“¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York” was organized by The Bronx Museum of the Arts as a multi-venue artistic and cultural survey of The Young Lords Organization—a radical social activist group founded by Puerto Rican youth in the 1960s that demanded reform in health care, education, housing, employment, and policing.  This is a reminder that the show at El Museo del Barrio opens tomorrow, July 22 (1230 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York) and will open at Loisaida Inc. on July 30, 2015.

“¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York” has been on view at The Bronx Museum of the Arts (July 2 – October 18, 2015), and will be on view at El Museo del Barrio (July 22 – October 17, 2015) and Loisaida Inc. (July 30 – October 10, 2015).

As Hyperallergic describes it: “A complement to the Young Lords exhibition at the Bronx Museum and another show opening at Loisaida later this week, Presente! The Young Lords in New York at El Museo explores the legacy of the Young Lords in East Harlem, the Bronx, and the Lower East Side (hence the three locations). For El Museo’s part, the curators will draw from the museum’s own collection including copies of the Young Lords weekly newspaper, Palante. It also explores the group’s legacy of art and activism.”

Description (from The Bronx Museum of the Arts): The Bronx Museum of the Arts is organizing Exhibitions of art and archival materials at three cultural institutions in New York City will explore how the Young Lords’ activities, community-focused initiatives, and their affirmation of Puerto Rican identity inspired artists from the 1960s to the present day, and had a major impact on the City and the social history of the United States.

The initiative will include public and educational programs across partnering venues to build awareness of the Young Lords’ innovative contributions to the struggle for civil rights and influence on contemporary artists, and to spark conversations about grassroots community activism today. The institutions partnering in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York are all located in neighborhoods where the Young Lords were most active, and each exhibition reflects on the Young Lords’ activities in that part of the City. “The Young Lords had a defining influence on social activism, art, and identity politics, but the lasting significance of their achievements has rarely been examined,” said The Bronx Museum’s Executive Director Holly Block. “[. . .] The issues the Young Lords struggled with are still timely, and their aesthetic and cultural vision still inspires both artists and community leaders today. We’re pleased to work with our partner institutions to bring this story to the public.”

[Photo above by Máximo Colón; “Untitled,” 1970.]

For more information, see http://www.bronxmuseum.org/exhibitions/presente-the-young-lords-in-new-york and http://hyperallergic.com/223276/artrx-nyc-56/