponsored a summer season of live music performances and domino tournaments at the outdoor plaza of La Marqueta. Los Pleneros is a performing arts organization that has occupied space at Julia de Burgos since 1999. The Hispanic Federation, a national organization whose mission includes advancing the public affairs objectives of the Latino community and its network of institutions, also has strong local ties, having helped launch the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance in 2007.

JdBAA will join existing tenants to provide increased cultural programming in the space, which presently includes Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, The Heritage School, as well as Los Pleneros de la 21. JdBAA also plans to collaborate with a number of other local arts and cultural groups to offer additional programming. Some organizations that have already expressed interest include: Afterdark CATV PRO, El Teatro Moderno Puertorriqueno, Puertorriquenos Unidos, Teatro Moderno, Pregones, Teatro SEA and the Caribbean Cultural Center.

As part of the RFEI process, NYCEDC worked closely with Community Board 11 to develop a Community Engagement Access Plan for the space. The access plan will be part of the lease and will ensure that the community has maximum opportunity to experience the cultural activities at Julia de Burgos, and that there will be readily available guidelines and fee schedules for those who want to utilize the space.

Julia de Burgos is located at 1680 Lexington Avenue in East Harlem.

The 2,800-square-foot event space is located on the first floor, with the 4,300-square-foot, 160 seat, theatre space above. Built in 1879 as a public school, Julia de Burgos is an approximately 60,000square-foot five story landmarked building located in East Harlem. The Building has been historically occupied by cultural tenants and a school.

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11/1/2015 9:27 AM

E. Harlem artists: Give us our theater! - NY Daily News

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E. Harlem artists will stage guerilla show outside theater that remains vacant in continuing saga

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Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center on E. 106th St. has a theater and community space. But both have been off limits for two years.

BY LAIGNEE BARRON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Thursday, June 20, 2013, 6:04 PM

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Cultural Center for more than two years.

RELATED STORIES Art space furor grows in East Harlem

East Harlem artists are furious the massive, city-owned Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center has been shuttered to the public for more than two years.

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E. Harlem artists: Give us our theater! - NY Daily News

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The community events room and 160-seat theater inside the five-story, E. 106th St. center are vacant and collecting dust — and next week, a group of uptown actors, performers, and artists are hosting a guerilla performance outside in protest.

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“We’re in a cultural Death Valley but sitting on a goldmine and the city doesn’t

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see it,” said Eugene Rodriguez, an award-winning East Harlem playwright and poet. “I’m here with a great play, and a wonderful young man to act in it, and I

Part of the center’s problem is a sullied management history.

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For almost a decade, an arts organization called Taller Boricua ran the former

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can’t even get a reading in one of these spaces.”

public school building after it underwent multimillion-dollar renovations.

But in 2011, the center’s landlord, the Economic Development Corporation, evicted the 40-year-old arts group from the management seat, apparently after complaints it charged arbitrary fees to organizations that wanted to rent the space.

The corporation selected the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance, comprised of local arts groups and the Hispanic Federation, to manage the space.

The alliance said it was signing a five-year lease, sound-proofing the space, and going to provide 1,700 hours of programing during the first year of operation.

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But nothing became of those promises. And representatives of the alliance didn’t show up at two community meetings earlier this year.

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The Hispanic Federation did not return calls or emails.

“When (Taller Boricua) ran the space we got event notifications all the time.

Since the change, we’ve gotten nothing,” said George Sarkissian, district manager of East Harlem’s Community Board 11.

Sarkissian added he’s as much in the dark as everyone else about what happened to the space.

“Since the councilperson in this community decided to convince the EDC to make us leave the space there hasn’t been a single thing in there,” said Fernando Salicrup, co-founder of Taller Boricua.

Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-East Harlem), who was a proponent of the arts alliance managing the center, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Daily N

Rodriguez, the playwright, just wants change.

“Honestly, I think our mayor wants the whole space to go to the charter school and to hell with the Latino community,” said Rodriguez. “I look at this theater, I see a center for opportunity. It could be the economic engine for this community, but I don’t know how to make the city see that, too.”

