Anti-Gentrification and Displacement Forum Full Description Approved

Brooklyn Community Forum on Anti-gentrification and Displacement 

Today’s event spotlights the efforts by coalitions and activists, highlighting people of color led initiatives fighting gentrification and displacement. Join us for an afternoon of interactive talks, followed by small group discussions with speakers and grassroots organizations providing information tables, activities, and alternative voices on the issues. The program will explore the effects of gentrification and displacement on New Yorkers, specifically communities of color, and review successful strategies community members have used to protect and preserve their neighborhoods. Featured speakers include Tom Angotti (Hunter College), Alicia Boyd (Movement to Protect the People, MTOPP), Catherine Green (Arts East New York), Imani Henry (Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network, B.A.N.), Elizabeth C. Yeampierre (UPROSE) and a variety of artists, activists, and community groups. Other activities include a ceremony by Calpulli Tlet Papalotzin, a musical performance by Monsters of Brooklyn, and special sessions on community building for teens. This program is presented in collaboration with Artists of Color Bloc, B.A.N., MTOPP, and select artists from the special exhibition Agitprop!

The full title for the event went from our (PMAD) suggestion: “Summer Forum on Anti-gentrification and Displacement” to what Brooklyn Museum said it should be called: “Brooklyn Community Forum on […].” More accurately, I would say that it should have been called “The Brooklyn Museum and Community Forum […]”, since the Brooklyn Museum did hold a lot of veto power and their small budget severely restricted the possible number of events, panels, speakers, and tabling groups.

Antonio Serna is an artist working in New York with both a collective and studio based practice. He is currently working on ‘Documents of Resistance’ and ‘Collective Timelines’ two pedagogical projects that focus on the history of artists and workers of color. Additionally he is a member of Arts & Labor’s Alternative Economies Working Group which organized “What Do We Do Now?” the first alternatives economies fair and resource guide for artists in NYC. Through these and other autonomous collectives he promotes self-organized cultural events, research, education, and artist-as-activist interventions. Antonio also maintains a productive studio practice as a place of experimentation, reflection, and as a balance to working collectively. He has recently developed artCommons, an art-sharing platform for studio artists. Originally from Texas, Antonio has participated and organized projects in New York, Texas, Las Vegas, Spain, Mexico, Berlin, and Romania. Antonio Serna holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, and a BFA from Parsons School of Art.