CSV Announces Panel Discussion

New York, NY - Dec. 11, 2007
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center is pleased to invite you to a free panel discussion and film screening on Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 at 7:00 PM, with the photographers Clayton Patterson and Marisol Díaz, both featured in the exhibition: Portrait of Loisaida. 

In addition to the two photographers, the panel will include the documentary filmmakers Ben Solomon, Daniel Levin, and Jenner Furst, the force behind the documentary film CAPTURED which profiles Patterson's odyssey from voyeur to provocateur, and from activist to renegade archivist. This fast-paced documentary includes Patterson's rare and renowned footage of the Tompkins Square police riots, and provides a close-up look at a fascinating character and chapter of urban culture.  Selections from the film will be screened for the public.
The event will take place in the Milagro Theater, CSV Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street.

CSV Cultural Center invited two accomplished photographers, Clayton Patterson and Marisol Díaz, to capture a community in transition. The Lower East Side of Manhattan, long referred to by its Hispanic residents as "Loisaida", is presently experiencing the shearing forces of gentrification -- multi-million dollar condominium projects sprouting in the midst of neighborhoods that have housed the city's immigrant poor for generations.
 This exhibition is an opportunity to discuss the tensions that these economic and social changes introduce in the community, and the photos of Patterson and Díaz, two photographers with impressive histories of documenting this community, share their images of the people, institutions, and architecture of a neighborhood in transition. .

The exhibition was curated by Luis R. Cancel, the Center's Executive Director.