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ROBERT WEST 863 days ago

It really is a shame when the Latino community of El Barrio has to fight for representation. If the people think Mark-Viverito is one of them, they will continue to be hoodwinked and bamboozled.

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ROBERT WEST 863 days ago

Correction: If the people think Mark-Viverito "isn't" one of them.

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JENNYONTHEBLOCK 863 days ago

Where is the local council member on this? Sad Like

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11/1/2015 9:37 AM

Patience for Reopening Latino Cultural Space Is Gone - The New York Times http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/patience-for-reopening-lati...

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CULTURAL AFFAIRS

Patience for Reopening Latino Cultural Space Is Gone

By Mona el Naggar

June 25, 2013 6:57 pm

The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, a city-owned building in East Harlem, has long been an important hub for the neighborhood’s Latino population. Named after a renowned Puerto Rican poet, the five-story building served as a place for local artists to showcase their work and residents to gather to celebrate birthdays, hold funerals, discuss community affairs and dance salsa.

“It was about all of us coming together,” said Marina Ortiz, founder of East Harlem Preservation, a group dedicated to preserving East Harlem’s culture and history. Ms. Ortiz said she used to visit the center regularly for almost 20 years, before New York City officials closed a large multipurpose space and theater there over a year and a half ago for renovation and to find a new operator.

“It was torn out from under us,” she said, adding that her efforts to determine why it was taking so long to reopen the two rooms had been futile. Other parts of the center remain in use, but work has not even begun on the renovation.

Having grown frustrated, a coalition of community leaders and artists plan to stage a series of street performances as a form of protest outside the Julia de Burgos center, starting Wednesday, to pressure the city.

“It’s not about one show; it’s about no show,” said Eugene Rodriguez, a playwright and longtime resident of East Harlem who is leading the effort. “Latino artists have no access to Latino institutions in the neighborhood. It kills me. It really kills me.”

Mr. Rodriguez, 65, swallowed, looked away and started to cry.

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Patience for Reopening Latino Cultural Space Is Gone - The New York Times http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/patience-for-reopening-lati...

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City officials contend the changes will benefit the neighborhood and local cultural groups. But many residents and activists say they view the delay as part of the marginalization of East Harlem’s working-class Latino population and the city’s disinterest in preserving the Puerto Rican identity of a neighborhood undergoing a slow but steady gentrification.

“The Julia de Burgos is symptomatic of the larger issue,” said Marta Moreno Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center and a former director of El Museo del Barrio. “The disparity in the way that culture and art is understood in the city and the way that resources are distributed and attention is given is what you see in the Julia de Burgos.”

The building, on Lexington Avenue between 105th and 106th Streets, that houses the multipurpose room and the theater also contains other exhibition and performance areas and a public school. The city rents out space to various Latino art groups, including Taller Boricua, which had operated the 2,800-square-foot multipurpose space and occasionally used the 160-seat theater.

In September 2010, the city’s Economic Development Corporation announced plans to renovate and reorganize the administration of the two spaces, saying that they were mismanaged and underused.

In November 2011, the city selected the Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit organization, to operate and maintain the two spaces. But the city and the Hispanic Federation are still negotiating the terms of the lease, and the rooms remain locked.

Responding to neighborhood complaints, City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents the area, has been working with the development corporation, and on Friday she said the city would find a way for cultural groups to rent out the spaces while the lease was being negotiated.

The development corporation said in a statement on Tuesday that “local groups will have the opportunity to rent space” on a temporary basis, but it had yet to work out the fees and other details.

“I hear the frustration but I’m asking for patience still,” Ms. Mark-Viverito said in a phone interview.

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Patience for Reopening Latino Cultural Space Is Gone - The New York Times http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/patience-for-reopening-lati...

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Still, some activists are not satisfied.

“Why should we be patient?” Ms. Ortiz said. “Why should we accept vague assurances? I want precise answers: When, where, who, how.”

As to why it has taken so long to hammer out a lease, Jose Calderon, the president of the Hispanic Federation, said renovations promised by the city were yet to be completed. “Any tenants moving into a space want certain things done,” he said.

