 This past June, ArtBridge, in partnership with NYC nonprofit affordable housing developer CAMBA Housing Ventures, Inc. (CHV), is pleased to announce Bronx Communal Spaces, a public art exhibition featuring works by Bronx-based artists Laura Alvarez, Blanka Amezkua, Trevon Blondet, Matthew Burcaw, Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación, and James Martocci at CHV 202nd and 203rd Street — a sustainable, affordable, and supportive housing development in the Bedford Park neighborhood for families, formerly homeless households, seniors, and veterans. Centered on celebrating the shared spaces that bring Bronxites together and enrich the local community, Bronx Communal Spaces — made possible with financial support from CHV — is part of City Canvas, an initiative of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs that transforms the city’s temporary protective structures into platforms for artwork driven by collaboration between local artists and communities. If you want to visit the exhibition, you can find it at 261 East 202nd Street and 270 East 203rd Street, The Bronx!    Join BxArts Factory and their studio artists in a celebration of new space, new beginnings and resilience. Come celebrate the opening our our space and help us fundraise to continue our mission in the Bronx. You can contribute to our fundraising efforts by donating any amount to receive your entrance ticket or by buying affordable and unique pieces of art during the event.
Date: Thursday, September 29th from 6:00 to 9:00 pm Address: 240 E 153rd Street, Bronx NY (Between Park and Morris Avenues). Ticketed Event - Donate any amount to receive your ticket HERE- https://RisingExhibit.eventbrite.com Join us for an Open Studio night where you can meet the artists, purchase some art and have a great time helping BxArts Factory!  Create, converse, and collaborate with your community through the arts!
What does it mean to be civically engaged in your local community? Visual artist, Laura Alvarez, will lead an artivism, poster making workshop. The workshop will provide you with the basic creative tools to analyze your interests in activism and give a platform to express your thoughts and ideas through art. The workshop will utilize collage, lettering, and poster making techniques. You will have the opportunity to share your ideas about community engagement, discuss the issues that matter most to you, and showcase your creativity. About the Artist- Laura Alvarez is a Spanish-born, Bronx-based artist and community activist. She is the co-founder and VP of the BxArts Factory, a nonprofit that supports Bronx-based artists who use their work for social change. She is also on the board of Artbridge, a nonprofit that empowers local artists to transform prominent urban spaces into gallery quality exhibitions Date and Time // Tuesday, September 20, 2022, 3 - 4:30 PM Location // Sedgwick Library This event will take place in person at Sedgwick Library. Supplies will be provided. New to experienced artists are all welcome! REGISTER HERE! Fully accessible to wheelchairs
ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org. Last Saturday, August 20, 2022, I had my workshop at the @nybg where we painted the food we love and remind us to home and family. Over 50 people stopped by the table, I learned so much about other countries' foods and their traditions. Thank you! Last Spring I painted one of the picnic tables now on display at the New York Botanical Garden. Around the Table: Stories of the Foods we Love, is a celebration of art and science of edible plants. On view from Saturday, June 4, 2022 to Sunday, September 11, 2022. Workshop: Artist Laura Álvarez Fernández traces her roots back to Valencia, Spain in this celebration of Spanish paella, a versatile rice dish. On this afternoon, you are invited to join Laura to design a plate that features your favorite ancestral dish.
I have the honor of being one of the nominees to receive a Saturday Visiter Award during the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival.
The Saturday Visiter Awards are presented by Poe Baltimore to recognize a new generation of artists continuing Edgar Allan Poe’s legacy in the arts and literature around the world. The prizes celebrate media, art, performance and writing that adapts or is inspired by Poe’s life and works. Though he was not wealthy in his lifetime, Edgar Allan Poe was the first American writer to support himself entirely by his pen. The Saturday Visiter was the name—and spelling—of a local periodical that held a contest for poetry and short stories. Poe won the award for his short story “MS Found in a Bottle” (which he wrote at Poe House.) The Saturday Visiter Awards are named after the prize a young Edgar Allan Poe won while he lived in Baltimore which helped to launch the famed writer’s career. Saturday Visiter Awards are presented in two categories: works that adapt Poe’s life or writing (including biography, or true adaptations of his poetry or prose), and original works that are inspired by Poe’s life or writing. In addition, important "Poe Places", including The Poe Museum (Richmond, VA) , The Poe Cottage (the Bronx NYC) and Poe House (Baltimore , MD) will highlight exceptional entries specific to their region. The awards are presented every October at the annual International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards in Baltimore, Maryland. Poe Baltimore invites you to darken Poe’s chamber door at the fourth annual International Edgar Allan Poe Festival and Awards, October 8 & 9, 2022. This FREE, two-day outdoor event will feature Poe-themed performances, art, vendors and food, celebrating Poe’s life, works and his influence in the arts. VIP Tickets and Tours, including for the Black Cat Ball, available now! The festival will take place directly across the street from Poe House at 203 N. Amity Street in Baltimore, in the newly-built “Poe Park” at Center/West. Attendees will learn about Poe’s life and works from some of the United States’ preeminent “Poe Places”, with representatives from The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum (Baltimore), The Poe Museum (Richmond, Virginia), The Poe Cottage (Bronx, NYC), The Poe Studies Association, The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore and Westminster Hall & Burying Ground. The winners of the 2022 Saturday 'Visiter' Awards will also be announced festival weekend! See you in Baltimore!  "Nature Quilt" is a mural that represents the multiculturality of The Bronx and the Jerome-Gun Hill area. It is a patchwork of patterns with leaves, flowers, stars, bright colors and eyes representing the diversity of the community. It is designed to bring joy and happiness to the events that will take place in that plaza for a year. It will contrast with the dark asphalt around it and it mirrors Nature the park just across the street. Created as part of an initiative of the Jerome Gun Hill Business Improvement District to beautify and bring to life an underutilized area, this mural brings some happiness to this corner of the Bronx, making the wait for the bus or your lunch break brighter. It was an awesome experience, where we invited the community to some on Sunday to paint and prep the area. The next two days I had some really good help from Monica and Pips. Looking forward the next mural opportunity!  Growing Knowledge (2022) Bronx Bound Books I had the honor to paint the Bronx Bound Book Bus. We had been talking about this forever, and it finally happened! It is almost done, only one more day of work and it will be ready. But for now it is better than the white version :) Growing Knowledge is a design that wants you to think of a knowledge jungle, books in the shape of flowers that make you grow as a person. Knowledge is Power and everyone deserves the chance of getting it. This bus makes books accessible to all neighborhoods, no matter how far they are! This Bookstore on Wheels is owned by Latanya Devaughn. It is a mobile bookstore that travels throughout the borough. Especially to neighborhoods where it is needed the most. The idea of Bronx Bound Books is to be a beautiful bus, traveling throughout The Bronx.“Every neighborhood in The Bronx deserves a bookstore, even if it’s just for one day” --Latanya DeVaughn
Next May 18 I will be part of a pretty cool panel at Hostos Community college organized by the Bronx Council on the Arts. Get your free tickets here. Join us as we partner with PEN America's NYC Literary Action Coalition for a moderated panel discussion with Bronx-based artists sharing how they have leveraged their own creative voices to address structural inequities and inspire social change. Award-winning literary artist Alejandro Heredia will engage internationally renowned movement artist Ana "Rokafella" Garcia, and internationally exhibited visual artist Laura Alvarez in a broad discussion about the intersection of arts and social justice.
Alejandro Heredia is a queer Afro Dominican writer and community organizer from The Bronx. He has received fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, the Dreamyard Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium, and the Dominican Studies Institute. In 2019, he was selected by Myriam Gurba as the winner of the Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest. His book of short stories, You’re the Only Friend I Need (2021), explores themes of queer transnationalism, friendship, and (un)belonging in the African Diaspora. Alejandro’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Lambda Literary Review, Tasteful Rude Magazine, and elsewhere. Panelists: Ana "Rokafella" Garcia is a NYC native who has represented women in Hip-hop dance professionally over the past three decades. She co-founded Full Circle Prod Inc – NYC's only non-profit Break Dance Theater company with her husband, veteran Bboy Kwikstep, generating theater pieces, original poetry, and local dance related events. She performs music based on her experiences growing up in Hip-hop's birthplace and has had her poetry published in a Bronx Poets anthology. In addition to directing the documentary about Bgirls (women who Breakdance) "All the Ladies Say," she is hired internationally to judge Break dance competitions based on her mastery of the classic Hip-hop dance style. Presently an adjunct professor at The New School and a Hip hop dance instructor at Peridance Studios in NYC and NJPAC, she motivates aspiring dancers to understand and to learn the business side of being an independent artist. Laura Alvarez is an illustrator, author, designer, visual artist, muralist, community activist and educator. In NYC, she juggles her city job, her artist career, and her commitment to her Bronx community. Laura is the Co-Founder, Vice-President and COO of BxArts Factory, a non-profit organization whose mission is to make art accessible to everyone in the Bronx. She is also part of the Board of Directors of Artbridge, a non-profit that empowers local artists to transform prominent urban spaces into gallery-quality exhibitions, focusing on New York City’s 300+ miles of construction fencing and scaffolding. She has received several awards and grants that she has used to promote the arts among Bronx youths and to create work that starts a conversation about ecology, womanhood, racism, tradition, inequality, and immigration.  Join me for a Volunteer Paint Day! We will start a 1000 sq. feet mural to brighten the neighborhood! This June 5, I will be starting a new asphalt mural with the Jerome Gun Hill Bid and everyone is welcome to paint! Come prepared, with your messy clothes, painting skills, a hat and some sunscreen. We will provide water and some light snacks, but there are plenty of businesses to get food around the area. Go to this link to SIGN UP, You can choose between the 4 shifts and get ready to get your hands dirty! Once on site, you will be asked to sign a waiver in order to participate. First come, first served basis.
GIVEAWAY TIME! Celebrating Book Day, on April 23, I will be giving away three packs with: * Eggie’s Adventures at Poe Cottage * Limited edition Eggie’s tote bag * Is it Halloween Yet sketch book * A limited C-Print from one of my illustrations. I will be posting every day until Saturday April 23, and until then, for each post you can win an entry for the giveaway doing all of the above: -Follow @eggiefromthebronx @bigeyesworld -Like the post -Share the post -Tag someone that will like this! And good luck to everyone!!! 🌈🐿🌰 Only USA addresses will be valid.
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I am a...Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Educator, Community Activist... ARTIST! All Images COPYRIGHT © 2008-2021, are property of Laura Alvarez Fernandez. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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