Hello Friends Near and Far!
Imagine a tiny standardized shipping container that has gone missing from the channels of global capital and has somehow washed up in Bushwick, Brooklyn… a place out of time, a refuge where people can gather and have conversations and see art and music and eat together without having to spend any money or buy a drink… As some of you may know, I have been working with some dear collaborators this year on the creation of an experimental social space for gatherings, organizing, and events in a tiny rehabbed shipping container at 7 Belvidere Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The project is growing in energy and excitement and has reached a stage where we’d like to ask our larger community for participation and help in continuing.
Our group was formed in the year after many of us met for the first time in Black Mountain School outside of Asheville, NC. Last Fall we miraculously found a storefront space we could sort-of afford and launched a space to be based on our shared affinity for DIY art-making, Free events, sharing free food, making culture that is outside the ambitions of NYC art market, utopian possibility, and our deep interest in alternative pedagogical models.
We have chosen to leave our space fairly underdetermined and unannounced — no websites, no tote bags — while we intuitively finds our constituency. We have even left the space unnamed and known only by its address, 7 Belvidere. In this small 40’ X 8’ sliver of real estate in one of the most contested and high-priced areas of Brooklyn, we have for nearly a year helped grow and support a small community of like-minded Brooklyn artists, activists, and writers with free events, public gatherings, and meeting space for several ongoing DIY projects. This July, we launched The 7 Belvidere Free Store, where we provide an open non-monetary retail space for people to exchange useful goods and services free of charge while also hosting free music and performance events in the space.
We’ve been able to thus far keep 7 Belvidere open by paying its relatively cheap rent out of our own pocket. We believe strongly in making a space for non-monetary exchange where everyone feels welcome, so we have thus far kept our events free of charge. But recently, as activity in the space has ramped up, we’ve all found ourselves lacking for extra time, energy, and money, so we are reaching out to our friends for help supporting the space from here on out. We are interested in exploring if it’s possible to spread the task of financially supporting a wide open and free space more broadly throughout the entire community of people who might use such a space or be glad that it exists in the event that they might one day soon visit it.
We are writing to ask if you might consider supporting 7 Belvidere through a monthly subscription payment of $7-10 a month. It is likely that over a thousand people will receive this email. Our rent is $800 a month. If just 1/7 of you agreed to sign up, it would make an enormous difference in our ability to maintain this project in perpetuity. The We don’t want to use the money to make a website. We aren’t going to promise you any special membership privileges that go with donation. We just want to continue doing the work so that you can come participate or visit the space sometime soon!
We are also seeking to broaden participation by inviting other groups to collaborate and share the responsibility of operating the space. If you are part of a group -or know of a group- that needs an ongoing space for organizing, work and public programing, please contact us at gratiscomoelaire@gmail.com
Here are some of the things that we have been working on in the space:
The Free Store at 7 Belvidere
We kicked off The Free Store on July 1st with Bochay, Shlomit, and Erica’s epic 25 Hour Free Store event. For one day and one hour, the space was turned into a cute little shop where everything happened to be Free. Visitors to the store and our sweet neighbors exchanged useful goods and donations of free food and a series of free performances on the sidewalk and indoors. Events included a Trans Women’s Clothing Swap; a staged live reading of Ricardo Flores Magon’s play, Tierra y Libertad (organized by Mitchell Verter); musicians like Bella Rocha, Abandon, Alden Penner, Alka Seltzer, and Devan Brahja Waldma;, and a 3:00AM Open Projector Night hosted by Bradley Eros and Tooth. Perhaps the finest moment was a riveting sunrise performance by Sto Len. Sto had a solar panel rigged up to an amp so that the electric signal generated sound – in effect PLAYING THE SUN as it rose over the container. We enjoyed the Free Store so much that we decided to leave the space intact as Free Store for the foreseeable future to continue the facilitation of flow of Free Goods, Services, and Culture. Upcoming events in the space include some free jazz, experimental music, performance, screenings and talks all throughout July and August!
Utopia School
Utopia School is an ongoing multi-city project that shares information about both failed and successful utopian projects and works towards new ones. Following the school’s session at Flux Factory last January, a small group of organizers have been convening at 7 Belvidere to discuss what an ongoing, permanent free-school might look like in New York City, and to build toward that goal. These building sessions culminated in a day of programming hosted at the container under the title “open house”. This included pancakes but also a class called Creating a network for free education, which brought together different free school initiatives around the city for an open discussion and sharing of visions and resources.
Free Readings and Music
Beginning last Fall with a Free Dance performance and reading organized by Reid Urban and Bochay Drum, 7 Belvidere continues to host ongoing one off readings, talks, screenings, and performances. Events are free of charge and include free meals – though we often charge money for beer and seltzer to raise money for traveling performers. Last November we hosted a book release event for Myriam Gurba’s new novel, Mean. Other readers have included Sara Jane Stoner, Cat Tyc, Lara Lorenzo, Suzanne Goldenberg, Mel Elberg, Oni, Dave Morse, and Erica Dawn Lyle. In June, we hosted itinerant photographer and filmmaker, Bill Daniel, and Lila Lee on their summer tour – with special guests, Tooth, and Victoria Keddie. DIY musician, Crissy Bell, played the container in April.
Free Air Radio
While not technically hosted in the container, Shlomit, Alexander, and Erica for eight months hosted a radio show around the corner in Punk Alley. Free Air Radio was devoted to highlighting DIY cultural production in Brooklyn, imagining a virtual community of shared affinity on the airwaves between all of the city’s far flung DIY outposts. Shows featured recordings of reading and music events recorded live throughout the city, found sound, live guests, and Shlomit’s sound collages.
Coming Soon! The following projects are in the works for 7 Belvidere and are coming up soon!
1. The Bermuda Triangle – a monthly lesbian speakeasy.
2. The 7 Belvidere Newsletter – a print publication to be distributed throughout the Myrtle/Broadway area and via mail to DIY spaces and friends throughout the country.
3. 7 Belvidere Radio – we have an FM pirate transmitter and we are prepared to use it!