... an artist collective of current and former residents of a long-term care facility on Roosevelt Island in NYC. Guided by the Reality Poets’ lived experience and vision, our work focuses on disability justice, community building and gun violence prevention...
According to Open Door Associate Director Alex Eshelman:
Good afternoon OPEN DOORS Family,
I hope you all had a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who came to our Nursing Home Lives Matter Vigil last week. Anyone who was unable to make it can view the recording here on our YouTube channel.
It’s important for us to come together and celebrate life despite all that we’ve lost, so thanks for being with us.
Another event, join us this Thursday March 20th, 6pm EST at the RIVAA Gallery on Roosevelt Island for the Wheeling and Healing 2: Holding the Mic in the Middle of the Storm book release party.
It’s been a year and a half since we started work on this project, and we are extremely proud to finally present it to you all. Get your copy of the book, see live poetry, and remember– it’s a party, so come ready to have a good time! We look forward to seeing you all, have a good evening.
OPEN DOORS’ long awaited poetry anthology is here! Wheeling and Healing 2: Holding the Mic in the Middle of the Storm includes writing from friends and allies near and far.
Hosted by renowned slam poet Steven Willis, we bring to you a night of poetry sharing featuring many of the talented poets who contributed to this anthology. Join us for a special book release party on Thursday, March 20th at 6 PM at RIVAA Gallery. All are welcome!
... an artist collective of current and former residents of a long-term
care facility on Roosevelt Island in NYC. Guided by the Reality Poets’ lived
experience and vision, our work focuses on disability justice, community
building and gun violence prevention...
According to Open Door Associate Director Alex Eshelman:
Good morning OPEN DOORS family,
Here’s a reminder that this Thursday March 13th at 6pm, we’ll be having our 5th Annual Nursing Home Lives Matter Vigil. Join us in solidarity as we commemorate the lives lost during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is the registration link, see the full invitation below.
We look forward to seeing all of you who can make it.
In March 2020, the Reality Poets, fought to protect the lives of residents and staff in their NYC nursing home who were put in harm’s way by the racist and ableist decisions made by the higher powers. Today, we lead the fight for residents and staff in all facilities.
As previously reported, the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement began at Coler on Roosevelt Island during the Covid Pandemic. Remember?
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
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!
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!
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
... 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....
...is a Reality Poet and the Director of the arts-and-justice initiative OPEN
DOORS, an artist collective who, prior to the pandemic, traveled around the
city sharing their poetry and stories....
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.
Last Tuesday, September 19, in front of his family and friends at the Good
Morning America TV studio, Michael Strahan surprised Mr Pierce by announcing that
he was a
2023 Craig H Neilsen (CHN) Visionary Prize
recipient of $1 million.
... launched in 2020 to celebrate influential voices in the world of spinal
cord injury. The Prize was created to honor the legacy of Craig H. Neilsen
and is awarded to individuals who embody the values that were important to
him during his lifetime.
Each prize winner is awarded $1 million, respectively.
Vincent Pierce, based in New York, is a music producer, gun violence
survivor, and community organizer. He is co-director of the arts-and-justice
initiative OPEN DOORS. As an OPEN DOORS Reality Poet, he has traveled around
New York City sharing his story, poetry, and wisdom. As a teen, Vincent
moved to North Carolina, where he studied music and played on multiple
basketball teams. In his twenties, Vincent was shot while being robbed at
gunpoint, leaving him paralyzed.
In 2019, Vincent began writing poetry after he was inspired by a writing
workshop at Open Doors NYC. He started the music program ZING! which, he
says, is “showing kids from neighborhoods like the one I grew up in that
they are bigger than what their environments expect them to be.” Vincent’s
poetry and writings have been published in Wheeling & Healing: A Poetry
Anthology Edited by OPEN DOORS Reality Poets. He’s the recipient of a Center
for Cultural Innovation Grant, which enabled him to start a music program
aimed at keeping youth off the streets and in the studio.
In July 2020, Vincent launched #NursingHomeLivesMatter working for a
healthcare system that protects, respects and cares for all those in
long-term care, and for those who care for us.
I asked Mr Pierce for his thoughts on being a recipient of the David H
Neilsen Visionary Prize. He said:
I would just thank the Nielsen foundation and Good Morning America. I
would just say hard work and dedication pays off.
Roosevelt Island residents Thom Heyer and Julia Ferguson were among the family
and friends who were with Mr Pierce at the Good Morning America Studio.
