Keeping Community

We are pleased to present _Keeping Community_, a series of pop-up programs, collaborations and partnerships that demonstrate our belief in liberation as a collective practice. Through community partnerships with organizations similarly situated at the intersection of creativity and justice, we will transform our gallery—originally conceived and designed to be modular and adaptive—into a multifaceted space for embodied and participatory experience. _Keeping Community_ will feature a dedicated **Reading Room** curated by Sojourners for Justice Press, a **Listening Room** curated by Freer Records and a **Youth Art Space** featuring artworks created and inspired by Crossroads Juvenile Center youth through workshops led by teaching artists and creatives. In addition to these core components, we will also host a variety of other program offerings throughout the course of the summer, including workshops, book clubs and more. The **Reading Room** will function as a space for personal enlightenment and community education. It will feature a curated selection of books in tandem with an interactive hub for archival and rare books. Alongside print media, the room will also include a selection of curated tapes that can be played by VHS and viewed through a CRT monitor display, allowing for a tactile engagement with earlier generations of media. An interactive community engagement board will provide a site where city-wide events and programs can be listed. The Reading Room will be curated by Sojourners for Justice Press, a micro press and organizer of the Black Zine Fair that opens its platform to people working experimentally with print-based media. Founded by Mariame Kaba in 2020 and co-directed by Neta Bomani, they publish short form and ephemeral zines, pamphlets and booklets that engage do-it-yourself, Black feminist and abolitionist philosophies or visions. Outfitted with iPods that will play curated playlists and a viewing area for select music videos, the **Listening Room** will engage with the history of music made by formerly incarcerated artists. Curated by Freer Records—the first record label in the United States for prison-impacted musicians, founded by Fury Young and co-directed by BL Shirelle—the Listening Room will also feature artwork by currently incarcerated artists alongside a station where visitors can write to those very artists. Freer Records will DJ both the opening and closing parties for the exhibition, on July 16 and September 25, 2026, respectively. The **Youth Art Space** will feature an exhibition of works from Crossroads Juvenile Center youth—curated in collaboration with Immanuel Oni, Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Public Artist-in-Residence (PAIR)—placed at the Administration for Children Services (ACS) Crossroads Juvenile Center, as well as Crossroads Art Club and the Brooklyn Combine. Crossroads arts programming offers classes for young people at the NYC Administration for Children's Services ages 12 to 21 held in pre-trial detention at the Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Horizon in the Bronx. Crossroads is increasingly allowing a range of arts and design programming offered by visiting teaching artists and creatives. All sessions are voluntary with sessions ranging from non-prescriptive to fixed certificate curriculum. As part of _Keeping Community_, we will partner with One Love Community Fridge to provide fresh produce for the entire block. A custom fridge stationed outside will be stocked daily and made accessible to residents of the 100% affordable housing building that the Center lives on the ground floor of, the social services and housing center next door and the local Brooklyn community at large. As a direct and tangible form of mutual aid, this partnership embodies the central ethos of _Keeping Community_ to uplift and empower through communal support.