La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017 

Wednesday, May 23, 6:30 - 8 PM  

with Jane Weissman, curator

City Lore, 56 East 1st Street, Manhattan 

Co-sponsored by Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (gvshp.org) and City Lore (citylore.org)

 

In 1985, Eva Cockcroft, founder of Artmakers Inc, gathered together 29 muralists-who described themselves as "activist artists"-to create 26 political murals on four buildings overlooking the then neglected La Plaza Cultural community garden (Avenue C, between East 8th & 9th Streets). Known as La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues, the murals addressed six themes: gentrification, police brutality, immigration, women's issues, and opposition to U.S. interventions in Central America and apartheid in South Africa. Today, the garden is thriving, the issues that inspired La Lucha remain of deep concern, and only two of the murals exist, the paint cracked and faded. 

 

Please join Jane Weissman-longtime Artmakers muralist, mural historian and exhibition curator-for a talk describing how the murals defined, protected and rehabilitated a community. An exploration of the past and the social, political and cultural context in which the murals were created, the talk also looks at today's Loisaida and how the neighborhood and the issues have changed over time. 

Sunday, April 30 (for the Oral History and The City conference attendees)

Exhibition curator Jane Weissman leads a gallery tour of the exhibition La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2016 followed by a visit to the La Plaza Cultural community garden in which the 26 murals were sited. The garden visit provides a close look at the mural by Zio Ziegler currently on the Avenue C building and its comparison with the wall's two previous murals: Artmakers' collective mural (1985) and the 1977  La Plaza Cultural Mural by Alfredo "Freddy" Hernandez. Affirming the influence, not often recognized, of community murals on today's street art movement, an ensuing discussion will focus on what many believe has been lost in the transition and the value of place-making versus place-keeping strategies.

Note: The Loisaida Center will remain open to the general public until 5 PM.

Also, La Plaza Cultural community garden will also be open to visitors from 1 - 5 PM

Loisaida Inc. and FAB NYC connect with artist Sam Wisneski of Thrive Collective and partners with YOU to create a unique public mural i n homage of the 26 La Lucha Continua murals created by the artists collective Artmakers Inc. circa 1985.  Now it's your chance to lend your voice and stir that legacy!