THE BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS

Maximo Colon, Untitled, c.1970. Digital print, Courtesy of Maximo Colon. [image description: in this black and white photograph three youths stand by a fence, they are shot from below, and above them there are three flags waving in the breeze outside the building they are in front of]

Partly supported by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York is the first museum survey to examine the radical social group founded by Puerto Rican youth in the 1960s that demanded and mobilized reform in health care, education, housing, employment, and policing. Exhibitions of art and archival materials at three cultural institutions—The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, and Loisaida Inc.—are currently exploring how the Young Lords’ activities, community-focused initiatives, and affirmation of Puerto Rican identity inspired artists from the 1960s to the present day, and their resulting impact on New York City and the social history of the United States. Each institution is located in neighborhoods where the Young Lords were most active—South Bronx, El Barrio/East Harlem, and Loisaida/The Lower East Side—and their respective exhibitions reflect on the Young Lords’ activities in that part of the City.

Organized by guest curators Johanna Fernández and Yasmín Ramírez, ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York at the Bronx Museum features more than 50 works, including paintings, installations, photographs, films, and rare archival materials that highlight the presence of women in the Young Lords, the struggle for equal representation of Latinos in the media, and community actions in the South Bronx—from the takeover of Lincoln Hospital and the implementation of a holistic drug detox program, to the publication of a bilingual newspaper called Pa’lante.

Public programs include film screenings, workshops and panel discussions featuring members of the Young Lords Organization and artists featured in the exhibition. The exhibition runs until October 15, 2015.

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