Papergirl-Brooklyn’s Bushwick exhibit features Latinx artists like 3 Gatos and La Mecánica Popular. Photo by Angelica Tejada.

Papergirl-Brooklyn (PGBK) is a public participatory art project taking place in eight Brooklyn neighborhoods. Submissions of original art were accepted by PGBK and collaged for the public to see around these neighborhoods.

Bushwick is one of the neighborhoods where PGBK has implemented community voices and Latinx artists in their program. The exhibit is at Mayday Space, located at 176 St. Nicholas Avenue, which is a community center and organizing hub that hosts various events for grassroots organizations and groups.

“We really admire the work that Mayday Space is doing, and we are like pretty big fans and wanted to have them in the audio program. It was also amazing to have the chance to do the installation there,” PGBK Project Developer Annie Del Hierro, 32, said.

Each exhibit has an accompanying audio episode from Papergirl Radio. The Bushwick episode features Justin Lin, founder and director of BKC, a learning-focused community center and activist and member of Mayday Space Pati Rodriguez.

Del Hierro explained that for her and PGBK Project Director Sina Basila Hickey, it was vital to incorporate community voices into the episode as well as Latinx artists.

PGBK Project Developer Annie Del Hierro (right) and Project Director Sina Basila Hickey (left) began planing the Bushwick exhibit in early 2020. Photo provided by Sina Basila Hickey.

“We wanted to have resident voices for it. Also, for me, it was important for the music section to find fusions of Latin American music. In that episode, we had La Mecánica Popular. Most of the members are Peruvians, but they’ve been living in Brooklyn for a really long time. Some of them in Bushwick, actually, it was like the perfect matching with the episode and what they approach with their music,” del Hierro said.

In the episode, prominent issues like gentrification, the COVID-19 pandemic and fracking are discussed by the guest speakers. Hickey hopes that listeners not only begin to support the organizations and artists featured in the program but also take inspiration from it.

“Support everybody who’s involved in this project, which we’ve really proud of who we’re showcasing,” Hickey, 34, said. “Get civically engaged yourselves and you know we would love other people to get inspired by this concept and to do their own version of it, we have no possession over these ideas.”

PGBK is an adaptation of the Papergirl-Berlin, which started in 2006 by artist Aisha Ronniger who wanted to find an alternative way to make art accessible to everyone and taking inspiration from paperboys instead of distributing newspapers, its art.

“As artists, we can invest in our communities rather than seeing outside of it that if we invest in our communities they, in turn, invest in us,” Hickey said.

Flatbush, Coney Island, Sunset Park, Greenpoint, East Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy and Red Hook are the other neighborhoods with a program.

“Art can be you know, like the horizontal line that can connect and encourage people just to build bridges and fight for the right causes,” del Hierro said.

Ways to support the featured organizations and artists can be found here.