Short fi lm explores how a mural
in Bed-Stuy fostered community
BY ROSE ADAMS
A new short fi lm sheds light
on how a Bedford-Stuyvesant
mural painted last summer
helped transform a bustling
thoroughfare into a local gathering
space — creating a longlost
sense of community.
The video interviews artists
and activists who painted
the Black Lives Matter mural
on Fulton Street amid the police
brutality protests in June.
The city then made the block
— located appropriately between
New York and Brooklyn
avenues — into a pedestrianonly
plaza, quickly turning
the thoroughfare into a space
for social and cultural events,
the fi lm’s director explained.
“There were a couple weekends
every Saturday where
they’d have big activations
and daylong programming,”
Ty West told Brooklyn Paper.
“It was a couple of those weekends
where people seemed to
come for the activities and the
community space, the open
space that it was providing.”
West, who works at a multimedia
COURIER L 26 IFE, JAN. 29-FEB. 4, 2021
agency called Mustache,
said he decided to make
the four-minute fi lm to document
the block’s revival after
watching its transformation
from his apartment window.
“In the fi rst couple of weeks
there weren’t that many
events, but then by the third
week, there were all these
events popping off,” said West.
“It really became a full idea
for me to make a video once it
started to pick up steam and I
started to see the culture surrounding
the mural.”
The video features interviews
with the painters and
advocates behind the project,
who explain that the plaza
helped locals take ownership
of their neighborhood.
“Our public spaces, the sidewalks,
our parks, have to be reclaimed,”
Brittany Micek, the
founder of a group called Meditating
DANCING IN THE STREET: A Black Lives Matter mural painted last summer turned a Bedford-Stuyvesant block
into a community gathering spot. Ty West
for Black Lives, says
in the video. “You hear these
chants like ‘Whose streets?
Our streets!’ Well, then really
make them our streets.”
Locals with the group the
Bedford-Stuyvesant Mural
Collective helped organized
a fl urry of parades, exercise
classes, and dance parties
throughout the summer,
which drew more residents
to the new community space.
Soon, neighborhood seniors
set up camp around the block
to watch the festivities and socialize,
a member of the mural
collective said.
“I remember seeing seniors
coming out with their folding
chairs and their little coolers,”
Monique Antoine told
Brooklyn Paper. “They were
so happy to be outside. One senior,
she told me she doesn’t
leave the house and she was so
excited to be outside and just
be and watch.”
The mural also helped
bring together the neighborhood’s
kids, many of whom go
to different schools and have
friends spread across the city.
Less than three percent of
Bedford-Stuyvesant is outdoor
public or recreational space,
the fi lm says. The shortage is
probably what made the block
turn into a community gathering
ground so quickly — particularly
after months of isolation
during the COVID-19
lockdown.
“This community was revitalized,”
Antoine said.
For more on the mural or to
view the short fi lm, visit BrooklynPaper.
com.
BY MARK HALLUM
A tearful acknowledgement
of the COVID-19 pandemic
took place in Manhattan’s
Bowling Green subway
station on Monday as transportation
leaders unveiled a
digital tribute to employees
who died of the virus.
Interim New York City
Transit President Sarah
Feinberg, who took up the
temporary role about a
month before the health crisis
formally arrived in New
York, said the digital tribute
was in itself an “interim”
way to honor those who died
while keeping the trains and
buses moving.
About 107 stations will
display the tribute featuring
“Travels Far” — a poem commissioned
by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
and penned by former
US Poet Laureate Tracy K.
Smith — roughly three times
per day with music, also commissioned
by the agency. All
the while, the displays will
cycle through photos of the
men and women of the MTA
lost to COVID-19.
“We wanted to do more
than just show something on
screens and give family members
a place to gather and we
also wanted some unique elements
to it and so we actually
commissioned the poem,”
Feinberg said. “This has been
something that we’ve been
working on in some form or
another for 10 months.”
The agency acted quick in
approving $500,000 in death
benefi ts to the workers’ next
of kin, and in making drastic
changes to operations such as
suspending fare collection on
buses in order to allow reardoor
boarding to help keep
drivers safe from the public
on top of providing personal
protective equipment and encouraging
social distancing.
“We quickly made sure
that those families who lost
an MTA worker to COVID
were taken care of fi nancially,
but the launch of today’s
memorial is aimed at
personalizing the legacies of
those who died during the
pandemic,” MTA Chairman
Pat Foye said. “It is a moving
tribute to the members of our
heroic workforce who lost
their lives and we will continue
to make sure those who
perished are not forgotten.”
While close to 140 MTA
employees have died from the
virus, the tribute features 111
portraits from families who
were willing the contribute.
The others, Feinberg said,
are grieving in private.
“Surrounded by a spectrum
of colors, the portraits
in black and white allow us a
glimpse into unique personalities
known to their families
and colleagues,” added
Sandra Bloodworth, director
of MTA Arts and Design.
“This memorial shows that
art can be a powerful messenger,
conveying loss and
honoring the memory of our
colleagues.”
As the pandemic continues,
however, the interim
transit head confronted the
reality that the names worthy
of remembrance will only accumulate,
but also expressed
hope in the deployment of the
COVID-19 vaccine as an end
to the crisis.
Find a station with featuring
the tribute near you at
new.mta.info/covid-memorial/
schedule
‘Our streets’
MTA honors fallen comrades with
new COVID-19 memorials in stations
BROOKLYN
Lost essentials
Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg at the Jan. 25
launch of a digital art installation dedicated to MTA workers who died of
COVID-19. Photo by Mark Hallum