Mr Heyer reports:
It was rather a surreal day on Good Morning America!
I found out September 8 about GMA wanting to do a feature story on Vince regarding his work at Open Doors, etc.
Friends and family of Vince were asked to RSVP if we could attend and to keep it a secret from Vince.
A financial amount was never mentioned--we all thought it was going to be a public acknowledgement on national television.
I was told about the million dollar check on Monday afternoon when we were asked if we would participate in holding up the numbers to announce the check.
We were asked to show up a half hour earlier than the rest of the people to set up that sequence.
We were also required to keep it a secret.
It truly was a complete surprise!
Julia Ferguson adds:
Vince looked immediately to all his team and friends from the Open Doors
Reality Poets in the moment of receiving this award. He is a very well
deserving recipient of this honor for leadership and community service.
It was an honor to participate and also a complete surprise. I only knew that
he was going to be on a special segment of GMA and that they had asked friends
to join if they could in order to cheer and applaud.
Hope everyone can make it to the NYC premier of Fire Through Dry Grass Sept
29th through Oct. 4th.
Fire Through Dry Grass is a documentary about the experience of residents and workers at Coler during the Covid pandemic. Mr Pierce composed music for the documentary. Here's the trailer for the documentary.
... an artist collective of current and former residents of a long-term care
facility on Roosevelt Island in NYC. Guided by the Reality Poets’ lived
experience and vision, our work focuses on disability justice,
community building and gun violence prevention....
... During the pandemic racist, ableist systems dehumanized and confined the
Reality Poets. Realizing that they had the microphone at the center of
the storm, the group began advocating for 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. The
Reality Poets have launched the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement and are working on a documentary film about their harrowing year on “lockdown” fighting for their lives and their freedoms....
The Nursing Home Lives Matter movement began on Roosevelt Island during the Covid Pandemic. Remember?
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
TOMORROW THURSDAY 6-7 p.m. Community Engagement with
Angelica Patient Assistance Program Roosevelt Islanders are invited to find out more about volunteering with for
programs with our neighbors at Coler. This zoom meeting will take place next
Thursday, March 10th 6-7 p.m. We will hear from Coler residents as well as
meet Angelica Board members.
Please RSVP directly to this Evite here:
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
Residents gathered outside Coler Nursing Home on Roosevelt Island for a Covid-19 vigil, commemorating 1 year since the shut down. Signs were saying "Nursing Home Lives Matter" and "Isolation Kills Too".
Many of the units remain quarantined because of exposure to positive staff.
375 days of confinement so far.
Also, during tonight's meeting, Roosevelt Island resident and Coler Auxiliary Volunteer Judy Berdy describes efforts to make life better for Coler Nursing Home residents.
UPDATE 3/30 - A Coler source reports:
Coler is now OPEN for outdoor visits! Indoor visits will resume on April 14th. Appointments need to be made with Social Work department. I'm sure there are caveats (such as quarantined residents) but at least it's a start!
A staggering 34% of Covid deaths in the US are linked to nursing homes.
March 13 marks a year since nursing home residents have been in lockdown.
Join us Sat. March 13th at 6 pm outside of Coler Nursing Home or virtually
on FB to mark this sobering milestone.
#HighRiskCovid19pic.twitter.com/HpZFzIH4G7
Coler nursing home residents on Roosevelt Island have been
#lockeddown
for over a year now. They only receive 45 minutes of outside time, and
cannot receive visitors. It is almost every week that new staff member tests
positive and entire units are locked down.
#HighRiskCovid19pic.twitter.com/gX0awHVxvJ
Many of the residents in Coler are Black and brown disabled people, and not
all of them are elderly. The deaths undercounted by the Cuomo admin are
largely POC.
#NursingHomeLivesMatter
founder Vince Pierce created this video in response.
pic.twitter.com/4PhFshQsTN
The Friends Of Coler are a group
of Roosevelt Island residents organizing to help the patients and staff of NYC
Health & Hospitals Corp
(HHC) Coler Facility
during the Coronavirus pandemc. According to Friends Of Coler:
Dear Friends of Coler,
We invite you to join Nursing Home Lives Matter outside of Coler or on
Facebook live:
facebook.com/opendoorsnyc for
a Twilight Vigil
Join to listen and bear witness to the ongoing human toll of the pandemic’s
mismanagement. We will channel our grief into a call for more holistic
policies and practices to protect nursing home residents because
#IsolationKillsToo.
