Nutty professor Shellyne Rodriguez who held machete to Post reporter’s neck tapped by NYC agency for $407,000 art installation
The unhinged ex-CUNY professor who savagely held a machete to the neck of a New York Post reporter now has a permanent, taxpayer-funded art installation in the Bronx.
The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs ignored Shellyne Rodriguez’s infamous past by green-lighting a $407,000 budget for her 23-foot-tall brick, steel and terracotta Marxist monstrosity called “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx.”
It was unveiled in November along Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue — a little more than two years after she copped a wrist-slap plea deal with Bronx prosecutors for her assault on veteran New York Post scribe Reuven Fenton.
The permanent work, commissioned by the city through the Percent for Art program, is sandwiched in a thicket of residential buildings and hailed as a testament to the borough’s resiliency after the arson spree during the tumultuous 1970s.
The monument– which already has cracks along its foundation — is adorned with images of the phoenix, a mythological symbol of rebirth; a series of piercing eyes; four clenched fists signifying black power/socialist solidarity, and the home borough letters “B” and “X.” On top of the structure is an ascending black ladder without an end.
“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,” she told 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.
