About the Project
“We are living in a food desert,” says Kelly Villar, executive director of the Staten Island Urban Center. “Maybe not for apples and potatoes, but definitely a food desert for yucca and malanga and jackfruit and the things our grandmothers prepared.”
To create access to culturally relevant foods, Staten Island Urban Center (SIUC) worked with community partners Staten Island Therapeutic Gardens and Bait-ul Jamaat and designers at A+A+A to create the Tompkinsville Afro-Caribbean Food and Spice Market in Tompkinsville Park, on the North Shore of Staten Island.
The site of Eric Garner’s murder, SIUC had a vision for the park as a space that uplifted the rich culture and created a sense of belonging for the Afro-Caribbean and Latinx members of the neighborhood. The goal was to create a new town square for the community to gather and celebrate their culture.
A+A+A helped construct a modular structure — named Abuelita Masala — to help anchor the market, and serve the community’s future public space programming. During market days, Abuelita Masala serves as an information center for the market. The rest of the days, the piece which was co-designed with Staten Island Urban Center’s volunteer youth, can open and unfold in several positions to support arts and culture programming inspired by SIUC’s past activations at the park. After opening the Market in September and unveiling Abuelita Masala, the team continued to activate Tompkinsville Park throughout the fall, with the long term goal of turning the public space into an inclusive space for the North Shore community.
Learn More About the Project
Explore the team’s full report on their process, findings, and vision for what’s next.
Explore the team’s presentation at the Local Center Summit in November 2024.
Learn more about SUIC’s vision for Tompkinsville.
Team
Staten Island Urban Center (SIUC) is a community development through community involvement organization, lifting the voices of Staten Island’s most marginalized and vulnerable communities experiencing social, environmental and criminal injustices. Their community-centered work is grounded in the pursuit of cultural equity, thrivability, self-determination and independence.
Kelly Vilar
Sarah Blas
Jamillah LaSalle
A+A+A is Andrea Chiney, Ashely Kuo and Arianna Deane. They are a multidisciplinary design studio committed to making places more inclusive, collaborative and joyful.
Images courtesy of partner organizations
Support
Our Rooted Cultures projects are made possible with lead support from the Mellon Foundation and with additional major support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.
Urban Design Forum programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
To learn more about supporting the Local Center, please contact Katherine Sacco, katherine@urbandesignforum.org and Lauren Nye, lauren.n@anhd.org.