The unhinged ex-CUNY professor who savagely held a machete to the neck of a New York Put up reporter now has a everlasting, taxpayer-funded artwork set up within the Bronx.
The NYC Division of Cultural Affairs ignored Shellyne Rodriguez’s notorious previous by green-lighting a $407,000 price range for her 23-foot-tall brick, metal and terracotta Marxist monstrosity known as “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the Individuals of the Bronx.”
It was unveiled in November alongside Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue — a little bit greater than two years after she copped a wrist-slap plea take care of Bronx prosecutors for her assault on veteran New York Put up scribe Reuven Fenton.
The everlasting work, commissioned by the town by way of the % for Artwork program, is sandwiched in a thicket of residential buildings and hailed as a testomony to the borough’s resiliency after the arson spree through the tumultuous Seventies.
The monument– which already has cracks alongside its basis — is adorned with photos of the phoenix, a mythological image of rebirth; a sequence of piercing eyes; 4 clenched fists signifying black energy/socialist solidarity, and the house borough letters “B” and “X.” On high of the construction is an ascending black ladder with out an finish.
“If abolition is just not solely about what we dismantle, but in addition about what we construct in its stead, then what monuments or factors of gathering will we, the collective physique of the dispossessed who make life on the periphery of empire, make for ourselves as stewards of our personal histories and futures,” she informed Hyperallergic in November.
The set up was first commissioned in 2018 by way of the town’s % for Arts program, which units apart 1% of budgets for city-funded development initiatives to create new paintings, as a part of a now-completed $62.5 million reconstruction of the Grand Concourse.
A panel of native elected officers, artwork specialists and group board members selected Rodriguez, who pocketed $81,400, as 20% of the price range for each bit of artwork created by way of the Koch administration-era program is put aside to pay an “artist payment,” metropolis officers stated.
Bronx residents bashed the piece as a polarizing eyesore.
“Anyone who’s violent; there’s higher individuals who ought to’ve been given the chance,” stated Frankie Santiago. “It appears like a chunk of junk.”
“If she’s offensive like that — they usually’re utilizing taxpayer cash and getting privileges — possibly we must always rethink this,” stated Jose Lopez.
“It appears form of bizarre,” he added.
The self-proclaimed “black Marxist” informed Hyperallergic in November she conceptualized the piece seven years earlier throughout a time “when the memorialization of the violent foundations of the US was collectively being known as into query.”
In Might 2023, it was Rodriguez, 48, who confirmed her personal violent basis when Fenton knocked on her Bronx house looking for remark a day after the then-Hunter Faculty adjunct artwork professor made headlines for flipping out on pro-life college students on the Manhattan-based CUNY campus.
“Get the f–ok away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!” she shouted from behind her closed door simply moments after Fenton recognized himself.
Seconds later, Rodriguez barged out and put the blade to the reporter’s neck.
“Get the f–ok away from my door! Get the f–ok away from my door!” she raged, earlier than later kicking Fenton within the shins and chasing a Put up photographer to his automotive after they left the house.
Her caught-on-camera meltdown made Web page 1 of The Put up with the headline “THE NUTTY PROFESSOR.”
Rodriguez pleaded responsible in October 2023 to a depend of menacing, a misdemeanor, and to a harassment violation.
She was instantly fired from her gig at Hunter after the assault, however dodged jail time and a prison report by way of a sweetheart deal brokered by Bronx prosecutors and authorized by Democratic Choose Dan Quart — by finishing counseling and staying out of bother for a 12 months.
In February 2024, she was axed from one other instructing gig at Cooper Union for anti-Israel screeds. Her web site doesn’t spotlight any present initiatives.
The NYC Division of Cultural Affairs refused to remark about Rodriguez’s outrageous, headline-making previous.
The company additionally ignored questions on whether or not it thought of pulling the award earlier than development started after a smirking Rodriguez was arrested in Might 2023 and slapped with harassment and menacing fees for threatening to “chop” Fenton up.
As an alternative, the company stated that prison background checks aren’t a part of the % for Arts’ commissioning course of, but it surely follows metropolis procurement guidelines to pick “accountable” contractors.
The company dismissed considerations concerning the cracks and fissures already marking the monument’s basis.
“Public paintings is routinely inspected and weather-related put on and tear is frequent, particularly after a harsh winter. Any vital upkeep is usually finished as soon as the winter season has handed,” the division stated.
Rodriguez declined remark Saturday when approached from a distance outdoors her Bronx residence.
Extra reporting by Jennifer Bain.
