Educated Little Monsters (ELM) is a local grassroots youth program and movement dedicated to providing artistic outlets and economic opportunity to native-Brooklyn youth of color while empowering them to become socially responsible leaders who are aware of the changes affecting them in their communities. It is a visual and performing arts program that serves as a home away from home for its youth whose neighborhoods are rapidly changing because of gentrification, which is not only displacing families, but also after-school opportunities.
ELM's home and headquarters for the past 5 years, The Silent Barn, will officially close its doors on April 30th. It has launched a $50,000 fundraiser to take over the entire first floor of the building that was rented by Silent Barn. To date, $15,000 has been pledged or raised. ELM will also work in partnership with Arts in Bushwick, Color Scenes, Bushwick Street Art, and The Lab Recording Studio so the space can continue to serve as an all-ages venue.
Over the past five years, ELM has built powerful allyship with the DIY venue, Silent Barn, slowly taking up more space-from the beginning when it hosted after-school classes for just two hours a week in the main space, to just last month, when it officially converted the entire back garage into Monster House. This clubhouse includes a recording studio called The Lab, as well as spaces for instrument lessons, photo shoots, cyphers, and more.
It was never comfortable or easy to build inside the largely white, transplant-run DIY space that is Silent Barn, but against all odds, it became a headquarters for its whole team of mentors, artists, and youth to build and grow together. With the support of its community partners Arts in Bushwick, Color Scenes, Bushwick Vendors Market, and Bushwick Street Art - who share leadership with ELM and have always provided support to help stabilize the program - ELM broke down barriers in Silent Barn and was finally beginning to feel like it could be home.
When ELM first learned that Silent Barn was shutting down in just over a month, closing its doors on April 30th, its leadership and youth were beyond devastated. The disappointment was compounded by the fact that it has always had to operate under the looming threat of losing space to gentrification. But, it quickly turned a massive challenge into an unprecedented opportunity. ELM may not be rich in wealth and privilege, but it is rich in community and ever-growing support for its program and mission. Knowing this, it has set out to claim the space for itself. Now, ELM is on track to become the new lease-holders of the former Silent Barn venue. As such, vital Bushwick real estate will be in the hands of black and brown community leaders serving and centering native-Brooklyn black and brown youth.
ELM aims to raise $50,000 by May 1st to take over the entire first floor of the former Silent Barn space for the youth program and operate an all-ages venue and event space in collaboration with its community partners Arts in Bushwick, Color Scenes, Bushwick Street Art, and The Lab Recording Studio. This amount will get ELM on track to covering expansion costs including rent & deposits, maintenance and renovations to build the space out to its needs, and commercial liability insurance. ELM's goal is to be secure enough to restart programming in the fall as scheduled while it works to get the space up and running.
ELM is dreaming wildly because it owes it to its youth, and because it will not let this program be without a space-a space that will be theirs, that it cannot be pushed out of, with a long-term lease that protects it from the skyrocketing rents of the gentrifying neighborhood. It needs to guarantee its youth security in a way that Silent Barn couldn't. It needs a real, sustainable home. And to achieve this, it needs to build a base of long term supporters who sign up to give recurring donations so ELM can avoid the debilitating cycle of emergency crowdfunding.
"This fundraiser is not ELM asking to be saved. This is us asking for a chance-a first chance-to do this the right way. This is us asking our communities and supporters, including the Silent Barn network, to take a leap with us, to help build a sustainable future." - Jazo Brooklyn, Founder and Director, Educated Little Monsters.
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