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FABnyc Call for Artist Proposals To Honor the former Chrystie Street African Burial Ground and Advance Public Understanding of the History and Presence of Black Communities in the Lower East Side

From FABnyc:

APPLICATION FORM & additional information
Deadline for submission:  Saturday, January 21, 2023 (midnight)

OPEN CALL
NYC’s Lower East Side has always been shaped by the history and presence of Black communities.  Yet for most New Yorkers, these histories are hidden or unacknowledged.

The creation of the Chrystie Street African Burial Ground by the African Society after the Chambers Street burial ground was closed, the early legacies of ‘half freedom’ and Black land ownership, the African Free Schools of the 18th century, the mixed-race dance halls on the Bowery, and the impact of the Draft Riots are central narratives for building a true understanding of the Lower East Side and New York City.  These stories require new and creative methods for being shared with the general public.

As part of this effort, FABnyc is issuing an open call to artists to create an art installation at M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden to memorialize the Chrystie Street African Burial Ground.

PROPOSALS
The proposed project should honor the former Chrystie Street African Burial Ground and advance public understanding of the history and presence of Black communities in the Lower East Side.
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Here is more information from the historian and archivist Emilyn Brown without whom none of this history would be well known.
“Archivist Emilyn Brown works in an annex of the Library to process the personal and professional papers and mementos of Dorothy I. Height, a major architect of the 1963 March on Washington, close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., and world-renowned civil rights and women’s rights activist.”

 

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