Summer Arts Festival in Maria Hernandez Park
Our park event is back! Presented with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (Made in NY) and Oye Group, our Summer Arts Festival in Maria Hernandez Park is a FREE event featuring activities, food, and performances, good for all ages. Join us on Aug. 18, rain or shine!!
The Summer Arts Festival is curated by Modesto Flako Jimenez’s Oye Group, a Bushwick collective of both native and immigrant artists making new work in theater, dance, poetry, and film on immigration, gentrification, economics, and urban survival.
Music by:
DJ Bembona
Performances by:
Elisabet Velasquez
Modesto 'Flako' Jimenez
Rebecca KellyG
Xenia Rubinos
Art by:
Ski & Nobody
Tables & Activities:
ARTS & RHYMES with Mr. Radio
Arts and Rhymes table will be teaching kids color mixing skills when colors are limited and help you design a piece of canvas in the process. Mr. Radio will also be providing book bags with school and art supplies.
DOMINO PAL PUEBLO with Oye Group and The Bushwick Starr
Show your game skills at 4 domino tables pa la gente!
GUYON ART with Alex Guyon
Express yourself through creating wearable artwork! Second-hand clothing will be provided to show the value of recycling old clothes and turning them into something new and unique to you!
DACA TALKS and information with Amanda Almeida.
At this table, you can also make and send postcards to your local Representatives about issues that matter to you!
LA SOPITA with Titi Jani
Exploring poetry, and making poetry book with the children. Learn how to write express yourself through poems and help make small chapbooks
LIVE PAINTING with Ski and Nobody
Learn about Graffiti and street art from the artist Ski and Nobody
KID STATION with El Puente, Nayelli Pena, Naya Rodriguez, Chrissy Schoolfield.
Face painting and small games for young kids
ELISABET VELASQUEZ
is a Brooklyn Born Boricua. She is a mother of two. Her poems are an exploration of her life. She writes poems that speak to and about feminism, body positivity, sex, love, mental illness, education, and women's choices through an intersectional lens.
TAXILANDIA (excerpt)
In this site-specific play-within-a-tour of a city, created by Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, audience members become passengers on a dramatic reunion with Flako’s neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Taxilandia is a front-row, backseat ride on a quest to save the vital tapestry of community in America. Taxilandia is inspired by Flako’s nine years driving a taxicab in Bushwick and is drawn from his documentation of conversations with passengers, residents, natives, and immigrants. Being a cab driver was a front-row seat to the gentrification happening in the neighborhood.
XENIA RUBINOS
Visionary singer and music maker Xenia Rubinos dips in and out of genre and structure to create movingly powerful songs with her O.G. signature sound. Xenia’s powerhouse vocals are at the center of her music which grows from a wide range of influences from R&B to Hip-Hop to jazz all delivered with a soulful punk aura.
DJ BEMBONA
DJ Bembona is a Puerto Rican-Panamanian DJ, Multi-Platform Artist & Activist, born & raised in Brooklyn, NY. Her work represents & pushes forward the Afro-Diasporadical movement, Latinx / Indigenous / Caribbean / African, with the purpose of empowering & bridging the gap between POC communities, generations, activist work & beyond.
Free food from park vendors will include Manuel’s Hot Dogs and Jose’s Ice Cream stand!
This annual free public event in Maria Hernandez Park reflects Bushwick’s diverse community through music and poetry, and with visual arts projects for participants of all ages, demonstrations by local grassroots organizers, and performances that respond to the desires of our rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood.
Photo Credit: Edwina Hay @arenotphotos
