Artists, vendors, breakdancers, drill teams and more will take over Deiner Park and the Raritan River Art Walk on Saturday, Sept. 20 for the Streets 2k8 event.
Hosted by the City of New Brunswick and Albus Cavus, an artist collective based in the city, all artists are invited to participate in a mural painting project of the Raritan River Art Walk.
"We saw the public space, and we knew it was basically just sitting there falling apart," said Peter Krsko, the co-founder of Albus Cavus. "We decided to reinvent it and make it into something nice people could use."
The wall area along the Raritan River was neglected, and the members of Albus Cavus wanted to make it into an outdoor gallery, he said. Originally the Department of Transportation's property, Albus Cavus got approval for the project with the help of the city and the University to use the public space for murals, Krsko said.
The event is now in its second year. Approximately 150 artists participated in the event last year, and the artist collective expects an even bigger turnout this year, Krsko said.
This year, Streets 2k8 is going to be an interactive event in collaboration with the University with more programming for families, he said.
Francisco G. Gomez and Nicole Wines, the co-directors of the Raices Cultural Center, are organizing the music and dance performances of the event. The center is dedicated to teaching and preserving Caribbean culture, as well as teaching children traditional song, dance and drumming, Gomez said.
Raicitas, a youth group ensemble and a component of the Raices Cultural Center, will take to the stage at Streets 2k8, and will be singing and dancing bomba and plena, two styles of traditional Puerto Rican music.
Streets 2k8 will be a coming together of people in the area to exchange culture, Gomez said. The event will end with a Brazilian style carnival, he said.
There will be Afro-Puerto Rican folk drumming, singing and dancing in addition to the carnival, Wines said. The audience will be able to experience various types of music at the event including everything from rock and blues to salsa to hip hop, she said. Community groups and drill teams from local schools will also be performing, Wines said.
In order to participate, artists must submit a sketch to the city either by e-mail or mail in a hard copy, Krsko said. The judges will then select five artists to receive free art supplies from Sabotaz Spray Paint, Liquitex Acrylic Paint and Winsor & Newton Canvases and Brushe, he said.
"It's a very unique project combining public art and participatory art performances, and basically allows anyone to contribute to this huge project and come and paint," Krsko said. "Really, the main purpose is to take a place that wasn't really used very well by the local community and the residents, and transform it into something they feel welcome to."
Krsko said the Streets 2k8 event is not the only time during the year when people can come to paint. He hopes it will become a yearlong occurrence for artists to continue to work on the wall.
The event will also feature various performances from Raices Caribenas, DJ Peter Brauch, 3 Time Mother and Sailors in Rags, according to the official Streets2k8 Web site.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with Sept. 21 as the rain date.
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