There is a Wall

To follow up on a story we did several months ago about Mike Dingler and the NoLA Rising organization, this past week SLIGHLTYaskew hosted NoLA Rising in NYC at the NoLA Rising Festival. The festival featured the exhibit A Tag of Two Cities which was a collaboration between NoLA Rising artists Michael “Rex” Dingler, Robin Walker, Avi Basat, and Angela Pate working with NY and Brooklyn Based artists el celso, Endless Love Crew, infinity, Robots Will Kill, Erik Sanner, David Herman and Nick Gaswirth. The exhibit featured street art in the style of the two geographic locations and exhibiting artists, and was a walk in installation where the entire space was covered ceiling to floor in tags. The even invited people to join in and tag their own message, and two films were featured in the entrance and a small room at the back of the space about the process of making the exhibit and bringing the NoLA Rising community street art to the community and streets of NYC. Hand Painted signs that were created by the vessels of NoLA Rising in NYC with the community of NY in various parks across the five boroughs over the past few months were on display with a video installation documenting their process. Events throughout the weekend included a screening of Wade in the Water a documentary made about Central City by nine students in the first school to reopen after the flood, four staged readings performed by NYC theater companies NY-Neo Classical Ensemble, The Movement Company, IRT, and the Talking Band that were written by four winning high school playwrights from the New Orleans public school district, and live performances by several NY musicians and spoke word poets. All proceeds from the events throughout the festival went to Young Audiences, an organization in New Orleans devoted to providing teacher salaries and art supplies for the Recovery School District Public Schools.

In the spirit of the Festival NoLA Rising tagged a wall in Long Island City at the notorious Five Points Gallery. With their own unique Southern Gulf Coast style the crew of New Orleanians made their mark in the cold climates amongst some of the best street and visual/graphic artists in the world.

“I’ve never seen anything like that place,” said Avi. “When I got there I just could not stop taking photos and looking up. Everything was so amazing, and I wondered how I was going to paint a wall.” Avi replied, “your work is different, and that is why you need to make one.” By the time the wall was finished they had won over the respect and excitement of several artists and the gallery owner. If you happen to be in NYC in the near future, check it out!