Artistas #2 – March 2013

This is the official newsletter of the Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts-PRIDA

March 2013

There are many levels of membership in PRIDA for every budget.
FREE | AMIGO/A | ARTIST | ORGANIZATION

Saturday, March 16 11am – 5pm

PRIDA CALLS ON ALL PUERTO RICAN ARTISTS TO SET UP ON THE SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO!
(5th Ave. between 104 & 105th Sts. in Manhattan)
If you sell art, music or books you don’t need a vendor’s license.

In this issue:

• Why PRIDA for Puerto Ricans
• Proposal for a Theater District in Manhattan’s El Barrio
• Approaching Funding Opportunities
• Upcoming Events

Why PRIDA for Puerto Ricans?

The Latino/Hispanic agenda is on everyone’s mind these days. I understand and I am proud to be part of this pan-Latino thing but let’s not forget that there is also a Puerto Rican agenda. We are still fighting to overcome a high unemployment rate, high High School dropout rate, high incidences of common ailments like asthma and diabetes, and fighting against all odds to maintain our national identity, etc.

PRIDA’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect Puerto Rican arts and culture. This is the task we Puerto Ricans in the arts are faced with and we want to make sure that our culture and traditions don’t get absorbed by the larger society. We want to make sure that we can still produce great cuatristas and festival mask makers and santos de palo carvers and great painters, poets, writers, etc. Puerto Ricans as Latin Americans have always been there for everyone else and we will always be there because we are brothers and sisters. However, it is we who have to develop the programs to preserve our culture and our traditions. It is we Puerto Ricans who have to make sure that the up and coming Puerto Rican artists get the support they need to develop professionally, it is we Puerto Ricans who have to make sure that we produce more poets like Julia de Burgos and Pedro Pietri; actors like Rita Moreno, Raul Julia and Benicio del Toro; singers like Jose Cheo (el cieguito de Lares) Feliciano, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez; painters like Jose Campeche and Rafael Tufiño, etc.

Preserving our culture is up to us. In the same way that Mexicans, Colombians, Dominicans, etc., have their organizations to preserve, protect and promote what is theirs, we have ours. This does not mean of course to the exclusion of the others. But it does mean that in this pan-Latino world we are going to be well represented.

We Puerto Ricans have a culture and history that is just as beautiful and valuable as every other Latin American, European, Asian, and African culture. PRIDA was created to unite the Puerto Rican artists and supporters that will preserve and protect our culture while also supporting each other.

We welcome your comments and ideas and you can send them to: prida@cemiunderground.com

What about Us?

Proposal for a Theater District in East Harlem

As you may well know, hard times are upon us, but truth be told hard times have never left El Barrio. Good jobs have always been few and far between in East Harlem. Businesses have always lived on the edge of disaster, and families have always struggled to survive here in Spanish Harlem. The fact of the matter is that the last recession never left El Barrio, and now we are mired in a near depression.

As a lifelong resident, and home owner in El Barrio, I can tell you that nobody is coming to Spanish Harlem to build wind mills, or fuel efficient cars. The Neighborhood can’t even support a Car Dealership! So, what’s left for us to do that will give our local economy an economic jolt, and create jobs? I respectfully submit that now is the time to create an Uptown Theatre District in Spanish Harlem!

In December of 2004, Richard Schwartz, in an article entitled “Cities economy is getting Artsy!” said, that the “Key to the Cities future is ICE, which stands for all things Intellectual, Cultural, and Educational.” In the City’s economy of 2004, ICE had grown by 30% to 485,000 jobs; while FIRE, which stands for Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, had shrunk by 506,000 jobs, and that was before the current fiscal crisis hit! In addition, New York City is the largest Theatre Town in the world! So what better business is there in New York City to get into than Show Business? Which, by the way, is inherently Intellectual, Cultural, and Educational!

And, El Barrio is the ideal place to start an Uptown Theatre District. There are 4 underutilized Off-Off Broadway Theatres in El Barrio that are basically “White Elephants” today. Two of them are owned by the City. They look good, but they serve no purpose. These valuable community assets are dark most of the time, offer no regular programming, and generate no income for their owners, the cities economy, or the local artists who would gladly inhabit them.

