I love public parks. They stand at the intersection of so many lives and types of people, and they’re free to everyone, for any wholesome activity. Wholesome activities like building a giant paint-spewing, spiral-making, kid’s shoes ruining pendulum for all to swing around and enjoy! This October, “Pendulum @ the Park” will be a Pendulum-Painting tour, hitting 5 public parks throughout the city, each one being a pop-up art making workshop. Here are the dates and times (weather permitting):
Wednesday, Oct 12th, 1pm-6pm in Roberto Clemente park (map)
Thursday, Oct 13th, 1pm-6pm in Franklin Park (map)
Friday, Oct 14th, 1pm-6pm in Greg Grant Park (map)
Friday, Oct 20th, 1pm-6pm in Martin Luther King Park (map)
Sunday, Oct. 23rd, 1pm-6pm in Lipinski Park (map)
In other parky business, we’re raising some money to re-paint the Martin Luther King Mural in MLK Park, on Brunswick Ave. Check out the GoFundMe and donate if you feel inclined. This could be part of the Pendy @ the Park tour, with Kasso and Leon painting while we swing the pendulum.. wouldn’t that be great?
Finally, Wills and his Bike Polo gang have taken over Lipinski park, and they’re hosting the 2nd Annual Fall F**king Classic, a prestigious tournament open to all polo-ers, on Sunday Oct. 23rd beginning at 9:00 am. Of course we’ll have the pendulum out there as part of the tour.
WOS (Windows of Soul) 2015 took place on the infamous city block of Walnut Ave. Walnut Ave, located in the Wilbur Section of East Trenton, is quite possibly, the most infamous block in the east ward. It’s one well known for illegal activities and unfortunately, its murder rate. This block is in pain…and it has been for a very long time.
We wanted to originally focus on walnut in 2013, during the seconded installment of WOS, but was unable to make it happen at that point, partly due to politics and contracts which bonded us to downtown Trenton. It was always a goal to do this block. The sheer number of abandoned properties and the strong community was enough to keep attention on the struggling block.
SAGE partnered with the Arts council of Princeton ( http://artscouncilofprinceton.org/ )to fund WOS. With a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and matching funds from individual donors, we had enough funding to put this project together. During the summer, the WOS team was composed. One Trenton Project which consists of Caitlin Fair and Kimby Heil handled community outreach. Both Hands Artlet, spearheaded by artist/teacher, Bentrice Jusu, covered photography and event documentation. TCNJ Bonner Center provided volunteers for community cleanup and Artworks Trenton hosted the opening artshow that kicked off the weekends festivities.
Saturday, Oct 17th, bright and early that morning, we begin the install of art on the abandoned buildings. TCNJ Bonners and kids form the community produced art on canvas and paper donated by HomFront Artspace, while Graham Apgar of Sage Guerrilla gardening unit broke ground on a new community garden entitled,”Graffiti Garden”.
Leon Rainbow, with assistance from TCNJ students produced a mural book-ending the garden titled “Section Love”. The mural was a homage to the wilbur section and the strong sense of community which connects so many individuals within the neighborhood.
Wils Kinsey, Lori Johansson and their team of volunteers oversaw the install of artwork on the abandoned properties. With a boom truck and tons of art being turned out from the kids in the community, there was no shortage of art and Wils and company kept up a steady pace, installing throughout the weekend.
Ahmad Shakur, SAGE resident DJ an his team musicians held down the music. Classic Hip Hop, House, R&B and Funk was the soundtrack for the weekend…keeping this running smooth and chill.
Sunday, Oct. 18th, the final day of event and the one with heavy attention on the music performances. Local and a few regional acts performed to a steady crown of onlookers and spectators. Ahmad kept the grooves going while Wils and company continued with the install. One trenton project hosted the community BBQ and books and breakfast programs, which passed out children books to the neighborhood kids.
“Reach the world but touch the hood first”… a quote from Brooklyn emcee/actor, Mos Def, define SAGE Coalition’s mission; to never forget were one comes from while striving for something better than what is given. Many born under depressed conditions find it is difficult to raise above what most would consider a dead end socially, spiritually and economically. Windows of Soul is the visual representation of the aforementioned quote. With its 4th installment now complete, SAGE and company looked to go above and beyond our previous community beatification endeavors. This one felt more like the first and more organic than the previous two. I believe its because this one, like the first, had nothing to prove…other than to provide art to those with limited access to it. The kids, parents and all that participated enjoyed themselves and the feeling of connectivity was apparent.
