"We gotta make a change...
I'ts time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, lets change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we we gotta do, to survive."
Barring some miracle, I think 220 Allen st is no more. We fought hard to keep her, but in the end we have to move on. Some of us are angry at the powers that be. I guess it doesn't make much sense. People spend billions of dollars on war and porn, but despite searching far and wide, we found nobody willing to pay for a neigborhood art center. The fact is, though, that what happened in that building only happened because nobody really cared about the money, and if money was in the equation, it wouldn't have been what it was. If we'd been worrying about the bills, would anyone have had taken the time to plant a garden, or paint a powerwheels jeep with the neigborhood kids, or record a 40 minute hip hop track featuring a dozen Trenton artists? None of those things made us any money. Almost everything we did was just for the purpost of building community sharing our creativity. Even on the very last night, not knowing what else to do, we made art. 220 was truly the place capitalism forgot.
But then it remembered, and told us to f**k off.
Now here we are, forced to move on and pay our own way. We've moved a couple blocks down to the Studio 219 on East Hanover St. When I say "we," I mean Will Kasso, Wills, Black Collar Biz, and myself (Graham), and a few more collaborators. This definitely isn't the entire TA, but I think its safe to say it: That Trenton Atelier is moving to 219 East Hanover.
Nobody knows how to do what we're about to try to do. We want to become self sufficient as artists, but stay true to our roots. Whether or not we ever "make it," I know the TA will be successful as long as we remember that our greatest resource is each other.
