The Laundromat Project

The 2025 Create Change Open Call is now live and accepting submissions! Artists, cultural workers, and practitioners from all FIVE boroughs of NYC are encouraged to apply!⁠ Remember - the Open Call includes our one-year Residency program and our 6-month Fellowship program. Visit our website or join one of our info sessions across NYC to learn more about which opportunity may be right for you. Hour-long info sessions will be held throughout New York City. Our Brooklyn info session in now at capacity! Please join us at any of the locations below. Info Sessions: ⁠ Staten Island: Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor | September 20 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm⁠ Queens: Apicha Community Health Center | September 23 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm⁠ Manhattan: Offices of the Studio Museum in Harlem | September 25 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm⁠ Click the link and apply for the Create Change applications now and if you'd like your questions answered in person for additional support, join one of our info sessions today! https://lnkd.in/enpYWqZq

We’ve had an outstanding Liberation Series at The LP Storefront these past few months! If you haven’t stopped by for First Fridays yet, come through for our last Liberation Series event of the year! Join us on Friday, Dec 6, from 6:00-9:00 pm at The LP Storefront. Enjoy free food, music, and make new connections as we wrap up an incredible year of creativity and community-building with The LP Fam. ⁠ ⁠ The LP Liberation Series, facilitated by LP artist Wéma Ragophala, culminates in a monthly community gathering where social interaction and meaningful conversations with artists and Pan-African cultural leaders uncover contemporary social issues experienced by our immediate community. Want to join in? Learn more and register for December First Fridays today! Stay tuned for more info coming soon!⁠ https://bit.ly/3YQSv3a ⁠ #LiberationSeries #September #TheLP #MakeArt #BuildCommunity #CreateChange

“There’s so much blood, sweat, and tears on that ballot. Our ancestors fought for the right to vote, and we must carry that with us.”- Opal Lee The LP staff will be off in observance of Election Day. As a community-driven organization, we deeply value civic engagement as a means to uplift and amplify the voices within our communities, and we encourage you to exercise your right to VOTE. Your civic participation is necessary not only for the election of our 48th US President but also for our local government officials and the policies that shape our lives. We know that the stakes are high for this presidential election, but the work of building thriving neighborhoods in BIPOC communities starts from the ground up. It is at the hyperlocal level and through everyday ways that we deepen our commitment to support each other. Whether in community centers and school auditoriums or on street corners and stoops, it’s in our neighborhoods where change begins. That is where we meet, convene, and catalyze our knowledge and resources to create meaningful change––and it is in partnership with and in service of our friends, family, and community members, that we do the work. As we prepare to exercise our constitutional right, we encourage you to learn about the many local candidates and ballot propositions you’ll see at the voting booth. For those in NYC, don’t forget to flip your ballot to vote on the ballot measures found on the back. Click the to learn who and what is on your ballot and exercise your right to VOTE before the polls close today! https://bit.ly/3Co0Pyo

At The LP, we build community through a variety of artistic disciplines and cultural practices. Our work is grounded in pedagogy that expands the boundaries of art to advance artists and neighbors as cultural leaders, healers, and makers of a new world. Today, we’re homing in on how artists use architecture not to rebuild old systems but to reconstruct Black community power. Deem Journal: Issue Three explores how The Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) theorizes equity as a form of architecture. Founded by Black architects, artists, designers, and scholars, BRC commits to multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary work dedicated to dismantling systemic white supremacy within art, design, and academia. BRC members sat down with Alice Gradoit-Šutka and Nu Goteh for an interview with Deem Journal to discuss the power and impact of reconstruction–a merge between equity and reparations–as part of an ongoing emancipation project across the African Diaspora. Swipe for a quote from BRC member Mitch McEwen! Reflect and share: Who defines equity? Where do you see equity being reconstructed by POC artists in your community?

Khidr is rollin’ with us at GATHER 2024! Join Khidr and our 2024 Create Change AiRs at GATHER: We Gon’ Be Alright on Tuesday, November 19 Xanadu Roller Arts! Engage in a lively chat with our 2024 Create Change AiR cohort as they share how their creative practices spark transformation and boost community resilience in our neighborhoods. Don't miss out on these cultural organizing gems straight from the source—our artists! Khidr’s project, “All About Love: Community Narratives,” project prompts us to reflect on the love ethic. The project was realized throughout the streets of Bed-Stuy, in a variety of thought-provoking and satirical wheat-pastings strategically placed on sidewalks and on construction scaffolding. Stumbling upon one Khidr’s installations is an unexpected joy, an opportunity for reflection, and a step along the pathway of community healing and liberation. The LP is also prompted by love as we come together on November 19 in a post-election celebration centered on joy and resiliency. Inspired by the teachings of bell hooks and our Artists-in-Residence like Khidr, we’re dreaming up a space for collective reflection and inspiration at GATHER. In times of uncertainty, let’s embrace the power of love, joy, and culture as revolutionary acts to support each other’s welfare and build the future we envision. Wanna join us and our LP Fam at Xanadu on November 19? Donate a minimum of $20 and you can be in good company! Your donation directly supports The LP’s artists' services and programs. Learn more about GATHER 2024 through the link below! And don’t forget to vote! https://bit.ly/4h1D0fE Can you guess who is our guest moderator? Hint: NYT! Tag your guesses in the comments below!