Ms. Mark-Viverito said that her office had set aside nearly $1 million for renovations, but that the expenditure was only recently approved by the city’s Office of Management and Budget.

Sitting on the stoop of his house on 118th Street, Mr. Rodriguez waited for Ms. Ortiz and a number of other neighbors, artists and friends to arrive for a meeting to discuss Wednesday’s protest. He said he planned to deliver a Shakespearean-style speech: “Friends! Latinos! Countrymen! Lend me your ears! I come to praise La Julia not to bury her!”

© 2015 The New York Times Company

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Charity tied to council speaker quadruples its funding A nonprofit founded by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's chief campaign consultant saw its pork-barrel funding balloon this year. Critics say the council's funding system encourages the rewarding of political allies.

Chris Bragg Published: June 30, 2014 - 12:01 am A nonprofit organization founded and represented by the chief political consultant of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito saw its pork-barrel funding quadruple in the speaker's first budget, through a system that critics say remains politicized despite reforms.

William Alatriste A charity founded and represented by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign consultant got a major funding increase this year.

Of the $1.3 million windfall allocated to the nonprofit Hispanic Federation in the city budget passed last Wednesday, more than $830,000 came from a newly created program funded by monies directly under Ms. Mark-Viverito's control. The lobbying firm that serves as her campaign consultant, the Manhattan-based MirRam Group, specifically lobbied lawmakers including Ms. Mark-Viverito to create the fund.

Luis Miranda, a founding partner of the MirRam Group, who is close to Ms. Mark-Viverito, founded the influential Hispanic Federation in 1990 and now serves as its paid lobbyist. The Hispanic Federation has also paid more than $680,000 for "consulting" to MirRam and a firm registered to Mr. Miranda and his wife, the New York Post reported in 2012.

Ms. Mark-Viverito has drawn praise for working to reform member-item spending rules so funding is distributed more equitably among council members. Reformers say the changes depoliticized a system once used to punish the speaker's enemies and reward allies. Still, a substantial amount of overall funding remains under Ms. Mark-Viverito's control: In this year's budget, the speaker had a pot of $16.6 million out of $50 million total.

Critics say any system allowing lawmakers to unilaterally distribute tax dollars encourages the rewarding of political allies. Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for an end to the discretionary funding system, and the Daily News editorial board has suggested that nonprofit contracts be awarded based on competitive, sealed bids.

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But proponents of the system say lawmakers know their districts' needs best.

A Mark-Viverito spokesman said the new program providing $830,000 of the funding to the Hispanic Federation enjoyed broad support.

"The initiative had widespread support throughout the council," the spokesman said. "The initiative will help minority nonprofits with capacity-building, management skills and fundraising." The program was a priority for the council's Bronx delegation, and its Black, Latino and Asian caucus, according to the spokesman.

The Hispanic Federation, an umbrella group that provides grants to Latino nonprofits and advocates on issues such as immigration, employs MirRam on an $8,500 monthly retainer, according to state lobbying records.

Besides serving as Ms. Mark-Viverito's main City Council campaign consultant, MirRam quietly provided assistance in the midst of Ms. Mark-Viverito's council speaker campaign last fall, though it denies the work was related to the speaker race. The firm has become a force in the city's political landscape, especially among minority elected officials in Manhattan and the Bronx. The firm's other founding partner is Roberto Ramirez, the former Bronx Democratic Party leader.

MirRam's close relationship with the speaker and other ascendant lawmakers has drawn some scrutiny —including over a campaign to discredit the company Herbalife by the investor William Ackman that involved payments to the Hispanic Federation—and the trend of campaign consultants lobbying their clients has raised the ire of good-government groups. Ms. Mark-Viverito's ties with the lobbying and campaign firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin have also drawn scrutiny. "We've seen an increase at the city and state level of campaign consultants that also lobby," said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York. "This raises concerns, and we believe they should be separated."

