01

West 176 Street
by groana melendez

Saddle stitch, self-cover with rubber-stamped obi band
32 pages
24 plates
5.5” ✕ 8”
300 copies 

2021
Edited by Martha Naranjo Sandoval
Designed by Aline Enríquez

Regular edition out of print

Limited Print Edition available︎

A limited number of copies has been set aside for institutions and libraries to acquire. Please contact martha@matarileediciones.com for more information.
West 176 Street is a selection of images taken at groana’s home on the street by the same name. This apartment is where she grew up and where her parents still live. The publication includes both images from her family album and pictures she has been taking of the place and its inhabitants since 2005.

“My parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic to the United States in the 70s. In the 90s they moved to Washington Heights, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan also known as “Little DR.” They created a home in a three-bedroom apartment in a fifth-floor walk-up on West 176th Street in 1995. It was an upgrade from their previous one-bedroom two blocks away. Now as they try to move into a home with an elevator, dishwasher, and seemingly better amenities for older adults, they are facing the challenges of letting go of belongings that do not fit into a smaller space and saying goodbye to their apartment on West 176th St. This is a look back at a family staple—the first stop for relatives emigrating from the Dominican Republic—and how it’s changed over time.” —gm



groana melendez is a lens-based artist raised between New York City and Santo Domingo.

Her work explores hybrid identities through self-representation.

 She holds an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from the International Center of Photography-Bard Program and has been part of residencies at Proyecto ‘Ace, Diaspora Vibe Arts Incubator, and ARC Athens. She is included in the collections of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library, the Library of Congress, and En Foco Inc. groana has had solo shows at the New York Public Library, CUNY, and ICP-Bard’s studio in Queens. She has been included in group shows at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, the Latinx Project at NYU, BRIC Arts, and El Museo del Barrio’s La Trienal 20/21, the museum’s first national large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art. She works and lives in the Bronx in New York City.
No human is illegal.
Ningún ser humano es ilegal.