New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs doesn’t understand the true meaning of “responsible,” and they have the “Bronx Blemish” to prove it.
I am not an art critic, but I do have eyes, and I do know ugly when I see it. In this case, 'ugly' may not be descriptive enough for the creation or the artist who made it.
In another outrageously stupid decision, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs appointed Shellyne Rodriguez to create a public art display in the Bronx. Rodriguez’s claim to fame is that she once worked as an adjunct professor at Hunter College, which is part of the City University of New York system (CUNY).
She taught in the art department at Hunter. According to an artist statement on her website, she is known for work that deals with “strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation.” Which should give you some insight into her personal beliefs and the subsequent personality that accompanies it.
In May of 2023, Rodriguez was fired for confronting a group called the Students For Life of America on the school’s campus. The group is a nonprofit group that identifies as “one of the leading pro-life advocacy organizations in the world.”
During the confrontation, Rodriguez told the students, “You’re not educating #. This is # propaganda.”
Rodriguez stated that the incident on May 2 involved profanity, the throwing of postcards, and the metal container of rubber fetuses at the students' table.
The students circulated a video of the confrontation. Shortly thereafter, Rodriguez said Hunter College administration asked her, “to issue an apology … which I did.”
She then claims:
“Yet before the process could be completed, on May 19th, Students for Life circulated a manipulated video of the incident on social media and mobilized their members and supporters to attack me. For the past two weeks, I have been inundated with vile and hateful emails, texts, and voicemails nonstop.”
Typical liberal, she attacks an educational display being shown by innocent students because she disagrees with them, and then, when they reveal her arrogant stupidity, she claims that she is the victim.
After the firing, a New York Post reporter, Reuven Fenton, went to Rodriguez’s apartment. According to the Post’s story, Fenton knocked on her door and identified himself as a journalist. But according to a spokesperson for Rodriguez,
Fenton and the cameraperson did not identify themselves and “did not use the intercom to gain access and appear to have been trespassing inside the building when they pounded on her door and started yelling at her through the door.”
The story focuses on Fenton's perspective. According to the article, Rodriguez allegedly yelled from behind her door, in a moment not captured on the video released with the story, “Get the f–k away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!” In the video, Rodriguez emerges from her apartment holding what appears to be a machete and raises it toward Fenton.
Rodriguez was fired from her job for attacking a group of students, then held a machete to the throat of a New York Post reporter, but in October of 2023, she entered a plea deal regarding a misdemeanor charge of menacing. The agreement required her to complete six months of behavioral therapy, after which the charge was withdrawn.
Does that sound like justice to you? Because it doesn’t to me either. You have to ask yourself whether, if the races were reversed between Fenton and Rodriguez, the same love tap of a sentence would have been handed down.
Despite her questionable past and obviously vile disposition, she was granted a $407,000 budget of taxpayer dollars to create an art installation in the Bronx. The hideous exhibit that she created looks like a poorly made, racist Lego display. It stands 23 feet tall and is made of brick, steel, and terracotta, with an unfinished ladder jutting from the top.
Rodriguez calls the eyesore the “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx.” However, upon inspection, the hideous waste of money obviously isn’t a monument for “all” of the people.
In an interview with Hyperallergic, Rodriguez made that fact abundantly clear.
“If abolition is not solely about what we dismantle, but also about what we build in its stead, then what monuments or points of gathering will we, the collective body of the dispossessed who make life on the periphery of empire, make for ourselves as stewards of our own histories and futures.”
The atrocity features images of a phoenix, a mythological symbol of rebirth; a series of piercing eyes; four clenched fists representing black power and socialist solidarity; and the letters “B” and “X” for the home borough. Then there’s that ladder to nowhere coming out of the top.
Rodriguez made $81,000 for this “Bronx Blemish.” That didn’t exactly fire up the residents.
Frankie Santiago, said “Somebody who’s violent; there’s better people who should’ve been given the opportunity. It looks like a piece of junk.”
Another resident, Jose Lopez, added:
“If she’s offensive like that — and they’re using taxpayer money and getting privileges — maybe we should rethink this. It looks kind of weird.”
Rodriguez’s damaged history didn’t end after the 2023 incidents. She was fired from another job at Cooper Union in February of 2024 for anti-Israel writings. So, how was this black Marxist given this undeserved opportunity?
It’s a great question; too bad no one will answer it.
The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs declined to comment on Rodriguez's troubling history. Interestingly, the agency stated that criminal background checks are not part of the Percent for Arts commissioning process. However, it adheres to city procurement rules to select "responsible" contractors.
Responsible contractors? Their definition of responsible must be different from the rest of the world’s. Rodriguez is a miserable racist who should never have been given this opportunity.
Any artist will tell you that inspiration comes from their soul. For most, that translates to something beautiful. Too bad New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs doesn’t understand the true meaning of “responsible,” and they have the “Bronx Blemish” to prove it.
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