{"id":204812,"date":"2026-04-21T15:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204812\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:52:09","slug":"how-one-bronx-couple-transformed-an-abandoned-rail-station-into-a-cultural-hub-for-local-artists-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204812\/","title":{"rendered":"How one Bronx couple transformed an abandoned rail station into a cultural hub for local artists \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple from Hunts Point is leading an effort to address the Bronx\u2019s significant lack of dedicated performance venues and third spaces compared to other boroughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Majora Carter and James Chase founded Bronxlandia<\/a>, a multi-use event space and former rail station, after recognizing a need for local Bronx residents to have spaces to showcase their talents and build community.<\/p>\n

After purchasing the former landmark from Amtrak in 2016 for only $1, the couple began renovating the long empty space and started running events in late 2021.<\/p>\n

Carter, a real estate developer and urban revitalization strategy consultant who was raised in Hunts Point, has spent years thinking about what it means to invest in community without displacing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to these places [in Brooklyn] and there [are] bars and stores and fun and people on the street all the time having a blast,\u201d Carter said in an interview with the Bronx Times. \u201cAnd it was like, I want that, but I want our community to also be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronx residents suffer from a lack of \u201cthird spaces,\u201d or locations outside of work and home where community can be fostered.
\n\"\"Bronxlandia<\/a> is a multi-use event space and former rail station for local Bronx residents to have spaces to showcase their talents and build community. Photo by Karizma Jernigan\n<\/p>\n

Bronxlandia aims to fill the gap, but before opening up the space to local clientele, the couple tested their ideas by launching Boogie Down Grind<\/a> in 2019, a cafe designed to be more than just a place to grab coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Affectionately known as \u201cThe Grind,\u201d the cafe hosts multiple events each month such as comedy nights every Wednesday and open mic nights featuring different poets once a month on Fridays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered that through the cafe, a good number of our customers and some of our employees are performers, and whenever we go to see them, it\u2019s never in the Bronx,\u201d Chase said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you hear young people in the cafe [saying] they just met this cool person on the train coming back from Brooklyn [even though] they don\u2019t even live that far from each other, and they\u2019re travelling an hour to get to not as cool a place,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Once the couple recognized that there is much talent emerging from the Bronx, they began thinking about the lack of resources preventing these individuals from reaching their full potential and prompting them to seek opportunities elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs community developers, we always wondered what was making people love or wanna leave their community,\u201d Carter said. \u201cWe started thinking about our own community and how so many people feel like we should be measuring success by how far we get away from our community, and I grew up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Carter, the work has always been personal. When she was in high school, she had the mindset of escaping the Bronx, leaving the borough for better opportunities. It wasn\u2019t until after graduate school that she learned to love her neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you realize this is where magic, art, community and revolution happen, you need to be building these spaces here to give people reasons to stay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Majora Carter and James Chase bought Bronxlandia, the former landmark, from Amtrak in 2016 for only $1. Photo by Karizma Jernigan<\/p>\n

Despite being the birthplace of hip-hop, the Bronx has a long history of being neglected and underfunded.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s 15th congressional district, which represents the southern portion of the West Bronx and the South Bronx, is the poorest<\/a> congressional district in the U.S. The area\u2019s history explains why spaces like Bronxlandia and The Grind have been slow to develop.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, New York City faced a severe financial crisis<\/a> caused by a combination of factors including a decade-long accumulation of debt, white-flight and high spending on social services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Bronx River Alliance<\/a>, during that time, Bronx landlords were paying arsonists to burn their buildings for the insurance money and purposely letting properties decline because they were not being held accountable by the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to New York State Environment and Health Data, redlining<\/a> also played a major role in the devaluing of neighborhoods in the Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Areas like Mott Haven, Melrose, Morrisania and Bellmont, among other areas, were labelled hazardous or declining, leading to housing segregation and limited access to loans and home ownership in more desirable neighborhoods for people of color. This practice kept many residents from achieving long-term financial stability.<\/p>\n

In addition to destroying homes, frequent fires also wiped out existing music venues.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

90% of housing units were lost in the Bronx between 1970 and 1980 due to fires<\/a>. With that, greedy brokers, landlords, fires and neglect became a regular occurrence in the borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe have a real professional performance space here, with a liquor license and a full sound package. When you come here there\u2019s musicians, there\u2019s plug and play,\u201d James Chase told the Bronx Times. Photo by Karizma Jernigan<\/p>\n

