Comments Off on Hiring: Programs Coordinator: Arts & Pedagogy
The Laundromat Project (The LP) is seeking an organized, tech savvy, creative team builder to be our Programs Coordinator: Arts & Pedagogy. This individual will provide expert logistical, administrative support to the Arts & Pedagogy programming team at the LP’s new home in Bed-Stuy. Their responsibilities will include coordinating programs, open calls for the Create Change and Create Change Institute programs. They will also assist in developing schedules, templates, facilitating training, and occasionally attending events for our Arts and Pedagogy program team for current artists and alumni of our Create Change and Create Change Institute programming.
Full-time position, with some evenings and weekends required
Salary: $65K
Office location: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn; Work time includes both regularly scheduled in-office hours and the option of virtual / remote hours
Please note: Newly hired employees are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 (i.e., have received both doses of a two-dose vaccine or a single dose of a one-dose vaccine) and must provide proof of vaccination upon request by the organization. Requests for potential accommodation shall be considered in accordance with applicable law if and at such time as a conditional offer of employment is extended to a candidate. Applicants should not provide any medical or genetic information with their application.
Comments Off on Create Change Open Call | Info Session
Learn more about the Create Change program and the selection process from LP staff and alumni artists by participating in the info session. If you missed the info session on July 21 you can watch the recording below.
Comments Off on Meet Kyla Massey, Operations Coordinator
Kyla Massey joined The LP team as our Operations Coordinator last month. Get to know more about them!
In your opinion, why does art matter?
Art has and will always matter as a form of collective and individual reflection and seeing. There is something inherently human and deeply moving about being able to witness ourselves and each other through the reflection of our emotions (known and unknown), our lived experiences (spoken and unspoken), and our hope and dreams (realized or deferred). Art (the making of and experiencing of it) offers us an invitation to explore and experience parts of our life we may feel inaccessible to us and whispers the permission we sometimes need to share whatever we are feeling with ourselves or each other. Art gives us permission to live fully.
What LP value do you most related to and why?
“We write our own histories” is the LP value I most relate to. I am often a person who experiences spaces that do not consider me and in that very real lived experience, i’ve found it deeply necessary and liberating to write my own way.
Please share your short bio below. 100 words or less is a good length for our website.
Kyla Massey (they / she) is a technologist who believes in the power of play and the outcomes of driven curiosity who happened to fall in love with storytelling and learn some code along the way. As a storyteller, she strives to weave together their experience as a writer, producer and creative technologist with their passion for dreaming and implementing sustainable community infrastructures and praxis. Having worked as a software engineer, digital security consultant and certified hardware technician in both public and private industries, she strives to bring creative problem solving and a passion for community focused solutions to everything she does.
Comments Off on Meet Amanda Boston, Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellow
Amanda Boston joined The LP team as our Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellow earlier this month. Get to know more about her!
In what neighborhood do you live?
Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
How did you first become connected to The LP, or hear about The LP?
I am thrilled to have been selected to work with The LP as part of the Social Science Research Council’s Arts Research with Communities of Color program.
So, what attracted you to The LP? How does working here relate to your professional goals?
My research uncovers how Black popular culture has been incorporated into real estate projects that marginalize Black communities. The LP represents a powerful antidote to that sort of extraction by using art to build local power. Working here is aligned with my goals of exploring and elevating Black life, history, and culture, and challenging conventional wisdom about race, power, and the world we live in.
Do you have your own creative practice? If so, tell us more!
My primary creative practice these days is writing — mostly scholarly essays and articles as well as a book I’m completing on race and gentrification in Brooklyn.
Can you tell us about an artist or project that has inspired you?
Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series is my favorite artwork of all time. In 60 panels, it captures the challenges and triumphs of African Americans’ move from the rural South to the urban North — one of the most transformative demographic events in U.S. history. As the daughter and granddaughter of Southern migrants, I find that the series poignantly captures an important chapter in the history of my family and so many others like it.
What is your favorite film?…album?…food?
My favorite film is The Wiz. My favorite album is “Ready to Die” by the Notorious B.I.G. My favorite food is my mom’s macaroni and cheese.
Where do you do your laundry?
I do my laundry in the basement of my apartment building.
In your opinion, why does art matter?
Art matters because it is an accessible medium of expression for everyone. For that reason, when we look at the artistic production of people who have been marginalized within dominant venues for expression — such as the mainstream media and formal politics — we can find rich archives of creativity, joy, self-reflection, and resistance that aren’t as readily available elsewhere.
What LP value do you most related to and why?
“Be Propelled by Love” — in a time of so much overt interpersonal and institutionalized hatred, love is critical to building a future where freedom, dignity, and justice are available to everyone.
Amanda Boston is an assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh and a visiting scholar at New York University’s Urban Democracy Lab. As a recipient of the Social Science Research Council’s Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellowship, she is conducting a year-long study with The Laundromat Project to document its history and culture. A proud Brooklynite, Boston’s research explores gentrification’s racial operations and their role in the making and unmaking of the borough’s Black communities. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Africana studies from Brown University as well as an M.A. in political science and a B.A. in political science and African & African American studies from Duke University. Boston is a trustee emerita of Brown and a member of the board of directors of the Municipal Art Society of New York. She is also on the alumni council of the New York City-based Prep for Prep program, which provides students of color with life-changing educational and leadership opportunities.
