Culture Works: Space, Value, and Mobility Across the Neoliberal Americas

3. The Battle for Cultural Equity in the Global Arts Capital of the World

   3 The Battle for Cultural Equity in the Global Arts Capital of the World So many of our organizations grew out of social movements , but we spend our lives trying to justify our existence , as if making art is not enough. We have been functioning outside the box forever. I’d love to see what’s in the box! —Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director, Pregones Theater, New York City1 In today’s economy, street writers, bomba y plena dancers, and tamale makers are not regularly considered cultural creatives. This label has become overidentified with what Robert Reich called the “symbolic analysts ,” people working in technology, publishing, advertising, and the arts, or else with the “creative class” in Richard Florida’s work: the architects, novelists, entertainers, opinion makers, and others whose function is to “create meaningful new forms” (Florida 2002). The highly educated, white, liberal, Brooklynite independent writer comes quickly to mind. In contrast, across U.S. cities, barrio cultural creatives are easily dismissed as “ethnic” or quaint, rather than being recognized as the cultural and economic foundation of particular communities. And by “barrio creatives,” I am referring to the many Puerto Rican and Latino cultural workers who are increasingly displaced and priced out of residence from New York City, especially from historically Latino strongholds such as East Harlem, a.k.a. El Barrio. Familiarity with East Harlem or New York City, however, is not required for considering the major concerns of this chapter, which   The Battle for Cultural Equity are to expose, to disturb, and ultimately to challenge the hierarchies of value that, nationwide, have become naturalized in our neoliberal creative economy, to the detriment of myriad cultural workers. These are the same values that underlie inequalities in urban/cultural policies and that promote the cultural and economic contributions of selected cultural workers and institutions while veiling those of the bulk of others. In particular, I am concerned with the marginalization of cultural creatives from communities of color in New York City who, while making up 65 percent of New York City residents, remain at the margin of most considerations of the city’s creative economy. Indeed, the economic impact of the arts in New York City’s economic profile has long been evidenced and recognized: in 2005, the arts’ economic contribution was shown to surpass 21.2 billion, with 160,300 jobs created and 904 million in taxes reaped for the city (Alliance for the Arts 2007; New York Foundation for the Arts 2001). However, within this industry, it is the economic impact originating from commercial film and television, commercial theater, art galleries, and auction houses that is most recognized. Less is known about the economic impact of nonprofit cultural organizations, and within this sector, even less is known about most culturally specific and community-based institutions or about what art historian Yasmin Ramirez has described as New York City’s “creative community of color” (2010). Ramirez uses this term to distinguish these creative groups from the apolitical vision associated with the “creative class,” as well as to denote groups for whom “cultural diversity [is considered a] civil right and access to arts a social good” (34). This vision stems from her work with the Cultural Equity Group, whose activism I discuss later. However, this notion can be expanded to include creative workers who are not regularly considered to be part of this category because they lack the formal training or education but who nevertheless are contributing directly to New York City’s creative economy. The question I ask is, how can the city be so widely considered “the global arts capital” when the majority of its residents remain at the margins of its creative economy? And how would the city’s economy be enriched or transformed if we accounted for the hidden contributions of its cultural workers of color? I take on these questions by drawing from my longtime observation of East Harlem’s Latino cultural groups, from interviews with minority cultural stakeholders, activists, and administrators , and from a look at the activism of the Cultural Equity Group, at the height of its activism throughout 2007–2008. I suggest that in order to The Battle for Cultural Equity   fully consider the state of New York City’s community cultural groups, we must first account for and address the prejudices that cloud our ability to formulate more expansive definitions of what should...