Bailey’s Café presents
As Quiet As It’s Kept
We Thrive: Stories & Portraits from the Heart of Bed-Stuy
an installation and celebration of the longtime residents of the
Jackie Robinson Housing Complex (Fulton Park) and their neighbors
Opening & Artists Reception
Saturday, August 19, 2023, 2-5 PM
Jackie Robinson Park Playground
341 Malcolm X Boulevard
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
As Quiet As It's Kept, We Thrive: Stories & Portraits from the Heart of Bed-Stuy brings visibility to the residents of Bed-Stuy whose voices are seldom heard, honored and celebrated. The portrait and mini-documentary series comes out of a larger community-based movement to offer alternatives to the violence that continues to erupt in our neighborhood, which has been centered around the Jackie Robinson Housing Complex and the Park Playground. The focus is to bring positive, life-affirming activities to those who may not feel that they are normally included.
As Quiet As It’s Kept, We Thrive is supported by the Emmanuel Baptist Church Benevolence Fund, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Laundromat Project, and our individual donors.
Learn more about As Quiet As It’s Kept at https://asquietasitskept.space
Pia Monique Murray, Artistic Producer, Interviewer, Documentarian, Installation Artist, Graphic Designer/
Bailey’s Café Producing Artistic Director
Marienne “Yen” Thomas, Portraitist/
Bailey’s Café Director of Youth Programs
Stefanie Siegel, Cultural Producer/
Bailey’s Café Executive Director and Founder
We Thrive Participants:
Antoine Cassidy, Barry Cooper, Donna Heyward, Justine Warren, Nequan McLean, Ralph James, Renee Sheffey, Valerie Ferguson
Learn more about the local initiatives lead by some of our participants:
Antoine Cassidy: No Gun Smoke Tour https://www.nogunsmokeschooltour.com/
Barry Cooper: The BRO Experience https://www.thebroexperience.org/
Ralph James: The Urban Dad https://www.facebook.com/groups/360799478231714/
PROGRAM
DJ set by Zaven / What do you hope & dream for Bed-Stuy installation / Self-guided tour
Welcome and introduction
MarLynn Jermayne
Members of the Intergenerational Community Arts Council (ICAC) performing Spread Love
(DaQuan Herring, Desiree Rucker, Ketriana Yvonne, Tanja Richardson)
Keys Will
J’Anniyah
Zaven
Presentation of portraits/participant statements
Closing Remarks
DJ set by Zaven / What do you hope & dream for Bed-Stuy installation / Self-guided tour
THANK YOUS
Bailey’s Café is eternally grateful for our community participants: Antoine Cassidy, Barry Cooper, Valerie Ferguson, Donna Heyward, Ralph James and Quelinda James, Nequan McLean, Pastor Renee Sheffey, and Justine Warren; to our photographers: Jacob Gordon, Jendayi McGeachy, and Fred Hatt; to Michael Hill and Kevin Hill for their musical contributions; Dr. Surrenca T. Albert for therapeutic support; MoMac for artistic support; Ollie Cotton for technical support; Moorea Walker for administrative support; Monica L. Williams for originating As Quiet As It’s Kept; and Photoville for printing the beautiful banners.
BIOGRAPHIES
Pia Monique Murray is a choreographer, performer, installation artist, teacher, and creative producer. She has worked with nora chipaumire, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Camille A. Brown, Dianne McIntyre, Chanon Judson, Mame Diarra Speis, Monica L. Williams, and the late Blondell Cummings in various capacities. She performs contemporary dance with RAKIA! and leads Pia Monique Murray Dance Collective (PMMDC). Pia is a 2023 ICAC Artist-in-Residence with BRIC and University Settlement and an Urban Bush Women CCI 2.0 Producing Fellow/Associate Producer of Haint Blu by Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis. As Bailey’s Café’s Producing Artistic Director she produces and curates As Quiet as It’s Kept, a multidisciplinary ethnography project about longtime residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She is also the creator of Black Daisies, an interdisciplinary project that centers joy as political activism.
Marienne Thomas, known as Yen, is a multi-talented painter, playwright, actress, choir director, praise dance choreographer, and youth leader, bringing her passionate, outgoing, and energetic personality to all that she undertakes. Marienne came to Bailey’s Café as a volunteer in the fall of 2007, while she was pursuing her undergraduate degree, and quickly became our lead teaching artist. After a three year absence, Marienne re-joined Bailey’s team of teaching artists in 2010. Currently, she is the lead teacher for our fourth and fifth grade girls arts-based rites of passage after school program as well as the lead teacher for the girls and vocal teacher for our arts-based rites of passage summer program. Her experiences with Bailey’s Café continue to deepen her understanding of her own talents. Recently, painting has become the primary focus of her creative work. It is through her connection with Bailey’s that Yen learned about the Fulton Art Fair organization and eventually became a member. Marienne earned a degree in Communications from the College of Staten Island.
Summer 2021, Marienne became Bailey’s first Director of Youth Programs.
Driven by the desire to find a place of solace, like the cafe in Gloria Naylor’s novel, where people of all ages and backgrounds can learn, grow and create together, Stefanie Siegel founded Bailey’s Café in 2003. Her work with young people and school reform have been integral in shaping her vision for the organization .
Stefanie taught English in the New York City Public School System from 1987 to 2012. From 1991 to 2012, she taught at Paul Robeson High School in Bedford Stuyvesant/Crown Heights Brooklyn, where she also held the positions of Coordinator of Student Affairs/Senior Advisor, was a member of robesonunite, the student led group that organized to save the school from being phased out and created the first version of Bailey’s.
Since leaving the New York City Department of Education, Stefanie devotes her time to expanding the reach and impact of Bailey’s Café. Stefanie has degrees from Reed College, the University of Chicago, and the City University of New York.
Bailey’s Café is a space of community healing and belonging — a secular church, a home, a kitchen table. Bailey’s welcomes all with an open heart, compassion and love, generating a culture of belongingness, non-judgment, acceptance, community, and space to be your full self. This is Bailey’s unique value.