Making Gowanus: Arts and Community Organizing

Artist Imani Gayle Gillison and participants of Theater of the Liberated contributed to “We are Your Neighbors!” summary report, submitted to the city agencies and officials. Image: Masoom Moitra

In the summer of 2017, the Making Gowanus initiative was launched in partnership with Hester Street, NOCD-NY and neighborhood partners in Gowanus, Brooklyn to gather community leaders, artists, non-profit organizations, political representatives and public housing residents to define neighborhood goals in a community that is facing a number of planning and rezoning processes, increased real estate speculation, and resiliency concerns post-Sandy. Local artist Imani Gayle Gillison, with help from neighborhood friends and organizations, planned a Gowanus All-Arts Forum summer camp and a Making Gowanus & Theater of the Liberated: Soft performance hosted at BRIC in late summer of 2017. Art sessions and performances temporary reactivated the Gowanus Houses Community Center, a cultural hub that has been closed to the community for over a decade. Residents continue to advocate toward the permanent reopening of the center. The project is summarized in this brief video.

In parallel to the summer performance project, Imani facilitated a Cultural Blueprint for Healthy Communities engagement process in the neighborhood through the winter of 2017/2018. The Cultural Blueprint is a resource developed by El Puente, Arts & Democracy, Hester Street, and NOCD-NY to ensure the planning and sustainability of culturally healthy communities in New York City and beyond. You can find out more about how the blueprint was developed and download the toolkit here.

Imani facilitated Cultural Blueprint engagements with more than 75 Gowanus neighbors, reaching out to public housing residents, artists, youth, seniors, community leaders, small business owners and cultural advocates who are historically not at decision making tables. Sessions were held with the Making Gowanus & Theater of the Liberated: Soft cast, members of the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice, and patrons of CHiPS (Park Slope Christian Help, Inc.), a local soup kitchen and shelter for homeless young women and their infants.

Imani worked with NOCD-NY, Arts & Democracy, and community organizer Masoom Moitra to synthesize responses into a “We are Your Neighbors!” summary report. The report has been shared with city agencies, local elected officials, and the NYC Department of City Planning for their PLACES: Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study and Draft Zoning Proposal.