THE LEGENDAY EMPIRE RETURNS TO BROOKLYN

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Empire Roller Skating Center closed in 2007 after 66 years in the Crown Heights community of Brooklyn. This is where the electrifying pulse of Black creative expression in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s launched roller disco and gave birth to what became hip-hop. Empire was also a refuge of warmth and inclusion in a world of racial adversity.

The new Empire reinstates one of NYC’s most influential creative hubs in a moment when the city is languishing from the disappearance of institutions that once made it a global creative power and presence.

Empire is a new community canvas where artists across disciplines can collaborate and inspire, with music as the driving force of their collective.

Empire will bring NYC back into the world and the world back to NYC in the joyfully creative and constructive way it, and so many NYC institutions once did. Inspiring a movement that celebrates collaborative idea-building and cultural unity.