2020 Urban Youth Arts Festival
PRECITA EYES YOUTH FESTIVAL GOES ONLINE AND INTERNATIONAL
This year's 24th annual Urban Youth Arts event transformed itself into the first-ever international live-streamed graffiti art festival.
This year's 24th annual Urban Youth Arts event transformed itself into the first-ever international live-streamed graffiti art festival.
On July 18-19, some 50 artists from the Bay Area and around the world painted simultaneously, from their homes and in the streets, live-streamed over Zoom and YouTube, accompanied by the beats of dozens of prerecorded musical sets, online workshops and live DJs, as an audience of hundreds tuned in.
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Little Oso in Colombia
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"At first, the idea of a festival online made me cringe," writes organizer Cio Castaneda. "But keeping the tradition alive took precedence, and so we pressed on, not skipping a beat. And it turned out to be one of the most innovative and gratifying initiatives I've ever been part of.
"Given the different time zones and the impossibility of cramming everything into five hours, we hit upon the idea of holding the festival over the entire weekend, from 7 am-7 pm. It seemed pretty crazy at first but turned out to be quite doable.
"I'm not sure how many people participated. Roughly 50 to 60 painters from all over the world painted for one of both days. For instance, Finnish artist Viv Magia had multiple people painting with her. In Lima, Peru, the artists organized a mini fest with at least 15 people painting a rundown corner of downtown, turning it into huge skate park with murals everywhere. In Bogota, Colombia, my great friend Oso painted with his son, Little Oso. The kid's just three years old or maybe four tops, but he was spraying away all day for both days. We had artists streaming live from Panama, El Salvador, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Canada, Spain and Italy, from the streets or their homes, using black books, canvas, or if they could arrange it, a wall.
"Given the different time zones and the impossibility of cramming everything into five hours, we hit upon the idea of holding the festival over the entire weekend, from 7 am-7 pm. It seemed pretty crazy at first but turned out to be quite doable.
"I'm not sure how many people participated. Roughly 50 to 60 painters from all over the world painted for one of both days. For instance, Finnish artist Viv Magia had multiple people painting with her. In Lima, Peru, the artists organized a mini fest with at least 15 people painting a rundown corner of downtown, turning it into huge skate park with murals everywhere. In Bogota, Colombia, my great friend Oso painted with his son, Little Oso. The kid's just three years old or maybe four tops, but he was spraying away all day for both days. We had artists streaming live from Panama, El Salvador, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Canada, Spain and Italy, from the streets or their homes, using black books, canvas, or if they could arrange it, a wall.
"Closer to home, here in the Bay Area, Suaro Cervantes set up a wall in Richmond and painted with youth artist Jeremy. In San Jose, Carlos Rodrigues led a group that reclaimed an ugly corner full of needles and drugs and bad energy near the freeway and beautified it with murals. And now I hear that they're starting a farm there, too.
"In total, we awarded more than 100 Certificates of Participation and had over 1,000 viewers on YouTube!
"One beautiful story is that of Viv Magia, who was painting in Norway. Given the 10-hour time difference, she launched both days in the 7:00 am slot by taking us on brief walk among the mountains and lakes before heading over to her painting site. DJs from Colombia and Peru wrapped up each day's line-up.
"The prerecorded workshops featured local artists Max Allbee on digital graffiti, and Nate 1 on black books. The Colombia collective Contra Forma shared their techniques, and LiteRAPtura introduced the global movement for emceeing graffiti.
"The festival's original theme was transformation, but recent events changed its focus. Many participants elected to honor Sean Monterrosa (aka Tucan BKF), the 22-year-old SF native killed by Vallejo police in June. Artists were asked to paint the letters TUCAN, the figure of a toucan, or his portrait. I also arranged for Sean's sisters Ashley and Michelle to address the festival. As graffiti artists, this was our way of recognizing the beautiful life and soul of Sean and all the others taken from us by police brutality, and taking a stand.
"And we had our share of beautiful unscripted moments. Like the set of local poet Sebastian, a former participant in the Precita Eyes youth program, who just happened to show up at the production site and asked if he could do a couple poems. So we recorded him and added him to the lineup."
