Roosevelt Island Open Doors Reality Poets Invite You To Nursing Home Lives Matter Gala November 29 At Cornell Tech Tata Innovation Center - Their Fire Through Dry Grass Documentary About Coler Nursing Home Residents And Workers Experiences During Covid Available For Streaming, Watch It Now

Our Roosevelt Island neighbors, the Open Doors Reality Poets residents of the Coler Rehab & Nursing Facility, invite you their First Annual Nursing Home Lives Matter Gala

taking place November 29 at the Cornell Tech Tata Innovation Center.

According to Open Doors NYC

OPEN DOORS would be honored by your presence at our FIRST ANNUAL NHLM GALA! 

Featuring performances by the Reality Poets and our community, join us for an evening of poetry, mingling, and celebration as we look to the future of #NursingHomeLivesMatter!

Wednesday, Nov 29th, 2023

5:00PM ET

TATA INNOVATION CENTER, 1st Floor

11 E Loop Rd, New York, NY 10044

(Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island)

Attire: Come as you are!

There will be light snacks and drinks, and the Reality Poets and featured guests will perform between presentations. We can't wait to see you there!

CLICK TO RSVP

NHLM Gala is free to attend. However, we encourage attendees with financial means to consider making a donation to OPEN DOORS to help us offset cost of the event and continue to provide support for the Reality Poets, educational workshops, and community activism.

Even if you cannot attend, you are still welcome to make a donation!

CLICK TO DONATE

According to Open Doors:

Before we officially came together as the Reality Poets, we were a loose group of wheelchair users who would sit outside the massive brick building at the tip of Roosevelt Island, smoke and share stories. Many of us were gun violence survivors and all of us felt there was nothing to do living in the nursing home. In 2016 a local artist started a project for us called OPEN DOORS, and from there the Reality Poets were born. Thanks to our vision and leadership OPEN DOORS is now a dynamic creative collective, educating our youth and producing artistic collaborations, including a poetry anthology, original play and hip-hop album.

During the pandemic we were dehumanized and confined inside our nursing home. Realizing we had the microphone at the center of the storm, we began advocating for all those living and working in long-term care, particularly Black and brown nursing home residents who saw twice the amount of COVID deaths as their white counterparts. In 2020 we launched the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement and are now warriors with a mission to end racism and ableism in long-term care.

Powerful a nursing Home Lives Matter Message Projected on wall of Roosevelt Island Coler Nursing Facility last night at end of vigil remembering those who died and in support of those still in lockdown during Covid 19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/95xPgWNhKT

— Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) March 15, 2021

As previously reported:

... Coler residents and Open Doors Reality Poets teamed with documentary filmmaker Alexis Neophytides  to show what it was like at the Coler nursing home during the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic.  

Fire Through Dry Grass is a documentary film about the experience of residents and workers at the NYC Health & Hospitals Corp Coler nursing facility on Roosevelt Island during the Covid pandemic....

Here's the trailer for Fire Through Dry Grass

and click here to watch the full Fire Through Dry Grass documentary presented by the PBS Point Of View series. 

Click to RSVP for the November 29 Nursing Home Lives Matter Gala.