Folklife Festival Narrative Session: Art and Urban Life

About the Project

The 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrated just a few of the innumerable manifestations of traditional culture in New York City. In addition to a shared urban culture, most New Yorkers also have one or more reservoirs of specialized traditional knowledge, which they have acquired from their ethnic and/or religious upbringing, working in a particular occupation, or living in a specific area of the city. The innumerable, multifaceted ways in which these factors interact are what make New York and New Yorkers so fascinating. Festival participants, Robbie Inqui, Hector Nazario, Gaspar Ingui, Wilfredo Feliciano discuss the evolution of street art from graffiti to a respected artistic expression. The artists speak of a shift in respectability and how community members further elevated street art as a respected art form by actively seeking these artists due to their ability to infuse these art forms with a distinct aesthetic that resonated with community members. See the finding aid for this program here.

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