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Spaceship Earth: Buckminster Fuller & CHARAS
…group of dome builders. He hopped in the cab, and that was how he crossed into the world of CHARAS.” CHARAS was an acronym of its founders’ first names: Chino…
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Celebrating Chino García, co-founder of CHARAS/El Bohío
Chino García, co-founder of CHARAS In 2015, Village Preservation conducted an oral history with community organizer Carlos “Chino” García, one of the co-founders of the legendary community organization CHARAS. CHARAS…
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CHARAS / El Bohío Holiday and New Year’s Update
…East 9th Street once housed the popular CHARAS/El Bohío community center. For decades, CHARAS served thousands of visitors each year, hosting all kinds of events, from concerts, recitals and exhibits…
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Three Kings Day Call for Old PS64/CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center
…Blasio to return the Old PS 64/CHARAS El Bohio Community Center to community use. That was just one of many, many grassroots actions over many years regarding the local landmark….
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Chino Garcia Oral History and Screening of CHARAS is Alive on Spaceship Earth
…1970s, and more. CHARAS first built domes in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in 1972. Artist and scholar Matthew Mottel will present his short documentary about CHARAS based on archival footage…
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Great News Regarding Proposed 32-ft.-Tall 5G Towers in the West Village, Saving Charas/Former P.S. 64 at 605 East 9th Street, and Bleecker Street Morton Williams Supermarket
…that would negatively impact historic resources, and ask friends, family, and neighbors to do the same — it does make a difference. The former P.S. 64/Charas-El Bohio Community Center ca….
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Former P.S. 64/Charas
Former P.S. 64/Charas Cultural Center Village Preservation joined many others in successfully supporting landmark designation for the former P.S. 64 and Charas/El Bohio Cultural Center at 605 East 9th Street…
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Seizing the Opportunity to Return the Landmarked Former CHARAS/Old P.S. 64 to the Community
The landmarked former CHARAS Community Center/old P.S. 64 at 605 East 9th Street will soon, finally, be wrested from the hands of owner Gregg Singer. Singer purchased it through a…
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Foreclosure Ordered for East Village’s Former P.S. 64/CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center as Neighborhood Demands Landmarked Building’s Return
The former P.S. 64 on East 9th Street (left), and Village Preservation East Village Director Juan Rivero speaking at the CHARAS rally on December 17 Christmas and New Year’s came…
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Old P.S. 64/CHARAS Landmark Anniversary
…& Charas-El Bohio Cultural Center. GVSHP fought hard in support of this designation along with many neighborhood partners, which saved the property from imminent destruction. As part of an all…
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Town Hall to Save Charas / PS 64 A rally to save the historic building and former community center
Town Hall to Save Charas / PS 64 A rally to save the historic building and former community center Join Council member Rosie Mendez and elected officials, neighbors, activists, and…
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City Hall Rally February 14 to Save Old PS 64/Charas El Bohio
…on the steps of City Hall to save the former Charas/El Bohio Community Center (the old P.S. 64) at 605 East 9th Street, which is in grave danger of being turned into a fake…
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Five-Year Lawsuit Against Village Preservation Dismissed; Continue the Fight for CHARAS/El Bohio at the Former P.S. 64 this Saturday
…group CHARAS/El Bohio to offer much-needed social and arts programs to the neighborhood. Developer Gregg Singer bought it and tried to tear the historic building down (even as it was…
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Rally Wednesday at 11 AM for Charas/El Bohio — Give Us Back Our Community Center
Join us this Wednesday at 11 AM as we rally with fellow community groups and elected officials to call for the city to return the former CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center…
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The Poetry Project: Geodesic Linguix; Charas as Infinite Thought Object
The Poetry Project: geodesic linguix; Charas as Infinite Thought Object On 1.9.19, The Poetry Project will stage a performative action between artist, and researcher Matthew Mottel and poet Edwin Torres….