At the same time, Ms. Lerner noted the Hispanic Federation's strong reputation for helping provide services to poor Latino communities. And indeed, one way for nonprofits to get scarce government resources is to build political connections, or hire a lobbying firm that has them.

The vast majority of smaller nonprofits don't hire lobbyists and can't afford them, according to Michael Clark, president of the Nonprofit Coordinating Council of New York. "Honestly, really only the big ones do that," said Mr. Clark. "Where you run into that is really the big, multi-service agencies."

The $830,000 funding stream for the Hispanic Federation comes from a new $2.5 million program called the "Communities of Color Non-Profit Stabilization Fund." Three separate organizations, including the Hispanic Federation, are getting $833,333 each "to support capacity building, strengthening and rescuing of nonprofit human service providers that serve communities of color." The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and New York Urban League also got the same amount under the program.

The MirRam Group, which was also a consultant for former Comptroller Bill Thompson's 2013 mayoral campaign, had been lobbying for the implementation of such a program for three years, but failed during the tenure of former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, another unsuccessful mayoral candidate last year.

In this year's budget, the Hispanic Federation got more than $1.31 million—a massive increase over the $307,000 it got last year, before Ms. Mark-Viverito became speaker. It had gotten even less the prior five years, according to a city budget database, though it has received substantial sums before. By contrast, this year the larger Latino services nonprofit Make the Road New York got $314,000 in city earmarks.

MirRam also lobbied Queens Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, the council's finance committee chairwoman (and herself a former MirRam political consulting client), as well as a slew of other City Council members who ended up steering money to the Hispanic Federation. Ms. Mark-Viverito, the first Latina speaker, kicked in $30,000 this year from her own pot of local discretionary funds.

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The $1.3 million in funding is not an insignificant amount for the Hispanic Federation. It got a total of $1 million in government grants in 2012, according to its tax return—primarily from state government sources, not the city. It reported $4.3 million in revenue that year.

Another nonprofit represented by MirRam, Broadway Housing Communities Inc., saw a jump this year in earmarks from $10,000 to $64,000, including $50,000 from the speaker's pot for the "production of postcards and catalogs for the 12 annual exhibits" and to "defray the cost of snacks and non-alcoholic beverages during [a] gallery open house." The MirRam Group declined to comment on the Hispanic Federation funding, citing a policy of not discussing clients.

MirRam's lobbying of the speaker it advises politically has drawn some attention. In March, the Daily News reported that Mr. Miranda had asked political clients, including Ms. Mark-Viverito, to sign a letter sent to the Federal Trade Commission bashing the company Herbalife. The MirRam Group, as well as the Hispanic Federation, had reportedly been retained to oppose the company by investor William Ackman, who had placed a $1 billion financial bet on Herbalife losing value.

Ms. Mark-Viverito also controversially pushed for a change in leadership in the operations of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center in East Harlem, which resulted in the Hispanic Federation running it. When Ms. Mark-Viverito lined up enough votes for the speakership last year, the charity's president, Jose Calderon, released a statement offering congratulations and saying he looked forward to "continuing our great partnership." He later served on Ms. Mark-Viverito's transition team.

The Hispanic Federation has relations with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. In recent years, the charity, which gets substantial state funding, has organized an annual Latino outreach conference for Republicans in the state Senate. The charity didn't return a request for comment, but eventually issued a statement (appended below) late Tuesday afternoon, after this article was published. The nonprofit was also party to a lawsuit to overturn ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "soda ban," which drew scrutiny because among the charity's major private funders is Coca-Cola.

Another lobbying firm close to Ms. Mark-Viverito, the Advance Group, landed in hot water for providing free consulting services during Ms. Mark-Viverito's speaker campaign.

Last November, during the heart of the City Council speaker race, an employee of the MirRam group fielded a press request from Crain's on Ms. Mark-Viverito's behalf for an article about her past refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. But on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for MirRam said any work done for Ms. Mark-Viverito was only related work for her 2013 City Council campaign, though it had ended weeks before the press request was fielded by MirRam. The firm was not paid to assist her speaker campaign.

UPDATE: The Hispanic Federation issued a three-paragraph statement July 1 in an apparent response to this story. It is pasted below in full.

