The Bushwick-born youth visual and performance arts movement Educated Little Monsters (ELM) is finally getting to claim its own space in the neighborhood. After nearly seven years of displacement and hostility from gentrifiers, and a year of nomadism, the program is settling into their new digs, where they cohabitate with Earth Arts Center on Madison Street.
“ELM is really big. We just want to take up space,” said Jazo Brooklyn, Executive Director and Founder of ELM. “And the crazy thing is that we want to take up our own space. If you’re in our community, you need to give us space. And when I say that, I’m amplifying a voice.”
The quest for a space of their own is baked into the group’s very foundation—they were searching for it before ELM even existed. Brooklyn saw the neighborhood changing, becoming increasingly gentrified. Though there were new community spaces like galleries and coffee shops, Brooklyn noticed that many of these places were not inclusive. Their doors were not necessarily open to those who had been in the neighborhood for generations.
