GrowHouse NYC was founded in 2017 in response to young Black adults who were neither in school or working feeling they didn’t have space in their communities.
In the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, their movements were being policed and criminalized.
Our brownstone served as a space to congregate and build that was private and felt like home.
Co-founder Warner, then 19 years old, transformed two unfinished floors of the house into a hub for underground visual artists, musicians, and producers.
An experimental film called Going O.T. was conceptualized and created in that space.
The concept was to visually capture the creative process as an ambient video stream. NYC artists such as Mike, Mally Bandz, Emmanuel “Lou” Desir, and Laron were frequent collaborators on the project.
During the making of that film, it came to light that most of the youth were in a state of transition -- either in-between homes, schools, or jobs.
Warner enlisted the help of his mother, Shanna, who had decades of experience as an instructional designer and producer, at first to help purchase and set up equipment, then to dream and ideate, and it was then that GrowHouse was born.
The vision was expansive -
to use the linkages between travel + education,
entrepreneurship + activism,
art + technology
to design safe, brave, and flourishing communities
that empower Black creators to think globally and act locally.
