Nancy Biberman

Last month, The New York Times documented an incredible group of local artists coming together to turn a rundown (but not forgotten) Bronx building into a work of art.

The canvas was the Andrew Freedman Home, which originally opened in 1924 as a home for New York’s high society elders who had fallen on tough times in their senior years.

Decades later, when the building itself was in economic turmoil, it was saved by a community group and used for services, but “much of the rest of the vast building has been kept sealed off like a tomb, a time capsule monument to the Bronx’s grand past, awaiting a new kind of future."

Much of the Bronx is on the threshold of this “new kind of future."

In spite of being dealt a nearly impossible hand when the city systematically disinvested in the borough in the 1970s, the Bronx survived, and in many ways, flourished.

A haven for new immigrant populations since the early 1900s, the Bronx became a melting pot where music and culture were shared. Its diverse neighborhoods fostered both the passing on of traditions and musical mash-ups.

From the 1940s–1970s, new types of music grew from the vast cultural migrations, when Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and Puerto Ricans converged in the South Bronx among Irish, Italian, and Jewish European immigrants.

Jazz, bebop, mambo, salsa, and rhythm and blues could be heard in the clubs and on the stoops.

In the 1960s and 1970s, a perfect storm was realized as public disinvestment, construction of major highways, and “white flight” sparked insurance-payout fires in residential buildings. But even as the “Bronx was burning”, musical innovation remained a constant.

In the 1970s, when the Bronx was in its most dire straits, hip hop was born in a Bronx subsidized housing development.

An artist rendering of the Bronx Music Heritage Center.

In spite of the amount of music that was born and nurtured in the Bronx, there is no central, public place to share and learn about the rich musical history of the borough.

Our organization, Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, has been working for 20 years to make the Bronx a more beautiful, equitable, and economically vibrant place to live and raise a family.

We have given new life to abandoned buildings and proven that affordable housing could be energy-efficient and attractive. By helping community members start and grow small businesses, and providing education and after school enrichment for thousands of Bronx children, WHEDco has raised the bar in community development.

When we applied for a city-owned site in the heart of the South Bronx, we saw it as a perfect opportunity to create a place to showcase the Bronx’s musical heritage. After convening an advisory board of Bronx musicians, historians, and educators, plans for the Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC) took shape.

The BMHC will feature a performance venue, rehearsal and recording studios, and music archives. It will serve as a hub for the preservation and celebration of the music genres that came about through cross-cultural fusions emblematic of the Bronx.

The BMHC will live within WHEDco’s Bronx Commons campus, which will include 293 affordable residences for families and elder musicians and a grades 6-12 school, fostering inter-generational mentorship and the passing on of traditions.

As we gear up to break ground on Bronx Commons, the BMHC programming is well underway. Over 1,000 Bronxites have joined the movement through roundtable discussions, concerts, and other events. In April 2012, WHEDco will open the Bronx Music Heritage Center Laboratory, a space for artists and community members-young and old- to engage in BMHC-related artistic endeavors until the campus is built.

Bronx Commons will be located in the Melrose community of the South Bronx. The area is in the final stages of a major community-led renaissance that has increased residential density, and is bringing more mixed use development, with particular attention to urban design and sustainability. The 2010 census showed the area had one of the largest population increases in all of New York City.

In the midst of this time of revitalization in the Bronx, the Bronx Music Heritage Center will ensure that the Bronx’s “new kind of future” is deeply rooted in its past.

For more on the project, join the discussion at on the Bronx Music Heritage Center Facebook page.