“Windows of Soul” exceeded all of our expectations.We were all riding high from the weekend. Thanks to all who came together to make this happen. Addison Vincent and Jesse Vincent from the Artworks Trenton family, you guys are the “Wonder Twins”. Graham Apgar for keepin’ it real with the “Graffiti Garden”. To my native brother, Leon Rainbow, I think you will forever understand that “Wilbur Section” and “East Trenton” are truly different, but its all love. Wills Kins aka..”THE FOREMAN” for always coming through in the clutch and keeping things in order with the install. Kimby Heiland Caitlin Fair of “One Trenton” for the continued outreach leading up to this project and making Sunday super chill with “Books and Breakfast”.Ahmad Shakir for always setting the mood(Respect the DJ). To my brother Earlie Harrell for keeping the flame going. You are the realist my G. To Bentrice Jusu of “Both Hands” and Aine Mickey for documentation and helping build up this event with your unselfishness in adding light to the hood. To my SAGE Coalition brother Jonathan Conner, the “Larry Bird” of Street-art…salute. To Lori Johansson, Nikki Nailbomb, Drew Glenn and the entire Championship Sports Bar & Grill family for supporting and always being there when needed. Christopher Michael Jones, Mike Murphy, Andrew Wilkinson, Lauren Otis, Kate Graves, Kelvin L. Smith, Chelsea Perron,Elizabeth Amaral, and Marge Caldwell-Wilson for helping, supporting and always representing. To the Bonner Scholars for coming out and being apart with your community service and art output…and all the artist that submitted work and came out to celebrated community with us…thank you. To the community of Walnut Ave and Wilbur section and anyone I may have forgot to add…Salute, Thank You and One Love. Trenton still making it. It Don’t Stop!
Many thanks to RAIN and the Art All Night people for bringing out the SAGEs to paint live on the AAN float. It was sooo much fun! Check the video to catch what I could capture while painting on a moving vechicle (which is admitedly harder than I thought). Something like 4k people flood Hamilton Ave and turn Trenton into a sea of green New Orleans for a few hours. RAIN and LUV1 LANK and KASSO
Join us on March 2, 2012 at 7pm for Trenton Social’s monthly FIRST FRIDAY who this month will be honoring the amazingly multi-talented, very unique and Trenton’s own, Will “KASSO” Condry!
KASSO as he is popularly known excells and is known most for his unique portraits and vivid aerosol based murals which are located throughout the city of Trenton and across the east coast. Will has participated in numerous non-profit organizations and has been commissioned to produce fine art for celebrities and avid art collectors. He also teaches art in after school programs for our areas young who show creative talent and interest and is the host of “The Garden Variety Show” at The Trenton Atelier where artists and musicians come together and create masterpieces!!
For the past few months EVERY Thursday Will has been putting in lots of time, concentration, paint strokes, sweat and open arms to ANYONE who has came into Trenton Social and who has asked to be a part of his live art sessions. He would photograph either 1, 2 and sometimes 3 individuals at a time and produce them in his vision in usually 4 hour time periods! Over the past few months he has produced numerous “outposts” that will ALL be hung up March 2! Now that is a dedicated and true artist!
Will “KASSO” Condry is a TRUE DEDICATED and ORIGINAL artist! I have had the pleasure of being painted by him twice and working with him on various projects! Some of his outposts are ALREADY sold so YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EVENT!!! It’s going to be PACKED! Free to attend! Bring anyone!
The Bonner Center at TCNJ asked me would I be interested in working with my former high school during the MLK Day of service lead by the community service organization “Jersey Cares” www.jerseycares.org/. The day would consist of graffiti cleanup and mural restorations at the school. I was asked to to design 4 mini murals which were painted by volunteers of Jersey Cares and students and faculty of TCHS and The Bonner Center. Each mural was designed with the intent to inspire peace…hence the imaginary of the Doves. Below each Dove is a quote by Trenton Central Alum Shawn Carter, better known as JAY-Z, influential Hip Hop artist, music mogul and business man.
It was a great time and the community support was awe inspiring. Thanks to the Bonner Center for the opportunity to give back to my alma mater. I’m looking forward to doing more events like this in the near future!
-WILL KASSO
“Jersey Cares” volenteers painting the “Dove” murals I designed
First blog post of the new year! Been slacking somewhat on the write ups and such…getting things in order for 2012 can be taxing, but no worries. Luv1 and myself produced our first wall of the new year earlier this week. We decided to set our sights on an abandoned building on the north side of Trenton.
We had no set plans…we just wanted to shake the dust off and take advantage of the unusually mild weather we been having recently.
Luv kicked things off with his abstract works, but this time using a limited pallet and I produced a portrait of a child with my abstract “kasso circles” following after. I also chose, like Luv, to keep my colors limited. Luv had the idea for us to keep most of the raw center block and brick unprimed..to give the production a most rugged feel.
