Cross Bronx/Living Legend
September 26 - November 8, 2025
Gallery hours: Monday - Friday 3 - 6PM; Saturdays 12 - 5PM
Community workshops & special events on Saturdays through November 8
Free & open to the public
Cross Bronx/Living Legend reconsiders one of New York City’s most mythologized infrastructures. The story of the Cross Bronx has long been told as a saga of heartless governments and powerful men, destruction, disconnection, and congestion. But behind these sweeping narratives are the everyday lives of the people who call the corridor home. In neighborhoods like Highbridge, West Farms, Crotona Park, and Parkchester, residents have long contended with the highway’s indisputable harms – displacement, asthma, noise, and barriers that cut across community life. Yet alongside anger and struggle are joy, pride, and love of neighbors.
Rather than retelling the story of the highway itself, Cross Bronx/Living Legend is a story of people and place. Through new images of the corridor by Bronx-based photographer Abigail Montes, audio excerpts from conversations with dozens of Bronx residents, and never-before-exhibited historical materials, Cross Bronx/Living Legend presents a picture of the corridor as one continually in the making. As new visions for its future take shape, the boldest possibilities cannot be dictated from the perspective of the highway, but must come from the expertise, hopes, and imaginations of the communities who live with it every day.
Featured Artist:
Abigail Montes is a documentary photographer and educator proudly from the South Bronx. Since 2013, Montes has dedicated herself to youth-centered initiatives utilizing the camera as a tool for change. From 2019-2025, she was co-coordinator of free photography courses in the South Bronx through ICP at THE POINT. In 2024, Montes joined the Seis Del Sur photo collective, documenting the struggle and resilience within the Puerto Rican diaspora and striving to inspire the next generation of visual storytellers. She continues to serve as a lead instructor for ICP's Youth Programs, teaching the fundamentals of photography with social justice, self-esteem, community, and collaboration as thematic anchors, and has been accepted into the Yale School of Art MFA Photography 2027 cohort.
Public Programs:
Presented by:
Urban Omnibus is The Architectural League of New York’s online publication dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping the city. We raise new questions, illuminate diverse perspectives, and document creative projects to advance the collective work of citymaking. www.urbanomnibus.net
The Architectural League of New York supports critically transformative work in the allied fields that shape the built environment. As a vital, independent forum, the League stimulates thinking, debate, and action on today’s converging crises of racism, inequity, and climate change, in service of a more livable and just world.
The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the strategic growth and development of the City through ground-up planning with communities, the development of land use policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide, and its contribution to the preparation of the City's 10-year Capital Strategy. DCP promotes housing production and affordability, fosters economic development and coordinated investments in infrastructure and services, and supports resilient, sustainable communities across the five boroughs for a more equitable New York City.
Cortico, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (MIT CCC), helps communities and organizations listen more deeply through recorded small-group conversations. Supported by a thoughtful balance of human listening and AI tools, we help partners understand what people are really saying by surfacing insights, themes, and stories that might otherwise go unheard.
The Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School aims to teach students to use their minds well and prepare them to live productive, socially useful, and personally satisfying lives.
Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, Artist Studios, and Presenting Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource — the Bronx River.