Street Co-Naming, Hiram Maristany Way, 111 St & Madison Ave
East 111th Street and Madison Avenue will be known as "Hiram Maristany Way."
Hiram Maristany was described as "the people's photographer" of East Harlem upon his death in March at age 76.
A founder and official photographer of the Puerto Rican activist group the Young Lords, Maristany documented the group's civil rights campaigns during the 1960s and '70s — including the famed 1969 "Garbage Offensive," in which residents protested the city's poor sanitation efforts in El Barrio by piling the neighborhood's streets with refuse, then setting the heaps on fire.
In 1969, he helped his fellow artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz found El Museo Del Barrio, and contributed to the museum's visual language during its early years, according to organizers. He later served as El Museo's director from 1974 to 1977, where he organized multiracial artist exhibitions to foster coalition-building.
"When I documented, I was not doing it from the outside in, but from the inside out," Maristany told the New York Times in 2019. "I knew if I don’t take these images, we’re going to leave it to someone who doesn’t know the first goddamn thing about us, and they’re going to define everything there is to know about us."
Maristany's co-naming was introduced by Councilmember Diana Ayala.
Read MoreHiram Maristany was described as "the people's photographer" of East Harlem upon his death in March at age 76.
A founder and official photographer of the Puerto Rican activist group the Young Lords, Maristany documented the group's civil rights campaigns during the 1960s and '70s — including the famed 1969 "Garbage Offensive," in which residents protested the city's poor sanitation efforts in El Barrio by piling the neighborhood's streets with refuse, then setting the heaps on fire.
In 1969, he helped his fellow artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz found El Museo Del Barrio, and contributed to the museum's visual language during its early years, according to organizers. He later served as El Museo's director from 1974 to 1977, where he organized multiracial artist exhibitions to foster coalition-building.
"When I documented, I was not doing it from the outside in, but from the inside out," Maristany told the New York Times in 2019. "I knew if I don’t take these images, we’re going to leave it to someone who doesn’t know the first goddamn thing about us, and they’re going to define everything there is to know about us."
Maristany's co-naming was introduced by Councilmember Diana Ayala.
