Slave Theater

{{Infobox venue

| nickname = Slave I

| former names = Regent Theater

| image = SlaveTheater streetView.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Street view of the Slave Theater marquee, before the theater was demolished in 2016

| address = 1215 Fulton Street

| location = Brooklyn, New York 11216

| coordinates = {{Coord|40.680677|-73.952772}}

| type = Movie theater

| built = 1910

| opened = 1986

| closed = 2012

| demolished = 2016

}}

Slave Theater, also called the Slave I, was a movie theater located at 1215 Fulton Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City. The theater was founded in 1984 by Brooklyn judge John Phillips to screen a film he had produced and became a center of civil rights organizing in Brooklyn.

John Phillips named the theater as a reminder of slavery as the origin of African-American and black American history. The name had a mixed reception by the Bed–Stuy community, but the theater became an emblem of Black pride in Brooklyn. After a complicated legal battle over ownership after Phillips's death, the theater was sold in 2013 and demolished in late 2016.

History

File:JudgeJohnPhillips.jpg

In 1984, Brooklyn civil court judge John PhillipsJudge Phillips was known as the "Kung-fu Judge" for his high-level black belt and his founding of the "Gorilla-Gnat System of Scientific Movements and Defensive Fighting", which he taught in a dojo in Brooklyn. {{cite news |last1=Spellen |first1=Suzanne |title=Slave Theater – Brooklyn's Former Hub for Black Pride and Social Justice |url=https://www.brownstoner.com/history/slave-theater-brooklyn-bed-stuy-judge-john-phillips/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Brownstoner |date=14 December 2015}} bought and renamed the Regent Theater (built in 1910{{cite book |last1=Freudenheim |first1=Ellen |title=The Brooklyn experience : the ultimate guide to neighborhoods & noshes, culture & the cutting edge |date=2016 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0813577432 |page=66}} Several sources refer to the 1215 Fulton theater prior to 1986 as the "Regal Theater", but the majority of sources do not.). He had produced an interracial romance film Hands Across Two Continents and couldn't convince theaters to screen it, so he bought two theaters in Brooklyn to have the movie played.The other theater is now called the Black Lady Theatre, colloquially referred to as the Slave II. {{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Rachel |title=Restoration of Black Lady Theatre Underway in Crown Heights |url=https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161012/crown-heights/black-lady-theater-nostrand-avenue/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=DNAinfo New York |archive-date=27 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727180606/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161012/crown-heights/black-lady-theater-nostrand-avenue/ |url-status=dead }} He renamed the Regent Theater the Slave Theater because, according to the website Brownstoner, he wanted to "remind everyone in the community, including himself, where they came from. He didn’t particularly care that many in that community were offended by the name, either". In response to in Queens later in the 1980s {{crossreference|(see e.g. Howard Beach incident)}}, Judge Phillips opened the theater as a space for the local Black community and civil rights work; Al Sharpton started holding weekly rallies at the theater,For a short description of a journalist's visit to one of these rallies, see {{cite book |last1=Newkirk |first1=Pamela |title=Within the veil : black journalists, white media |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0814758007 |pages=154–155|date=September 2002 }} which he cites as a reason for increased civil rights organizing in Brooklyn at the time.{{cite news |last1=Leland |first1=John |title=The Slave Theater in Brooklyn at Center of Bitter Battle Over Ownership |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/nyregion/the-slave-theater-in-brooklyn-at-center-of-bitter-battle-over-ownership.html |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=10 February 2012}} For example, the Slave Theater was a gathering point for marches (and speeches by Al Sharpton and C. Vernon Mason) following the acquittal of John Vento and Keith Mondello for the murder of Yusef Hawkins in August 1989.{{cite news |last1=Hevesi |first1=Dennis |title=No Violence as 300 March Into Bensonhurst Again |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/03/nyregion/no-violence-as-300-march-into-bensonhurst-again.html |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=3 September 1989}}{{cite news |last1=McFadden |first1=Robert D. |title=300 Demonstrators Are Met With Silence in Bensonhurst |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/10/nyregion/300-demonstrators-are-met-with-silence-in-bensonhurst.html |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=10 September 1989}}

Judge Phillips was declared mentally unfit due to dementia in 2001 and died in 2008 due to neglect in a Brooklyn nursing home.{{cite news |last1=Saul |first1=Josh |last2=Narizhnaya |first2=Khristina |title=Family of judge who froze to death to get $750K from nursing home |url=https://nypost.com/2015/02/16/family-of-judge-who-froze-to-death-settles-with-nursing-home/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=New York Post |date=16 February 2015 |language=en}} For years, a series of guardians and estate lawyers had stolen most of Phillips's investments. Because he died without a will, the Slave Theater was left without funds to support itself and in unclear legal status.{{cite news |last1=Saul |first1=Emily |title=Lawyer probed in 'Kung Fu Judge' missing $700K inheritance |url=https://nypost.com/2016/04/06/lawyer-probed-in-kung-fu-judge-missing-700k-inheritance/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=New York Post |date=7 April 2016 |language=en}} In the confusion, the theater fell into disrepair and was ordered vacated by the city of New York in 2012 after its patio collapsed during a party, injuring four people.{{cite web |last1=Disser |first1=Nicole |title=The Continuing Saga Of The Slave Theater Gets Curiouser and Curiouser |url=https://www.bkmag.com/2015/03/19/the-continuing-saga-of-the-slave-theater-gets-curiouser-and-curiouser/ |website=Brooklyn Magazine |date=19 March 2015 |access-date=27 July 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Durkin |first1=Erin |title=Judge slaps vacate order on historic Slave Theater on Fulton St. in Bed-Stuy after injuries at party |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/historic-slave-theater-bed-stuy-cleared-injuries-party-article-1.1019370 |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=nydailynews.com}} A local group, the New Brooklyn Theatre began a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to try and buy the theater when it was put up for auction in 2012. The Slave Theater's manager and friend of Judge Phillips, Clarence Hardy, and his son Omar also claimed ownership of the property at the time. Clarence had been living in the building for years, at the behest of Judge Phillips. The Hardy family claimed that Judge Phillips had granted them ownership of the theater in 1999.

