ART-MAKING | LIVE MUSIC | GAMES | ARTISANS | COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Led by Artist-in-Residence Najee Omar, The Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) presented WE ARE BROOKLYN: A Community Block Party. Building on the long-standing legacy of summer block parties in Brooklyn, WE ARE BROOKLYN was an arts-filled event where neighbors of all ages joined together to dance to DJs and live music, create collaborative artworks, access Fort Greene neighborhood cultural and social resources, participate in games, sports, and creative workshops, connect with one another and celebrate the ICAC's core values of passion, liberation, family, courage, vision and truthfulness. The block party took place outside the Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center at the intersection of Myrtle Ave and Fleet Street.

The Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) is a multigenerational team of residents working together to curate and produce values- driven arts programming by and for community members of the Ingersoll, Whitman, Farragut and Atlantic Terminal NYCHA Houses and the neighboring Fort Greene area.

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ABOUT:

The Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) is a joint program of BRIC and University Settlement. ICAC is designed to support NYCHA residents as central stakeholders and decision-makers in the artistic and cultural life of the community, and facilitate connections with neighbors, resources and local business outside the housing developments—ensuring Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn remain communities where both longtime and new residents of all income levels can live, work, create and belong. Through monthly planning workshops, the ICAC uses art-making, storytelling and discussion to identify shared values and goals, ideal structures, and criteria for success of arts programming in their community. This year, the ICAC proudly brought on poet, performer, and educator Najee Omar as its first Artist-in-Residence.

Najee Omar is A Brooklyn-based poet, performer, and educator, Najee uses the arts to engage and cultivate community. He is the recipient of fellowships from The Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and Poetry Incubator for Emerging Poets. His selected features include Russell Simmons’ All Def Poetry, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and colleges and universities across the United States. Najee is the Founder, Executive Director of Spark House: an arts education organization dedicated to developing youth voice and promoting social/emotional well-being. As a teaching artist, he turns classrooms into stages by conducting poetry and performance workshops for inner city and high need youth in schools and juvenile justice facilities across the country. Najee was recently named a New York Times Visionary.

University Settlement is one of New York's most dynamic social justice institutions with deep roots on the Lower East Side. Each year University Settlement's diverse programs impact 40,000 low-income and at-risk people as they build better lives for themselves and their families. With an impressive legacy as the first settlement house in the United States, University Settlement has been an incubator for progressive ideas for more than 130 years, offering pioneering programs in mental health, early childhood education, literacy, the arts, and adolescent development that set the standard.

WE ARE BROOKLYN is presented by the Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC). The ICAC is supported by BRIC and University Settlement's the Performance Project, in partnership with Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center. 

Support for this program is generously provided by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Council on the Arts through a Regional Economic Development Council Award. Support is also provided by Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY and New York City Cultural Agenda Fund in the New York Community Trust.

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