The selection committee for the Bayard Rustin Residency at Penington Friends House is proud to announce the 2020-2021 inaugural fellow, Desmond Beach. An interdisciplinary artist from Maryland, Beach will create a new series of work and performances that bring together historic and contemporary images and content with a focus on healing for the African American community.

Bio on Desmond Beach
Desmond Beach is an artist and educator based in the Washington, DC, area. He earned his MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and his BFA from MICA. Beach is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. He has been a visiting lecturer/artist at institutions such as Coppin State University and Emerson College. Beach has been a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and Skidmore College as well as an artist-in-residence at the Women Housing Correlation in Baltimore, and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, to name a few.

Beach is an interdisciplinary artist, the middle son of three boys born in Baltimore, MD. He is a project artist, meaning that his work takes its point of departure from specific problems or tragedies. Beach finds inspiration for his work from growing up in Baltimore during the 1980s and 90s and his lived experience as a Black man. He creates sacred spaces for the spirits of his immediate ancestors and those of the African Diaspora to rest. Beach is also interested in sharing the reflective moments of everyday life. He connects with the viewer through a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, costume, fiber arts, installations, performances, and mixed media. He believes that his work as an artist is a calling.

More information on Residency
“My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from my being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me.” – Bayard Rustin

The Bayard Rustin Residency at Penington Friends House (PFH) is envisioned as an ongoing ladder to empowerment for Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) working to end Systemic Racism and to create a culture of anti-Racism and intersectional equality in the United States of America. It is also intended to extend and strengthen the wider Quaker witness to equality. This residency will provide room and board to a person who demonstrates a strong project that addresses ending Systemic Racism and who has a necessity to be in New York City for up to one year. They will reside at the Penington Friends House located in New York City’s Lower East Side of Manhattan. Their rent and board at the PFH will be covered by the residency. The Bayard Rustin Resident will demonstrate a need to live in Manhattan. Areas of focus of their work can include activism in the arts, policy change, human rights, community organizing, and other areas of activism focusing on ending racism and strengthening equality. Residents will be expected to share their progress with the New York City Quaker community in the form of a presentation or invitation to an event they have organized during their residency. The resident does not have to be Quaker but their work should be shaped and in harmony with the Quaker tenants of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, or Stewardship. They will be expected to be a full-time resident and participating member of the PFH intentional community.

The residency is named after Bayard Rustin who was a Quaker and member at 15th Street Monthly Meeting in New York City. This meeting (Quaker house of worship) is next to the PFH. Rustin worked committedly for the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He was an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on nonviolence. Rustin was also a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and a founding member of the Freedom Riders. He was an early advocate for gay rights. Rustin’s later work included a heavy focus on refugee affairs. Rustin served as Vice Chairman of the International Rescue Committee, helped to found the National Emergency Coalition for Haitian Refugees, and was Chairman of the Executive Committee of Freedom House. He died in 1987. In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ( Source rustinfund.org)

Penington Friends House is a Quaker run communal house that since 1897 has offered both long term residencies and short term guests accommodations in lower Manhattan near the East Village and Union Square. Initially a boarding house with an extensive staff, since the 1980’s the house has had a shared communal focus that still offers room and board but is run on Quaker shared decision process, shared chores, and a focus on the Quaker Testaments of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship (SPICES).

The house was initially conceived by Quaker women including Phebe Anna Thorne. Raised in the high society of New York City, Phebe became a plain Quaker at the age of 30, adopting simple dress and dedicating her life to social justice issues. In helping establish the Penington, she wanted to create a safe haven for young Quakers coming to the city. She gave the Penington its name after Issac Penington, and in her will gave monies to establish a free guest room.

Mariana Wright Chapman was another early board member. She and her husband were vigorous advocates for the rights of slaves and women. During the Civil War they were both active in the Underground Railroad. She led Suffragette organizations at the state and national level and was called many times to speak in Albany before the legislatures by Governor Theodore Roosevelt.

Aaron M. Powell and Anna Rice Powell, both members of the first board at the Penington , were antislavery advocates and fought for prison reform, the rights of women, and Native Americans. Aaron Powell was “consecrated by Sojourner Truth” and lectured in the American AntiSlavery Society. Anna also promoted health care for prostitutes and other women in prison.

The Penington was founded by individuals interested in transforming and reforming society for the better. It is in the spirit of these women elders and Bayard Rustin that we are creating the new residency.

The Penington Friends House has gone on through the years to be a place for Quakers and friendly people to live but also meet and organize on issues such as Womens’ Right to Vote and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. For many years it was the only place that would offer meals to BIPOC workers from the immediate community.

Being a Quaker is not a requirement for residency and non-Quakers currently make up 80% of the resident community. The house is governed by an independent board of directors, the majority of which are Quakers, and is classified as a non-profit organization. More information on the house is available at www.penington.org

Contact Information:

Todd Drake
(he/him/his)
Co-director of Operations and Community Outreach
Penington Friends House
215 E. 15th Street, New York, NY 10003
212-673-1730
outreach@Penington.org
www.penington.org