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The social and cultural Puerto Rican history of the East Village
…was taken over by several community groups and turned into the CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center. CHARAS was an acronym for the first name of the organization’s five Puerto Rican founders:…
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Hispanic Heritage in the East Village: A Walk through Loisaida
…abandonment, community activists took over the vacant building and turned it into CHARAS-El Bohío community center. CHARAS was the acronym for the first name of the center’s five Puerto Rican…
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Old P.S. 64 on the L.E.S. — Immigrant School Innovator and Latinx Culture Leader
…and work to reacquire old P.S. 64/CHARAS and return it to community use. Save Old P.S. 64/CHARAS Click here to tell Mayor de Blasio to live up to his campaign…
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The Jones-Shafroth Act Begins Puerto Rican Migration to the Lower East Side
…was quickly utilized by neighborhood groups, first the urban homesteading group Adopt-A-Building, and later Charas. Charas was formed by five Puerto Rican men in the 1960’s as a positive force…
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What’s Up With that Rotting School on East 9th Street?
…After the CB3 vote on Tuesday at its monthly meeting, CHARAS co-founder Chino Garcia was smiling. (The name CHARAS comes from initials of his name along with those of his…
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A Landmark’s Long Fight for Life
The former Public School 64, which once housed the CHARAS community and cultural center, was designed by master school architect C.B.J. Snyder in the French Renaissance Revival style in 1904-06….
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Eight Abandoned East Village Buildings’ Second Acts As Beacons of Culture
…1905. Like PS122, by the 1970s Public School 64 had been abandoned, and in 1977, a coalition of community groups founded the CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center at this location. CHARAS,…
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C.B.J. Snyder and P.S. 64
…Beginning in 1979, another existing local group, CHARAS, occupied the western wing and theater of the school building. CHARAS and Adopt-A-Building formed a new corporation, El Bohío (a word that…
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Significant Latinx History Sites in the Village
…poetry, and so much more. Learn more about the building on our East Village Building Blocks site. Former CHARAS-El Bohio/ Old P.S. 64 This now-abandoned but still standing structure used…
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Charles Snyder’s Historic Schools in the East Village
The distinctive H plan of many NYC schools that Snyder designed, here the former P.S. 64/CHARAS building. Each year, New York City’s 1 million public school students return to school…
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A Victory for a Once (And Future?) Community Center, an Embattled Landmark
…issued the permits in the first place is a mystery.) The crowd gathered on East Ninth Street, with the broken windows and permanent scaffolding of P.S. 64 behind them. CHARAS/El…
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Could Redevelopment Finally Be Moving Forward at P.S. 64?
…as the CHARAS-El Bohio community center for two decades, until it was sold by the Giuliani administration to a private developer in 1998. Since 2001, when developer Gregg Singer succeeded…
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Touring the Gardens of the East Village
…abandoned lot, though it quickly transformed through the ambitious efforts of CHARAS, the organization that revitalized their neighborhood through education and community building, often out of their squatted community center,…
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For Downtown’s Unsung Heroes: Love, Passion, and a Party
…organizer who co-founded CHARAS, particularly noted for its innovative work fostering community-based urban ecology, arts and culture. Charas/El Bohio, at the former P.S. 64, was a vibrant community arts and…
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A Tale of Four Schools — Program Thursday
…great community resources such as these and facilitate their adaptive reuse, and what can we still learn from Snyder’s century-old philosophies? PS 64, the site of Charas, as it stands…
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A Complete Guide to the Charles B.J. Snyder Schools in Our Neighborhoods
…this building was taken over by several community groups and turned into the CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center. CHARAS was an acronym for the first name of the organization’s five Puerto…
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Development dispute over P.S. 64 in the East Village continues, two decades later
…the Charas-El Bohio Community and Cultural Center, to a developer, despite opposition from the building’s occupants and the surrounding community. The decision and the building remain mired in controversy to this day….
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2014 Year In Review: GVSHP Programs
…will be available for purchase and signing. Town Hall to Save Charas / PS 64 A rally to save the historic building and former community center Monday, November 17 6:30…
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East Village Activist History on Display at Loisaida
…highlights the work of collectives such as CHARAS, PAD/D, REPOhistory, Paper Tiger TV, ABC NO Rio and the dedicated artists/organizers that have created posters, banners, buttons, newsletters and films that…
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‘Alternative Facts’: A Familiar Theme When Fighting Overdevelopment
…courtesy of EV Grieve. Alternative Fact: The owner of the former PS. 64/Charas/El Bohio Community Center in the East Village wants to revive the long-shuttered building by turning it into…
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East Village “Winter Flowers” — Where Will They Bloom Again?
