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Exclusive: Javier Munoz Shines a Spotlight on the Helpers of the Broadway Relief Project
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Oct 27, 2022
Countless Broadway helpers have made that goal a reality, and we're shining a much-deserved spotlight on some of them. Below, watch as Javier chats with Ricky Lurie - a costume Designer who sourced supplies and assisted with early logistics.
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Hi, I'm Javier Munoz, and I'm one of the co-founders of Broadway Relief Project
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and that's a project that was begun in a collaboration with Molly Braverman at Broadway Green Alliance
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Jeff Whitting of Open JAR Studios and myself, and our mission is to help provide much-needed PPEs
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to the frontline healthcare workers here in New York City. Joining us today is one of the first people to volunteer and put themselves out there for the Broadway
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Relief Project, and that's Ricky Lurie. And hello, Ricky. How are you
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Hi, Harvey. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing? Good. Good
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Thank you so much for joining us again today and taking time to speak with us here
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Let's just jump right in. You're one of the first people to be part of the Broadway Relief Project, to jump in and say yes to what felt like a really out there demand and request
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How did you first get involved? What inspired you to say yes
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Okay, that's a really easy question, actually, this time. Looking back at it now, because it's been about seven weeks already
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So my friend Michael McCory Rose reached out to my boss, Linda Cho, and I, and said
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hey, we were doing this thing with OpenJar. We need some help sourcing
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Like, we don't know where to find all the things. And you guys, if you could help us with anything
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That'd be great. And I don't know how not to work and how not to help
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So I just got in there and was like, okay, we're going to, you know, this is a great thing
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I don't have to leave my home for it right now. So I'm going to take everything that I know from my job as an associate and as a designer in the city
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and use all of my connections to get the thing that the Broadway Relief Project needed
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at that point. And I reached out to B&J. And from B&J, we reached out to Beckensteins and Berensteins
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and we reached out to all of the different shops in the Garment District. And we reached out
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and tried to find the cousins that we needed. And we reached out to Steinloff and Stoller. And we
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were able to find all of these sources that were closed to the general public at the time and then opened for us to be able to help our city That amazing Yeah That is a lot And I actually you know you taught me something too
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I've only been able to be in touch with so many of the moving parts of the Broadway
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Relief Project. I had no idea there were so many outreach, so much outreach made to the garment industry
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That's incredible. And even the people that we reached out to that weren't able to have
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help, we're able to say, okay, I don't have this right now, but did you try this person
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This person might have it. This person might open for you. Give it a go
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Or at one point during the project, we needed to put labels on every single gown
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And we had to figure out, how do we do that within the time limit
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And how do we do that within, you know, the money that we have per gown to spend in order to
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fit within the city limits. And we reached out to dynamics and they were on board in Soho to help us
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and really just get going and figure out a way to do it with us quickly and cheaply. And then the city
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sort of relaxed that rule and we greatly appreciated everything they did to help us. But then we
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didn't have to use them, which was a benefit to everybody trying to lessen the restrictions
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and lessen the logistics around it. Saving time, saving effort, and allowing everyone to do more
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That's amazing. Is Dynamics a garment fabric provider in the city? It's a printer and a dyer in the city, yeah
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Awesome. That is fantastic. And I was just going to ask, I mean, you just answered my second question
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which was about the challenges that you might have faced. But at this point, we're seven weeks in
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What now do you find is, are obstacles that collectively we need to overcome as an entire project or nitty-gritty details
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I think it's a three-prong. I mean, even on Sunday, my boyfriend and I walked to the grocery store, and we saw 25 people in nine blocks, not wearing masks
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So just getting the information out there to everybody that they need to be wearing police coverings, even when they're not in the stores
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And it wasn't like they were just drinking a coffee. It was like people were walking down the street And then you know supply It still really hard There are certain things that are required for these gowns that we need to follow
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and to be able to get those supplies not only into the state, but into the city
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There's like this extra bubble around New York still and making sure that people are
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following the rules that we need to be part of right now to sort of
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sort of get back to a little bit of normalcy and still helping the cause. The cause is not over
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just because things are relaxing around the country. We still have scary times that we need to
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deal with now. And there are still a need for PPE and we will be sewing as long as the
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mayor and the governor led us. Amazing. What does an average day look like, a typical day
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with the Broadway Relief Project, what does that look like for you? Well, actually, I've transitioned since we last spoke
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and not only am I working to help find the sourcing for everything
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but I've also decided that, you know, that wasn't enough. So I actually go and work at Parsons in Long Island City every day
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One of my friends picks me up, and there's a crew of us, that Parsons has given their blessing to let us use their space while they're closed
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while Broadway is in intermission for right now. And we go there three days a week, and we're making 150 gowns, reusable surgical gowns, every week
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that are washable and maintainable, and we're making disposable masks soon and disposable gowns soon
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and taking whatever the city needs and we're figuring out a way to do it
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So Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, from 9 to 5, you'll see me selling now
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not just helping find where the thread and the fabric comes from
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But actually manufacturing. Yeah. I just, the more we do these interviews
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the more I get to meet everybody and speak with people, I mean, it's already felt magnificent
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and pretty miraculous that we could make this thing manifest. But it's really, really inspiring
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It a beat We had 300 stitchers that first week and just maintaining the level of logistics around okay how do you cut 300 people supplies
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Right. So we needed, so I helped find the cutter that would be able to get a special letter from the city that they could be open because they're an essential business. So, you know, quick fuse was able to
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to get us, quick fuse in the Garment District, is able to cut all of those gowns that we need
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weekly to be able to meet our minimum for the city to be able to have this project
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It's incredible. It's so many moving parts. I swear, it's like the biggest
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It's like a giant, I mean, it is a giant Broadway show without song and dance
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The cast of a thousand. Yeah. So this effort, this kind of energy, this kind of work, this kind of action, why do you think
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it's important not only for you specifically, but overall, in general, right now
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I'm doing it to keep my spirits up because we don't know what's coming next
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But if we keep saying, you know, it's going, we have to keep going
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It has to get better. It will get better. So if we just keep thinking like that and keep doing what we as an individual, as a family, as a community, as a city need to do to manifest that, that's why I'm doing it
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Because all the designers and all of the other designers that I worked with as an associate or as a designer will know, I don't like to not work
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So to have this, to be able to be able to glom on to this project that's not only beneficial mentally for me, but also, you know, in a greater world, it helps the community
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That's why I said yes. And that's why people need to keep working with the Broadway Relief Project to continue our efforts of making PPE
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Oh, my gosh. Thank you. Ricky, thank you so much for taking time again today
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And it's really so inspiring to get to touch base with you and hear what's been going on
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you've been doing, truly. Thank you
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Thank you, guys
#Broadway & Musical Theater
#Charity & Philanthropy
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