October 23 - November 14, 2021

75-Foot Riot

an installation by lane sell

opening reception: Saturday, October 23, 5:30-8pm

Twenty five years ago, on the night of August 19, 1991, a station wagon following a police escort of Lubavitch Rebbe, the leader of the Jewish religious movement Chabad, lost control at the intersection of President St. and Utica Ave., killing 7-year-old Gavin Cato, a child of Guyanese immigrants. Later that night, Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish history doctoral student from Australia, was surrounded by a mob and fatally stabbed a few blocks away. The riot that followed over the next three days continues to define Crown Heights in the popular imagination of the city. To many who live here, politics have tended to erode a wider consciousness of the complexities that led to and emanate from the summer of 1991. 75-Foot Riot is intended to open a humane space for reflection on these issues.

A 75ft. silk screen labyrinth invites viewers to actively navigate the history of racial and class conflicts in Crown Heights. The installation is composed of two silk screened scrolls that detail the Crown Heights riots of 1991, featuring excerpts from Anna Deavere Smith’s interview-based play Fires in the Mirror. 

The creation of 75-Foot Riot was made possible by a Local Arts Support grant from Brooklyn Arts Council in 2014.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo,  The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Perlemeter Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.