Comments Off on Meet Nyra Wise, Development Intern
Nyra joined The LP team as our Development Intern this month. Get to know more about her!
In what neighborhood do you live?
Morningside Heights
How did you first become connected to The LP, or hear about The LP?
Through the Athena Advocacy Institute at Barnard College
What is your favorite film?…album?…food?
Film: my guilty pleasure is “Why Did I Get Married?” Albums: Room 25 by noname and Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae Food: Sushi
Where do you do your laundry?
In the basement of my building
In your opinion, why does art matter?
Art ultimately provides the space for self and communal expression and can both be a creative space of healing, play or one of disruption. Art matters because it allows us to highlight and discuss archaic and novel topics in thought-provoking ways that go beyond essays or theories. Art opens up an entirely new world that is told through the perspective of the artist and can not only offer the different aspects of dealing with old or new topics, but it also paves the way for unique solutions.
What LP value do you most related to and why?
The LP value I most related to is “We Write Our Own Histories” because marginalized folks telling our own stories is a powerful tool to challenge oppressive, dangerous stereotypes and histories popularized in mainstream society. Telling our own histories connects us to them and to powerful figures that paved the way for us to be where we are now. Knowing and sharing our history is an empowering, change-making practice that underlines the joy, struggle and agency that is characteristic of our community.
Nyra Wise is from South Florida and is an incoming senior at Barnard College who’s working towards a B.A. in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The work that she does focuses on the community around her at Barnard–Nyra is a Writing Fellow in her campus’s Writing Center and currently co-runs a podcast that caters towards young Black women navigating and reclaiming their pleasure. In her free time, Nyra can be found trying out new restaurants or daydreaming on Pinterest.
Comments Off on Meet Munira Khapra-Reininger, Director of Development & External Affairs
Munira joined The LP team as our Director of Development & External Affairs this month. Get to know more about her!
In what neighborhood do you live?
Lower Manhattan
How did you first become connected to The LP, or hear about The LP?
I was introduced to The LP during my time at A Blade of Grass when I attended the 2013 Creative Time Summit with my colleagues. There, I had the privilege of experiencing Risë Wilson moderating a conversation on placemaking and gentrification in Brooklyn. To this day, I am deeply moved by the impact of her words when she challenged the audience to acknowledge our complicity in perpetuating systemic racism and urged us to reflect on how much we are willing to sacrifice for equity.
So, what attracted you to The LP? How does working here relate to your professional goals?
For me, my profession is my activism and politics is always personal. Because of the intertwined nature of possessing a livelihood that is in harmony with my whole self, I have long admired The LP for how they embody a set of explicit institutional values––many of which I share on a deeply personal level. These values, which include coming from a place of love and abundance and honoring the power of storytelling, require intentionality, reciprocity, and reflection. I am excited to participate in this practice with my new colleagues and to grow from it. In return, I offer my expertise and perspective in support of LP’s mission.
Do you have your own creative practice? If so, tell us more!
Recently, I have discovered a love for storytelling and reading out loud to children! My interpretation of Hagrid may sound like a pirate, but that doesn’t stop me from having fun.
What is your favorite film?…album?…food?
I’m hard pressed to pick favorites, but a movie I feel like was made just for me is Sorry to Bother You; when I listen to Coltrane’s Lush Life I feel chills; and I can eat my mom’s samosas day in and day out.
Where do you do your laundry?
At home, sometimes in a salad spinner, usually in our washer and dryer.
In your opinion, why does art matter?
Art is the manifestation of ideas. It reflects back to us all that we are and could be.
What LP value do you most related to and why?
I have always been in awe of practicing abundance and the transformational impact it could have on a personal and societal level. It’s a value I hope to impart on my son, despite the hyper-capitalist and individualistic context we live in.
Munira Khapra-Reininger supports organizations by telling their story and rallying support in innovative ways. She brings rich experience from serving as senior leadership for values-driven cultural institutions, including Eyebeam, Creative Time, and Queens Museum. As a consultant, she supports fundraising, communications, and strategic planning for clients who have included the late, great Wayne Shorter, National Sawdust, The Trust for Governors Island, Leslie-Lohman Museum, and Data & Society. Munira is committed to dismantling racism, a core value recognized by artist-activists who tap her expertise in the production of new works. Currently, she holds advisory roles at The Center for Artistic Inquiry and Reporting and an inclusive family center soon to open in Lower Manhattan.
Comments Off on Artists as Neighbors: Living Liberation | Kilombo Chronicles: Celebrating Resilience and Collective Liberation
Watch the recap of our keynote conversation at our community brunch event, “Kilombo Chronicles: Celebrating Resilience and Collective Liberation.” This unique gathering shined a spotlight on artists of color and their profound contributions to resilience and collective liberation. Through captivating storytelling, powerful performances, and thought-provoking dialogue, we explored the transformative power of art as a catalyst for social change and empowerment. Deeply inspired, we honored the resilience and creative spirit of artists of color, celebrating their unique narratives and the profound impact they have had on our communities.
Featuring Chief Baba Neil Clarke and Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens moderated by Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson.