Brick City Collective/ Brick City Speaks
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Brick City Collective is an artist collective that seeks to promote social change through their art
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
“It’s not just oh, we really like to write poetry and want to share it. It’s really how we get the art that we’re producing, so that we’re opening up conversations in these communities that kind of need to be had. We try to approach that with poetry. I think we’re doing a lot of good work or at least we’re trying to do a lot of good work, but that’s them.” (Marina Carreria 23)
Brick City Collective is a “multicultural multimedia group of Newark-native writers /artists working for social change through literature and art.” (instagram page) Founded by Marina Carreria in 2014, the organization strives to use their voices to make social change happen. Hosting monthly readings at the Newark Public Library as well as hosting events in smaller spaces all over Newark shows the connection this organization has with it’s community. In an interview with Queer Newark, Marina speaks about seeing a bright and fulfilling future for the organization.
“Brick City Collective is still one of the things that keeps me grounded to Newark – is organizing readings in Newark for the queer community, the artistic community, the writer community, really for anybody. I want people to just come off the street and just kind of hear us read. One of the beautiful things is that, because all of us are really, I don’t want to say we’re socially conscious, but we all have our causes and the things we work towards. A lot of us do work that talks about LGBTQ activism, social change to help immigrants, to help residents.” (Maria Carreria 23)
Significance: Marina Carreria on the artist she works with and why Newark: “They either work in Newark or they live in Newark or they’re from Newark in some capacity. That’s what I think sets Newark-ians apart from a lot of places. I see artists doing work in Jersey City, even in West Orange. I see local artists doing work in their communities and neighborhoods but there’s just something about Newark artists where I feel like everything we do is really intentional and for the city. Collectively, we give a shit about what this place is going to look like. I think the city has a good chance to remain Newark” (Marina Carreria 24).
Sources
Marina Carreira, Queer Newark Oral History Project. Accessed May 12th 2021. https://queer.newark.rutgers.edu/interviews/marina-carreira.