First came an “American Idol” contestant groaning about growing up in the Bronx with all its “gangs, drugs, violence.”
Then Fox News pundit Glenn Beck railed against Co-Op City as a failed socialist experiment.
And a nationwide study released earlier this month ranked the Cross Bronx Expressway the second-most gridlocked highway in the country.
It seems the hits just keep on coming. But at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, they are looking to quash all that trash talk.
The museum is presenting Bronx Talks: Bronx Stories, a free storytelling event designed to highlight positive images of the borough at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the museum, located at 1040 Grand Concourse.
“The goal is to challenge the stereotypes of the Bronx,” said the museum’s Bridget Bartolini, who brainstormed the idea.
The event is the latest push to invoke Bronx pride.
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. called on Bronxites to defend their borough after Beck’s comments and the “American Idol” segment. Online, the blogosphere lit up with pro-Bronx music videos and calls of “Bronx pride!”
The museum event will feature a special screening of the documentary “Richie Perez Watches ‘Fort Apache: The Bronx'” and four storytellers sharing their Bronx experiences. The audience will be invited to share their stories.
Museum volunteer Miriam Tabb plans to talk about her time at Bronx Community College in the mid-1990s. The Bronxite, who has been boycotting “Idol” since January, hopes her love for the borough comes through.
“I just love all the diversity of people here,” she said. “I really love my borough, but it gets a bad rap all around.”
Writer/performer Michele Carlo will be sharing from her memoir, “Fish Out of Agua: My Life on the Neither Side of the (Subway) Tracks.”
“I’m telling a story from my teenagehood. It’s about discovery and loss and growing up. It’s bittersweet,” she said.
BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS
DAILY NEWS