Join us tomorrow from 6:00-9:00 pm at The LP Storefront to celebrate the next chapter of “A Legacy of Seeds,” a creative public engagement series facilitated by LP alum Wéma Ragophala! For November’s Liberation Series, we invite you to practice poetry and movement to explore transformation and adaptation! Wéma will facilitate a panel with guests Kai Diata Giovanni and Courtney Walcott as poetry and Disability Justice take center stage. ABOUT THE PANELISTS Kai Diata Giovanni is an 18-year-old Brooklyn-based poet and performer. Kai writes about rage, racism, and radical justice. Kai has been a featured performer at the Brooklyn Museum, the Blue Note Jazz Club, and various other venues in NYC for the past 10 years. This October, Kai was recently selected as the 2025 NYC Youth Poet Laureate. Courtney Walcott is a Barbaian-American who calls The Bronx home. She attended Fordham University and graduated with a B.S. in Psychology. Courtney describes herself as Black, female, disabled, Christian, daughter, friend, lover of the arts, and citizen of the world. The group will use Octavia Butler's powerful quote from Parable of the Sower to ground the program, introduce creative adaptations to the challenges our communities face, and sift through new pathways for Black Liberation. Additionally, DJ Drew Hurt will hold down the 1s and 2s with a fun blend of soul, funk, house, and hip-hop! Free food and refreshments will be provided by G&G Cuisine. We can’t wait to see you there, LP Fam! Seating is limited, so register today through the link below! https://bit.ly/3ZZbBox #LiberationSeries #November #TheLP #MakeArt #BuildCommunity #CreateChange

🚨Today’s the Day! Join us at Bailey’s Cafe at 6:30 PM for Awóyemi’s Open Studio! Discover Afro-Indigenous genealogy through a panel discussion, local artist performances, a gallery walk, and more! Register for free through the link below. We’ll see you there, LP Fam! bit.ly/4gNGOBi #TheLP #OpenStudios #CreateChange

📽 Interested in creative storytelling led by South Asian youth filmmakers? Pull up to the South Asian Youth Action (SAYA) in Queens for our final Open Studio on Wednesday, Nov 6, from 6:30-7:45 PM, and join us for Anjali Kamat and Rehan Ansari’s Open Studio! Participants are invited to storytelling presentations and workshops led by South Asian American youth in Anjali and Rehan’s cohort at South Asian Youth Action. These youth filmmakers have worked in partnership with Anjali and Rehan to develop storytelling projects about the legacies of ethnocentrism and stories of resistance within their family histories. Space is limited, so earn more and register for this Open Studio today! Link below! https://bit.ly/3Bux9zu #TheLP #OpenStudios #CreateChange

Rehan Ansari and Anjali Kamat, 2024 Create Change Artists-in-Residence, are joining us at GATHER: We Gon’ Be Alright on Tuesday, November 19 @xanadu! Our 2024 cohort will be featured in conversation to discuss community-based artistic practices that inspire community transformation and resilience. Rehan and Anjali’s project, “Breaking the Silence,” is a storytelling and oral history project within the South Asian American community in Queens, New York. This project offers workshops for South Asian American youth to develop a multimedia storytelling project about the legacies of ethnocentrism and stories of resistance within their family histories. We look forward to celebrating in community with our artists, friends, and supporters at GATHER! Wanna join the fun? Donate today for a chance to win tickets to GATHER this year! For every $20 you contribute, you will be entered into a drawing for tickets. Learn more about GATHER 2024 through the link below! https://bit.ly/4h1D0fE #TheLP #GATHER2024 #WeGonBeAlright #PeoplePowerisCommunityPower

2024 Bed-Stuy AiR Alicia Foxworth is joining us for GATHER: We Gon’ Be Alright! on Tuesday, November 19 @xanadu! As we skate and celebrate, we are thrilled to host our 2024 Create Change AiRs in a compelling conversation about the power of community-attuned art in shaping thriving POC communities. Alicia's project, “The Brownstone Steps Garden Reading Series,” is a theatrical arts program designed to provide free entertainment to local and modest-income communities in easily accessible public settings for residents. Having completed her Open Studio at Herbert Vong King Park’s Cultural Center last month, we are excited to dig into the power of community-driven, multi-generational oral storytelling in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods across Brooklyn. Curious about our AiRs’ discoveries through the 2024 Create Change Residency? Join us for GATHER next month! To learn how to participate, click the link below! https://bit.ly/4h1D0fE