"Hispanic Federation supports Latino nonprofits that serve as the front-line service providers for a community that is nearly a third of New York City’s population. We do not shy away from that mission but embrace it with great fervor and commitment because our nonprofits are critical to the growth and empowerment of the Latino community. Unfortunately, our nonprofits - similar to sister agencies in the Black and Asian-American communities - have been historically underfunded and under-capitalized by city government, foundations and other funding streams.

"This is the reason the Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund (NSF) garnered such deep support within the New York City Council, particularly within the Council's Borough Delegations and Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. The overwhelming majority of the 2.5M allocated under this initiative will go towards grants to help bolster and strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations to provide services for

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the most vulnerable New Yorkers. After decades of neglect, this investment in our Black, Latino and AsianAmerican nonprofits is an overdue, wise and responsible step forward towards ensuring we have a healthier and more robust safety net for our city's majority communities of color population.

"This initiative clearly reflects a more responsive government that is focused on creating greater budgetary and social equity. We applaud Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Finance Chair Julissa Ferreras and the more than 30 City Council Members who have been proactively championing the establishment of the NSF. We look forward to supporting and working with the dozens of community based organizations who will benefit from this vital initiative."

Entire contents Š2015 Crain Communications Inc.

11/1/2015 9:16 AM

The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone For Immediate Release

$100,000 UMEZ GRANT HELPS HISPANIC FEDERATION ESTABLISH AFFORDABLE RENTAL PROGRAM FOR LATINO CULTURAL CENTER

For Immediate Release

Contact: Verdery Roosevelt, 212‐410‐0030 x 209

NEW YORK, September 5, 2014

As the fiscal agent of the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance (JdBAA), The Hispanic Federation (HF) is slated to transform the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center (the Center) into a sustainable, vibrant cultural tourism hub in East Harlem. Essential to that renewal is the creation of a rental program that will offer affordable spaces to artists, nonprofit arts and service organizations, for‐profit institutions, and residents in the community. The rental initiative is supported by a $100,000 grant from the Cultural Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) division of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ).

On Friday, September 5, 2014 CIIF closed a one‐year grant with the Hispanic Federation that will aid the organization with the operation, programming, and maintenance of four underutilized spaces in the Center. The rental program will provide a platform for nonprofit groups, artists, and organizations to develop and present a variety of works to be enjoyed by the East Harlem community and the greater public.

UMEZ funds will provide support for staff positions critical to the creation, management and sustainability of the spaces, as well as funding to increase the organization’s marketing and development capacity. Once the rental program is fully operational, the Hispanic Federation and the Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance will create signature programs and annual events for the spaces, which are anticipated to increase awareness and visitors to the Center.

The 24‐year‐old Hispanic Federation is the premier Latino membership organization in New York City, advocating for and supporting numerous cultural organizations including El Museo del Barrio, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and the Puerto Rican Travelling Theater. The rental program will serve as a viable business model the sustainability of the Center, envisioned as a catalyst for economic and community development in East Harlem.

(OVER)

ABOUT THE UPPER MANHATTAN EMPOWERMENT ZONE Since its founding in 1996, The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) has been a singular catalyst in the revitalization of Upper Manhattan. UMEZ’s investments, upwards of $220 million to date, have provided funding to numerous organizations, businesses and institutions that drive the local economy, create jobs, and add to the vibrancy of New York City. Significantly, these funds have also been leveraged to generate over $1 billion in private capital investments into Upper Manhattan. UMEZ continues to be a leader in reestablishing the area as one of New York’s most dynamic cultural districts through the creation of the Cultural Industry Investment Fund, established in 2004.

ABOUT THE CULTURAL INDUSTRY INVESTMENT FUND The Cultural Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) was established in 2004 in order to support cultural institutions – from the iconic to the new and burgeoning – that serve as a powerful platform for the revitalization of the communities in which they reside. CIIF’s strategy is designed to encourage long‐term, permanent change within its grantees by building administrative capacity, supporting organizational development, and/or making needed capital improvements. Since its inception, CIIF has provided $40 million in grants to over 50 arts and cultural organizations in Upper Manhattan.

