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The Lower East Side just got its own yearbook—and no, it’s not a glossy high school relic, but a living, breathing community archive you can actually contribute to. Lower East Side Yearbook: A Living Archive opens today at Abrons Arts Center, transforming all three of its galleries into a multi-sensory tribute to downtown’s public-housing residents and neighborhood memory.
Led by photographer and filmmaker Destiny Mata, who grew up in the Lillian Wald Houses, the sprawling exhibition combines her portraits of neighbors and nightlife with photos sourced from local families through an open call. The result feels part time capsule, part community scrapbook—layered with film clips, handwritten “love letters” to the LES and even architectural recreations like a New York City Housing Authority bench where visitors can sit to watch Heat, a short documentary by resident Aicha Cherif.
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“It’s about honoring people’s lived experiences through the spaces they inhabit,” says Mata, whose work captures both the grit and tenderness of the neighborhood that raised her. Curated by Abrons’ vice president of visual and performing arts, Ali Rosa-Salas, the project also celebrates Abrons’ 50th anniversary and the many communities that have animated its halls.
The exhibition’s participatory spirit extends beyond its walls. On Saturday, October 18, Mata and artists Alison and Kristina Stumpf will host a free photo-scanning and art-making event, where anyone can bring snapshots, design masks or collages and write letters to the neighborhood, all of which can be photographed in a special booth and added to the growing archive. Future programs include a tour and workshop on November 13 and a conversation at Henry Street Settlement on November 19, followed by a screening at Metrograph that revives films made by local teens in the late 1960s.
For Mata—whose past projects have chronicled NYCHA life and the underground punk scene—the Yearbook is both personal and collective. “It’s the story of a neighborhood told by the people who live here,” she said. And for anyone who’s ever called the LES home—or just fallen for its mix of chaos and care—it’s an open invitation to leave your mark.
The exhibition runs from October 17 through January 4 at Abrons Arts Center at 466 Grand Street.