During one of their first classes of the semester, students from Critical Pedagogy, Artists, and the Public Sphere took a class took to the Loisaida Center to see the exhibition Activist Estates: a Radical History of Property in Loisaida.
“Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida is an exploration of buildings and properties in the Lower East Side that are celebrated sites of resistance. This exhibition curated and designed by the Architect Nandini Bagchee in partnership with Loisaida Center visualizes the narratives of a historic space-based activism via drawings, maps, models, photographs, manuals and posters.”
“An examination of participatory practices in New York City reveals the critical relationship between real estate, architecture and activism. In cities across the country, in the 1970’s, the devaluation of property created a vacuum of ownership. Vacant lots, storefronts, schoolhouses, factories and abandoned tenements in New York City became havens for experimental, communal practices. Amid current debates about urban justice and access to the city, Activist Estates critically re-evaluates the place of counter-institutional practices that shape the landscape of New York City.” –loisaida.org
An ongoing video series featuring activists of color, ‘Living Archive of Activism in the LES,’ produced by Dipti Desai and Priyanka Dasgupta, is included in the exhibition.
