Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

Remember last summer when you realized it was already August, and you didn’t go to the beach or for a hike yet? I vow not to let that happen this summer. New York is full of summer fun opportunities; getting outside the city, even for a day is revelatory. If you want to catch street art, step outside in many neighborhoods across the five boroughs. If you want your art viewing experience to be accompanied by live Hip Hop performances and plenty of places to grab a drink amongst the live aerosol painting on the street, just go to the Bushwick Collective’s annual block party, which is happening right now.

As we enter Immigrant Heritage Month, the city is absorbing our newest immigrants, or trying to. “There are now about 45,800 migrants – or about half the city’s shelter population – spread between hotels, respite centers, transitional shelters, humanitarian relief centers and upstate hotel rooms,” says Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom. The official number of arrivals is estimated at 72,000 people. The mayor and governor are taking heat for not doing enough or doing too much or for asking communities to find space for all the new folks arriving by bus from the southern border – with the latest announcement of a 500-cot shelter in a JFK warehouse this week. If the humane view of the story isn’t enough for you, then perhaps you will be comforted to learn that new arrivals accounted for a major portion of US economic growth in the last 12 months. Ask Forbes, or the US Senate. The open secret is that Western societies have been benefitting from the contributions of immigrants for decades. We shudder to read verbiage that attempts to dehumanize these humans, who are the living example of those seeking the “American Dream”.

Similarly, we shudder to see campaigns to humanize the robot “dogs”, like this puff piece in the New York Post featuring an office visit to normalize them – in fact using one to create a painting.

“The robots march across canvasses with paint-covered paws.

Pilat’s works have become a favorite of Silicon Valley’s tech arrivistes.”

Uh, it’s not a dog, and it will probably be weaponized against you in the future. C’mon Sport! Let’s play catch!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Skewville, Matt Siren, David Puck, Martin Whatson, Loose, Anso, Rham Bow, Narol, Forever Up, Fuckz, 156 CRU, Ebony, Aims Pukers, Feye, and Sper.