Elmont Cultural Center secured its own space

Elmont Cultural Center has been looking for its own space since its founding in 2009. After much searching, donations, grants, and support from the organization’s members, Elmont Cultural Center finally secured a new space at 479C Hempstead Turnpike, Suite 6, Elmont, NY.  

 Mimi Pierre-Johnson, founder of Elmont Cultural Center, said the organization has shared two rooms at a private healthcare school. She added that the space now gives volunteers a place to work together and provides a consistent venue for community support.  

 Johnson hoped to resume cultural activities such as workshops, cultural exchange activities, and International Day. She added that in the last couple of weeks, the organization did a lot of work on civic engagement.  

 “We used to have an International Day, and I want to bring that back. So that's one of the things we want to do,” Johnson said. “Our workshops will now expand so that we have training for jobs. We have training for businesses.” 

Johnson added that the space can now support expanded job and business training, English as a Second Language (ESL), and workshops helping immigrants navigate services and applications.  

However, she said larger events like Juneteenth or the year-end gathering will still require larger venues. 

“So, like the Juneteenth and Easter egg hunt and all those other things, we'll still have to go someplace that's a little bit bigger,” Johnson said. “Our end-of-the-year Christmas event last year had over 200 people so that we couldn't do it at the library anymore because of so many people. Now we still must do those things outside of the office, but we can do all the other gatherings.” 

Johnson said the organization wants the space to remain welcoming and safe for sharing ideas and for building a community. She added that a larger space remains a future aspiration, including a place for children to play. 

“I just want the community to know that nothing has changed. Only you have a space now to come, and let's build together. I think that's the most important thing that I would like to see as we grow,” Johnson. “That the community knows that there's a safe space where we can grow together and share ideas and just make Elmont the wonderful place it is to live.”