Landlord kicks Rebel Diaz out of Austin Place loft
Although the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective was kicked out of the South Bronx loft where it had offered arts and media workshops to city youth, that didn’t stop its members from going ahead with a popular hip-hop showcase on March 1.
The collective hosted an outdoor version of Boogie Mics, its signature open-mic event, just one day after NYPD officers and city marshals evicted the artists from their warehouse-turned-arts space at 478 Austin Place. They set up an outdoor stage, equipped with lighting and a DJ set, where several local acts performed, including Circa ‘95, Luss, Flaco Navaja and YC the Cynic.
“RDAC is not necessarily the four walls and the electricity that we get upstairs,” said Gonzalo “G1” Venegas, who along with his brother Rodrigo “Rodstarz” Venegas, formed the collective in 2009.
Still reeling from the eviction, the collective and its supporters nevertheless rallied against commercial developers who own property in the Bronx. The group’s supporters said developers are taking part in systematic efforts to displace community organizations that try to better the community.
“Gentrification is global and gentrification is what’s happening here,” said Mark Naison, a professor of African and African-America Studies at Fordham University. “Our elected officials should be giving these folks an award as well as a space, not evicting them.”
From an inaugural hip-hop festival to a media apprenticeship program, the collective offers cultural events and workshops they say schools can no longer afford to provide for local teens.
“I started out as a student along with others, attending art-related workshops, just to gain experience,” Kay Kay, a college student and spoken-word artist, told the crowd. “But then I realized how connected and safe I felt with the members of Rebel Diaz.”
The group had problems with its landlord Marc Pogostin of New Rochelle firm Austin Property Corp., long before its eviction, the Venegas brothers said. In November, the rent was increased from $1,400 to $2,400 per month, Gonzalo Venegas said. The Venegas’ said the 71 percent increase was unreasonable.
In addition, the landlord said they were responsible for graffiti that had been spray-painted on the building and nearby spaces, Gonzalo Venegas added, and said Pogostin demanded they pay $2,000 for fines that had been levied. The graffiti accusations were unfounded, said Rebel Diaz coordinator Anusha Mehar.
“We were only interested in painting murals,” said Mehar. “He’s never tried to understand the work that we were conducting.”
But when the collective sent in their rent payment in January, arguing their checks be applied only to the rent, Pogostin refused to accept it, insisting the fines be paid, Gonzalo Venegas said. After months in which the Venegas brothers did not pay rent following the disagreement, the eviction notice arrived.
Pogostin did not respond to calls left with his firm for comment.
The loft space housed an art gallery, performance area, and a recording and production studio. Members have removed all of their belongings from the building.
The eviction came weeks after the group announced that it was launching a radical community library dedicated to Puerto Rican human rights activist Richie Perez, of the activist group, the Young Lords Party.
“It’s part of a larger process of displacing that’s occurring in this area—not just displacement but a concerted effort to defund and disinvest in our community,” said Gonzalo Venegas.
Community organizer Lisa Ortega said local community organizations have clashed with developers before.
“We’re all in the same boat,” she said. “Anything that helps us to maintain culture and identity is immediately being squashed.”
Ortega was part of a local group that included many local high school students, that tried to establish a community garden on a derelict, city-owned lot a few blocks from the Rebel Diaz studio in 2011. The city tore up their plants and evicted them from the lot, arguing the plot was being held for a housing development. Members of the group were later arrested for protesting their eviction. An investigative report by the Herald found that the city had allowed a well-connected developer to hold onto the parcel without paying taxes on it for 15 years before construction began.
“They’re really slick when they package gentrification to our community,” Ortega said. “They say things like affordable living. They put a bow on the package and send it to our community, but we know that’s not what it is.”
Members of the collective said they will continue to hold meetings and organize in the community while they look for a new space.
“We have a lot of power with our voice,” said Nelson Seda, a frequent participant in Rebel Diaz events and initiatives. “The collective was shut down, but the collective will not shut up about it.”
Supporters are uploading videos on the group’s Facebook page about what the collective means to them in a campaign titled, “I Am RDAC.”
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Ok, so I feel bad for those folks but would it really be so bad if the Bronx were gentrified? I’d have lot’s of trendy restaurants to choose from, local pubs and coffee houses . . . Um when if this “Gentrification” thing supposed to happen 🙂