The fight for liberation + Puerto Rican revolutionaries + East Harlem + incredible photography=> A few of Valle's favorite things
And if you have an appreciation for any one of these I suggest you check out ANCHOR, on display at Hunter East Harlem from March 25 – June 13, 2015. It features the photographs of Hiram Maristany, an original member and the official photographer of the Young Lords Party, plus the work of "six contemporary artists—Nicole Cohen, Selena Kimball, Miguel Luciano, Steven Perez, Saul Williams, and Caroline Woolard—who have selected photographs from Maristany’s personal collection, and are using them to create unique new works that will be exhibited in the gallery and in various locations throughout the East Harlem neighborhood over the exhibition’s duration."
Maristany's work is captivating. I'm not going to share too much of it as it's best to see for yourself but I had the pleasure of attending the opening of ANCHOR on March 25th and here are some highlights from the evening.
Opening night of ANCHOR at Hunter East Harlem
Photographs by Hiram Maristany
Black Panthers and Young Lords button - photo by Hiram Maristany
"Lords and Panthers, 2015" by Miguel Luciano
Original pin-back buttons from Young Lords Party and Black Panther Party (c.1969), on leather.
Artist Miguel Luciano discusses his recreation of The Young Lords Party office window pictured in Hiram Maristany's photograph.
Hiram Maristany's photo of window of Young Lords Party's office
Luciano collected reproductions of the original posters seen in Maristany's photograph of the office of The Young Lords (located in El Barrio on Madison Avenue between 111th and 112th Streets) which can now be seen at Hunter East Harlem on East 119th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues. In addition to a number of the originals featuring Puerto Rican leader of the independence/nationalist movement in Puerto Rico, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Luciano puts a spin on the recreation by replacing posters he couldn't find with contemporary comparable posters. For example, in the original window The Young Lords hung a poster of Manuel Ramos, a member of The Young Lords Party in Chicago who had been murdered by an off-duty Chicago police officer on May 3, 1969. Luciano selected a poster of Eric Garner, an unarmed man murdered by New York City police officers on July 17, 2014, to replace this one. Another contemporary poster is that of Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican nationalist who has been a political prisoner in the United States for the last 33+ years. The overall effect of Luciano's tribute to Maristany is a powerful sense of the longevity of these struggles for justice.
Photographer Hiram Maristany with artist Miguel Luciano
Miguel Luciano, Hiram Maristany, Saul Williams and exhibit curator Arden Sherman
Hiram Maristany in front of one of his amazing photographs