Bed-Stuy Aquarium: Fire Hydrants by the People
An Interview with Artist Hajj-Malik Lovick by Theodora Dryer
On August 3, 2024, a leaky fire hydrant in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, transformed into a community art project after block residents placed a hundred feeder goldfish in the water pooling around it. Two months later the fire hydrant, now dubbed Bed-Stuy Aquarium, has gained citywide popularity and has a pending license as a permanent cultural site. What follows is an interview with Aquarium artist and Brooklyn community organizer Hajj-Malik Lovick. The interview chronicles Lovick’s daily care of the aquarium, his memories of fire hydrants in Bed-Stuy, and the project’s meaning for the community and especially for youth education. We draw attention to the power and possibility of New York City’s 170,000 fire hydrants as emblems of community care and portals to new worlds.
Over the course of just a few weeks, Bed-Stuy Aquarium grew into a citywide event as TikTokers and parachute journalists circulated the news. The fanfare attracted visitors from across the five boroughs and beyond as out-of-state tourists pinned the site on Google Maps. Some reporters emphasized the joy and community significance of the project; others inflamed online hate with dubious speculation about the project’s environmental impact. Conjectures about goldfish decimating the Hudson River and fish freezing in winter rains limited public imagination. On the evening of August 26, virtual critique turned into violence when someone tried to destroy the Aquarium, killing multiple fish and defacing the surrounding area.
Amid all of the noise and distraction, the diligent daily care and attention devoted to the project underscores the community organizing that is the heartbeat of Bed-Stuy and nearby Tompkins Avenue. Located at the intersection of Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue, this specific fire hydrant has long been an oasis for folks on the block as they sit under the cool shade of a fifty-year-old sweetgum tree and access the hydrant’s water. It abuts central Tompkins Avenue (also known as Tompkins Avenue Merchant Association, or TAMA), a vibrant Black-business and cultural mecca that foregrounds African and Caribbean communities and traditions. The neighborhood has continued to thrive throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, even as gentrification corrodes ownership of Bed-Stuy’s historic brownstones and as the city defunds public utilities and resources in a devastating trade-off for increased NYPD expenditure.
Bed-Stuy Aquarium is a leaky fire hydrant stationed at these important neighborhood intersections. It is a place where after-school kids can feed the fish, a site to fundraise for back-to-school supplies—a gathering spot for knowledge sharing, daydreaming, and asking questions. It is also a locale that gives rise to questions about new water policies, such as a bill introduced by Councilmember Erik Bottcher that proposes transforming some New York City fire hydrants into drinking fountains. Dreams of a permanent community center and speculative Aquarium architecture are offset by fears of a long winter ahead. Meanwhile block residents, street vendors, artists, filmmakers, families, and passersby sit together to watch the fish swim. This lightly edited interview contains the magic of spontaneous conversations, as well as the sort of community thoughts, poetry, and joy that are regularly shared at Bed-Stuy Aquarium. The interview features photography by Eva Woolridge and Zakiyyah Woods and speculative architectural design by Devang Shah.
The Fire Hydrants of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
TD
On August 3, 2024, you and your associates spontaneously placed a hundred goldfish in a puddle of water forming around this leaky fire hydrant. Now, five weeks later, Bed-Stuy Aquarium is a citywide community art project with a massive social media following. The Aquarium is even officially on Google Maps. Can you describe how to get to Bed-Stuy Aquarium?
HML
Depends on where you are coming from. You get off the A train at Nostrand Avenue. You walk down Fulton Street to Tompkins Avenue. You walk three blocks down and you are right there on Hancock Street and you make a sharp left, it’s right there on the corner.
TD
What does Bed-Stuy Aquarium look like today?
HML
The space is a tree bed with a fire hydrant. Around the fire hydrant is an open pool of water where we have the fish located. We have a perimeter around it. Next door to it is a big tree and we have a garden with flowers and ornaments. We installed benches for people to sit on. We have a small library for kids. Artists made a Bed-Stuy Aquarium logo poster for the fence and spray-painted the logo on the asphalt in front. It looks beautiful. Sun is out. The kids are out. And I’m so grateful. Thank you. I’m so happy. Grateful.
TD
What kind of tree is this shading the Aquarium?
HML
Not an oak tree.
TD
How long have you lived in Bed-Stuy? What does this place mean to you?
