By Elena Goukassian, published January 29, 2025
On the morning of 28 January, an enthusiastic group of local politicians, arts leaders and community members gathered in Downtown Brooklyn for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the L10 Arts and Cultural Center. The new space, created using $84m in funding from the City of New York, is located above the Whole Foods supermarket at 10 Lafayette Avenue in the so-called Bam Cultural District. Centring the local community, particularly Black Brooklynites, L10 provides 65,000 sq. ft over several floors to four non-profits: the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (Mocada), 651 Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam) and the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL).
L10 is the first-ever permanent home of 651 Arts, with new performance and rehearsal spaces for the 37-year-old organisation dedicated to African diaspora performing arts and culture. A gallery and performance space for Mocada is now open on site as well, expanding the museum’s exhibition space five-fold. For Bam, a neighbouring cinema, visual- and performing-arts institution, L10 adds three cinemas and ample room for its archives. A new BPL branch focused specifically on the arts was also inaugurated on the premises.
As the wind whistled through the gaps between the veranda doors on an upper level of the building, a dozen speakers took turns at the microphone to celebrate the completion of a yearslong project. In attendance were friends and supporters—among them, the museum directors Thelma Golden (of the Studio Museum in Harlem) and Anne Pasternak (of the Brooklyn Museum).
Laurie Cumbo, New York City’s commissioner of cultural affairs and the original founder of Mocada, presided over the ceremony. She introduced each speaker in turn, bringing an air of optimism to what many in the room acknowledged as a difficult time for the US.
“We continue to make Black history, whether you like it or not,” Cumbo said, nodding to recent political maneuvers from Donald Trump administration’s to shut down diversity efforts. “We continue to make women’s history, whether you like it or not.” (She later noted that even the architects of the building, from the firm Andrea Steele Architecture, were women.)
Cumbo’s introductory remarks were followed by the young local writer Grace Tapia reading two of her poems—providing “cultural and creative greetings”, as Cumbo described it. A long list of speakers followed: Maria Torres-Springer (New York City’s first deputy mayor), Josh Kraus (of the city’s economic development corporation), Jumaane Williams (the city’s public advocate), Crystal Hudson and Carlina Rivera (city councilmembers), Kimberly Council (deputy Brooklyn borough president), Amy Andrieux (director of Mocada), Toya Lillard (director of 651 Arts), Linda Johnson (president of BPL) and Gina Duncan (president of Bam). Notably absent was the mayor, Eric Adams, who has been avoiding public events this week.