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Artists blame Mark-Viverito as cultural center languishes | New York Post

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Artists blame Mark-Viverito as cultural center languishes

By Amber Jamieson

January 18, 2015 | 12:42am

Julia de Burgos Cultural Center Photo: Angel Chevrestt

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An East Harlem cultural center is languishing despite Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s 2011 vow to resurrect it, artists say.

“They haven’t done s- -t there for two years,” poet Jesus “Papoleto” Melendez said of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center at 106th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The renovated building boasts a 160-seat theater and 2,300-square-foot community room — but few people or programs, critics say.

A ground-floor art gallery is the only permanent public space. The last event in the theater was a comedy show five weeks ago. There is no public schedule or Web site.

Mark-Viverito criticized the center in 2011 as underutilized and yanked control from Taller Boricua, an arts group that unofficially managed the property for the city. The group was allowed to continue

11/1/2015 9:24 AM

Artists blame Mark-Viverito as cultural center languishes | New York Post

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NEWS Melissa Mark-Viverito fined running the gallery.

METRO  SECTIONS  SEARCH over consulting payments  SIGN IN / REGISTER PAGE SIX connected to re-election After two years of inaction, the city handed the theater and community room to the Hispanic Federation, SPORTS a Bronx nonprofit.

BUSINESS OPINION ENTERTAINMENT The federation last year got $1.31 million in discretionary funds from the council. Its founder, Luis Miranda, is Mark-Viverito’s chief political FASHION consultant. His lobbying firm, MirCam, gets $102,000 per year from the Hispanic Federation.

LIVING MEDIA TECH The federation-led Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance was supposed to provide 1,700 hours of REAL ESTATE



cultural programming in its first year.

PHOTOS

“But nothing has happened,” said Luis Cordero, founder of the Puerto Rican Institute for the VIDEO COVERS Development of the Arts.

COLUMNISTS CLASSIFIEDS HOROSCOPES SUBSCRIBE

But the federation says it hosted 77 community and cultural events, totaling 1,600 hours, in 2014.

The center “has a vibrant history in El Barrio,” said Mark-Viverito rep Robin Levine. “We look forward to working with the center.”

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City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Photo: R. Umar Abbasi

ART, EAST HARLEM, MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO

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11/1/2015 9:24 AM

Deaths of East Harlem’s Cultural Leaders Put a Legacy in Flux - The New...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/nyregion/deaths-of-east-harlems-cul...

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N.Y. / REGION

Deaths of East Harlem’s Cultural Leaders Put a Legacy in Flux JAN. 11, 2015

Side Street

By DAVID GONZALEZ

The strains of “Ave Maria” resounded through the pristine East Harlem community room where Fernando Salicrup lay in state on Tuesday night. A huge Puerto Rican flag hung behind his open coffin, a reminder that Mr. Salicrup — an artist and activist — had helped to carve out a cultural space that defined Puerto Ricans in New York City.

Outside, the streets were slick with frozen snow. It was a reminder of the chill that has descended on the city’s Puerto Rican cultural world, which in a little more than 14 months has been buffeted by the deaths of five major figures who started to make their marks in the 1960s: the poets Tato Laviera and Jack Agüeros; the photographer Frank Espada; Juan Flores, a scholar who focused on Afro-Latin culture; and now Mr. Salicrup, who helped found Taller Boricua, the Puerto Rican Workshop, which nurtured a generation of visual artists in El Barrio.

Each of the five served as a bridge, connecting Puerto Ricans in New York to their roots, while forging new modes of expression. They were members of a generation that is slowly being consigned to blessed memory, and their deaths have left others wondering not only who is next, but what.

“My world is getting smaller because we’re losing so many people we admired,

11/1/2015 9:20 AM

Deaths of East Harlem’s Cultural Leaders Put a Legacy in Flux - The New...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/nyregion/deaths-of-east-harlems-cul...

who were artists, activists and part of the growth of this city,” said Elba Cabrera, 81, a beloved godmother to many Puerto Rican artists. “I guess we were blessed to even know them. They had a vision of the world, and they also did it through their art.

