The Lower East Side just got its own yearbook—and no, it’s not a glossy high school relic, but a living, breathing community archive you can actually contribute to. Lower East Side Yearbook: A Living Archive opens today at Abrons Arts Center, transforming all three of its galleries into a multi-sensory tribute to downtown’s public-housing residents and neighborhood memory.
Led by photographer and filmmaker Destiny Mata, who grew up in the Lillian Wald Houses, the sprawling exhibition combines her portraits of neighbors and nightlife with photos sourced from local families through an open call. The result feels part time capsule, part community scrapbook—layered with film clips, handwritten “love letters” to the LES and even architectural recreations like a New York City Housing Authority bench where visitors can sit to watch Heat, a short documentary by resident Aicha Cherif.
