LOWER EAST SIDE MAP


The map of the Lower East Side highlights some of the historical activist institutions in the Lower East Side. This project identifies these landmarks within the geography of the Lower East Side and points out how buildings structure the social lives of people and generate alternate forums of civic participation. Within this network of activist space- past, present and future- the specific histories of activism in three repurposed buildings are situated. These buildings are: 1) The Peace Pentagon (1969-2016) - an office building used by anti-war and social justice advocates 2) El Bohio (1978- 2001) a large abandoned school house run as a Puerto Rican community center and 3) ABC No Rio (1980-2010)- a tenement building that was converted into a collectively run art center.


THE PEACE PENTAGON

CODE BLUE


EL BOHIO

CODE GREEN


ABC NO RIO

CODE YELLOW



This project is an expansion of the themes from the exhibit Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida (2019) authored and designed by the urban historian and architect Nandini Bagchee in partnership with curator Libertad Guerra.

AELES is an evolving resource that can grow to include supplemental layers of the case studies selected and the ongoing survival and futuring intents of these legacies.