HML
This place means everything to me. My family has lived here for sixty years. I was born and raised here all my life. I played basketball, played in the street, and played in block parties. My family organized cookouts, block parties every summer and family reunions here every two years. My family is African American. My father taught me the principles of Islam. I believe in many of them: respect women, respect elders, respect life, respect people, respect nature.
TD
Beautiful—I see these principles in how you care for the Aquarium. Who are the people who live in Bed-Stuy?
HML
Everybody lives in Bed-Stuy. Everybody lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant. All types of people: doctors, lawyers, judges, DOC, police officers. Bedford-Stuyvesant is a beautiful place to live, to walk your dog with no problem. To walk the street with no problem. Go to the park with no problem. Now you can even come to the Aquarium with no problem. It’s good to be one of the people to make Bed-Stuy a better place for everyone.
TD
What memories do you have of this specific fire hydrant?
HML
We did a lot year after year with this fire hydrant. The fire hydrant is the only thing we had. We didn’t have pools, we didn’t have beaches. Beaches are far. The pool is dirty. Some people couldn’t go to the pool, because they couldn’t leave the block because their parents couldn’t go. So the fire hydrant helped us out a lot from getting overheated in the streets, from a heat flash and things like that.
Because when I was a young kid, there wasn’t a lot going on. I am forty-seven years old now. Property wasn’t like how it is now. We didn’t have all these good things we have now. We had to struggle, find things to survive. And the fire hydrant was one of them, when the water wasn’t working in the house, you come outside and get fire hydrant water. We made sure if anything in the street needed to be clean, we used its water. We washed our cars in it, when it was too hot the sprinklers came on it. You go in the house, you bring in the water, you bathe, you wash your behind with that water. The water was for everything, not just for one thing. You drank that water. People walk up and down all of these blocks and don’t have access to water holes and water to drink. Not everybody has money. The fire hydrant is perfectly fine, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s a lot we do with the water still. We get a bucket for the dog to make sure they can have water, too.
TD
There are 170,000 fire hydrants in New York City. What else can we imagine for fire hydrants across the city?
HML
Make a miracle out of them. They are not just for water. They are not just for firefighters. Make a miracle out of them. Use your brain: H2O is a beautiful thing. One day my friend Gavin was like, What if we put fish in there? Now every day we clean it, maintain it, so we can make sure that Bed-Stuy can always stay Bedford-Stuyvesant. We would love for fire hydrants to expand and provide the things we need. A fire hydrant is not just for firefighters. They are for everybody.
TD
Now this fire hydrant is called Bed-Stuy Aquarium. What is your daily routine and care of the Aquarium?
HML
I wake up, arrive by 8 a.m. I make sure the fish are alive, that they are fed. A dead fish can poison all of the fish. I make sure that the water is clean, that the area is clean, that the water’s temperature is good. I talk with people all day, let them know how we built this, what the next steps are. I communicate with the community, with journalists, with news reporters, and talk to kids. I stay here all day until 9 or 10 p.m.
TD
In my time at the Aquarium, I’ve heard people describe the project as art, as an act of civil disobedience, as a commentary on gentrification, and as water justice. What do you think of these descriptions?
HML
A little drinky water cannot mess up pressure or anything. You have four or five hydrants in the Bronx, wrapped in plastic, and there’s no water pressure in them. There’s no messing up the ground that is already made of dirt, that is already messed up. It’s not our fault we did something better by it. We just made better use of something that didn’t have use to it.
TD
How can we imagine making water clean and accessible for all New Yorkers?
HML
Stick together, make sure every fire hydrant, every sink, every toilet in the house, every shower, every water source is mainly clean, mainly purified, make sure there’s no rust in it. We need to make sure the water is good, because we need the water for everything. As you can see, we have fish in the water, so they are living.
- Tile, Mortar
- Freshwater Wetland / Aquatic Plants
- DC Water Pump, Filter, & Heater
- Termination Bar
- Pond Liner Fabric
- Waterproofing Caulk
A Fish Named Eric Adams
TD
Things kicked off pretty quickly in the first week of the Aquarium, the first week of August. There was an influx of parachute reporters and it went viral on TikTok. Visitors started streaming in, including the NYPD and the Fire Department, which controls the fire hydrants. What do you remember about that week?
