OPEN DOORS is a collective of disabled artists, nursing home residents, advocates and allies.
OPEN DOORS is led by the experiences and voices of the Reality Poets.
OPEN DOORS produces artistic collaborations, programs and mobilizing campaigns focused on community building, disability justice and gun violence prevention.
OPEN DOORS is a project of the Center for Transformative Action—a 501 (c) 3 affiliated with Cornell University.
Our Story
Before we officially came together as the Reality Poets, we were a loose group of wheelchair users who would sit outside the massive brick building at the tip of Roosevelt Island, smoke and share stories. Many of us were gun violence survivors and all of us felt there was nothing to do living in the nursing home. In 2016 a local artist started a project for us called OPEN DOORS, and from there the Reality Poets were born. Thanks to our vision and leadership OPEN DOORS is now a dynamic creative collective, educating our youth and producing artistic collaborations, including a poetry anthology, original play and hip-hop album.
During the pandemic we were dehumanized and confined inside our nursing home. Realizing we had the microphone at the center of the storm, we began advocating for all those living and working in long-term care, particularly Black and brown nursing home residents who saw twice the amount of COVID deaths as their white counterparts. In 2020 we launched the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement and are now warriors with a mission to end racism and ableism in long-term care.
We were “safe” in our nursing home until the city decided to lock COVID-19 patients in with us. Their first mistake was thinking we don’t matter. Their second mistake was forgetting we are artists. Their third mistake was assuming we’d be quiet. Co-directed by one of our own, Andres “Jay” Molina, Fire Through Dry Grass documents our devastating year on lockdown fighting for our lives and our freedom. The film premiered in fall 2023.
Make a donation
If you want to support our work please make a donation so we can continue inspiring action for safer, more just communities