West 52nd Street – A Work of Art
Scaffolding casts long shadows across the sidewalk while the air is filled with dust and the sounds of construction. Besides derelict buildings and abandoned lots, shiny high-rises make their slow ascent into the blue sky. This is Hell’s Kitchen or, more accurately, the west 52nd Street portion of it. Hell’s Kitchen, often referred to as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan between 34th and 59th Streets, from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River. While the expanse of pavement is specifically designated, the origin of the Hell’s Kitchen name is rather precarious.
Once home to working-class German and Irish immigrants, Hell’s Kitchen was historically known for the drug addicts, gangs, and prostitutes who roamed its streets. As Antony and Annette Magana, the wizened residents and owners of a store that “sells a little bit of everything,” remember, drug deals were a frequent occurrence on their street. Gesturing to a tiny slot in the door of a nearby house, Annette recalls watching people “stick money in the hole and drugs coming out the other end.”
I became drawn and attached to 52nd Street after learning about its impending gentrification in early 2012 and the relocation of many local artists. My friend, artist Douglas Florian, invited me to his studio building at No. 500 to help me in my initial exploration, forging a path that led me to gather a collection of fascinating narratives. Today, two years later, Hell’s Kitchen is filled with bars, restaurants and cafés, testaments to the urban renewal that has swept through the neighborhood’s historic streets.
At No. 500, Doug introduced me to Mikel Glass, another artist who has also had a studio in this dilapidated building for over twenty years. As we talked, both artists recalled days when they would find homeless people asleep on their stoops. Mikel told us that, instead of simply “stepping over them” as a friend advised him to do, he would invite these individuals into his studio, offering them warmth and food. In return, he asked to paint their portraits. Today, his stunning collection of paintings provides a powerful visual history of the area.
Click through the photos above to see more.
In addition to spending time in several of the artists’ studios, I attended Mikel’s first art show in the building, appropriately titled, The (UN) FAIR. Gathering over one hundred pieces of artwork, displayed spectacularly throughout the space, this exhibition took place during the same time as the Armory Arts Week. As Mikel so eloquently expressed, it is unfair that the artists are being pushed out, but if it means that others can benefit from the proposed low-income housing, then perhaps it is the right time for him and the others to move on.
Continuing my interviews, I walked a bit farther west on 52nd and met with husband and wife, Don Porcaro and Leslie Wayne, who live nearby their studio at No. 549. They painted a picture for me of the 80s, when Hell’s Kitchen was not a place to be past 5pm because, as Leslie remarked, it was a street, “low down with drug dealers.” It was also interesting to listen to a different perspective of the changes occurring in the area when I met with Joe Restuccia, executive director at the Clinton Housing Development. He has been struggling for many years to find a balance where affordable housing can remain, new luxury buildings can go up, and Hell’s Kitchen can continue to be an artist’s playground.
Also at No. 549, I gathered with members of The Ensemble Studio Theatre, established in 1969 – a profound example of creativity unfolding in rundown studios and stages. Here, the actors spoke about the sense of community that characterizes the street. “This is why it is so difficult to let go and accept the natural shift that is taking place,” said one actor at the theater. Another actor expressed this sentiment: the neighborhood is “embedded in us.” And for this reason, artists of every realm on 52nd “see people chaining themselves to the radiators.”
It is, thus, no surprise that long-term residents of the street are watching the advance of gentrification with unease. Increased rents are making it unaffordable for many to remain in the spaces they have called home for decades, threatening what Leslie called some of the “last bastions of culture in the city.” As the whole nature of New York is changing, artists are struggling to maintain a cultural presence in the Hell’s Kitchen area. Mikel Glass articulately compared the street to a Rubik’s Cube, where the city and its residents are trying to fit all the pieces together. People are leaving New York as it is getting harder and harder to use their studios as incubators for ideas, but it is devastating for them, as there is no better place for creativity.
