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Concert Hall, Music Store To Be Featured on South Bronx Culture Trail

By Eddie Small | October 2, 2014 11:46am
 Casa Amadeo is one of the 10 sites that will be getting a marker along the South Bronx Culture Trail.
Casa Amadeo is one of the 10 sites that will be getting a marker along the South Bronx Culture Trail.
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Hatuey Ramos Fermin

SOUTH BRONX — An arts and education center and what's believed to be the first Puerto Rican-owned music store in the city are among the sites set to get markers that will designate them as part of the South Bronx Culture Trail.

Ten sites have been picked to receive the first designations along the pathway, which was launched in 2011 by local arts groups Casita Maria and Dancing In The Streets to help commemorate the borough's rich cultural history, organizers said.

Those sites include: the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, the music store Casa Amadeo, the former music venue Hunts Point Palace, P.S. 52 and the nearby playground 52 Park, community activist group United Bronx Parents, Boulevard Theater, Olympic Theater, the mural Double Dutch, the sculpture Puerto Rican Sun, and the Patrolman P. Lynch Police Athletic League Community Center.

The locations all sit near Hunts Point.

"We wanted to have sites that were close to each other so that we could create a walking trail and the ability to move between the sites easily enough," said Casita Maria Executive Director Sarah Calderon, adding that they also tried to select places "that had historical significance in as broad a sense as possible."

Mott Haven is the next neighborhood where Casita Maria would like to add trail markers, but the group does not have a timeline for this yet, according to Calderon.

The community can vote on designs for the site markers starting on Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Casita Maria Gallery at 928 Simpson St., where an exhibition of proposed ideas will open from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. People will be able to vote until Wednesday, Jan. 7.

Casita Maria and other organizations are holding a CineMusica City festival on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 to kick off the voting with a celebration of the South Bronx's history of concert halls and movie theaters.

The free public event, which includes concerts and film screenings, will take place at various sites in Mott Haven on Oct. 17 and in Hunts Point on Oct. 18 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., organizers said.

Community involvement is very important for this project, as it will help residents — especially the younger ones — realize the vibrant history of their borough, explained Calderon.

"While they live in a place that is very underserved, it also is ... a real birthplace of amazing talent and culture," she said, "and so it's really important for them to understand it."

After selecting the designs, Casita Maria will begin making prototypes and requesting permits. The group hopes to unveil the markers at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016.

Money for the structures comes from the New York Community Trust, which was attracted to this project because it would give people a chance to see beyond the negative stereotypes of the South Bronx, said Kerry McCarthy, the NYCT's program officer for arts and historic preservation.

"The actuality of the South Bronx is that it is thriving, vibrant and home to a tremendous history that is key to understanding who we are as a nation," McCarthy said.

Elaine Delgado, director of marketing and individual giving at Casita Maria, stressed that the physical markers were just one of three main components making up the South Bronx Culture Trail.

Festivals like CineMusica that promote the strong legacy of culture in the South Bronx are also important, as is trying to inspire the next crop of artists in the borough, she said.

"The third component is to make a connection between those stories and youths and their families and the younger generation of artists," she said. "Supporting them so they can reach their full potential and make the contributions that the pioneers did in their time."