Welcome to Part II of II of our photo collection from the 14th Annual Bushwick Collective Block Party. This year’s edition, held on May 31, 2025, brought together a powerful fusion of beats, paint, and community spirit—just the kind of vibrant energy we at BSA love to celebrate.
Everybody’s proud of their neighborhood, and even though Bushwick continues to change, become more unaffordable, a little suburban, and sometimes feels like it is erasing the hardworking community that made it great, it takes a block party like this to remind you about what Bushwick is. Shout out to Joe and his family and team for incorporating the graffiti heads into the mix and allowing street art and graffiti to coexist in a way many predicted would be impossible; a truly unique collection of artists, styles, disciplines, inspirations, and themes.
The streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn right now are one sprawling open-air studio—artists from around the world balanced on cherry pickers, ladders, and step stools, bending brushes, tilting rollers, and waving aerosol cans like conductors directing an urban symphony of color. Thick lines, fine mists, reflections, textures, letterforms in every handstyle—they’re building volume and vibe, layering stories and style one gesture at a time.
Since transforming this once Dutch “town in the woods” into a global destination for graffiti and street art over a decade ago, Joe Ficalora has brought hundreds—more likely thousands—of pieces to these Brooklyn walls. A working-class, heavily industrial neighborhood with a strong immigrant presence for the last century, the new neighbors may not always understand the street culture that this movement grew from – often arriving with a whiff of suburban sensibility, but let’s be honest—they wouldn’t be here if the Bushwick Collective hadn’t turned the place into a magnet.
Graffiti writers know how to thrive in hostile environments. It’s built into the DNA. Street artists, too, have evolved with ingenuity and hustle since this worldwide boom began hitting walls in the ’90s. Ficalora’s no different—he’s stayed the course, taken the hits, and kept the engine running.
As tradition now demands, the Collective kicks off summer with a Brooklyn-style block party this weekend—thousands pouring into the streets to celebrate the visual feast. Our photographer. Jaime Rojo has been out documenting the latest wave of mural-making, capturing the energy before the crowds flood in.
What’s always set this apart is Ficalora’s instinct to unify. He’s given room to both graffiti kings and street art innovators, encouraging them to work side by side—and sometimes shoulder to shoulder. The hard lines between the two have softened over the years anyway; many street artists still tag graffiti as their first love, and plenty of writers have flexed into new directions. Cross-pollination is the norm, not the exception.
Add DJs, food trucks, neighborhood vendors, and this thing becomes more than a party—it’s community. Fourteen years deep, and like Joe says, it’s the journey, not the destination.
Although if you’re into street culture, this weekend in Bushwick is your destination, without doubt.
On any typical Wednesday, New York is a freak show on the subway, streets, in the corner deli. In a good way! This spooky time of year brings a larger allotment of costumes to the streets. Because it is Halloween, these alter egos also brings hidden fears and anxieties to the surface, revealing characters that lie deep within some people.
Only a few days before a US national election that feels pivotal and frightful to many, voters express fear and uncertainty toward both major candidates. In the wooly street art scene, symbols of the underworld reappear and linger year-round, waiting to be uncovered. Here, we present a collection of recent productions, large and small, peppered with quotes to celebrate Halloween.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” – The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe
“Ghosts are real, this much I know. There are things that tie them to a place, very much like we do.” – Crimson Peak by Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins
How’s your summer been so far? Many people say that Memorial Day unofficially begins Summer, so this week was the first one. Indeed! Baseball, soccer, and kickball are in the park, and movies or cocktails are on the roof. Lifeguards are on the beach, and kids are throwing up on the Cyclone at Coney Island or throwing frisbees on Central Park grass. The air in some neighborhoods smells like lilac bushes, urine, french fries, marijuana, or aerosol paint. Or all of it at once. When it all swirls around you, it is a heady mix. Cute girls in short shorts and cute boys on skateboards may not fall in love given these circumstances, but they might!
This week, 45 was found guilty on 34 counts in court. We New Yorkers, who have known him for years, are unsurprised.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Specter, Alice Pasquini, Degrupo, Optimo NYC, Enzo, Nite Owl, Miki Mu, NYC Kush Co., Klonism, Max Grax, Friz, KMG, Agent Decay, Jare, SYE5, Benny Cruz.
The first time artist Specter painted this memorial for Yusuf Hawkins in Brooklyn was in 2011. He’s restored it and added more to the environment of the mural, two times since then. This is the second restoration that he did in the past few weeks.
Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring Creepy, Chris RWK, David Smith, Enzo & Nio, How & Nosm, JR, Pennygaff, Shai Dahan, This is Awkward, Veng RWK, and Werds.
Here’s our first collection for 2013 from BSA’s ongoing interview with the street, this week featuring 907, Smells, Bast, Bunny M, Captain Baby, Droid, Enzo & Nio, Jilly Ballistic, Mr. Toll, Paolo Pivi, Shin Shin, and The Migra.
Parisian Street and Fine Artist LUDO shared these exclusive images of his new installations outside Paris. Says the artist, he decided to see how his stuff would look outside the typical urban settings. Also, he just wanted to get out of the city, “just the need for fresh air,” he says.
Our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bast, Christian Paine, Jim Avignon, Jon Burgerman, LMNOP, Enzo and Nio, Stikman, Toofly, and WAS.
Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bast, Chris Uphues, Cyrcle, Dain, Enzo & Nio, Ja Ja, LMNOP, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Swampy, and Willow.
As winter loosens it’s grip, the first signs of spring are popping up all over New York, with new buds of passion from tender branches, construction walls, softened soil and industrial doorways. What this season will bring to the streets is anyone’s guess, but there are shoots and seedlings that we haven’t seen before, and a new crop is obviously taking shape. Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adam Krueger, Andrew Poneros, Betten, Cash-Money, El Sol 25, Enzo, Kinog, Kriest, Mint & Serf, Pork, Shark Toof, and Wheat.
Mint&Serf curated the show “Well Hung” The Chelsea Chapter at +aRT gallery located at 540 West 28 Street in NYC. Well Hung runs until Sunday April 3rd. A fundraiser to benefit the programs of Free Arts NYC . Below a few images of the art on the show:
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
