“UNSUNG HERO” BRINGS EVENTS TO THE HOMELESS

(Article published in HWW March 2008)

They may not know him by name. But folks in the New York City shelter system -- especially children -- will recognize Antonio Rodriguez as the big, good looking guy who sometimes stands behind the refreshment table and hands out prizes to the kids at the party. Or they’ll remember seeing him at the concerts for shelter families.

For twenty years, Antonio Rodriguez has been the man in charge when organizations want to make a donation to homeless New Yorkers. A night at the opera or a night at the circus. A visit to a museum. A series of art classes or a ball game. Antonio Rodriguez is Director of Special Events at the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). He promotes and organizes over 300 events and projects a year benefiting the homeless. And he shows up at a lot of them, but typically behind the scenes.

“No one knows the lengths this man goes to to bring events and experiences to the residents of the shelter system,” says Juanita Webster, who is co-recreation coordinator with Steve Thomas at Crotona Family Inn in the Bronx.

To make her point, Ms. Webster reads off her calendar for just the last few months. “He brought 30 of our kids and their families along with groups from other shelters to Madison Square Garden to a New York Rangers game and we met the players. He took 40 of our kids to The Lion King on Broadway and they thought it was magical. They had never seen a Broadway show. In December he arranged for the New York City Police Department to adopt us. They sponsored Christmas gifts for 210 kids and their families. He took us to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Last month we went to a Rhythms of Harlem concert (the kids made musical instruments) and a basketball game at Fordham University.”

He gets the same respect back at the office. Maryanne Schretzman, DHS Deputy Commissioner, says “Antonio Rodriguez is an unsung hero whose work provides access for homeless individuals and families to the arts and culture that makes NYC so great.”

Rodriguez sits at his phone in a pigeon hole at DHS offices in downtown Manhattan arranging details of the events and gifts he’s been offered by organizations. It could be tickets to plays or concerts or sporting events, or items like toys and t-shirts. “I’ve been doing it so long I don’t have to seek out donors any more. They come to us and I help with the logistics. Is it the appropriate age? Is it the date and time that will work out? What about transportation? Then I call the shelters and ask who is interested.“

Portraits that hang on the glass partition behind his desk are his own paintings, one of them of his mother and father. (“My mother was a stay-at-home mom and an activist – she taught me the value of community organizing,” he says). Born in the Bronx and raised mostly in Brooklyn, he went to state university to study art and wound up graduating in sociology.

“It’s interesting” he says now, “that I have a job that enables me to use what I learned in both majors.” He took this approach of using the arts to convey information and ideas to people – first teaching migrant workers about health and safety and then teaching kids in a East Harlem group home to prepare for the GED. When he started working with the homeless, he was a caseworker at the Prince George Hotel, a for profit welfare hotel in midtown Manhattan that housed 450 homeless families. “It’s hard to believe but we had 65 families per caseworker,” he remembers now.

Before long he was given his present title – Director of Special Events—and put in charge of seeing that the “hotel kids” got into summer camps and a party for Christmas. He soon turned the job into another opportunity to convey information through the arts.

“One of the problems we had at the Prince George,” he says “was young people who liked pulling false fire alarms. I approached an organization called Hospital Audiences and challenged them to develop a piece of theater that would entertain the young people but also give them information about fires and firefighting and the hazards of false alarms. The Fire Department did make presentations but not in a way that was entertaining. We hired actors and we put together a three act musical. We called it 'Fire Alarms.'"

After the show played in many welfare hotels in all five boroughs, the number of false fire alarms decreased.

Sometimes he has a hand in designing projects so popular they keep on growing. His Carnegie Hall Shelter Concert Series started 16 years ago as classical and jazz music concerts performed in shelters. “Carnegie Hall asked me to bring in different kinds of artists that would appeal to this audience so we added music from Africa and Latin American. We brought in rhythm and blues and hip hop. I produced playbills with materials on the artists, the songs and the history of this music. Now we not only do them in shelters but also get space donated. We had a concert recently at the Museum of the City of New York with nine shelters participating.”

But when he talks about the value of his programs, it often comes down to the effect on one person or one family. Sometimes it’s attitudes that are affected. Rodriguez remembers sitting behind a group of girls at a pro women’s basketball game. “I heard one girl say, 'When I get home I’m going to tell my grandma I saw New York Liberty.’ She was excited because she had never seen women performing at their highest level.”

In one of his art classes he watched a mother admiring her child’s work. She said ‘I never thought my son had artistic ability’.”

Sometimes he can see lives changed, as the time a disabled boy was performing in a dance workshop for homeless children given by Ballet Hispanico. Rodriguez says, “His dancing was so good, the company was so impressed with his talent, they not only gave him a dance scholarship but arranged to have his college tuition paid for.”

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Antonio Rodriguez wants everybody to know this: “All of our programs are free and all are available to any family in the shelter system,” If you are interested in finding out what activities are being offered for shelter groups, ask the Recreation Director or other staff member to call Antonio Rodriguez at (212) 361--0693.