File:RegentTheater Brooklyn.jpg

A New York Surrogate's Court judge ruled that Judge Phillips had transferred the property to the Hardys when he was of unsound mind, and therefore granted ownership of 1215 Fulton Street to Phillips's nephew and executor Rev. Samuel L. Boykin of Akron, Ohio.{{cite news |last1=Chaban |first1=Matt A. V. |title=As Demolition Looms, Slave Theater's Ownership Is Disputed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/nyregion/as-demolition-looms-slave-theaters-ownership-is-disputed.html |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=28 December 2015}} Boykin characterized the Hardys, and a church that had been renting the upper floors of the theater, as squattersDue to the legal status of the Hardy's appeal for ownership, it's unclear if Hardy living in the property actually constituted squatting. and planned to have them evicted from the site in 2012.{{cite news |last1=O’Neill |first1=Natalie |title=Church to upstage famed civil rights theater |url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/3/dtg_slavetheater_2012_01_20_bk.html |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Brooklyn Paper |language=en}} Then, Boykin sold the theater to the Fulton Halsey Development Group in August 2013 for $2.1 million,{{cite news |last1=Maurer |first1=Mark |title=Fulton Halsey buys Slave Theater in Bed-Stuy for $2.1M |url=https://therealdeal.com/2013/08/16/fulton-halsey-buys-slave-theater-in-bed-stuy-for-2-1m/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=The Real Deal New York |date=16 August 2013}} before an appeal by the Hardys was completed.{{cite web |last1=Villareal |first1=Alexandra |title=A New Theater Company Looks for a Home in Bed-Stuy's Slave Theater |url=https://observer.com/2015/05/a-new-theater-company-looks-for-a-home-in-bed-stuys-slave-theater/ |website=Observer |access-date=27 July 2019 |language=en |date=22 May 2015}} In his continued attempts to save the theater, Clarence Hardy protested the proposed demolition of the theater by standing on top of its roof and threatening to jump unless the theater was saved.{{cite news |last1=Eldredge |first1=Barbara |title=Slave Theater Brooklyn: Man Protests Demo By Threatening to Jump |url=https://www.brownstoner.com/development/slave-theater-brooklyn-bed-stuy-demolition-protest/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Brownstoner |date=7 December 2015}} Other anti-gentrification activists also opposed the theater's destruction by organizing community protests.{{cite news |last1=Viagas |first1=Robert |title=Fans Organize to Save Brooklyn's 'Slave Theatre' |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/fans-organize-to-save-brooklyns-slave-theatre-com-377108 |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Playbill |date=2015 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=MacMillan |first1=Thomas |title=Activists Battle to Save Brooklyn's Historic 'Slave Theater' |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-battle-to-save-brooklyns-historic-slave-theater-1451426638?mod=rss_newyork_culture |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=WSJ}} Nonetheless, in December 2016, the lot's new owner Industrie Capital Partners demolished Slave Theater with plans to create a mixed-use development.{{cite news |last1=Devlin |first1=Seán |title=Slave Theater Demolished as Bed Stuy Icon Makes Way for Mixed-Use Development |url=https://www.brownstoner.com/development/slave-theater-bed-stuy-brooklyn-development-industrie-capital-partners-1215-fulton-street-demolition/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Brownstoner |publisher=Brownstoner |date=21 March 2017}}

In 2019, a London firm called The Collective bought 1215 Fulton Street and several surrounding lots for $32.5 million dollars.{{cite news |last1=Hubert |first1=Craig |title=London Co-Living Firm Buys Slave Theater for $32.5 Million, Plans 'Cultural Programming' |url=https://www.brownstoner.com/neighborhood/bed-stuy/slave-theater-brooklyn-co-living-1215-fulton-street-bed-stuy-the-collective-tower-holdings-group/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Brownstoner}} The Collective stated that they are developing a plan for memorializing the history of the Slave Theater in the resulting mixed-use development.

Architecture

= Exterior =

The main exterior alteration made by Judge Phillips was the installation of the Slave Theater's iconic black-and-white marquee.

= Interior =

Judge Phillips had community artists paint murals all over the interior walls of the theater of heroes from Black history, like Toussaint Louverture, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, as well as one of Bruce Lee.

In popular culture

= Art =

Go-Rilla Means War installation[https://www.buildbettertables.com/crystal-z-campbell/ Go-Rilla Means War installation] and accompanying catalog[https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/51363/ accompanying catalog] by Crystal Z. Campbell (2017){{cite news |last1=Massara |first1=Kathleen |title=The Slave Theater Lives On Through Crystal Z. Campbell |url=https://www.guernicamag.com/slave-theater-lives-crystal-z-campbell/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Guernica |date=23 February 2018}}
The Slave Theater photography exhibition by Hiroki Kobayashi (2010){{cite web |last1=Rooney |first1=Kara L. |title=The Slave Theater |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2010/07/artseen/the-slave-theater |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=27 July 2019 |date=8 July 2010}}