STORIES
The Turnout NYC video series is documenting how our collaborative model is leveraging public spaces as accessible venues for arts and culture and expanding equitable arts access in New York City, and beyond. Videos created by Communications and Storytelling Fellow Natalie Romero-Marx.
Turnout NYC: Public Space for Local Arts.
The finale in our Turnout NYC video series recaps the first season of of concerts, performances, workshops, and more across the five boroughs. The Turnout NYC stage and model offers a new vision for equitable arts access.
The seventh video in the Turnout NYC series goes to Brooklyn with the Brownsville Community Justice Center! Turnout NYC's inaugural season began here with free open mics, dance parties, food, poetry, and more, using public space as an accessible venue for arts and culture. Watch how Osborn Plaza is transformed from a dead-end street into a vibrant cultural hub that reflects the strength and resilience of the surrounding intergenerational neighborhood.
The event featured in this video was a part of the 2022 Turnout NYC series at BCJC. "WORD! Brooklyn FAM: Brownsville" was produced by Brooklyn FAM on October 15, 2022, in partnership with Urban Word NYC.
Turnout NYC Community: Brownsville Heals.
Watch how graffiti artists in the Bronx are making arts and culture more accessible while advocating for health equity in their communities.
The sixth video in the Turnout NYC series heads to The Point Community Development Center where legendary graffiti artist collective, "Girls Write Too," performed live sketches during a Hip Hop Celebration event in Hunts Point. A partnership of NOCDNY's Reimagining New York, The Bronx Wide Coalition, THE POINT, and Girls Write Too, this Turnout NYC event fused music, art, and activism.
Turnout NYC Artists: The Bronx, The Legendary.
The fifth video in the series goes to Turnout Harlem with Uptown Grand Central & National Black Theatre. Watch how programming under the 125th train tracks amplifies community love.
The Learn to Love Yourself: Silent Disco & Portrait Series featured commissioned, original soundscapes from acclaimed artists and sound designers for an outdoor dance party in tandem with a portrait photography series that invited the community to have their portraits taken by notable photographers. All portrait photographers used the set designed by acclaimed visual artist, Alixa Garcia. Learn more about the artists and view the portrait gallery.
Turnout NYC Event: Community Love under the Train Tracks.
Turnout NYC Artist: FANIKE African Dance Troupe.
This fourth video in the series profiles a featured Turnout Queens artist with Turnout NYC Community Partner Queensboro Dance Festival based in Travers Park, Jackson Heights.
FANIKE! African Dance Troupe is an African dance company that embraces and respects the dance, rhythm, historic and growing culture tied to African movement. Listen to Executive and Artistic Director Pat Ghizamboule Robinson speak on the importance of using public space to honor and preserve culture.
The third video in the series profiles Turnout Community Cultural Partner Karesia Batan, Queensboro Dance Festival Founding Executive Director. Established in 2014, The Queensboro Dance Festival was created out of a need for a more accessible, unified sense of community among Queens performers. Utilizing the Turnout NYC stage in Jackson Heights, QDF symbolizes the vibrancy and diversity of the borough. Queensboro Dance Festival artists who performed at Travers Park with Turnout NYC in Jackson Heights featured in this video include: Kingdom Dance Company, sarAika, Barbara Mahler, Gotham Dance Theater, Kinding Sindaw, Belamovado, Manhatitlan, Chieh & Yoyo, Umami Playground, Kim Clarke and Friends, and Terraza 7 Big Band
Turnout NYC Community: Queensboro Dance Festival.
Turnout NYC Artist: L'Unicorns at the Alice Austen House.
This second video in the series profiles a featured Turnout Staten Island artist at the Alice Austen House Museum, a national site of LGBTQ History. The Staten Island L'Unicorns, performing and hosting Pride Month Fiestas this June, were the first Latinx LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Staten Island, founded to help undocumented Transgender women in the community. L’Unicorns have created a safe space for all LGBTQ Latinx immigrants, where members can share information and access education, cultural opportunities, and critical resources. Creator of the group, Alejandra Moran, interviews on the importance of visibility and using public space as a vehicle for cultural preservation and social change.
This first video in the series explores how a customized kit of parts was developed to create new, traveling outdoor performance spaces. With the potential to become a powerful piece of public infrastructure, these kits are empowering artists in the neighborhoods where they are based, strengthening community members’ sense of ownership over their public spaces, and generating long-lasting placemaking impact.