Charas/El Bohio

The building in front of you, formerly Public School sixty-four, stands as a monument to grassroots reclamation. In the late nineteen seventies, when the surrounding neighborhood suffered from extreme neglect and city-wide fiscal crisis, a group of local activists known as CHARAS moved into the then-derelict school. They transformed the abandoned structure into a thriving cultural hub they called El Bohio, which translates to The Hut. This name honored the indigenous Taino roots of the local Puerto Rican community. The center became a sanctuary for dance, theater, and education, even hosting early performances by now-famous filmmakers like Spike Lee. Its existence served as a defiant symbol of community control in an area rapidly losing its public assets.