And that is their legacy. Not many of us can say that.”

Mr. Salicrup, 68, was a Marine Corps veteran and a bear of a man who had diabetes, which ultimately caused him to use a wheelchair. For decades, he had been a force in El Barrio — where he spent his entire life — mentoring younger artists and serving as an advocate for the community.

Juan Sanchez, a professor of art at Hunter College, vividly recalls first encountering Mr. Salicrup in the 1970s while studying at Cooper Union, where the only Latino artists ever mentioned were the famed Mexican muralists. A professor told him about El Museo del Barrio, which was in a Third Avenue storefront at the time. There, Mr. Sanchez met an artist who suggested he visit Taller Boricua, where he met Mr. Salicrup and his colleagues.

“I barely had any sense of artists who were nonwhite,” Mr. Sanchez said. “At Taller, they opened their flat files and showed these great prints by Lorenzo Homar and Rafael Tufiño. We sat down in the studio, drinking and talking. To me, that was a bolt of lightning. It struck me in a hard way, a positive way, how they embraced me and took me in.”

That kind of mentoring — in culture and in politics — was valued by members of Taller, including Mr. Tufiño’s daughter, Nitza, who now leads a printmaking workshop there. She worries that some younger artists are more concerned about money and hype than about paying their dues and learning their craft. She is, however, heartened by others who seem eager to embrace the blend of community and culture championed by the older generation.

“We look at their example and it’s a call to arms,” said Rich Villar, 37, a poet.

“We are living in the weird time when our civil rights are being challenged and the need to organize is as strong as ever. I don’t know if the energy is still there. To me, it’s a matter of finding it and generating the energy through my art.”

The bigger question is not so much about the dedication of the next generation,

11/1/2015 9:20 AM

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The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center in East Harlem has been neglected for several years, and local artists are putting the blame on Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. In 2011, Mark-Viverito promised to work on reviving the East Harlem staple, but locals claim that the city hasn’t done anything

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for the facility in two years.

The building, which was renovated, houses a 2,300-square-foot community room, a 160-seat theater,

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and an art gallery that lives on the ground floor. But as far a programming for the community, the center is lacking. In 2011, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito took control over the cultural center from a local community group called Taller Boricua, claiming that the center was underutilized. The theater and community room was given to the Bronx-based non-profit organization called the Hispanic Federation. The organization received $1.31 million in funds for the council. “They haven’t done s- -t

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East Harlem Locals Blame Melissa Mark-Viverito for Abandoning Local ... there for two years,” poet Jesus “Papoleto” Melendez told the New York Post (http://nypost.com /2015/01/18/artists-blame-mark-viverito-as-cultural-center-languishes/).

The Julia de Burgos Arts Alliance was supposed to deliver 1,700 hours of cultural programming in its first year. According to the federation, they hosted 77 community and cultural events, which totaled to 1,600 hours last year. Mark-Viverito’s representative Robin Levine stated that the center “has a vibrant history in El Barrio,” and that they are looking forward to cultivating it.

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11/1/2015 9:35 AM

Deaths of East Harlem’s Cultural Leaders Put a Legacy in Flux - The New...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/nyregion/deaths-of-east-harlems-cul...

but the survival of community-based institutions that were founded by artists and activists. Many have either vanished or been transformed into more businesslike operations. Even the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, where the wake for Mr. Salicrup was held, has been in upheaval: The community space that was once rented

by Taller Boricua, has been taken over by a coalition that includes the Hispanic Federation, a social service agency umbrella group that has traditionally had a more corporate approach in its dealings.

“There is a lack of infrastructural footprints,” said Arlene Davila, a professor of anthropology at New York University who has written extensively about East Harlem and Latino culture. “People are leaving us, but what of their dream remains?”

To her, the question is especially pressing given the demographic shifts that have seen a surge in the Latino population throughout the city.

