Collective exhibition featuring the work of:

Jose Inoa

Elvin Perez

Julio Tejada

Juan Carlos Garcia

Julio Fernandez

Rosanna Mendez

Celso Trufel

Opening Reception
Friday, February 3, 2012
6-8:30 PM

Council Member Robert Jackson was joined by Assembly members Denny Farrell and Guillermo Linares as well as community leaders at a press conference on Friday October 28th, to celebrate and acknowledge Broadway Housing Communities (BHC)’s exemplary work in bringing affordable housing to the CB 9 and CB 12 community. In Fiscal Year’s 2011 and 2012, CM Jackson allocated $1 million each year to BHC’s Sugar Hill Project.

The new housing development will include 124 apartments with 70% of those to be set aside for those who are on the low income level of 50% of the “Area Medium Income” or below, which in NYC is less than$38,400 for a family of four. The remaining 30% of will be for extremely low income earners who earn only 30% of the AMI or below. A portion of the tenancy at the Sugar Hill Project will target families with individuals with special needs or transitioning out of homeless shelters. There will be support staff available to aid these individuals through many different hurdles in life from education to ensuring they stay out of the shelter system, to providing social and legal services.

Assemblyman Farrell applauded BHC for bringing much needed affordable housing to the community citing that current residents will have the opportunity to stay in their neighborhood and not feel pushed out by the gentrification trend. Assemblyman Linares referred to the organization as a visionary, with an Executive Director like Ellen Baxter who fought and championed much needed services for the working poor. He also thanked Councilman Jackson for stepping up and funding the project which helped spark additional support for the project.

Council Member Jackson concluded the press conference by commenting, “these programs will help to shape future generations in a positive way that will ultimately enrich the neighborhood and improve the overall quality of life for all those who live here”.

After years of planning and collaboration among artists, activists, and architects, a green educational and cultural arts mixed-use development will open next year on the boundary of Harlem’s historic Sugar Hill. The Sugar Hill Project, as it is called, is also unique in that it combines an early childhood education center and children’s museum in the 124-unit residential building that will house formerly homeless and low-income families.

At last week’s Askwith Forum, “Art, Architecture, and Activism: The Sugar Hill Project,” key players in the development – Ellen Baxter of Broadway Housing Communities; artist, writer, and educator Faith Ringgold; and architect David Adjaye – spoke about integral components in designing this community. Lecturer Steve Seidel, who advised on the project, introduced and commended the speakers in what he called a development that is a “blending of brilliance” and has the potential to “change the way” America thinks about housing for the homeless and low-income.

“I’ve learned it is possible to create the alternative,” said Baxter, activist and executive director of Broadway Housing Communities.

Mickey is no stranger to helping others, and because of her generous spirit, our youngsters are the recipients of her beautiful hand-made quilts.  Nap time in our early childhood center is now all the more comforting and more colorful!!!!

Heartfelt thanks to Mickey and her husband Gerry who delivered these precious gifts and brought smiles to the faces of our little ones.

As part of its ongoing Askwith Forums series, the Harvard Graduate School of Education presents

Art, Architecture and Activism:
The Sugar Hill Project
Friday, October 21st from 4-5:30pm
Askwith Hall, Harvard University

Advisor and Friend of Sugar Hill Steven Seidel will deliver the introduction, followed by remarks from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Ellen Baxter, Broadway Housing’s Executive Director will be joined by David Adjaye, the Sugar Hill Project’s Design Architect, and longtime friend of BHC Faith Ringgold to discuss the vision, design and realization of the Sugar Hill Project

More information can be found on the Harvard Graduate School of Education Askwith Forums website…

New York Daily News | October 14, 2011

…”I love this place. It’s a lifesaver,” said the restaurant worker and father of three, including 4-year-old Artyairish. “This place” is the Dorothy Day Apartments on Riverside Drive and W. 135th St., supportive housing for the poor done right.

The pioneering 70-unit building serves formerly homeless families and children and those in deep, generational poverty.

With its modern design, Head Start nursery school for little kids, mentors for big kids and social and cultural services for adults, the beautiful turn-of-the-century building is a remarkable lifeline for the 192 people who proudly call it home.

“People can’t believe I live here. They think it’s for rich people,” said tenant Zoila Rosario, who also works as the cook for the 51 pre-schoolers, and whose own son is the first child in the building to go to college…

Continue reading at the New York Daily News…

The New York Times | September 23, 2011

…Madison is 4 years old. She is happy and thriving. This is her second year of Head Start in the basement of a building that houses the poor and homeless in one of Manhattan’s poorest neighborhoods.

I met Madison and 50 other little rays of hope at the Dorothy Day Apartments on Riverside Drive in West Harlem. The building is the sixth in the neighborhood run by Broadway Housing Communities, and the first to include a day care center serving both the building and the community. This former drug den is not only beautiful, but it also pulses with pride and hope and happiness.

It’s just what I needed to see. Writing about children and the poor and the vulnerable these days, there aren’t very many bright spots — but this is one.

Continue reading at The New York Times…

Over 20 Bowdoin volunteers joined Broadway Housing staff and families to paint two huge mural panels commemorating the legends of Sugar Hill.  Conceived by Betty Capellan and Ofelia Rodriguez, the first panels of the mural, “Musical Legends of Sugar Hill”, was painted by the Bowdoin volunteers together with families from Broadway Housing Communities and local artists.

The second panel, “Poets and Writers and Statesmen”, will go into production in December with a Rio Gallery exhibition projected for early January 2012. Production of the third panel, which will focus on visual artists including Romeare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, will begin in March. The fourth panel, highlighting “Sugar Hill Neighbors” of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican descent who have populated the community of Washington Heights since the  1930’s, will be initiated in May.

We plan to exhibit all the panels of the completed mural together in the summer of 2012.

Where are they now?

We recently caught up with some of the original participants of the program…

Carlos (19) is a junior at Manhattanville College, Westchester County, NY mayoring in English.   This summer he assisted the InterRelations Collaborative in introducing freshmen entering the CUNY system on multiculturalism.   His dream is to become a newspaper editor.

Emmanuel (23) moved to Miami, Florida in 2008 where she works and attends college on a part-time basis.

Vielka (22) is a mother and a student at Bronx, Community College.

Gisela (24) is a mother and a part-time staff member of Broadway Housing Communities

Amber (21) recently is attending Lehman College in the Bronx.

Andrea (21) is a junior at Soka University in California majoring in Human Rights. She just returned from Japan where she spent the spring semester in a Study Abroad Program.  She touched down in Japan the same day the earthquake hit followed by the tsunami and she immediately signed up as a volunteer in the relief effort.

Leah (20) is a junior at the Art Institute of Philadelphia mayoring in illustration.  This summer she assisted the InterRelations Collaborative in the training of freshmen entering the CUNY system on Multiculturalism.

Photography exhibit by Jay Dorfman

Opening Reception Saturday, August 6, 2011

6-9PM