Prime Produce Guild Hall, also known as Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative and Prime Produce, is a community co-working organization and event space based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Prime Produce consists of two organizational bodies. One is an incorporated

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that runs the

co-working Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

library, and community space in the building. The second is a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

that manages their building located at 424 West 54 Street.

History

Co-founded by Jerone Hsu, Prime Produce is listed in the

Dramatists Guild The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market. It was born in 1921 out of the Authors Guild, known then as Authors League of America, formed in 1912. ...

directory describing itself as "support ng

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

s, and artists who share values of service and

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, ...

" by offering event and practice spaces. Prime Produce has hosted art exhibitions, screenings, staged readings, business networking events involving

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...

, and career panels for

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Prime Produce hosts Earthlings NYC, a turtle restoration project that cares for NYC turtles in need by rehabilitating them in the Prime Produce space before re-releasing the turtles into the wild or to permanent homes. In 2022, Jamaican eatery ''Cafe 424'' opened for business in the cafe space on the first floor of Prime Produce serving

Jamaican cuisine Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavours and spices influenced by Amerindian cuisine, Amerindian, Cuisine of West Africa, West African, Irish cuisine, Irish, English cuisine, English, French cuisine, French, Portuguese ...

. Since 2023, Prime Produce has hosted meetings and events presented by the local Wikipedia chapter, Wikimedia New York City.

Cosmic Turtle Drop (New Year's Eve)

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

2023, Prime Produce welcomed in 2024 with a "Cosmic Turtle Drop," descending a translucent turtle sculpture with multicolored lights inside. The ceremonial turtle drop took place in front of the Prime Produce building. The choice of the turtle references the turtle rehab work of Earthlings NYC and the history of Turtle Island in indigenous North American folklore. After the turtle descended, the attendees congregated in the Prime Produce guild hall to watch films that had newly entered the public domain in 2024, starting with

Steamboat Willie ''Steamboat Willie'' is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by Walt Disney Animation Studios and was released by Pat Powers (producer), Pat Powers, under the name of Cele ...

. {{Commons category, Prime Produce

References

External links

Official website
Organizations based in New York City Manhattan Culture of Manhattan Cooperatives based in New York (state) Artist cooperatives in the United States Coworking space providers 2016 establishments in New York City