Original subtitles

We call this the VIP lounge,

but it was originally the men's smoking lounge.

Oh, wow.

95 years ago.

95 years.

95 years young, right? Like you and me.

Yeah. It looks amazing.

they've done a great job.

We got, we gave back the honeymoon in Europe,

and she says, "I don't care what you do,

Just do something that makes you happy."

Wow.

Because teaching was not making me happy

So I went around the neighborhood, and I'd had a job

years ago back in California working for a newspaper.

And that was my one true love,

my one true love, career love, was journalism.

So I found, you know, there was this little newspaper

called The Manhattan Times.

It came out once a week, Spanish and English.

Yeah.

Only writing about Uptown. I said, "You know what? That sounds interesting.

Northern Manhattan,

it's got all this really great stuff happening.

It's a vibrant community. It's really interesting.

I'm going to do that."

To your credit, my wife said, "You do you."

That's amazing.

And the rest is history.

And how did you arrive here now that we

are in the United Palace?

So that's fast forwarding, you know,

15 years, 13, 14, 15 years.

In building a newspaper,

we spent a lot of time at the newspaper, about 10 years

at the newspaper, working with Luis Miranda,

the owner of the newspaper,

one of the co-owners of the newspaper.

The whole idea was to use the newspaper to build a sense of community,

to foster the neighborhood vibe, and then community togetherness.

So it was important to have each article

in English and in Spanish

so everybody could get the same information.

And we figured that

there's a third language that could also unite people.

That was the language of art.

And you sit there and you look at a beautiful photograph,

a beautiful painting, or a sculpture.

English, Spanish, Swahili, doesn't matter.

You're processing that information

and you're sort of figuring out how that artwork enters into your life.

And it doesn't matter what language you speak.

You can find your way into that.

You can bring that art into who you are

and use that as a way to get individuals

to become a collective.

So we spent a lot of time writing stories about local artists.

And from that, there was no dedicated gallery uptown.

There had been a couple of them, but they needed help

And we needed to help build more of a sense of a community gallery.

There were no dedicated stages uptown.

We needed to find a way that the artists could express themselves.

So the paper created,

through the paper we created the Uptown Art Store.

that´s beautiful

Which became an annual arts festival. Now it's a month long.

We created with Luis and through the newspaper.

It was a big influence on creating the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance,

which is a non-profit arts service organization supporting artists.

doing an amazing job

Which is again helping build community.

So I'd had all these experiences and met all these artists.

Really trying to find ways of getting them access to spaces

and access to audience.

So when I heard that the United Palace,

this 3400 seat extraordinary theater

that everybody refers to as a hidden jewel,

wanted to start an arts organization.

I said, that's what I need to do next.

I had already burned out on journalism.

I had already retired from the newspaper.

And just got lucky. You mentioned Bago?

yeah, Michael Diaz.

I'm here because of Michael Diaz.

January 2nd or 3rd of 2012,

he was doing a Bago brunch. One of his networking things.

And I walked in the front door, it was over here at the old pick and eat

i walked in the front door, Bago grabbed me

and said, you have to meet this person.

He took me upstairs to the loft area and I met Mariana Houston,

who had just been hired to start building an arts organization here.

So that's the crazy thing is,

we, so the United Palace has been here for 95 years.

Ninety-five years.

And in 1969, it was purchased by a church

and it had been primarily a church operation

from 1969 to the late 2000s, the late aughts.

And it was ironic that we had this spectacular performance space

in the middle of the neighborhood that was extraordinarily underserved for arts

organizations and performance and presentation spaces.

So the idea of coming here with the United Palace of Cultural Arts

which was an arts nonprofit,

and being able to open the doors up to this local community and

say, hey, hey, hey, yeah, I know.

You've been putting your artwork on the walls of Bodegas.

Yeah, you've been doing your performances in offices.

Yes.

You've been doing your concerts on street corners.

That's terrific. But let's come in here and do stuff at the United Palace as well.

Let's help you get from the sidewalk,

literally from the sidewalk to the stage.

And we will build an organization that will help that transition

and we'll find the artists and the other organizations

that are going to help,

you know, make that happen.

And again, this is where NOMA comes in,

in the Miranda's and the community board

and all of the the constellation of local arts nonprofits

that have made Northern Manhattan their own.

All of this has helped, you know, open these doors

and put people on the stage.

Now, that's at the community level. And I think we've been very successful in

providing this space for local artists and arts organizations.

In the meantime, we've been able to build the business operation here

where we're booking world class talent onto the stage

or world class TV and movie shoots or conferences or conversations or whatever,

whatever might come to New York City.

They're now considering the United Palace as one of the possibilities

when they're doing the performance

The audience, local audience, they still don't have to go downtown.

And we're bringing up all of these audience members

who want to see, you know,

Aventura or Radel or a...

In the Heights was here.

We're doing a screening of the movie In the Heights on Monday night.

All this stuff happening. So we're bringing local folks up here

who are going to spend their money in the neighborhood.

They're going to go to restaurants,

the local bars and help turn that spigot on,

that economic spigot

that we need so that way.

And we're able to employ local ushers,

local security officers.

Janitorial services.

People don't know I have a janitorial service company.

And Mike, you gave us the opportunity.

We've been here for a few years now.

Yeah, the impact is all around. Not only that,

but from an artistic point of view,

there was a play that was done here by my friend Waddys Jaquez

And what it means for people to come from another country, right?

Like for the Dominican Republic,

artists that are famous here and be able to display their artwork here

because the United Palace exists.

It's almost like a dream come true to

bring it to New York. You know,

so it means a lot in all levels, like you said,

for me and the janitorial service,

the people that are working. I see your staff.

How many people work on a weekly basis?

You have a huge staff.

We have 25 people who are full time in day to day operation.

But then for a big event,

we'll bring in 75- 100 more.

And those are the folks who might have a job somewhere else,

day to day full time. But they get that extra cash.

Just a little bit.

Just Un Chín

Right. To help them make ends meet for a baby.

Have a little bit of fun on the park.

Well, Mike, I really appreciate your time.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Bud Appreciate it.

All right.