Where in Brooklyn do Vultures Roost?

In November 2015, the 6th annual Brooklyn Real Estate Summit convened in the neighborhood of Crown Heights at the Brooklyn Museum. The museum’s decision to rent its facilities to the Brooklyn Real Estate Summit- a strategy session for the developer class on how to maximize profits in the “red hot markets” of Brooklyn- caused an uproar in the surrounding neighborhoods, which are currently under siege by the forces of gentrification and displacement.

In response, The Illuminator facilitated a process, in collaboration with the Crown Heights Tenant Union, through which neighborhood residents could directly and viscerally speak to the processes of displacement that they confront on a daily basis. In bearing witness to the violence of displacement as it occurs in this community, and remembering the sense of betrayal felt by many when the Brooklyn Real Estate Summit came into this building to discuss how to profit from this violence, we are left with a sincere, and as-yet unanswered, question: How can a museum be an ally to its community in its struggle for survival?

A video documenting this series of actions was displayed as part of the AgitProp! exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016.