This Saturday female skateboarders and street artists are teaming up at Granite Skate Park, located on Ramona Avenue, to spend the afternoon skateboarding together and celebrating art. From noon - 3 p.m. Few and Far, an organization working to create connections among female artists and skateboarders, will be hosting its first Few and Far Skate Jam. This is the first skate event that Few and Far has hosted but they “plan on making it an annual event,” said Joanna Mahaffy, the skateboard representative for Few and Far. Few and Far is an organization that is based out of northern California and seeks to connect women interested in street art and skateboarding from around the globe. Few

Introduction/Background: The purpose of the following open letter is to outline quality of life problems that many residential neighbors now face from over concentration of alcohol "entertainment" establishments in Midtown whether related to Second Saturday or other weekends as well. The article also includes recommended solutions to these problems but so far Midtown Business Association and city leaders have largely ignored them. This letter was written cooperatively by long-time Midtown residents, Bill Burgua, Karen Jacques, Dale Kooyman and Vito Sgromo, all of whom have successfully worked for years with many other residents to create a vibrant residential and business Midtown, which

Today I came across a comment on Bill Burgua's recent article about the Second Saturday Art Walk. Larry was exasperated about the crime he witnessed on our most recent art walk, specifcially citing the vandalism near his place of residence. He wrote: "The last Second Sat event I got graffiti outside on my apartment building as well as inside and this is a controlled acces building. Out of Control! City council talking about walkable alleys when we dont even have walkable streets." I often read the complaints from my neighbors concerning the escalating crime during Second Saturday. My personal feeling is that it's no different from the drunks and litterbugs I see roaming the streets ever

Artists have spent the last few nights preparing Sol Collective for an anniversary show Friday. But they're not installing framed paintings and sculptures. Sacramento's very own activist art collective is celebrating six years by becoming art. Show organizer Shaun Turner, a 29-year-old muralist, has brought together at least 19 artists from Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Colombia, by way of New York, to create art on the interior walls and ceilings of the building at 2574 21st St. The big, bold pieces are the artists' way of giving back to a community organization that has given so much to so many of them, said Turner and local artist Gabriel Romo, who also goes by the name 2

It was a normal business day at Off Broadway Bean when a man claiming to be from the city of Sacramento’s graffiti abatement program told co-owner Patty Solomon that a mural facing the alley off 16th Street would need to be removed. “It’s a mural, it’s art,” Solomon said. “It’s been here five years.” When Solomon asked the man for a business card, she said he was gruff with her and refused to give her any information. According to Maurice Chaney, spokesman for the city’s Community Development Department, which includes code enforcement, the man who went to the coffeehouse at 2416 16th St. wasn’t from graffiti abatement. “We have no graffiti case in our system,” Chaney said. “I do under

Posted by chriso What is up with the drastic rise in graffiti?? I went out on my bike today and hadn’t been out for about 4 months and i see tons of new graffiti around downtown. I saw about 1-2 ft high black lettering on a NICE HOUSE around 15th & V…it made my heart sick, It makes me think that it is only a matter of time before my house gets hit, our alley (V,W) is already getting plenty of new graffiti. It is such a shame and makes our city look so trashy. What can I do?? Dear chriso, I spoke with the Sacramento City Senior Code Enforcement Officer who is the supervisor of the graffiti abatement section and forwarded your complaint. He told me that graffiti problems are definite

When Shane Grammer's old church acquaintance Clayton Butler asked him to paint a mural in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he didn't think twice. Grammer, a 38-year-old artist currently residing in Roseville, completed similar murals in Peru, Mexico and Brazil, sometimes teaming with urban kids on the pieces. "I'm ecstatic; I love that," Grammer said. "I've offered stuff like that before, and people are just busy or don't do it. So when I'm asked to do it, I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm there tomorrow. Where do I sign up?' " On April 12, he will be leading a team of six to Cambodia to help Agape International Missions, where Butler works, to help end child sexual slavery and help restore hope to its victims.

