NEW YORK, NY.- On view at Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand Street, NYC), Rainbow Shoe Repair: An Unexpected Theater of Flyness is an exhibition that uncovers a collection of photographs taken of people of color on the Lower East Side from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. A selection of portraits are also installed outdoors around the Henry Street Settlement campus, presented in partnership with United Photo Industries.

Using the local Rainbow Shoe Repair shop on Delancey as an unexpected theater for fashion, curtains furnished to service mundane needs (such as visa and passport photos) were adopted by black and brown members of the community as backdrops for vibrant portraits that showcased the family unit, devoted friendships and audacious style for posterity. These DIY portraits assembled by curators Kimberly Jenkins, Ali Rosa-Salas and Brooke Nicholas reveal the enduring legacy of how people of color have harnessed the photographic lens to document a sense of resilience and unity through self-fashioning.

This exhibition and accompanying programming is being presented by Abrons Arts Center during New York Fashion Week in February 2020.

Rainbow Shoe Repair: An Unexpected Theater of Flyness is supported in part by a generous grant from the Avery Arts Foundation. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The 2019-2020 Season at Abrons Arts Center is supported, in part, by generous grants from the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Jerome Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and other generous Henry Street Settlement funders. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and support from the New York State Council on the arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.