However, there do appear to be more sharks around this summer – and not just your cousin Melvin and his buddies at the pool hall. Ah, New York, your grizzled, gritty exterior hides such a fascinating crushed-velvet heart beating inside…
We’re mainly happy that it’s not a thousand degrees on the streets this weekend, a welcome relief to the heatwave. Ice cream, anyone?
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Stikman, Sticker Maul, Degrupo, Homesick, Cone, and Ked.
From throw-ups to tags, banal to topical, paste-ups to high-gloss murals, the New York pays you back in grit and passion when you keep your eyes open. This summer the heat is on – and you really only need shorts, a tee-shirt, and comfy footwear to get lost in this city that is speaking to you at all hours and pouring poetic discourse into your head and heart. As hard as it may be sometimes, we are always thankful to be in a city full of people and artists that inspire daily.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Invader, Elle, Goog, Urban Russian Doll NYC, Homesick, King Baby, Miss 17, Cramcept, You Are Not Alone, Rambo, Dense, Beep Beep, Red Eye Mob, Crypto Compadres, and Dominator.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers and those filling that role for families. We know it’s not easy work. We’re thankful to all the guys who are there to raise our kids, to provide guidance and love, and to model love and respect for their partners and wives.
Also today is Juneteenth, one of our country’s newest official holidays, recognizing the foundational earthquake of African emancipation from slavery in the US. Institutional slavery and all its effects – events in our history that continue to impact our laws, institutions, education, civil and economic justice, our relationships with one another – are yet to be addressed in many ways. For Juneteenth, this is a sweet and joyful celebration that is also deeply needed.
It doesn’t get any better with the weather than at this time of the summer in New York – and street art and graffiti are enjoying a very prolific crop this season. The politics of this moment are also showing up the street, with abortion and gun rights and vaccines surfacing as themes alongside what seems like ever-present LGBTQ+ rights. We keep seeing the graffiti/street art spots enlarge, contract, and scatter like a sneeze from one neighborhood to another, largely do to the rampant gentrification rate in some areas and the tendency for people to kill off the very arts culture that attracted them to the neighborhood in the first place. Right now street art in Manhattan is concentrated on the Lower East Side and Chinatown – Chelsea has a few remaining pockets left but it could be gone soon, and a little still remains in Soho and Noho. In Brooklyn, the neighborhoods Bushwick of going strong, Williamsburg Industrial park Williamsburg and Dumbo not so much. In Queens there is Welling Court, maybe Ridgewood, and of course Mott Haven and South Bronx are still popping
But let’s not get distracted by the city topography – lets look at some new stuff Jaime Rojo caught this week.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Sipros, Adam Fu, CRKSHNK, Below Key, Modomatic, Hijack, Homesick, BK Ackler, Sally Rumble, Real Art Daddy, Yosnier, JG, The Eyeknow, Fear Arte, and Natalie Robinson.
Just as we were starting to feel a sense of relief that Covid is letting go of us….
Russia has invaded Ukraine. Not only is this a horror for Ukraine, this elective aggression may spread, resulting in retaliation.
If you want to help, we found this list from Fortune magazine:
Voices of Children Voices of Children is a charitable foundation that focuses on addressing the psychological effect of armed conflict on children. Founded in 2015 in response to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Voices of Children provides art therapy, mobile psychologists, and individualized support to traumatized children. Individuals can donate through bank transfer, credit/debit card, or Apple Pay via its website.
The International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee has a long history of providing resources to refugees fleeing countries facing humanitarian crisis. Its leaders have responded to the situation in Ukraine by meeting with organizations in Poland and Ukraine to gauge the potential number of refugees and their needs so it can quickly mobilize and provide whatever assistance is needed. You can make a donation via its website.
CARE International humanitarian organization CARE has set up an emergency Ukrainian Crisis Fund with the goal of providing immediate support for 4 million people. Donations will go toward providing Ukrainians with water, food, supplies, hygiene kits, immediate support and aid, and cash. CARE notes that its prioritizing supporting women, girls, families, and elderly.CARE makes it easy to donate via its website using PayPal or a credit card.
