Slave Theater anchors district near Barclays
Brooklynite Jonathan Solari, a 26-year-old stage director, has homed in on an historic theater “wedged between the Barclay’s Center and the proposed Bedford Historic District,” in his neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, he explained in an email exchange. He warned that, if not rescued, the culturally significant Slave Theater is sure to suffer the fate of other such vulnerable yet venerable buildings and be “lost to developers.”
The structure began life in 1910 as the Regent movie house, catering to working class Brooklynites. In the 1970s, controversial Civil Court Judge John Phillips, who owned the building, renamed it the Slave Theater, whereupon it became a platform for civil rights activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton. But despite its rich history, the Slave has been dormant for over a decade.
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