It's Our Park Day: A Local Festival To Bring Back The Stanton Park Building

"It's Our Park Day" in Sara D. Roosevelt Park at Stanton Street brings together residents and community organizations for an afternoon of creative activities and presentations and an evening hour of interactive projections by The Illuminator.

The festivities are intended to draw attention, once again, to the need to re-open the Stanton park building, currently boarded up and used for storage, to community use. The park is seeing an escalation of troubling uses including drug use and trafficking, the children's playground is avoided by local families, and the closed building sits at the center of this activity. Re-opening the building for programming could have a significant and immediate impact in making the park safe; it can anchor NYC's efforts to bring climate resiliency to parks and re-establish a welcoming park for all.

Special speakers include Councilmember Margaret Chin, Community Board 3 Chair Alysha Lewis-Coleman, and local tenant leaders. There will be creative arts activities good for all ages, dance classes and performances, a bike repair workshop, and information from multiple community groups. Partners organizing the event include the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition, Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc), University Settlement, and Green Map System. Additional participating organizations include Narcan, Stanton Street Block Association, Stanton Street CSA, M'Finda Kalunga Community Garden, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, Loisaida Inc.

Afternoon session - 2pm-5pm
The afternoon will include speeches from organizers and local representatives along with live music, dancing lessons, art-making activities, free bike repair services, and opportunities to get involved in the campaign.

Evening session - 8:30pm-9:30pm
The evening will feature projections by the Illuminator of artwork made during the afternoon sessions along with historical images from the site and neighborhood visions for its futures.

FABnyc's mission is to strengthen the cultural vitality of the Lower East Side. We implement this mission through a range of programs and collaborations with local cultural organizations, independent artists, community-based organizations and neighborhood nonprofits. We work as cultural producers, facilitators, and organizers with an ongoing interest in how arts and culture can advance community health, inclusiveness, and equity.

Ryan Gilliam - Executive Director
Kim Golding - Dance Block Associate
Emilio Martinez Poppe - Programs Manager
KT Pe Benito - Dance Block Manager
Dakota Scott - Director of Special Projects
Addison Vawters - Operations Manager

Board: Winston Estevez, Jasmina Sinanovic, and Lee Ann Gullie FABnyc programs are supported in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, New York City Small Business Services, City Councilmembers Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin, Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Harkness Foundation, Con Edison, Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development, La Vida Feliz Foundation, the Beacon Group, and CNY Arts.