The View From My Window, 2012, painted by artist Donald Nelson while he was temporarily housed at the King’s Hotel in East New York, Brooklyn.
Hurricane Sandy disrupted the lives of millions of people in New York, New Jersey and even parts of the Caribbean. Thousands were displaced. Eight and half months since the storm many have been lucky enough to return. Renter and homeowners alike are struggling to navigate myriad obstacles to recover emotionally and financially so they can restore what Sandy washed away. And beneath the headlines and fading coverage is an unknown number of people who are unable or unwilling to return to their coastal homes.
To take a closer look at the journey between disruption and a return to normalcy, Sandy Storyline is launching a series of multimedia stories for Creative Time Reports exploring where people stayed, or are staying, after being uprooted by the storm.
Creative Time Reports is a dynamic journalism initiative of Creative Time, a 40 year old organization that commissions and presents ambitious public art. They describe their 3 core values as, “art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces are places for creative and free expression.” Creative Time Reports aims to publish dispatches that speak truth to power and upend traditional takes on current issues. They provide artists with a space to voice analysis and commentary on issues too often overlooked by mainstream media. In describing the initiative’s underlying philosophy, the editors write, “We believe in the importance of highlighting cultural producers’ distinctive viewpoints on world events and urgent issues of social justice to ensure a livelier, more nuanced and more imaginative public debate.”
Our first installment tells the story of a New York City resident whose journey took him and his neighbors to the Park Slope Armory, an SRO in Brooklyn and a psychiatric center in a remote part of Queens. See the video and read the article at Creative Time Reports.
The second piece will compare and contrast the context and nature of displacement following Hurricane Katrina with Hurricane Sandy. It will feature an article and multimedia presented in collaboration with our New Orleans partners Land of Opportunity.
Join our mailing list or follow us on twitter to receive an update when the next story is published.
