December 8–11, 2011

A site-specific installation of audio stories, photos and posters in a POD storage container outside the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, FL. Presented by National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network for their Annual Meeting.

February–May, 2010

Photos, audio stories and a multimedia story about an elderly couple facing eviction were shared as part of The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. MoCADA also supported a site-specific installation of Housing is a Human Right’s audio stories and large-scale photographs at Adriala Gallery in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. A converted car garage, Adriala has floor-to-ceiling glass doors, designed by owner Bryan Strongwind Williams so that neighborhood kids can see art on their way home from school. The Welfare Poets, Toni Blackman, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai and other local artists joined Housing is a Human Right storytellers in weekly ciphers at Adriala Gallery.

April–June, 2010

Interactive installation of audio stories and photos in a vacant storefront in Jamaica, Queens, presented in part by Jamaica Center for Art and Learning’s Jamaica Flux “Art as Action” and chashama studios. Participants were invited to map their own foreclosure or the foreclosures of friends and family, and programming included foreclosure prevention workshops in partnership with Common Law.

March, 18, 2012

Exhibition of photos and audio stories by Housing is a Human Right at Judson Memorial Church in New York City as part of Occupy the Empty Space, Occupy Wall Street’s 10-minute play festival.

More info about the event here.

October–November, 2009

Interactive installation of audio stories, photos and remixed testimony that played out loud amist the hum of washers and dryers in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Developed and Commissioned in part by The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Artist in Residency Program.

Photos by Michael Premo, Rachel Falcone and Shlomo Roth. Use with permission, please contact us.

Calling on the judicial system to institute an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures until a fair system of home loans is put into place, Housing is a Human Right is partnering with Organizing for Occupation (O4O), a group of human rights activists, homeowners and tenants affected by foreclosure to shut down foreclosure sales with the power of song.

“The People’s Bailout” began last October, in Room 224 in the Kings County Supreme Court, with just 9 people. We were there to document.

Since that first action, we’ve partnered with O4O to engage hundreds of people to participate in more than a dozen auction blockades throughout New York City. With other members of the O4O media team, we produced the following call to action:

Until the Legislature passes more protective laws, O4O is calling on the courts to hold all foreclosure auctions, and encouraging New Yorkers and others nationwide to lift their own voices to stall these auctions through concerted, non-violent direct action.

RESOURCES

Download the training booklet to learn how to organize auction blockades in your community.  DOWNLOAD AUCTION BLOCKADE TRAINING BOOKLET

DOWNLOAD THE SONG POSTER

Produced by Rachel Falcone and Michael Premo, Additional Sound Design by DJ Oja

Note: Each Track begins with Remixed Testimony.

LORENZO DIGGS AND EVELYN WILLIAMS

Lorenzo Diggs takes us inside the harrowing conditions of the Bedford-Atlantic Armory shelter in Brooklyn, remembering his long road to home. After hearing his neighbors express concern about their children’s safety, Joseph Ferdinand is compelled to take an active role in improving the conditions of his building.

LINDA CONTES AND EVELYN WILLIAMS

While battling cervical cancer, Linda Contes struggles to pay her hospital bills and mortgage payments. Evelyn Williams remembers a fire that ravaged her building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in the 1980s and the fight for her home.

ROB ROBINSON AND BEVERLY CORBIN

Shortly after being promoted and relocated from New York to Miami, Rob Robinson is laid off and unable to find work. Beverly Corbin, a resident of public housing for more than twenty years, talks about the community that helped her raise her children and the stereotypes and criminalization that still threaten their lives.

WHERE WE GONNA GO?

A senior citizen, who wishes to remain anonymous, grapples with living in New York on a fixed income. On the day of their possible eviction, an elderly couple in Crown Heights, who also fear sharing their names, describe how they are being harassed by their landlord.

JAMES ROBERTS

James Roberts shares his journey trying to save his ailing partner William, who has HIV, and their home together.

MAISHA MORALES AND JABIR SULUKI

Maisha Morales and her 10-year-old son Anthony talk about how her successful store in Downtown Brooklyn was displaced to make way for luxury condominiums. Jabir Suluki talks about the block in Clinton Hill where he has spent the last 50-plus years, and how gentrification is changing his home.

“This was a wake-up call for Erik Dilan and his constituents,” stated Picture the Homeless member Kalaif Swann. “Now they know how he’s failing them. All of these vacant buildings found in our neighborhoods can be used to provide real affordable housing and shut down the shelter system.”

30+ activists, all of whom slept outside, braved the chilly weather and led neighbors in a series of workshops and a walking tour of vacant properties in his district.

“We opened a lot of eyes with this,” said Picture the Homeless member Alethea Smalls. “The Chair of the Housing and Building committee should have professional experience dealing with housing. I invite Councilman Dilan to, for a week, live as though he were homeless with little resources. Perhaps then he will see the struggle that so many New Yorkers face and calendar Intro 48.”