"VIVA LOISADA" 1978

[@D1Poet]

As a 30 plus year resident of Loisada (4th and D), I'm greatful for this film and what it has taught me about its history. Its always been for me a place of love, life, stuggles, education, pain, and happiness. It has a soul I've not found in any other place and carry with me to this day.

[@SusanLYung]

Presently, all is gone with developer's dreams evolving to fruition with condos, co-ops & luxury hotels. The only reminder of earlier day's struggles are the gardens which provide the much needed greeneries in the neighborhood.

[@jenelishidalgo8680]

Susan Yung A lot has changed with gentrification but the PJS are still very much noticeable. Along with the drug addicts and everything else that comes with it. So even with change, not much has changed. Sometimes I hate having to walk my son by all of it just to get to his school.

[@skarterwify]

Look at my dad John Edwards may he R.I.P I miss him thanks for this video

[@DasoMonster]

That's my mom dancing in the red dress and my older brother playing percussion / congas ... a bunch of family and friends in this video ... i'm sure i was around there somewhere when i was a kid running around ... memories ... thanks Marlis! and Thanks Susan

[@MisterCofresi]

Who sings the song at the end?

[@Rosita11215]

I think he is Edgar Rivera.

[@snakey319]

@@MisterCofresi found them pupasantiago.weebly.com/a-band-called-loissaida.html

[@mrx2276]

Rest in peace original Lower East Side. You will never be forgotten.

[@beastleyog4680]

Wow looking at my father as a teenager was very wonderful I miss him dearly R.I.P. John Edwards Sr

[@MrJuanhgonzalez]

10:12 Actor Luis Guzman, younger and thinner, as we all were back then. LOL

[@S36542]

That sure was him

[@Scorpionovemeber]

I’m from East Harlem but Loisaida my 2nd home!!! I remember it was dangerous but fun, the struggle, used to go there a lot cuz I had a lot of close friends on Jacob riis!! Lovely ❤ born in the Bellevue Hospital

[@simondaillie9247]

Great document thanks. Lived in the LES from 86 to 01. It was an indelible experience that inspires me to this day.

[@fred5nyc]

Thank you for this upload, this is truly a gem. Still in LES since 1970.

[@bonezzzz6330]

Wow this was a gem to watch. Thank you. Lived there for 74-2000. LES came to life in the summer. I loved that neighborhood. I never once felt unsafe.

[@newzcutter]

The summers were the best there! Riding motorcycles up & down ave D.

[@emjr114]

43yrs, still on 3rd & B. Lower east side 4ever.

[@LukeO870]

Once in a lifetime experience. Blessed to having been a part of Adopt-A-Building, Sweat Equity 400hr + Plus Program.

[@robertfalcone3025]

I'm a lifelong NYC resident watching this January 20#5...& I remember meeting LES native born actress Rosario Dawson back in 2004..& she told me about growing up in a tenement building that had been completely renovated by her mother & fellow tenants.. with electricity tapped from the telephone poles..& how eventually NYC sold the building to the tenents for $1..

[@SusanLYung]

Rosario Dawson grew up in a squat on East 13th St where once Jerome Cooper, a solo jazz musician lived there also. Jerome would talk about her grandmother hatching the roof to end his drumming practices of eight hours. Eventually he passed away, Once I saw Rosario on Jay Leno's Night Show talk about squattering & he couldn't believe such things existed. His middle-class standards was in disbelief about squatters.

[@daz6704]

Great art man beautiful city, not anymore so much

[@snakey319]

who is the guy singing towards the end, great voice and talent?

[@RICHIECOQUI]

thanks you susan!!

[@theacutehtn2715]

really awesome

[@LukeO870]

Jim Richardson and Myself Installed the Windmill Without Safety Equipment. No Fear...Just Purpose

[@SusanLYung]

Too bad it didn't help ConEd and now it would've helped a lot of people in the nabe

[@MichaelPaulEastVillageHawkeye]

I love the footage and great editing. I've lived on 14th Street since 1992 and and as a photographer documenting the current gentrification.

[@SusanLYung]

This the work of Marlis Momber.

[@MichaelPaulEastVillageHawkeye]

Susan Yung Yes I know. I shared it on my FB page crediting her. I'm very happy I found it on your page !

[@patrickrainey305]

This is really important historical reference

[@robertfalcone3025]

As a lifelong NYC resident of Puerto Rican descent..its sad that this documentary discussed the Nuyorican Poets Cafe without mentioning its founder Miguel Pinero

[@jjcnyc6313]

15:30. 50 million dollars, back then, could've reinvented that neighborhood. But I fear it was the same bureaucratic nonsense going on in 2021. Imagine all that money went straight to the people, no, it went into the politicians and so called neighborhood leaders, who sold out for pennies while others created generational wealth. I'd love to know who occupies 533 E. 11th street today. Is it the sons and daughters of those who worked to rebuild that building? Or did they sell the property and move to wherever, in a sense repeating what had happened before.