“We live in a moment where Latino culture is supposedly mainstream culture,” she said. “But we do not have Latino-specific spaces connected to communities and controlled by artists. That is what was incredible about Taller Boricua.”

A version of this article appears in print on January 12, 2015, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Deaths of East Harlem’s Cultural Leaders Put a Legacy in Flux.

© 2015 The New York Times Company

11/1/2015 9:20 AM

JULIA DE BURGOS PERFORMANCE & ARTS CENTER @the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center

1680 Avenida Lexington New York, NY 10026

www.jdbpacnyc.org RESERVATION FORM Event title:

Event date(s): Expected number of participants:

Ending time:

Starting time: Space requested:

Multi-Purpose Pavillion

Theater

Studio A

Studio B

Organization name/ Organizer: Address: City:

State:

Zip code:

Is your organization tax-exempt as defined under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code?

Yes

Contact person:

No

Select one of the following that best describes you or your organization:

Title:

Artist

Phone number:

Community organization

E-mail:

Corporate

Event coordinator (on site):

Government Nonprofit

Phone number:

School

E-mail:

Student Community resident

Event description:

Other:

RETURN SIGNED & COMPLETED FORM TO: JDBRentals / Hispanic Federation 55 Exchange Place, 5th Floor New York, NY 10005 Fax: (212) 233-8996 JDBRentals@hispanicfederation.org For more information please call: JosĂŠ Chamorro, Rental Manager (212) 233-8955 Ext. 143

Signature:

Date:

JULIA DE BURGOS PERFORMANCE & ARTS CENTER @the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center

www.jdbpacnyc.org

1680 Avenida Lexington New York, NY 10026

SCHEDULING AND RENTAL FEES NON-PERFORMANCE SPACE

DIMENSIONS

CAPACITY

MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM

2,800 ft2

200

THEATER

4,300 ft2

Seats 164

260

M to TH (Daily)

FRI / SAT / SUN

SPACE

PER HOUR

$600

$850

THEATER

$60

$700

$900

STUDIO A

$20

$20 STUDIO B Prices are based on an 8 hour rental time slot. Minimum rental time of 4 hours required.

Scheduling of reservations will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Priority will be given to local residents and local community groups.

The space will be available for the contracted time and must be vacated at the time stipulated or an extra charge will be applied (This includes setup and cleanup).

Extra charges to be deducted from security deposit. Rates beyond contracted time: $200 per hour.

20% discount for all Artists, Non-Profits and Students for Multi-Purpose room and Theater space rentals. (Only one discount applies).

25% discount for all performances FREE to the community for Multi-Purpose room and Theater space rentals. (Only one discount applies).

Additional discounts may be applied for multi-day bookings.

DEPOSIT A security deposit of $400 will be required at the time of signing for all contracts. The deposit may be paid by check or money order, cash will not be accepted. Any labor fees or incidental costs incurred will be discounted from the $400 security deposit at the end of the rental period; if there are no additional labor fees or incidental costs then the $400 security deposit shall be paid back to the renter within 15 business days from the time the event took place.

PAYMENT Payment for the space rental will be due no later than 10 working days prior to the scheduled rental. Payment plans may be arranged, please contact us for additional information.

INSURANCE All renters will be required to provide general liability insurance to cover their activities on site, including the loading-in and out of equipment, rehearsals, and any other time spent by the renter on the premises. The insurance must be for a minimum of $1,000,000 per occurrence, and $2,000,000 in the aggregate, and shall name the Hispanic Federation, Inc.; The City of New York and New York City Economic Development Corporation as additional insured. Renters will be required to provide proof of this insurance in the form of a certificate prior to the event or rental period. Please note that insurance is required for each day within the period that a booked event takes place.

CANCELLATION Please be advised there are no refunds. Credit for future bookings may be issued. All cancellations must be made in writing and emailed to: JDBRentals@hispanicfederation.org and credit may be applied to a future rental within 3 months of the date of the original booking. Proof/ copy of the signed contract will be required in order to determine whether a credit will be issued.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE MAKE ALL CHECKS PAYABLE TO:

Hispanic Federation 55 Exchange Place, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10005