Another serendipitous surprise was that the festival coincided with Spirit Run ceremonies being held in Precita Park, across the street from the mural association's studio at 348 Precita Ave. As Cio notes: "In some sacred intervention arrangement that worked out magnificently, the initial Spirit Run ceremony blessing coincided with start of the festival Saturday morning and then, magically, the timing of the Spirit Run closing ceremony lined up to bless the end of our festival on Sunday."
And at the studio that weekend, muralists were busy gridding and transferring Precita Eyes' newest mural: the one being painted on the studio itself! The history of how the association almost lost this space and community efforts to secure it is told in the video "A Brief History of Artivism at 348 Precita," by Yenia Jimenez, featuring interviews with founding director Susan Cervantes and Nancy Pili Hernandez.
"In total, we awarded more than 100 Certificates of Participation and had over 1,000 viewers on YouTube!
"One beautiful story is that of Viv Magia, who was painting in Norway. Given the 10-hour time difference, she launched both days in the 7:00 am slot by taking us on brief walk among the mountains and lakes before heading over to her painting site. DJs from Colombia and Peru wrapped up each day's line-up.
"The prerecorded workshops featured local artists Max Allbee on digital graffiti, and Nate 1 on black books. The Colombia collective Contra Forma shared their techniques, and LiteRAPtura introduced the global movement for emceeing graffiti.
"The festival's original theme was transformation, but recent events changed its focus. Many participants elected to honor Sean Monterrosa (aka Tucan BKF), the 22-year-old SF native killed by Vallejo police in June. Artists were asked to paint the letters TUCAN, the figure of a toucan, or his portrait. I also arranged for Sean's sisters Ashley and Michelle to address the festival. As graffiti artists, this was our way of recognizing the beautiful life and soul of Sean and all the others taken from us by police brutality, and taking a stand.
"And we had our share of beautiful unscripted moments. Like the set of local poet Sebastian, a former participant in the Precita Eyes youth program, who just happened to show up at the production site and asked if he could do a couple poems. So we recorded him and added him to the lineup."
Another serendipitous surprise was that the festival coincided with Spirit Run ceremonies being held in Precita Park, across the street from the mural association's studio at 348 Precita Ave. As Cio notes: "In some sacred intervention arrangement that worked out magnificently, the initial Spirit Run ceremony blessing coincided with start of the festival Saturday morning and then, magically, the timing of the Spirit Run closing ceremony lined up to bless the end of our festival on Sunday."
And at the studio that weekend, muralists were busy gridding and transferring Precita Eyes' newest mural: the one being painted on the studio itself! The history of how the association almost lost this space and community efforts to secure it is told in the video "A Brief History of Artivism at 348 Precita," by Yenia Jimenez, featuring interviews with founding director Susan Cervantes and Nancy Pili Hernandez.
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Hosts Alma Pozos and Kathya Correa Almanza online.
The Backstory
Cio continues: "With just a few weeks before the mid-July festival date, we got the green light from Susan Cervantes to move the event online. I immediately thought of incorporating not just Oakland and nearby cities but my artist collective back in Colombia. This festival could be the first of its kind for graffiti art, with artists from all over the world, painting and streaming live over two days.
"But to tell the truth, I wasn't so sure we could facilitate it. These were unfamiliar waters, and I needed a lot of technical help. After many meetings with experts, I came to the conclusion that my company, C2 Production, had what it takes to do the music/audio/video part.
"But I needed some wizard knowledge. So I turned to my cousin Jaime Rojas and asked him: "Primo, how can we do this?" Four or five days later, he called me to say: "I figured it out! " My cousin's a genius and when he told me we could do it, that's when I knew we were cool.
"Jaime is part of SprayLatino, a Colombia-based media platform. With Johan Duarte and Hector Rivera from Peru, we worked night and day for over a month, working out the kinks that would eventually transform the 24th festival into the first-ever international live-streamed graffiti art festival.
