We Keep Us Safe: Collective Care and Resilience in New York City Public Housing
Live transcription is available here.
A conversation around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents of NYCHA and how residents built networks of care and solidarity for each other.
Before COVID-19 descended on New York City, public housing residents were already dealing with precarious living conditions that included maintenance repairs, sorely-need capital improvements, and a range of health and safety issues. These conditions were only exacerbated by the pandemic and the inadequate response to these communities by local, state, and federal authorities. Many residents of this city had to grapple with employment and health issues, housing security, and a range of hardships. However, public housing residents, including the elderly, essential workers, teachers, and first responders, withstood additional challenges due to NYCHA’s failure to swiftly respond with deployment of resources, information and communication, and health and safety protocols. Some residents responded to these challenges with creative ideas, leadership and care that often springs from so many of these communities.
Jayah Arnett, Camille Napoleon, Saundrea Coleman, and Michael Partis (moderator) will come together to talk about creativity and collective care, and how it may be sustained amidst ongoing challenges of public housing privatization and disinvestment, and the importance of local elections.
Accessibility
Live transcription and ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email any additional access needs to skreitzb@barnard.edu.
This event is free and open to all. RSVP here.
Streaming information will be provided closer to the date of the event.
About the Speakers
Jayah Arnett is the founder of My Projects Runway, a digital storytelling platform that highlights the stories of New York City Public Housing residents and challenges the existing narratives surrounding “The Projects.”
Saundrea I. Coleman was born and raised in the South Bronx in William McKinley houses and has resided on the upper East side of Manhattan, since March 1992. In 2020, Saundrea graduated from NYACK Alliance Theological Seminary where she obtained her Master of Divinity degree. Medically retired after 24 years of employment with the NYPD, she is an active leader in her community. As an activist and organizer, she co-founded the Holmes-Isaacs Coalition to assist and educate NYCHA residents citywide. She also co-founded and is one of the co-hosts of the 1NYCHA podcast which highlights public housing issues and everyday politics. She is also the co-founder and co-host of “The Power Talk” TV show and has her own gospel radio show on WRNPraise.net. Saundrea is the mother of two adult sons and two granddaughters. She was appointed to Manhattan Community Board #8 in May 2020 and is the co-chair of the new Social Justice Committee, which launched in December 2020. Saundrea has been on the front-lines since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic feeding and assisting her community including distributing PPE, Census2020 awareness, and continuous Voter Registration drives. Saundrea is 100% against any forms of privatization of New York City Public Housing. She fought the 2015 infill proposal at Holmes Towers vigorously with neighbors and comrades and was successful after a four-year battle. On December 13, 2019 Saundrea and several other residents of Holmes Towers and Isaacs Houses filed a Housing Part (HP) action lawsuit against the New York City Housing Authority; the case remains active.
Camille Napoleon was born and raised on the Lower East Side and is a lifelong resident of Baruch Houses. Napoleon has been involved in community organizing and advocacy for NYCHA residents for over 30 years. At just 18, she joined the Baruch Houses Tenants Association and became Vice President of the Association at 20. Currently, Napoleon serves on Community Board #3, the Lower East Side Residents Committee, the Community Advisory Group for the Easter River Project, the Neighborhood Advisory Board, and is a member of the County Committee and the CODA Democratic Club.
Michael Partis is the Executive Director of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative: a nonprofit focused on advancing economic democracy through shared wealth strategies and community-based planning with working-class Bronx residents. He is also the co-founder of The Bronx Brotherhood Project, a volunteer-based college success & mentorship program for Black and Latino teens at New Settlement College Access Center. Formerly, he was the Director of South Bronx Rising Together (SBRT): a collective impact initiative dedicated to improving health, grade-level reading and math, and post-secondary outcomes in the neighborhoods of Morrisiana and Crotona Park West. And for 8 years prior, Michael led community-informed policy development and partnerships at Young Movement – a New York-based, grassroots nonprofit focused on social entrepreneurship. He is also a Researcher at the Bronx African American History Project, where he and Professor Mark Naison are editing “After The Fires:” a collection of post-1970s South Bronx oral histories.
This event is co-sponsored by the National Public Housing Museum
