In her excellent debut exhibition at PPOW, Bronx-based artist and activist Shellyne Rodriguez presents 22 portraits of her neighbors, friends, mentors, and comrades. Meticulously drawn with colored pencils on black paper, these portraits exude care, love, and shared struggles. Also, don’t miss her “mixtape” drawings, which take their format from the 1980s hip-hop party flyers of artist Lemoin Thompson — aka Buddy Esquire — and a series of teach-ins and talks with scholars and activists, culminating in a block party on April 22. —HB
PPOW Gallery (ppowgallery.com)
392 Broadway, Tribeca, Manhattan
Through April 22