Urban Stage
Harlem, New YorkFall 2021, Columbia University, GSAPP
Critic: Mark Tsurumaki
“Urban Stage” questions how the material quality and assembly of fabric can allow for spaces to be quickly and easily transformable for a variety of activities and events that exists in today’s popular dance and performance arts scene. The proposal provides a system that collects waste fabric from demolition sites, businesses, organizations, and institutions. Then, in-house Textile Reuse Studio processes the fabric to be used for the space and costume design and the downcycles waste fabric to be sold at the Shop.
My proposal explores fabric as a material condition and dance as a cultural medium and looks at their intersection. The project aims to create easily accessible public and outdoor performance venues that can operate year long. It allows waste fabric to be reused on an architectural scale and on costume design as well as providing employment opportunities in the textile reuse studio.
The site is a L-shaped vacant lot located at East 125th Street and Park Avenue, which is right next to the 125th St Metro North station in Harlem. Since the 1920’s Harlem has been the focal point for black culture. This culture has kept evolving over time, starting from the 20s, important movements like Harlem Renaissance, Political Resistance, Civil Rights Movement, and this directly affected the dance and culture scene. Dance in Harlem has always been a social activity in nightclubs to release daily pressure. Many new dance genres were invented by working-class residents in ballrooms, speakeasies, and “buffet flats”.
