By Jeff Mays
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HARLEM— The National Black Theater is facing foreclosure after building a debt of $1.8 million in unpaid taxes, the New York Times reported.
"This debt has placed the theater’s home at risk like nothing else ever has," Raymond N. Hannigan, the theater’s lawyer, told the Times.
The theater, which was founded in 1968 by Barbara Ann Teer to showcase performances about black life, formed a partnership with beauty-care company Nubian Heritage in 2002 in a bid to become more financially stable.
The partnership was to provide space for Nubian Heritage's business ventures in the building at 125th St. and Fifth Avenue, and raise rent for the theater to continue its work.
Nubian Heritage and another company received $1.4 million in government-backed business loans to open a store and spa at the site. However, the store that opened there failed and the planned spa never materialized.
Now, both sides are pointing the finger at the other for the theater's financial problems.
Nubian's owners Richelieu Dennis and Nyema Tubman say they are being scapegoated.
"My whole life has been about building community, building business in our community, empowering people in our community," Dennis told the Times.
Theater founder Teer's two children have run the organization since she died in 2008. They say the two men have failed to take responsibility for their role in the theater's problems.
"It’s just sad that they would take absolutely no personal responsibility," Teer's son, Michael Lythcott, told the Times.