[@robertadinolfi4217]

Did you know the Ozards?

[@qn35]

eyeopening

[@willbill8179]

I've been looking for the story behind these murals. I remember them walking around LES as a kid. Since two yrs ago I've been regretting not taking pictures of them as they have disappeared. I was able to take pictures of one on my old block just before they knocked down the building two yrs ago. I don't know if anymore still exist. Looking for a book or pics of them on the net.

[@SusanLYung]

Most of the murals were done by a non-profit group called CityArts where artists during the summers invited LES youths to design & paint socio-economic statements of improving their neighborhoods. The murals depicted urban blights of budget cuts, poor & lack of housing, jobs, & developments of gangsters. During the 80's. & 90s, ironically, developers, realtors & politicians eradicated the murals to build co-ops & condos for hipsters & yuppies therefore ridding POC in LES.

[@djRoyalTee]

@@SusanLYung Would any of you remember where the mural shown @8:55 - 10:00 was at? My memory just can't reach back far enough lol.. Viva Loisada.

[@SusanLYung]

@@djRoyalTee It got to be around Ave B between 1-6th St. I'm sure it was done by CityArts artist with LES summer kids by Jiminez.(?). The video's mural with Bimbo Rivas citing poetry depicts the Loisada and its better future now as a travesty on perpetuating the poor, homeless, peoples of color. An endless downward spiral while the developers invade people of colors communities.

[@djRoyalTee]

@@SusanLYung Actually I think I remember. It was @ PS2 on Madison & Rutgers. It was painted over w/the Newer mural and today there is just a blank wall... TY for responding :)

[@SusanLYung]

@@djRoyalTee That was another mural with an octopus' tentacles spreading over tenement housing in Lower Manhattan below Canal St.. The mural in the video has to be an empty lot where Bimbo is reading his poetry in Loisada's East Village above Houston St. where there lots of empty lots in the 70s that eventually became gardens.

[@bonezzzz6330]

Building was for sale for 35k. What a bargain. Today you could sell it for a fortune.

[@Untilhecomes85]

Wow How things have changed im the mailman for the 11th street nothing like this Today

[@SusanLYung]

It was a deep dark struggle in those days presently remissed with gentrifiers not fond of ethnic diversities.

[@Untilhecomes85]

@@SusanLYung snotty nosed ppl i love speaking to the elderly ppl that knows the history of 11th street... I also just learned THE Super was filmed @ 533 E 11 crazy I enjoyed the movie growing up a lot..Never thought I would be the mailman😍😍😍😍

[@annieyouwho]

This is so wonderful. Is there any way to superimpose the artists' names at the bottom of the screen when they're presenting their work? I would love to know who they are. TX for a great video.

[@mistofoles]

Dude talking on the stage reminds me of Michael Ironside.

[@RICHIECOQUI]

I wonder what ever happen to the musician and his family!

[@thomastournavitis]

8:47 is Miguel Piñero ?

[@SusanLYung]

No it is Bimba Riva, a Nuyorican Poet, and homesteader

[@thomastournavitis]

@@SusanLYung Thank you!! Nuyorican Poets Café that days was an unspeakable core of expression and inspiration to real artists

[@SusanLYung]

@@thomastournavitis Yes, it was & now. Lois Elaine Griffith, the producer, poet retired professor is trying to archive our historic works since E. Village is gentrified & the struggles forgotten.

[@thomastournavitis]

@@SusanLYung thats wonderful news, lovely

[@annieyouwho]

Did Bimba Rivas publish his poems - are they available? His poem in this video about Jobs at 8:28 is fantastic.

[@Saka22777]

I never get it why i love it in a way. Er historie

[@MisterCofresi]

Who sings the song at the end?

[@SusanLYung]

Don't know

[@Tripleseis88]

13:05 Pitt and Grand st

[@SusanLYung]

Henry St Settlement House's Federal Theater where the mural was on the side of the building by CitiArts.

[@SusanLYung]

A latest interview with Marlis Momber, the filmmaker by Bimbo's daugher, Sandra Rivas: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2mydKOnfdSoiLMsi=aZNZCNql4pbP36Xx

[@SusanLYung]

Here's some more information on Loisada: timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/05/27/issue.html communityservicefellowships.gsd.harvard.edu/loisaida-inc-cultural-center-post-3/

[@snakey319]

Now most of those places are for the wealthy only, artists have no place in NYC unless they are the one percents scions.

[@Boston_Police_isagang]

VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE

[@imilliemedina666]

I lived there in 78. I was hoping to see some of my old neighborhood like the bocci courts but instead just a bunch of che Guevara wannabes. Kinda disappointing, not the les I remember