“Presente! The Young Lords in New York” Exhibition
Through October 15, 2015
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse • Bronx
July 22, 2015 — October 17, 2015
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Ffifth Avenue, Manhattan
(212) 831-7272
July 30, 2015 — October 10, 2015
Loisaida Inc.
710 E.9th Street
Lower East Side, NY
Organized by guest curators Johanna Fernández and Yasmín Ramírez, ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York is the first museum survey to examine the radical social group founded by Puerto Rican youth in New York and Chicago in the 1960s. The Young Lords’ impactful political activities, community-focused initiatives, and spirited affirmation of Puerto Rican identity inspired both a generation of artists active during this era and artists working today.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is organizing a multi-venue artistic and cultural survey of The Young Lords Organization—a radical social activist group founded by Puerto Rican youth in the 1960s that demanded reform in health care, education, housing, employment, and policing. Exhibitions of art and archival materials will explore how the Young Lords’ activities, community-focused initiatives, and their affirmation of Puerto Rican identity inspired artists from the 1960s to the present day, and had a major impact on the City and the social history of the United States.
The initiative will include public and educational programs across partnering venues to build awareness of the Young Lords’ innovative contributions to the struggle for civil rights and influence on contemporary artists, and to spark conversations about grassroots community activism today. The institutions partnering in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York are all located in neighborhoods where the Young Lords were most active, and each exhibition reflects on the Young Lords’ activities in that part of the City.
“The Young Lords had a defining influence on social activism, art, and identity politics, but the lasting significance of their achievements has rarely been examined,” said The Bronx Museum’s Executive Director Holly Block. “In ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, The Bronx Museum is partnering with El Museo del Barrio and Loisaida Inc. to explore the Young Lord’s cultural impact in New York and the country at large. The issues the Young Lords struggled with are still timely, and their aesthetic and cultural vision still inspires both artists and community leaders today.”
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