Trolley Links Downtown Bronx Art Scene By JORDAN MOSS
Well, maybe not yet, but Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr. and Culture Trolley organizers envision exactly that -- a Bronx downtown that attracts borough residents, other New Yorkers and tourists. To begin to knit together such a scene, on Dec.4 the borough president cut the ribbon on the Trolley and First Wednesdays, a program that will shuttle all comers to and from several south Bronx cultural attractions free of charge. At the kickoff of First Wednesdays in the art gallery of Hostos Community College, Carrion painted a picture of a not-so-distant future of a south Bronx version of SoHo and Williamsburg (without the gentrification, but more on that later) centered around the Port Morris area.
But because of low ridership, the route was recently revised to only include the Zoo, the Garden, Belmont and the White Plains Road subway station. But because the trolley was idle on weekdays, the Bronx Council on the Arts came up with the idea of using it one evening a month to promote the borough's vibrant, but little-noticed south Bronx art scene. In collaboration with the Bronx Tourism Council and with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, the Culture Trolley will continue its run on Feb.5 (see sidebar) and the first Wednesday of each following month through May. At the launch, a trolley full of Bronx arts and media insiders, a group
of teenagers At Pregones, actors, including Norwood resident Jorge Merced, performed a series of scenes from a play the troupe is working on for next year based on the life and writings of Puerto Rican author and activist Jesus Colon. The actors performed in Pregones' new headquarters -- a house on Walton Avenue. Pregones plans to soon renovate a one-story building it owns next door to be its main theatre space. At G-bar, poets from the Bronx Writers Center, a BCA project, read their work. Carrion believes "there is a lot of young talent that needs [a vehicle for] expression. This could be the platform for them." That night at G-bar was an example of that. Three young poets -- including Luis Pacheco and Liz Werner -- their verses drenched with confident attitude, took on issues of race, sex, war and peace and a lot more. Though this was really the first major publicity the downtown Bronx arts scene has received -- The New York Times kicked in a couple of pro bono ads -- a vibrant community of artists and cultural activities has been slowly but steadily bubbling to the surface for a while now. In addition to better-known destinations like Pregones and Hostos, there are also new artsy business ventures like The Blue Ox, a bar on 139th Street and Third Avenue, which will be highlighted on the Feb. 5 tour. The climate seems to be right for new venues. BCA executive director Bill Aguado says there are several residential buildings with a significant concentration of artists. "More artists are moving in every day," he said. But while Aguado, Carrion and other Bronx art mavens salivate at the notion of the Bronx as a major New York City arts destination, they say they are determined not to repeat mistakes that gentrified SoHo and TriBeCa in Manhattan. In those neighborhoods, "there was not a strong enough effort to take care of longtime neighborhood residents and integrating them into the new neighborhoods," Carrion said in a phone interview. "The one thing that I will certainly not allow in Port Morris is for the working families and people of modest means, who have in effect held the neighborhood together, for them to simply be pushed out." Carrion, a former city planner, said that Port Morris needs to be rezoned from an area dominated by manufacturing to one that will allow "mixed use," which will integrate commercial and industrial uses with housing for various income levels. Carrion sees affordable loft-style living/working spaces for artists and an infusion of new community facilities like schools to support the increase in residential use. Aguado said that artists new to the Bronx need to be integrated into the civic fabric of the neighborhood and the borough. "We want to create a real community, not one for the neighborhood and [another] one for the artists," he said. "We have to have a constant presence, [so] that [the artists] are part of the Bronx, that they are not just an island within the Bronx." Meanwhile, hopes are high for the Culture Trolley. There are no concrete plans -- or funding -- for the program beyond May, but Aguado is betting on success. "My gut feeling is that we will continue it," he said. All Aboard Culture Trolley on Feb. 5 For more information on the Bronx Cultural Trolley, call Susan Scanell at the Bronx Council on the Arts at 931-9500, ext. 33
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"What
do you call this neighborhood?" asked a couple of women who
participated in the inaugural spin of the Bronx Culture Trolley. Stumped,
this reporter from the northern reaches of the borough responded,
"Downtown?"
The
trolley itself (basically a bus that is a replica of the trolleys used
earlier in the 20th century) was the brainchild of former Councilwoman
June Eisland. Initially, it traveled between Wave Hill in Riverdale, the
Bronx Zoo, and The New York Botanical Garden.
from a high school program and a handful of non-Bronxites were shuttled
from the gallery at Hostos, to an exhibit at the Bronx Museum of the Arts,
to an open rehearsal at Pregones Theater and then to G-bar, a hip, lively
new nightspot that features live jazz three nights a week, occasional open
mike poetry sessions, and excellent Italian food.