As street art expands to become more socially acceptable, partially due to its frequent censure of politics, its pieces are growingly regarded as “art” rather than “vandalism.” As a street art aficionado living right by the city, I cannot believe that I had never thought of checking out these massive pieces. I had been all over New York (or so I thought) but had never come across such an interesting area as the one I found today. After browsing the internet for an entire couple of minutes (it’s summer, give me a break), I learned that the best borough for what I was looking for was Queens. I took the PATH into New York City, got on the “R” train headed for Queens, and basically eeny-meeny-miney-mo’ed a stop.
When I got off at Queens Plaza (the name seemed legit), I immediately thought “Thank you for dropping me… in the middle of nowhere?” I was seriously in the middle of abandoned streets with a few residential small businesses scattered around. I thought about turning back around and calling it a failed mission until I heard music coming from an alleyway. I was all smiles when I turned onto Davis Street, a very narrow, extremely sketchy road that farmed the area known as “5 Pointz.” Davis Street in itself was an art collection, but the large plateau that stretches out of it was a graffiti dream.
Every single building surrounding 5 Pointz was covered in art. Even the concrete floor was covered in what looked like a circular maze. There were about three dozen people playing old-school games and jamming to Caribbean instruments on one corner, a couple of people selling spray-painted gear on the other, and a very desolate me taking pictures. I have to say, however, the people were incredibly nice to me. They offered me food and a chair; too bad all I wanted was a couple good frames (and to stay there forever). There is even a small free street-art museum a few properties away. This was an all-around inviting atmosphere, like a very sweet taste of Socialism.
I guess I have found something to do this summer. I will try to explore as many of these places as I can. I thought my Metro Card would let me down today, but when the hell does it?
-Margarita Rosario
