Najee Omar Announced As First Artist-in-Residence For ICAC

Members from BRIC, University Settlement's arts program The Performance Project, and University Settlement's Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center joined forces in Summer 2017 to catalyze a project that aims to create a new model for community-driven arts programs in NYCHA communities.

The resulting Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) is an intergenerational team of neighbors and NYCHA residents in Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn that together actively shape the artistic and cultural life of their community. After meeting initially to clarify the goals, values, and the intended impacts of their arts programming, the ICAC planned its first major initiative: an open call for an artist who would work alongside the group on a public art initiative in the community. After carefully reviewing over 60 applications, the ICAC proudly brings on poet, performer, and educator Najee Omar as its first Artist-in-Residence. In Omar, ICAC has selected an artist with superlative leadership expertise; a deep connection with the community; and a compelling vision for collaborating with residents and community members to create an artistic expression of the council's core values: passion, liberation, family, courage, vision and truthfulness.

Over the next six months, Omar will work alongside the members of the ICAC at the Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center to create inclusive, relevant, and accessible arts programming for participants of all ages. Through workshops, performances, storytelling, and other creative actions, the group will collaboratively plan a celebration of their core values that will culminate in a Summer Block Party. The Block Party will transform an everyday street around the Community Center into an outdoor hub of activities, music, art-making, games, entertainment, organizational resource sharing, and neighborhood activism. Organizers of the Block Party will also enlist block associations, tenant associations, and community boards to nominate members of the community for lifetime community achievement awards.

Najee Omar is an ideal recipient of this residency-an artist whose personal, artistic, pedagogic, and activist trajectories are all tightly interlaced. The Fort Greene-born interdisciplinary artist's writing vividly reflects the surroundings in which he grew up, and community engaged arts practices are at the core of his work. As a curator, he has been commissioned by organizations like Brownsville Community Justice Center and HigherSelf Lifestyle to put together showcases for emerging, Brooklyn-based visual and performance artists. As a teaching artist, Omar turns classrooms into stages by conducting poetry and performance workshops for inner city and high need youth in schools and juvenile justice facilities across the country. Omar is the Founder and Director of Spark House: an arts education organization dedicated to developing youth voice and promoting social/emotional well-being.

Though he sees the potential good in neighborhood transformation and growth, Omar laments the fact that more often than not it's done from the outside in, with a disregard for the desires and wellbeing of original residents, particularly working class and poor residents of color pushed further to the margins by gentrification.

Omar said, "As the Artist-in-Residence with the Intergenerational Community Arts Council, I am dedicated to using my art, curation, and community organizing to continue to grow this community-which is near and dear to my heart-alongside the people and voices that make up and have been in this community from the very beginning. I stand on the shoulders of movers and shakers who created institutions committed to community accountability and nurturing the growth and development of people of color. And on the shoulders of all the artists, educators, and activists in Brooklyn and beyond, believing and working in their communities to make sense of this complicated, messy thing we call life, I stand-with gratitude, proud, and in service."

Emily Harney, Deputy Director of Programming Initiatives at BRIC, said, "This program has had a profound impact on us at BRIC-the work has challenged us to critically examine the role of the arts organization in our rapidly changing neighborhood, and simultaneously shown us moments of incredible strength and joy that grow from the unique collaboration of everyone in the room. It's a complete pleasure to be in partnership with such great organizations and individuals and we're thrilled to invite Najee into the group."

Alison Fleminger, Director of Arts at University Settlement, said, "I believe we are creating a new model for how a community-based organization and an arts organization can meaningfully partner, in a manner that centers the values and voices of local residents for the betterment of our shared community."

Anthony Shaw, Senior Director of Youth and Community Programs (Brooklyn) at University Settlement, said: "The process of selecting the artist and working with a diverse group of community members through an arts project has been truly powerful. We are hopeful it will serve as an example of activism, teamwork and service to others."

Steven Brunson, ICAC member, said: "As a member of the ICAC, I could not be more excited with the selection of Najee Omar. Although we had some amazing proposals, ultimately it was Najee's knowledge, experience, passion, and his close alignment with our core values that put him over the rest. I look forward to seeing how our partnership can make a sustainable impact on Fort Greene and Brooklyn as a whole."

About ICAC

The Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) is a joint program of BRIC and University Settlement. ICAC is designed to support NYCHA residents as central stakeholders and decision-makers in the artistic and cultural life of the community, and facilitate connections with neighbors, resources and local business outside the housing developments-ensuring Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn remain communities where both longtime and new residents of all income levels can live, work, create and belong. Through monthly planning workshops, the ICAC uses art-making, storytelling and discussion to identify shared values and goals, ideal structures, and criteria for success of arts programming in their community.

Support for this program is generously provided by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Council on the Arts through a Regional Economic Development Council Award. Support is also provided by Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY and New York City Cultural Agenda Fund in the New York Community Trust.

About University Settlement

University Settlement is one of New York's most dynamic social justice institutions with deep roots on the Lower East Side. Each year University Settlement's diverse programs impact 40,000 low-income and at-risk people as they build better lives for themselves and their families. With an impressive legacy as the first settlement house in the United States, University Settlement has been an incubator for progressive ideas for more than 130 years, offering pioneering programs in mental health, early childhood education, literacy, the arts, and adolescent development that set the standard. Building on the strength of this experience, University Settlement now provides services at 30+ locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. To learn more, visit www.universitysettlement.org.

The arts have been central to University Settlement's mission since our founding. As part of our core values, we encourage the use of the arts as a way to strengthen communities, give voice to underrepresented stories and perspectives, provide opportunities for pride, and build transformative relationships. In 2007, we founded The Performance Project as the embodiment of these values, and of our desire to expand access to high-quality art and artistic training to underserved communities. The Performance Project offers local artists and professional emerging artists opportunities to connect, create and publically present new work.

About BRIC

BRIC is the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. We present and incubate work by artists and media-makers who reflect the diversity that surrounds us. BRIC programs reach hundreds of thousands of people each year.

Our main venue, BRIC House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio, and artist work spaces.

Some of BRIC's most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park; groundbreaking media initiatives, including BRIC TV, BRIC Radio, and Brooklyn Free Speech; and renowned contemporary art exhibitions. BRIC also offers education and community-building programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn.

In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences.

BRIC is unusual in both presenting exceptional cultural experiences and nurturing individual expression. This dual commitment enables us to most effectively reflect New York City's innate cultural richness and diversity.

Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.

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