"The real ordeal was coming up with the technical solution to live-stream graffiti artists working from locations around the world. We ran lots of practice tests to develop our skills. But once we had the technological solutions down, we weren't worried about a thing. We ended up using Zoom with participants and a separate technology to live-stream over YouTube. All the artists and viewers had to do was click on a link.
"Given the current situation we're in, with shelter-in-place and the like, the online format opened up a new realm, creating the possibility of participation by individuals who maybe couldn't participate in the traditional festival for health reasons or distance. The festival is always a welcoming environment for families, but this format allowed it to reach out and actually enter homes locally and around the globe.
"Hopefully, the online streaming technical solutions we came up with can be used for all sorts of Precita Eyes projects now and post-coronavirus, as well.
"Producing these historical 24 hours was one of the most challenging things I've ever done as artist and curator, but it was an honor to keep the tradition alive. It was like the universe kept guiding and showing us that the festival must happen. Like we were trying to figure out how to get an orange, and the universe gave us an orange tree."
Cio continues: "With just a few weeks before the mid-July festival date, we got the green light from Susan Cervantes to move the event online. I immediately thought of incorporating not just Oakland and nearby cities but my artist collective back in Colombia. This festival could be the first of its kind for graffiti art, with artists from all over the world, painting and streaming live over two days.
"But to tell the truth, I wasn't so sure we could facilitate it. These were unfamiliar waters, and I needed a lot of technical help. After many meetings with experts, I came to the conclusion that my company, C2 Production, had what it takes to do the music/audio/video part.
"But I needed some wizard knowledge. So I turned to my cousin Jaime Rojas and asked him: "Primo, how can we do this?" Four or five days later, he called me to say: "I figured it out! " My cousin's a genius and when he told me we could do it, that's when I knew we were cool.
"Jaime is part of SprayLatino, a Colombia-based media platform. With Johan Duarte and Hector Rivera from Peru, we worked night and day for over a month, working out the kinks that would eventually transform the 24th festival into the first-ever international live-streamed graffiti art festival.
"The real ordeal was coming up with the technical solution to live-stream graffiti artists working from locations around the world. We ran lots of practice tests to develop our skills. But once we had the technological solutions down, we weren't worried about a thing. We ended up using Zoom with participants and a separate technology to live-stream over YouTube. All the artists and viewers had to do was click on a link.
"Given the current situation we're in, with shelter-in-place and the like, the online format opened up a new realm, creating the possibility of participation by individuals who maybe couldn't participate in the traditional festival for health reasons or distance. The festival is always a welcoming environment for families, but this format allowed it to reach out and actually enter homes locally and around the globe.
"Hopefully, the online streaming technical solutions we came up with can be used for all sorts of Precita Eyes projects now and post-coronavirus, as well.
"Producing these historical 24 hours was one of the most challenging things I've ever done as artist and curator, but it was an honor to keep the tradition alive. It was like the universe kept guiding and showing us that the festival must happen. Like we were trying to figure out how to get an orange, and the universe gave us an orange tree."
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CIO'S STORY
Hip-Hop musician/emcee/producer Cio Castaneda is a first generation Latinx/Californian with a passion for creating music and literature committed to keeping true Hip-Hop culture alive. His connection to Precita Eyes and its Urban Youth Arts Festival goes way back. "Some 20 years ago, I was chillin' on 24th Street when I came across a flyer announcing a local festival of live painting and music. That's what I do — I make music and paint. So without hesitation I showed up and met Suaro and the Precita Eyes family and it's been all love ever since. In one way or another, I've participated or helped coordinate the festival for some two decades. That's why I was so passionate about making this 24th annual version a reality. "I've worked on murals here and there, helping with transport or anything. I also have my own murals in the neighborhood: “Knowledge is Power” on 24th Street and Hampshire, and a mural with no name on 3rd Street, with Nelson Mandela and Yemaya, dedicated to Hunter's Point. "I also went to Precita's Urban Youth Arts classes on Tuesdays and Saturdays forever. Even today, I sometimes just drop by to say "what's up?" or just to draw. A lot of young kids who came up in the program are like little brothers and nephews to me." |
See the festival recap video (courtesy of Mad Candela) here.
Bonus track to festival: Spirit Run ceremony
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