HML
It was a rough week. Everyone was just putting us down. More talking bad before they came out to see it, thinking they really knew what was going on. They thought it was just a bunch of fish thrown in the water, which it wasn’t. We make sure they are good every day. As long as they are where they belong, everything is okay. The Fire Department came to make sure that they could still get in and out of the fire hydrant in case there was a fire, and make sure the pressure was okay. They locked it but it was still dripping. We opened it back up. Ever since then, they just left it. Then they started coming to take pictures of the fish. They love it.
TD
I am looking at the fish now—they are about an inch long—gold and some gold-and-black-striped fish. They are moving together, glimmering, and energetically swimming through the ornaments and Aquarium architecture including Sponge Bob’s house. Can you tell me more about the fish?
HML
These are bottom feeder fish, people feed them to other fish. We are giving them life expansion. We are not killing them. We give them to kids, we let kids see them. They’ve been here almost five weeks now.
TD
How big will they grow?
HML
That’s right, the size of the area determines how they adapt. They will grow to the size of the water they are in. Seeing how they swim, how they go through all of the little ornaments is a beautiful thing. They bring a lot of joy, a lot of laughter. It’s beautiful.
TD
Do any of the fish have names?
HML
We only named one, because he was the blackest one and he stood by himself. And we felt like he controlled all of the rest of them because when he moved, they moved. We named him Eric Adams.
TD
Over the course of the past four years, under Eric Adams’s administration, the city has systematically defunded public programs including schools, libraries, and community centers. How do you see Bed-Stuy Aquarium as an artistic, political, and community response to this?
HML
How can the kids learn about the environment, learn about science, learn about basketball and sports if everything is getting taken away? It’s not right. We are tired of the kids on their computers and phones. They are not outside learning fundamental things about the earth, the water, the trees, the ground, the sun. They are not learning any of these things. So it’s sad. It’s taken away from these kids, so how are they going to learn anything? I explored everywhere when I was kid. Coney Island… Everywhere.
TD
I see you regularly in the neighborhood and this summer I am grieving the passing of a loved one. I found genuine joy in the Aquarium and you always ask people, “How are you feeling today?” Do you think the Aquarium is helping others in Bed-Stuy with collective and individual grief, especially as the community continues to heal from the Covid-19 pandemic?
HML
Grief is love and love is respect. I want people to be happy they live here. People were skeptical of things and now this one little corner brings so much joy. Dozens of people visit every single day. I remember when I first got my first job, they said: What kind of person are you? Either a regular person, a non-people’s person or a people’s person. And I had to understand what that means and now I work to bring all of the people together to be a people’s person.
TD
There are many people involved with Bed-Stuy Aquarium, including folks on the block like Je-Quan, Floyd, Aunt Kim, Ken, Grace, Devang, Eva, Zakiyyah, and Nadine. There are also unexpected people who have gotten involved. Who are the people involved with the Aquarium?
HML
The people who love what’s going on. We have teachers, school advocates, special needs organizations, artists, the Block Association, City Counselors, business owners, designers, merchants, architects, and journalists who contribute to Bed-Stuy Aquarium. These are people who want to see better for us and the people who want to see that the kids keep smiling. These are the people.
TD
Since early August a number of reporters have speculated about the environmental impact of the project. One reporter wrote about a hypothetical and unlikely scenario in which the fish escape the Aquarium and grow to monstrous sizes in the Hudson River, destroying local ecosystems. Do you think these speculations are useful?
HML
The power of social media is just crazy. It blew up. I think what journalists are saying is just so absurd because of the simple fact that who do they think is taking them and putting them in any outside water?
TD
This is a Black-led, community-led project. Do you think the media struggles to acknowledge the collective expertise and care of community-led projects in general?
HML
Yes. For years, yes. For years it has been happening like that. Every time we come up with something for us, someone works hard to take it away or boycott it instead of helping us achieve the goal.
TD
What do these fish teach us about community-building?
HML
They always travel in a pack, a school. They are always together, and they are not hurting each other in any form or fashion. We watch the fish every day, care for them. We also allow children and families to adopt the fish. We take care of the fish and we take care of our kids.
“It’s for the Kids”
TD
In one of your earliest TikTok videos of Bed-Stuy Aquarium, you said: “It’s for the Kids… It’s for the Kids.” What does this mean to you?
HML
It means the kids don’t have to pay to go see fish. They don’t have to worry about their parents wanting to spend money or wanting to drive or anything like that. They can come anytime. There’s no time limit, there’s no curfew. We are here all day and all night. And it’s for the kids, we can make them smile, show them something different. Everything I did as a kid was here on the block: candy store, penny candy store, dollar juices, back when hero sandwiches were two dollars, a dollar fifty. This is what I did all of my life here and the community gave me love and I want to show love back to the kids.
