Bronx Stories

NLE Labs Presents: ‘Intersecting Imaginaries’ At The Old Concourse Plaza Hotel

No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab) is pleased to present Intersecting Imaginaries at 900 Grand Concourse, a site-responsive exhibition curated by Natasha Bunzl, Dalaeja Foreman, Paola Gallio, Mary Kay Judy, Eva Mayhabal Davis, Lindsey O’Connor, Walter Puryear, and Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle. Including sculpture, photography, installation, video, works on paper and commissioned works by Bronx-based and tri-state area artists, Intersecting Imaginaries considers mapping as a method for understanding place, time, and identity.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the philosophical concept of the social imaginary, which considers community to be composed of human interaction and perceived connection. Intersecting Imaginaries melds this abstract understanding with an acknowledgement of external circumstance, presenting a constellation of works that speak to memory and lived experience as composite parts of a map, and as the binding fibers of community.

Facing the Bronx Supreme Courthouse, and mere blocks from Yankee Stadium, the storefront sits in a highly frequented intersection of the South Bronx. These landmarks, each controversial in their own right, arouse singular stories within a diverse borough that inform the cultural and sociopolitical discussion at the heart of the exhibition. The site has served many functions: it was once a ballroom as part of the Concourse Plaza Hotel, a diner, a thrift store, and now stands empty, sharing walls with housing provided by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizen Council. Remnants of its former lives are evident in the raw space, serving as inspiration and context for works that navigate body politics, racial identity, communities in flux, and the natural environment as both separate and intersecting realities.

Remember When The Bronx Was 212?

The Area Code Universe and Your Sense of Place: Are You a 212, 718,or 646 Person?

We are a species of belonging, of being part of place, of having a sense of identity based on that place. The place most closely associated with that sense of belonging is home. Be it ever so humble there is no place like it. Click your heels three times and you are there. Can it be that easy?

This issue of area code identity first arose back in 1984 in New York City. Once upon a time 212 encompassed the entire city of all five boroughs. Then one’s sense of belonging to the city was shattered with the introduction of a new code, 718, for Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. As reported in the New York Times (February 15, 1984), following the public announcement, all hell broke loose.

The Ghosts and Haunted Places of The Bronx

An exploration of supernatural phenomenon, ghosts, and old-wives tales in the borough of The Bronx with LATIN HORROR’s Edwin Pagán.

Most people don’t associate the Bronx as a place connected to paranormal activity, having haunted houses, or deep and dark secrets connected to the supernatural, but there are plenty of old estates built on vast landscapes that were once farmland during the Colonial or industrial age, and plenty of places where tragedies have fostered apparitions seeking justice (or who cannot gain closure). We’ll visit a few of these places and discuss how these locations became haunted and the scary things that take place there, and who—or what—still walks those grounds today (and we’re not talking about the current tenants).

The Bronx is Beautiful But What Does That Mean To You?

We love The Bronx, the much maligned borough of New York City.

I dare even say that Bronx pride surpasses that of other boroughs.

We have so much to be proud of throughout our history giving birth to so many movers and shakers, artists, music genres, and that’s not even touching upon our beautiful, natural resources.

Bronx History: The Lorillard Spencer Estate and The Birth Of Allerton

A French Huguenot family, the Lorillards, settled in the area which is now known as Allerton as well as parts of the New York Botanical Garden back in the late 1700s. The family became extremely successful in the tobacco industry and their company would eventually give rise to Lorillard Inc, which makes Newport, Kent, and other cigarettes.

By 1840 they had built what is now known as The Snuff Mill at NYBG which according to the New York Times, “…tobacco was ground into smokeless, powdery form called snuff, which could be flavored and inhaled.”

The Bronx’s Very Own Urban Farmer, Karen Young-Washington, Is In The Running For $10K Award

“The first plant that changed my life was a tomato,” says Karen Washington, a black urban farmer in the Bronx. “It was the one fruit that I used to hate.” But after watching one that she’d grown shift in hue from green to yellow to red and taking a bite of it, she was instantly hooked. “When I tasted that tomato, when it was red and it was ripe, and I picked it off the vine, [it]…changed my world because I never tasted anything so good, so sweet. I wanted to grow everything.”

For a quarter century, all manner of trees and flowers, fruits and vegetables, have thrived across abandoned lots in the Bronx because of Washington. Deemed “the queen of urban farming,” she’s an African-American woman who’s dedicated her life to greening New York City’s poorest borough. Since 1985, Washington has assisted dozens of neighborhoods build their own community gardens, taught workshops on farming and promoted racial diversity in agriculture.”

Puerto Rican Born, Bronx Raised Rita Moreno to Receive Kennedy Center Honors

Back in July, the Kennedy Center announced that Rita Moreno, who was born in Puerto Rico and moved with her family to The Bronx when she was 6, will be one of this year’s recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors which is given to those in the performing arts that have greatly contributed to American culture.

Moreno is no stranger to awards having been the 3rd artist to receive the coveted EGOT: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards and the first Latino to do so back in 1977, the same year Helen Hayes became the 2nd artist and first female in achieving the same.

Bronx Photo League Documents The People of Jerome Avenue; Exhibition Opens October 3rd

From a 3rd generation Jewish shopkeeper, to a Salvadoran auto worker, to an African hairdresser and a Latina nail salon worker, these are the people that the Bronx Documentary Center’s Bronx Photo League have been documenting for many months now for their upcoming exhibition, ‘Jerome Avenue Workers Project’.

Last year, New York City Department of City Planning announced that they were studying the “Cromwell-Jerome” area of The Bronx—an area that doesn’t exist which spurred fears of rebranding and gentrification—for possible rezoning due to rise in population and projected increases in population over the next several decades.

We Remember You

On a day like today we should stop the xenophobia that is plaguing our communities and country and love each other. Today is a day for love, not hatred and if you sow hatred in your hearts for those different than you then let today be the day you yank those weeds and replace it with seeds of love for your fellow humans. Do it for those no longer with us.

“Made in The Bronx” Screening Series to Feature 6 Short Films by Bronxites

Tomorrow at the Bronx Documentary Center from 7pm to 9pm, join The Bronx Filmmakers for a FREE event as they present 6 short films as part of their “Made in The Bronx” screening seriesfollowed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

This is a wonderful opportunity to check out The Bronx’s filmmaking talent, an often overlooked segment of the artistic circle of our borough.

Plus you get to see films shot exclusively or mostly in our borough!

Jose “Chema” Soto, Founder of Rincon Criollo aka ‘Casa de Chema’ Passes Away

Out of the hundreds of “casitas” or little houses that dot community gardens across New York City, there is one that is known by folks all over—considered the oldest and largest one in NYC—and it is Rincon Criollo aka Casa de Chema named by locals for its founder, Jose “Chema” Soto who passed away Thursday at the age of 70.

When residents of the South Bronx were left to their own devices among rubble and ruin, Don Chema took it upon himself to clean up an abandoned lot on Brook Avenue and 158th Street 40 years ago back in 1975.