Four years ago, 160 residents of 345 Eldert Street in Bushwick were forced out of their apartments by the FDNY. The reasons were because the building had numerous violations including “illegal mezzanines, illegal plumbing, blocked sprinklers and blocked exits,” which are better known as some of the things people accept because they want to live in Bushwick. Now, some of the residents have returned, but not all.
This is where Christiana Martin comes in: the photographer and musician has been living in Bushwick since 2005, and wanted to raise some money for her community. Instead of the usual things people do like a bake sale, or a community car wash, she had something much more intimidate in mind: a 12-month calendar filled with nude photographs of her friends and neighbors, per DNA Info. Can’t knock somebody trying something new for a good cause.
The project “345 Eldert Calendar” has been in the works for the past three and a half years. Martin told DNAinfo that the evictions that took place in 2011 were a “pretty traumatic experience” and that the work comes “from a perspective of being close friends with people and caring about people. There’s an intimacy that happens where we live.”
The celandar has an Indiegogo page and as of this writing has raised $525 dollars, and needs just $75 dollars more to reach its goal. If you are so inclined (and why wouldn’t you be), for just $25 dollars, the amount most of us pay for brunch every Sunday, you can have the opportunity to gaze at 12 nude Bushwick men and women from July 2015 to July 2016. All profits from the calendar will go toward funding a TBD project that will benefit the building and the community that lives in it. Sure, the models here are not your typical super photoshopped super models, but instead of hanging a calendar that’s just trying to sell you beer, you can actually get a calendar to help out a good cause, or upset your mother when she comes to visit. It’s all up to you.
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The evictions may have been a “pretty traumatic experience,” but far FAR less traumatic than if a fire were to break out in a building with so many code violations. Regulations like these are pretty much always the result of some horrific historical event that caused their implementation in the first place. Vilifying the FDNY in this case is foolish and misdirected.