La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez

[1] La Plaza Cultural was founded in 1976 by local residents and greening activists who took over what was then a series of vacant city lots piled high with rubble and trash.

In an effort to improve the neighborhood during a downward trend of arson, drugs, and abandonment caused by the New York City fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, members of the Latino group Charas/El Bohio cleared out truckloads of refuse.

[2] Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began staging cultural events.

Artist Gordon Matta-Clark helped construct La Plaza’s amphitheater using railroad ties and materials reclaimed from abandoned buildings.

[3] In 2003, La Plaza was renamed in memory of Armando Perez, a CHARAS founder and former District Leader of the Lower East Side, who was killed in 1999.

East 9th street view of La Plaza Cultural
Calendula, Lemon Balm, Wood Betony, and Yarrow plants currently growing in the medicinal garden of La Plaza Cultural.
Exhibit flyer celebrating the La Lucha Continua Murals at La Plaza Cultural community garden.