…common in that era, members of the Latino group CHARAS cleared out truckloads of refuse. Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began…
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Village Preservation in the Press
…longer controls old P.S. 64 / CHARAS as ‘angel investor’ buys building loan, Village Sun, December 26 LinkNYC Operator Withdraws Westbeth 5G Tower Plans, Our Town, December 12 ‘Catastrophic damage’:…
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Twenty Years Later, A Community Center is Still Empty
Copy of the Memorandum of Sale dated July 20, 1998 This Friday, July 20, marks the 20th anniversary of the controversial auction of the former P.S. 64/CHARAS-El Bohio Community and Cultural…
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Living History Lunch Chat with Luz Rodriguez
…was also an active participant in Charas/El Bohio, a cultural center where she participated in the building of geodesic domes throughout the community, educating others of the teachings of Buckminster…
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Chino Garcia
…as a founding member of the CHARAS–El Bohio Cultural Center, which the City took from the community and sold; his work with renowned poet Miguel Piñero; and his connections to…
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Accomplishments
…25-year effort, the former P.S. 64/Charas-El Bohio Community Center at 605 East 9th Street was finally wrested from developer Gregg Singer’s hands, opening new possibilities for the landmarked building to…
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C.B.J. Snyder and the East Village
We have written a number of times about the former P.S. 64/ CHARAS-El Bohio Community and Cultural Center and our efforts to save the landmarked building. The beloved historic structure was built…
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The Skidmore House becomes a landmark
…and exposed to the elements and in disrepair (a condition we currently grapple with at the landmarked former PS 64 /CHARAS on East 9th & 10th streets.) By 2010, the building was…
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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage
…history here. Garcia was an activist and founding member of the CHARAS-El Bohio Cultural Center. Click here to read more about the 400+ years of Hispanic history in our neighborhoods….
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Handouts to Big Real Estate, and a Festivus for the Rest of Us!
…12, 2017 statement that the City would take steps to return the CHARAS-El Bohio to the community. The former St. Denis has now made way for new commercial development. Instead…
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New Oral History: Shirley Wright and the Founding of the West Village Nursery School
…like CHARAS’s Chino Garcia and Fran Goldin; playwrights like John Guare and Virlana Tkacz; photographers like Marlis Momber; writers like Calvin Trillin and Mimi Sheraton; filmmakers like Jonas Mekas; musicians…
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Developer Sues GVSHP to Prevent Us from Defending Our Neighborhoods
…— GVSHP — from developing the former PS 64/Charas-El Bohio community/cultural center at 605 East 9th Street. Mr. Singer has sought to demolish and replace the building with a high-rise…
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New Oral History: Westbeth Artist Christina Maile
…Strand’s Fred Bass and Romana Raffetto of Raffetto’s; choreographers like Merce Cunningham; activists like CHARAS’s Chino Garcia and Fran Goldin; playwrights like John Guare and Virlana Tkacz; photographers like Marlis…
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An Old Garden Grows Again
…Chicago Mural Group, and learn more in the book “On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City” See the mural sponsored by Charas and Adopt a…
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New Oral History: East Village Photography Pioneer Alex Harsley
…Fred Bass and Romana Raffetto of Raffetto’s; choreographers like Merce Cunningham; activists like CHARAS’s Chino Garcia and Fran Goldin; playwrights like John Guare and Virlana Tkacz; photographers like Marlis Momber;…
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East Village
…Webster Hall Yiddish Art Theater Stuyvesant Polyclinic 35 Cooper Square 326 & 328 East 4th Street 432-438 East 14th Street Congregation Mezritch Synagogue Mary Help of Christians Church P.S. 64/CHARAS…
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Back To School
…47 is one of many significant historic educational sites in the neighborhood, such as P.S. 64/Charas-El Bohio and the Children’s Aid Society homes for boys and girls. If you would…
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History’s Mysteries: Ghost Sign on East 6th Street
…its predecessor the old P.S. 64, Charas/El Bohio Cultural Center at 605 East 9th Street) which was built between 1951 and 1954 as J.H.S. 71. Dozens of tenements, business and…
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Next Monday — City Council District 2 Candidate Forum
…in the East Village, from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary to Theatre 80 and CHARAS. Reserve a spot for next Monday’s City Council District 2 Candidate Forum —…
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Former Schools of Greenwich Village and the East Village
…in our neighborhoods that have now taken on new lives, including the former P.S. 64/CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center at 605 East 9th Street, former Grammar School 36/Loisaida Center at 710…
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