Rebel Diaz Arts Collective- Press Profile
2010 Union Square Arts Award Recipient
478 Austin Place, 2nd Floor
Bronx, NY 10455
www.rdacbx.org
Media Contact: Gonzalo Venegas, Executive Director
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| (718) 708-4701/(646) 431-7037
Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC-BX) is a South Bronx-based performance and multimedia space that aims to “utilize culture as a means for education and self-empowerment in the community. By promoting a sense of ownership, agency, and responsibility through the arts, RDAC addresses issues of gender, racial, and economic inequality in the South Bronx and beyond.”
In 2008, three artists set out to create a community arts space in the South Bronx. They located a 4,000 sq. ft. loft in an industrial block on 149th Street and Southern Boulevard and signed a lease. Since the space needed major renovation, they recruited volunteers - artists, young people and laborers - who raised donations, collected recycled materials, painted walls, and brought in local plumbers and carpenters to transform the empty floor into a dynamic center. Today it houses a large performance/meeting space, art gallery, multimedia recording and editing studio, computer lab and multi-use outdoor art garden; the facility is entirely volunteer-run.
RDAC buzzes with activity six days a week, sometimes seven. Young people and artists arrive for programs or just to be among others in a safe and creative environment. The center also hosts family gatherings and celebrations, neighborhood association meetings, and serves as a rehearsal space for performers and studio for filmmakers. Thousands of people participate in programs and attend artists’ presentations and discussions, arts and multimedia workshops, and film screenings.
RDAC hosts monthly events to highlight and feature local talent and performers as well as to speak about issues impacting the community, from immigration and police detention to lack of jobs and educational opportunities. Special showcases four times a year feature youth-created music, art, and video. RDAC produces an annual event commemorating International Women's Day; in 2010, Momma's Hip Hop Kitchen 3 packed the Bronx’s Hostos Community College auditorium with more than 1,000 people.