Join to read the names of lost friends, hold space for those who remain
nameless, and memorialize this year of catastrophic loss through
remembrances, protest, and poetry by Coler residents and remarks from local
faith leaders and elected officials. We will close with an awe-inspiring
temporal artwork that affirms #NursingHomeLivesMatter
Honoring those we’ve lost and mourning the loss of freedom and connection for
those who’ve been locked inside for a year.
Saturday, March 13, 6 pm EST (Rain Date: Sunday, March 14, 6 pm EST)
In person: Coler Nursing Home—900 Main St, Roosevelt Island, NY
& Virtual: OPEN DOORS Facebook Live:
facebook.com/opendoorsnyc
Last month the New York Attorney General’s office released a report
declaring that the state vastly undercounted nursing home deaths. It is
unacceptable that these lives were erased and politicized, and once reported
became statistics. March 12th will be one year since the state' lockdown on
nursing homes began.
Join us on Saturday, the 13th, at 6pm, outside of Coler Nursing Home and
online, to mark this sobering milestone. From both sides of Coler’s fence,
we will honor those we’ve lost, known and unknown, and mourn the loss of
freedom and connection by those still confined inside Coler and other
congregate facilities, cut off from their agency and loved ones.
One Coler resident describes their experience of isolation this past spring,
summer, fall, winter by saying, “This isn’t a life, this is an existence.”
We will listen and bear witness to the ongoing human toll of the pandemic’s
mismanagement. We will channel our grief into a call for more holistic
policies and practices to protect nursing home residents because
#IsolationKillsToo.
We will read the names of lost friends, hold space for those who remain
nameless, and memorialize this year of catastrophic loss through
remembrances, protest, and poetry by Coler residents and remarks from local
faith leaders and elected officials. We will close with an awe-inspiring
temporal artwork that affirms #NursingHomeLivesMatter.
.@NYCHealthSystem’s Coler Nursing Home residents on Roosevelt Island are the 500 most
vulnerable NYers in our city. I’m calling on
@NYCMayor@DrKatzNYCHH
to halt new transfers of COVID patients to this facility, esp. as 14 staff
& 2 residents have already tested positive.
pic.twitter.com/12tqcd4obm
... Coler Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center is making contingency plans
to re-open the emergency Covid hospital inside Coler. Coler is not a
hospital—it is home to over 500 vulnerable residents with disabilities who are
at high risk of serious illness and death from Covid...
Roosevelt Island resident Nicole Izsak described the demands being made by
Nursing Home Lives Matter followed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
lending her support.
Nursing Home Lives Matter organizer,
Open Doors Poet
and Coler resident Vincent Pierce reports on the aims of the group. Mr Pierce
spoke from behind a Coler fence
that he is not allowed to exit with the aid of
Open Doors Dexter
Ciprian repeating his statement with a loudspeaker.
NYC Health + Hospitals has no plans to open the Roosevelt Island Medical
Center to respond to the current increase in COVID-19-related
hospitalizations. NYC Health + Hospitals’ priority remains the safety of its
patients, residents, and staff for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. With
the help of our heroic frontline providers, we will manage any increase in
patients with our continuing commitment to ensure that all infection control
measures are followed for the safety of all under our care.
In a statement this evening after the rally, Ms Brewer reported:
It seems as though they will not be transferring new patients to the Coler
facility, but the community leaders, residents and my fellow elected officials
and I will remain vigilant and watchful. I am grateful to Dr. Katz for this
news.
Here's December 14 letter sent by Manhattan Borough President Brewer to
Mayor deBlasio and HHC President Dr Mitchell Katz
Coler Rehabilitation & Nursing Care Center is making contingency plans to re-open the emergency Covid hospital inside Coler. Coler is not a hospital—it is home to over 500 vulnerable residents with disabilities who are at high risk of serious illness and death from Covid.
Saturday December 19th at 2pm, Nursing Home Lives Matter (NHLM)—Coler residents and concerned neighbors will gather to present a letter of objection to the reopening of the Covid hospital within Coler and hear testimonials from inside the nursing home. This event will be simultaneously staged inside
Coler’s courtyard. Outside allies will be separated from residents by a fence that has kept them/us locked inside the home for over 270 days. Please wear a mask and maintain social distance.
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
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