An ex-CUNY professor, notorious for threatening a New York Post reporter with a machete, now has a permanent art piece funded by taxpayers in the Bronx.
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs approved a $407,000 budget for Shellyne Rodriguez’s 23-foot-tall artwork, “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx,” despite her controversial history. This installation, made of brick, steel, and terracotta, is described as a Marxist piece.
Unveiled in November along Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue, the artwork emerged just over two years after Rodriguez agreed to a plea deal for her attack on journalist Reuven Fenton.
Commissioned through the city’s Percent for Art program, the permanent structure is nestled among residential buildings. It celebrates the Bronx’s resilience following the destructive fires of the 1970s.
The monument, which already shows cracks at its base, features phoenix imagery, a metaphor for rebirth. It also includes a series of eyes, four clenched fists representing black power and socialist solidarity, and the initials “B” and “X” for the Bronx. Atop the sculpture stands an endless black ladder.
“If abolition is not solely about what we dismantle, but also about what we build in its stead, then what monuments or points of gathering will we, the collective body of the dispossessed who make life on the periphery of empire, make for ourselves as stewards of our own histories and futures,” Rodriguez expressed to Hyperallergic in November.
The installation was first commissioned in 2018 through the city’s Percent for Arts program, which sets aside 1% of budgets for city-funded construction projects to create new artwork, as part of a now-completed $62.5 million reconstruction of the Grand Concourse.
A panel of local elected officials, art experts and community board members chose Rodriguez, who pocketed $81,400, as 20% of the budget for each piece of art created through the Koch administration-era program is set aside to pay an “artist fee,” city officials said.
Bronx residents bashed the piece as a polarizing eyesore.
“Somebody who’s violent; there’s better people who should’ve been given the opportunity,” said Frankie Santiago. “It looks like a piece of junk.”
“If she’s offensive like that — and they’re using taxpayer money and getting privileges — maybe we should rethink this,” said Jose Lopez.
“It looks kind of weird,” he added.
The self-proclaimed “black Marxist” told Hyperallergic in November she conceptualized the piece seven years earlier during a time “when the memorialization of the violent foundations of the United States was collectively being called into question.”
In May 2023, it was Rodriguez, 48, who showed her own violent foundation when Fenton knocked on her Bronx apartment seeking comment a day after the then-Hunter College adjunct art professor made headlines for flipping out on pro-life students at the Manhattan-based CUNY campus.
“Get the f–k away from my door, or I’m gonna chop you up with this machete!” she shouted from behind her closed door just moments after Fenton identified himself.
Seconds later, Rodriguez barged out and put the blade to the reporter’s neck.
“Get the f–k away from my door! Get the f–k away from my door!” she raged, before later kicking Fenton in the shins and chasing a Post photographer to his car after they left the apartment.
Her caught-on-camera meltdown made Page 1 of The Post with the headline “THE NUTTY PROFESSOR.”
Rodriguez pleaded guilty in October 2023 to a count of menacing, a misdemeanor, and to a harassment violation.
She was immediately fired from her gig at Hunter after the attack, but dodged jail time and a criminal record through a sweetheart deal brokered by Bronx prosecutors and approved by Democratic Judge Dan Quart — by completing counseling and staying out of trouble for a year.
In February 2024, she was axed from another teaching gig at Cooper Union for anti-Israel screeds. Her website doesn’t highlight any current projects.
The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs refused to comment about Rodriguez’s outrageous, headline-making past.
The agency also ignored questions about whether it considered pulling the award before construction began after a smirking Rodriguez was arrested in May 2023 and slapped with harassment and menacing charges for threatening to “chop” Fenton up.
Instead, the agency said that criminal background checks aren’t part of the Percent for Arts’ commissioning process, but it follows city procurement rules to select “responsible” contractors.
The agency brushed off concerns about the cracks and fissures already marking the monument’s foundation.
“Public artwork is routinely inspected and weather-related wear and tear is common, especially after a harsh winter. Any necessary maintenance is typically done once the winter season has passed,” the department said.
Rodriguez declined comment Saturday when approached from a distance outside her Bronx home.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain.
