Today, in a related event, the Hip Hop Theater Festival presented B-Boys Ken Fury, Whorah, Sweet Lu, and Frankie
Flave in Times Square. A very appreciative audience gamely stood in the rain for an hour with their umbrellas to
watch the b-boyz demonstrate moves and speak about their lives. My friend Nika Kramer and I will be blogging about
the BC One all week.  You can check out more photos and info on the Red Bull BC One site.

The event was held at Charlie Balducci’s impressive NYC Arts Cypher, a space painted floor to ceiling
by local artists.. OnTwo had been telling me for ages about the lively Staten Island hip hop scene so it
was great to finally get a chance to experience it in person.

In 2007 BOOKSIIII founded an organization called Primary Flight with the idea of bringing street artists
to Wynwood during Art Basel to paint on these walls. Last year around 100 artists showed up to paint.
The concept caught on and developers, gallery owners and artists are collaborating to foster a creative
community.

Last weekend was lucky to have BOOKSIIII and his partner TYPOE as my guides in Wynwood. They drove
me around and in a very short time I got to see an tons of legal and illegal art. Some of the commisssioned
walls are amazing but I was particularly taken with the pieces painted in an abandoned building where
squatters lived surrounded by walls full of graffiti. As of now, Wynwood lacks the kind of vibrant urban street
life I love to photograph in New York and Baltimore. It should be interesting to watch the arts district evolve.

SoWeBo boasts the first mile of public railroad track ever laid in the entire US. We walked along that track
for more than a mile passing some nifty hobo monikers on a laid up freight train. Then we slid down an
embankment to another set of tracks which passed under some bridges. Turns out that’s where writers go
to piece.  Thanks guys for guiding me!

Rokafella and Kwikstep performed with Roka’s students from The Door in the West Village.
Check out Mare 139’s photos of the exhibit up over on his blog. I’ll put some of the dancers here.

Bushwick has become one of the last affordable hoods for artists to live and work in New York City. Although I
participated in the festival and am always glad to see street art promoted, I did wonder who was promoting whom.
I can only hope that the present and future developers of Bushwick repay the creative people who brought them
there by designing buildings where artists and others of modest means can afford to live.
















’

In an effort to do my part to spread the spray to a few more continents, I am posting their plans.
Warning: wear old clothes—-malfunctions can occur.

One week and over 3000 photos later I’m back in NYC hopelessly trying to organize them.  Here’s
a random selection of flicks—more coming soon.

Although everything was within easy walking distance, there were so many battles, cyphers, workshops, panels, meetings
and events scheduled at overlapping times that it was impossible to see everything. I chose to watch the 4 on 4 B-Girl crew
battle (Japan girlz killed it!), the kids’ battle (won by Prodigy) and Ken Swift & Seven Gems’ workshop. Unfortunately I couldn’t
stay for Sunday’s huge All Battles All because I was flying to Bogota for a street art festival—will post those photos soon but
meanwhile here’s a selection from the IBE.

In addition to helping establish an East Coast skateboarding scene, Andy singlehandedly convinced
the NYC Parks Department to build a skateboard park in Riverside Park. I hadn’t seen much of Andy
for the past dozen years or so but I did speak with him by phone from time to time. He had plans to
write about his early skateboard years and wanted to make sure I still had the photos of the coping
we found in the Bronx.

Andy was super smart, charming, funny and a gifted artist as well as skateboarder. He leaves nothing
less than the entire East Coast skateboarding as his legacy—a huge accomplishment.  Read more
about Andy and Zoo York in this 2005 New York Magazine story.

The stellar line-up of artists included Aiko, Shiro, EMA, Erotica, Sofia, INKS, JenOne, Vik, Mama and
of course Younity founders AM and TooFly. Jazz was the subject requested by the wall’s owner but the
artists also strove to mirror the eco-friendly theme of their upcoming Fresher exhibition.

Unfortunately I wasn’t in town so missed my chance to see the the artists in action. However Aiko gave me
a tour today. She explained the difficulties of painting outdoors with the biggest stencil she had ever cut.

Both artists adapted an image or two of mine from the late ‘70’s. I’m happy that these photos
from the vanished Lower Eastside of 30 years ago are still relevant today. Below are Chris
(left) and Armsrock with their work paired with my original black and white photos.

Over the years, Lincoln Center Out of Doors has been very supportive of b-boying and girling and
even presented the first major public b-boy event in 1981, the legendary battle between the Rock
Steady Crew and Dynamic Rockers. Since then, hip hop dance has spread worldwide. In 2006,
Nika Kramer and I organized a We B*Girlz battle at LCOofD to celebrate women in hip hop.

This year, Last For One, one of Korea’s top crews performed. This crew won the prestigious Battle of
the Year in Germany in 2005 and were featured in Benson Lee’s magnificent documentary, Planet B-Boy.