We blazed out the entire wall in 4 hours. Other than the massive mounds of dog feces we had to maneuver threw..and I mean MASSIVE AMOUNTS, we had a great time producing this wall.
Special thanks to Shawn of CALI BOUND PRODUCTIONS for documenting this project and producing this awesome video! Check it out:
This wall was produced in early February, 2009. S. A. G. E. was still in its infancy as a crew…pretty much just consisting of myself and LUV1. LUV contacted me that morning asking if I was willing to come out and paint. It was an unusual day for the middle of the winter. We had a freak 70 degree day! We decided to jam out at Terracycle and do something small and non ambitious.
What started out as something with the intentions on being light heart quickly grew into a full blown mini-mural jam session. LUV had some references from newspapers and one in particular stuck out to me. It was an image of a young woman holding her son during “Hurricane Katrina”.
I choose to do a representation of it while LUV painted an image of Hip Hop icon “Lauren Hill”.
As usual, we jammed out the background with our abstract works…which at the time we were still developing. We also had very lil paint to work with due to it being the off season. This wall was literally done with scraps of paint.
Half way threw LUV had to leave to pick up his kid from school, so I decided to stay to finish up the wall. While I was finishing up, the rap song “Smile” by Tupac and Scarface kept playing in my head. Ever since I saw that pic from the hurricane, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. So i went back to the beginning of the wall and put a quote up from that record….part of Tupac’s verse which reads “Born with less but your still precious”. I figured it summed up the feeling of what the image(the mother and child) conveys.
After the quote went up, it started to rain, so i broke out and went home. It was good times none the less.
For those who havent heard the song SMILE…check out the video below.
I figured I’d take it back a few years and showcase one of our first sanctioned murals. I remember this one very well. The day before this one was produced, myself, Leon Rainbow, and Demer of “Vicious Styles Crew” were featured on the TV show “AMERICAS GOT TALENT”. To make a long story short, that entire process was not what I expected and I left in a not so great mood.
The following day, LUV ONE and myself planned on doing this wall. This time we were joined by my friend and fellow artist “Frances N. Bradley”. Frances had been in contact with me for some time prior to this wall. She wanted to learn the art of spray painting and I welcomed her to join us on this wall. LUV and myself were accustomed to working very intuitively and spontaneous, and with Frances being a solid fine artist and illustrator, I told her the best way to learn spray paint is on the spot. I told her not to worry about mistakes(she was a bit nervous being her first time working with the medium)…because working with us, u wont make any. For beginners, it is always best for them to get some professional help or read this great article at Surepaint website
The only drawback was the weather. It was raining pretty much the entire day, but the store front had an oning that gave us protection from the elements.
Luv-One brought a image of Hip Hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa to produce. I brought an photograph of a West African Princess and Frances brought references of different patters and photographs relating to Africa.
We started off painting in the same way we continue to paint today…very loose and free-form with the portraits to balance out the abstraction. After about 4 hours, LUV had to leave to pick up his son and Frances had to leave not much after. This left the wall half way finished. I decided to finish up the wall myself and to use the anger and frustration from the previous night on “Americas Got Talent” to energize me.
Around 9pm that night I finished off the wall. 10-12 hours of non stop painting. Needless to say, I was pretty beat, but felt great to have wrapped up this project and to get over my “AGT” meltdown.
LUV also produced one of his first videos off of this mural…check it out below.
DELVE, LANK, and KASSO each contributed to the relief efforts at GARDEN SK8 park in Pinebrook, NJ. The park was serverly damaged during Hurricane Irene, leaving the park submerged in 3+ feet of water. Artists from all over the country donated their time and creativity to re-produce artwork within the park…culminating into what is the largest indoor graffiti instillation in the country!
On Saturday, Nov. 5th, 2011(originally 0ct.29th but cancelled do to less than ideal weather conditions). GARDEN SK8 will reopen its doors to celebrate its recent makeover in what is shaping up to be one of the livest art parties of the year! With performances by MANNY D, VENEOMOUS 2000 and DJ PRIORITY, ANIMAL CRACKAS and Trenton, NJ’s own BLACK COLLAR BIZ, its sure to be a great time!. The show kicks off at 6pm-12am.
SAGE is composed of a diverse group of visual artists, fabricators, musicians and teachers who are dedicated to initiating, planning and establishing inner city beautification projects.
With a unique focus on urban renewal, SAGE Coalition's goal is to remind those in economically depressed neighborhoods that community can thrive through creativity and civic engagement.
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In other parky business, we’re raising some money to re-paint the Martin Luther King Mural in MLK Park, on Brunswick Ave. Check out the GoFundMe and donate if you feel inclined. This could be part of the Pendy @ the Park tour, with Kasso and Leon painting while we swing the pendulum.. wouldn’t that be great?