International Medical Corps This nonprofit is focused on providing health-care services, psychosocial support, and care to citizens of countries dealing with disaster, disease, and conflict. It’s currently accepting monetary gifts that will go toward providing Ukrainians with better access to medical and mental health resources. You can make a donation via the website using a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.
Project Hope It’s currently sending medical supplies to Ukrainians. You can make donations via its website using a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Captain Eyeliner, Sonni, CRKSHNK, Kobra, Robert Janz, Goog, Degrupo, Suso33, Leviticus, Niagra, Homesick, Allan Molho, YNWA, Divock Okoth Origi, Emune, Lancelot, and Outersource.
Nomadland won the Oscar for the best movie this year, a fact that you may not know because A. The Oscars are nearly completely irrelevant, and B. Covid era-awards programs have been the equivalent of watching your dad unclogging the kitchen drain. An unvarnished story about a growing ecosystem of Americans living in cars, trucks, and RVs in parking lots across the country, Nomadland toes a line between blaming neo-liberal vulture capitalism/ de-industrialization of the last 40 years and dipping into the American myths of people who just want to live their life free and unencumbered.
Meanwhile, in New York more people are finding the rent to be too high and are moving into RVs, according to The Daily News this week. In the article they speak with Giovanni, a first responder whom we were probably clapping for last year when he was saving lives from Covid.
In the article Giovanni says, “I was an EMT… you want to talk struggling‚ that was really rough,” he explained. “I had to have somebody rent out my living room just to be able to cover the rent. That’s how hard it was. After doing that for three, four years, I was like, I’m done with this. I quit. I’m over it.”
“I went to college, I did pretty much everything that I was told I was supposed to do in order to have a good life. And it didn’t turn out that way,” he explained.
As the moneyed Real Estate kingpins are fighting against extending a rent moratorium in the city to August 31 and to end moratoriums across the country, you have to wonder where everyone will go once the stimulus checks have dried up, inflation kicks in, and landlords evict people.
Meanwhile, we’re following the street art in a number of neighborhoods in New York this week – and wondering where the topical or political works are. The current generation who are putting work on the streets may venture into politics, but only identity politics. BLM, trans rights, that sort of thing.
New York is headed toward 70% vaccinated soon and the city is actually talking about offering to vaccinate tourists! Soon you can go to the Met, see a Broadway show, eat dinner in Little Italy, get cursed out by a homeless guy, and get a stab in the arm from Pfizer! New York, New York! It’s a wonderful town!
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: 2 Much, Armyan, Cautious5, Cekis, City Kitty, Cramcept, Denton Burrows, GIZ, Healer, Homesick, Leviticus, LNE Crew, Lunge Box, MalincheArt, MeresOne, MrBbaby, No Sleep, Paul Richard, Ponzi, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Smart, and Stikki Peaches.
Hooray Hooray, first of May!” chanted your cousin Felix, “outdoor fucking starts today!”
You both broke out in peals of laughter while your mom was walking out from the kitchen with a basket of garlic bread for your Saturday night spaghetti dinner. “What did you just say??”
It’s hard to believe it’s May already, and the smell of lilacs and aerosol paint and pot smoke is in the air in New York again. Ahhhhhhh. Duck between the skateboards and the hellions delivering Chinese on electric bikes, and you’ll see the chess players are setting up again in the park.
For the 12th week in a row, the President of the United States hasn’t tweeted something glorifying violence or attacking faith in public institutions, and people are beginning to mention the “H” word in reference to the rate of Covid-19 vaccinations in New York.
Keep squeezing your silver and keep your eyes open and don’t get hit by any NFTs. They seem to be dropping everywhere
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: 2 Much, Andrea Carlson, Banksy, Bastard Bot, Bueno, Free Britney, Homsick, Marcos De La Fuente, Myles, Posterboy, Resop, Same PPP, Tom Bob, Vanessa Alvarez, WGE, and ZigZag.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