TD
What do you remember about being a kid in Bed-Stuy?
HML
When I was young a bus called Yogi Bear took us to church. They gave us gifts, made us sing church songs. I used to go to an after-school vanguard where I learned how to do different activities, science, math, reading, sports. After school we would play games like red light green light, tag, straws in the water—where you watch the straws float down the drain. On Halloween we would get candy from all of the stores on Tompkins Avenue.
TD
How has your own experience of being a father inspired this project?
HML
I am a father. I have kids—little ones and grown ones. I am a single father raising two boys and it is hard. I have experienced loss as a father. It taught me how to love and appreciate kids more. Show them what it means to do things to make them smile, to make them happy, to make them want to come and see it everyday—the fishes.
TD
How does the Aquarium give that back to kids? Is it an opportunity for imagination, an opportunity to get outside?
HML
Because of where it’s at. The way it is set up. It is AMAZING. Things like this, to a kid, is heart-fulfilling. He or she is always going to respect that. You don’t see this every day. Usually you have to go to the museum, then you have to park the car to go to the museum, then you have to go through the metal detector. There’s so many babysitters in our neighborhood who are just tired, they go to the park every day because there’s nothing else. Invite them to walk by this pond and get twenty minutes of relaxation and everything. They enjoy it and I love it.
TD
That’s beautiful.
TD
How many children would you say visit Bed-Stuy Aquarium every day?
HML
Dozens. They come after school to feed the fish. It’s a beautiful thing to make sure kids have their school supplies.
TD
This Sunday will be the second Bed-Stuy Aquarium back-to-school drive. What are these events about?
HML
It is a back-to-school giveaway making sure everyone has books, book bags, pencil sharpeners. On Sundays we have tables with all of the items for the kids—a table full of new book bags. I donate school supplies out of my own pocket, community members donate school supplies, business owners, even the pet store where we purchased the fish donates school supplies. I love to be able to give back. We didn’t have nobody giving us stuff, giving us book bags. We didn’t have things like that so I know what it means. Everything right now is raised up, rent and commodities, so a lot of parents are struggling hard. So we’d like to be able to give back to them.
TD
What are the schools in Bed-Stuy?
HML
In Bed-Stuy the schools are IS 258 (a high school), PS 305, PS 53, and PS 256. I went to PS 44. I remember going to buy a sub, a juice, and potato chips. It was a happy thing to be able to go to school and have a sub. It was a hard thing growing up.
TD
People generate and share knowledge at the Aquarium. We hear people talking about engineering, science, politics, family histories, teaching, and architecture here. What are some other things you are learning from the Aquarium?
HML
I am learning about love. Happiness. Just sitting down. Communication. Sharing thoughts. Watching the water run. Amazed. Not believing it. Every thought that you think here is amazing.
TD
Another commonly asked first question at the Aquarium is about the future of the Aquarium during the winter and during rain and other extreme weather events. Why do you think people tend to immediately worry about the future?
HML
Why do people think about the negative at all? We are looking to make it better with plexiglass around it, heaters in it. You are going to have the good with the bad. Social media is like the bad and not the good. I think some are not actually worried about the winter, they just don’t want to see you succeed. Period. No matter the weather, no matter the storm, no matter the nothing. I was with the fish during the big storm on August 19. Someone tried to destroy the Aquarium on August 26. In less than twenty-four hours we had it back up and running, better than before. It was way better than before. People came together to help. I thank God every day for all of the help. All of the love.
TD
I remember that day you said to me, “It’s hard to have a good thing.”
TD
Do you consider yourselves artists?
HML
OUTSTANDING artists. Not just artists. But outstanding artists.
TD
Yes! I love that.
TD
What does water justice mean to you for Bed-Stuy, for the Aquarium, and for the future of the kids?
HML
Water means everything. I bathe up in it, I clean my car in it, I actually put fish in it. Water is everything, H2O is everything. We drink the water, we live off the water, we feed our trees with the water. The fish bring joy. I love to see the faces of the kids smile when they feed them. I love to see the bike riders stop by and take a break when they hear the breeze blow, the water trickle, and see the fishes. I love to see everybody come together. Every race, every nation, every color, every size. I love everything that it does. Joyful. That’s helping, you know? That’s the best part of it—the joy and bringing everybody together.