EVENT POSTPONED: Details at Kochplaza.org
Just looking at New York’s skyline, its obvious that something obscene is going on. In Manhattan billionaire towers are rising and inside of them opaque LLCs are buying luxury apartments at record setting prices. Meanwhile in Brooklyn communities of color are being displaced systematically. This is what a city that is firmly in the grip of the 1% looks like. And no one epitomizes the 1% more than the figure of David H. Koch.
Our meeting place, Koc...
EVENT POSTPONED: Details at Kochplaza.org
Just looking at New York’s skyline, its obvious that something obscene is going on. In Manhattan billionaire towers are rising and inside of them opaque LLCs are buying luxury apartments at record setting prices. Meanwhile in Brooklyn communities of color are being displaced systematically. This is what a city that is firmly in the grip of the 1% looks like. And no one epitomizes the 1% more than the figure of David H. Koch.
Our meeting place, Koch Plaza, itself is a symbol of private invading public space in the city: After receiving a large cash donation, the Met honored an American oligarch who buys elections and ruins the health of the planet-- forever associating his name with the credibility of the largest museum in the country. But Koch’s façade is starting to crumble…
The First Annual Evicting Koch Awards Ceremony and Teach celebrates the last few years of growing resistance to Koch and the 1% in NYC especially as concerns cultural institutions. We will recognize the activists who recently booted Koch off the board of the Museum of Natural History, and physically stand in resistance to his use of the public space in front of the Met as a brand-washing opportunity. “We were here chanting in opposition the evening they named the plaza after Koch, and now we’re back and will keep coming back.” Says Occupy Museums member Tal Beery.
The event also puts a particular focus on New York’s most pressing issue: displacement of the 99% –most often people of color– from affordable housing. Occupy Museums is looking at the relationship between the Met and the Brooklyn Museum. Record breaking luxury housing is being built right around the Met while extreme gentrification is going on right around the Brooklyn Museum.
Are these Manhattan and Brooklyn cash-fueled urban transformations in opposition, or could they be related? We believe that the global capital being parked in Manhattan is the main catalyst for Brooklyn’s rapid gentrification as speculation spreads out from the outer boroughs in search of new opportunities. We think that art plays an important and unfortunate part of the transformation of public space into asset.
The First Annual David H. Koch Valentine’s Day Award Ceremony is an unofficial satellite of the Brooklyn Museum’s Agitprop! exhibition (Please note: the Brooklyn Museum was in no way involved with the planning of this event). Many Agitprop! artists will be on hand to help put the outrage of a NYC public space named after one of the Koch brothers into clear perspective, and to highlight the growing anti-displacement movement in Brooklyn, which has grown bigger since the real estate Summit protests at the Museum a few months back. In the teach in, we will point to key strategies developed in the last few years, and recent victories.
With this election, we see that finally people are waking up to the realities of massive economic and racial injustice, and PR agencies are unable to hide the cracks that are appearing in 1% reputations. Seeing this new empowerment of the people lifts our hearts, and we are filled with appreciation for the grassroots struggle. So this Valentine’s Day, let’s come together in the cold to show love for the ongoing struggle against the 1%