Among burnt out buildings, however, creativity rose as both a coping mechanism and a form of expression.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hip-hop<\/a> icons like Melle Mel, Grandwizzard Theodore, DJ Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell emerged from this period of urban neglect, shaping a genre that would go on to influence the world.<\/p>\n

Despite this legacy, the Bronx has not fully recovered from its fiery past, and continues to lack large performance spaces to house underserved communities and emerging talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the lesson should have been learned now,\u201d Chase said. \u201cFor 40 years now, this type of stuff has just been going on and on and nobody is even putting their toe in the stream to divert it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter, who also founded Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit that addresses environmental, economic and social concerns and published a 2022 novel called \u201cReclaiming Your Community,\u201d has long worked on environmental justice and economic development, but she said the arts played a key role in shaping her approach.<\/p>\n

Carter shared that she originally went to grad school for film then switched to creative writing hoping to write a novel and direct her own screenplay someday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She eventually moved back home to live with her parents in Hunts Point after being unable to afford student housing and got involved with the Bronx WritersCorps, the Bronx chapter of a 1994 program and a project of the Bronx Council on the Arts, leading her to meet inspiring creatives in her own neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When she found out that the city was planning to build a large waste facility by the waterfront, she became indignant.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because we are a poor community of color and nobody cares, especially our city and state,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThey think that we are not going to notice this and I flipped out, but it was the arts that got me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This prompted Carter to realize that, despite her newfound community, a career in the arts could not tackle these systemic issues and wouldn\u2019t support her current work toward environmental justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took that experience of feeling like they\u2019re treating us this way because they don\u2019t see any value in us, [but] there is so much value in this community, we just have to show them,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bronxlandia hosts numerous monthly performances, pop-ups and art installations and has featured talent like French Montana and Sexyy Red. Photo by Karizma Jernigan<\/p>\n

Carter has since shown<\/a> over the years how investing in community brings results.<\/p>\n

And Bronxlandia, one of the many projects Carter has invested in which now hosts numerous monthly performances, pop-ups and art installations and has featured talent like French Montana and Sexyy Red, is just the first phase of a larger plan according to Carter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really do strive for the same level of positive cultural entertainment activity that Queens and Brooklyn enjoy,\u201d Chase said about Bronxlandia.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a real professional performance space here, with a liquor license and a full sound package. When you come here there\u2019s musicians, there\u2019s plug and play. More importantly, people who want to be live event production professionals need a low risk place where they can do that, and we can provide that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both Carter and Chase have experienced the gap of cultural inequality firsthand. When reflecting on the Bronx\u2019s history, as well as their own experiences, the couple explained how the name Bronxlandia came about.<\/p>\n

\"\"The name Bronxlandia \u201ca nod to our Latino and Latinx neighbors, and the show Portlandia,\u201d Majora Carter told the Bronx Times. Photo by Karizma Jernigan<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a name that is uniquely ours,\u201d Carter said. \u201cNot too far from here, there was an amusement park called Bronx Land, and James spent a lot of time in South America, [where people] would call America \u2018Gringolandia.\u2019 I loved it, and it\u2019s also a nod to our Latino and Latinx neighbors, and the show Portlandia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s decade-long project still remains a work in progress.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually below the poverty line,\u201d Chase said. \u201cThese places don\u2019t return anything [financially] for years, but they\u2019re just so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep getting discovered every day,\u201d Carter said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that love us, love us. We don\u2019t get a whole lot of traffic, but we started this as a labor of love in response to what we perceived was a community need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple from Hunts Point is leading an effort to address the Bronx\u2019s significant lack of dedicated performance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[81103,128,81104,81105,81106,81107,81108,19501,81109,81110,9,24,63,129,131,130,81111,45146],"class_list":{"0":"post-204812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-boogie-down-grind","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-bronx-art","11":"tag-bronx-art-space","12":"tag-bronx-cafe","13":"tag-bronx-coffee","14":"tag-bronx-event-space","15":"tag-bronx-events","16":"tag-bronxlandia","17":"tag-cheap-event-spaces","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news","24":"tag-the-grind","25":"tag-things-to-do-in-the-bronx"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}