Almost every Latino Artist I talk to is looking for some place, some organization, some empty space where they can display their Art, and maybe make a little money. Nobody I know is looking to be a Millionaire (although it would be nice) they are just looking to make a living by selling their creations. New Latino Bands need a venue to play their Music. The Julia de Burgos Center houses a Dance Hall, and a 180 seat Theatre, but the Cultural Center has been closed for the last two years, Salsa Dancing at the Julia is but a dim memory, and there is no longer a place in El Barrio for folks enjoy their own music.

The Latino Film Festival needs a place to hold their annual Festival while there is a 600 seat City owned Theatre in El Barrio, alongside El Museo del Barrio, that is effectively closed. Latino Poets are always looking for places to perform their Poetry, and there is a 99 seat Theatre on 108th Street in El Barrio called the Poets Den, that rarely if ever puts on Poetry shows! I am a professional Theatre Artist from El Barrio who has to perform in my Back Yard, while the 300 seat Red Carpet Theatre in Taino Towers remains dark and lifeless.

There is an Outdoor Theatre in Marcus Garvey Park that was built to house concerts in the Park during the summer, and it almost never holds a Concert in the summer. There is an Outdoor Theatre in Franklin Plaza that was designed for Puppet Shows, that has never put on a Show of any kind. There is an Amphitheatre in 1199 Plaza that could house an Arts & Crafts Fair, and they never hold an event of any kind. There is a beautiful Art Park behind the Harlem Court House on 119th Street that never displays Art created by Community Artists. Am I the only one who thinks that we should do something about that??

To get these assets up and running we clearly have to change the way we do business now. Simply put, if our theatres weren’t being rented during the good times, it is pure wishful thinking to believe that they will be rented during hard times. The theatres of El Barrio are in fact stuck on the horns of a dilemma. The people who can afford to rent our theatres, don’t want to work in them, and the people who would love to work in them, can’t afford to rent them! Something clearly has to change if these community assets are ever going to be an economic engine for the local economy.

What needs to be done is for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) to create a Public/Private not for profit entity, whose sole mission is to create a Cultural Tourism destination of national importance in Spanish Harlem. Our 4 Theatres have a seating capacity of about 1,500. Operating at a sustainable rate of 50% of capacity, 5 days a week, they can attract around 134,000 visitors a year, generate over $3 million in ticket sales, and employ almost 200 artists, and technicians. The economic ripple effect from an operating Uptown Theatre District generally estimated at $4 for every $1 spent in the Theatre, will pump over $13 million into the local economy!

Lost somewhere in the labyrinth of bureaucratic “Red Tape” at UMEZ, is a plan called ELBA, (The EL BArrio Theatre Development Fund) which will Rent, Refurbish, and Reprogram the Theatres in East Harlem. It’s the most “Shovel Ready” project available right now to jolt our local economy. ELBA can be up and running in 3 Months, and operate on her own within 5 years.

Clearly, to mitigate the economic disaster we as a community now face, we must change the basic fundamentals or our economy. We must try something we have never tried before. Something new, something unique to our community, something we can do right now that doesn’t cost a lot to start up, but generates a significant amount of long term revenue for local businesses. Doesn’t it make sense to create an Uptown Latino Theatre District in Spanish Harlem in the very heart of the Theatre Capitol of the World?

ELBA, is designed to create, maintain, and endow a uniquely Latino Theatre District in El Barrio. An Uptown Latino Theatre District that can change the basic economics of the community within 5 years! A Latino Theatre District that will be the most significant Hispanic cultural program since the creation of the Puerto Rican Day Parade! A Theatre District that can leap across the East River and bring life to the underutilized Theatres in the Bronx! A District that insures that the road to Broadway for Latinos passes through East Harlem! If somebody can come up with a better economic development plan for East Harlem I will shut up. If not, Why not create a Latino Theatre District in Spanish Harlem.

If you are a performing artist or group and you are looking for a performance space please send us a message to prida@cemiunderground.com and be part of this movement to create a Theater District in El Barrio…