My first foray into East Harlem (Part 1) – 13.10.2018

As the subway doors of the 6 train closed at the 96th street station, the final station on the edge of the Upper East Side where the likes of Ivanka Trump reside in, I quickly noted the remaining strap-hangers were either of Latin American or African American descent.

Even so, no one seemed to pay me much attention and it was only a few minutes before I got off at 103rd street station.Not wanting to linger and find my bearings while underground, I hastily picked an exit and soon had my first taste of East Harlem.

I was headed to a hidden museum in East Harlem, informally known as the Museum of Trash, located in a Department of Sanitation garage on 99th street. This was part of the Open House New York (OHNY) weekend sites, and I was really lucky to secure a reservation, which sold out in mere seconds.

After checking my Google Maps, I quickly made my way over, walking by the George Washington Housing Projects on the way. The morning sun shone brightly, illuminating the dark brick red walls of the nearby dreary-looking project buildings.

Along the way, everyone else seemed to know one another as they were exchanging morning greetings, something of a rarer sight in other parts of Manhattan. Along the way, I stopped to marvel at some murals. After some digging, I managed to find the artist who created these murals and the underlying meanings.

“The second conquest” (east Harlem, NYC) is a piece that reflects reality, future and progress. The three characters describe the American reality, their new skin, new protagonists. Based on photos taken by @marthacoopergram in the 90s of immigrants in East Harlem, the past meets the present on the construction of the neighborhood.

The red flag is the symbolic representation of the fight of Puerto Rican Young Lords during the 60s to improve the living conditions of Puerto Ricans in East Harlem. They also demanded the evacuation of the island of Vieques occupied by the US Army, but above all, demanded the independence of Puerto Rico.

Source: Buenos Aires-artist EVER aka Nicolas Romero
https://eversiempre.com/the-second-conquest-east-harlem-nyc-2015/

The Young Lords New York were a revolutionary group of Puerto Rican activists inspired by the Black Panthers, who organized for social justice in El Barrio in the late 1960s to the early 1970s. They organized around issues of political liberation and core community concerns such as health, food, education and housing. The image above is entitled March to Free the Panther 21 taken by Hiram Maristany in 1969. It has been installed on the side of PS 109 (215 East 99th Street), an abandoned school transformed into an affordable housing complex of live/work space for local artists.

Source: https://latinx.wordpress.com/category/photography/

As I neared the destination, the exterior was a dilapidated garage with no exterior signs indicating where to enter.

Luckily, an OHNY representative soon stepped out and told me to head upstairs. I walked in to find the first floor full of Department of Sanitation New York vehicles, with a dimly lit stairwell leading upwards. There were already some signs of what was to come, but I was unprepared for the extent of trinkets that were being stored upstairs.

To be continued with more photos in the next part!