Over the last few years, the term "hip hop is dead," has been thrown around more than the neighborhood football. In an age of technology where making a simple beat with a bootlegged audio production application and altering your voice with Auto-Tune in order to sound like T-Pain is enough to get "bedroom rappers/producers/djs" signed, it's no wonder people are beginning to feel like the art is lost. While most people are tossing around this insult to hip hop, few are offering any sort of solution. I say few, because there are some purists out there who are putting in the effort, energy and time to study where hip hop started, where it has been and where it is going. He calls for somethin

Sacramento-raised painter David Garibaldi delivered a poignant speech at Wednesday's "For Art's Sake" meeting. The 26-year-old thanked Mayor Kevin Johnson and the city for its support and guidance when he was growing up in Sacramento. While Garibaldi was a high school student interested in the arts, the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission recognized his potential and sent him to California State Summer School for the Arts on a full scholarship, he said. Garibaldi credited this and his high school art program with helping him redirect a creative fire that led him to graffiti the streets of Sacramento, inspiring him instead to become a performance artist. The "For Art's Sake" initiativ

Dear Friends- As you may know, a arson fire was set at my home in the early morning on September 21st. My family and I are safe, and all necessary repairs and clean up, and replacements are being handled by our insurance company. We have had a great response from our neighbors and community leaders, who have organized a vigil tonight in front of our home to signify community strength and unity. If you are in the Northern CA area, we hope you can join us. Vigil Information - 2614 36th Street, Sacramento CA (between 1st and 2nd Avenue). 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. http://www.inmycommunity.com/imc_joomla/index.php?option=com_jevents&task=icalrepeat.detail&evid=1243&Itemid=0&year=2009&month=10&d

With six full-length solo albums, a founding role in seminal Oakland hip-hop crew Hieroglyphics and too many side projects and one-offs to count in his two decades in the game, Teren Delvon Jones, aka Del tha Funky Homosapien (or whatever variation of that spelling he feels like using on any given week), has long presided as the gateway between the independent and mainstream. Del’s first two albums were recorded for Elektra, one of the larger labels in the early 90s, who terminated his contract in 1998 without warning before the release of his third LP, Future Development. Undaunted, Del instead pushed further underground, choosing to put all subsequent material out on Hiero Imperium, a l

Social worker, event planner, and occasional singer/rapper Aria Des Jardins scheduled KRS-One to perform a benefit concert Monday night when she heard that the Washington Neighborhood Center was facing total closure. The center has been supportive of Sacramento's hip hop community and had held many hip hop concerts, she explained. "Hip hop is about people, things that don't have anything to do with entertainment," said Eric Duran, associate advocate for the Temple of Hiphop. The organization was formed by emcee and peace advocate KRS-One, who is known for his Stop the Violence campaign as well as his efforts pioneering hip hop culture. Sacramento's young people proved that they would hav

When Michael Donnoe puts up magnets with compassionate statements around downtown Sacramento, he intends to have them ripped down, plagiarized, and re-posted elsewhere. Having moved to the downtown area around March 2008, Donnoe was struck by election paraphernalia floating around the city, as well as graffiti. "Election signs easily make people polarized," he said. He thought, "How about instead of having an election sign, somebody put something up about respect and kindness." These attempts to disseminate notions of compassion and thoughtfulness pushed him to create the Compassion Project. "It's best described as an art and activism project that is designed to cultivate the causes an

Posted by dockson2003 I have a question, just realized that my fence has graffiti on it “white power” with swastica’s on it and some initials. Is this something I need to report to the police? Thanks   Dear dockson2003 That graffiti is definitely offensive and needs to be covered up. If you live in the city limits, I would encourage you to do two things. First, call Sacramento City Code Enforcement at 808-5948 and give them the information. They can send someone out to cover the graffiti or provide information on how you can cover it up. They will photograph it and document the vandalism so that if the suspect(s) are ever caught, we can tie them to this crime. Secondly, call the Police

A DJ spinning some records, friends dancing and playing football, and a graffiti artist completing a mural for gardening store Hydroponics -- the spirit of hip hop was alive on Saturday, April 18, in Midtown Sacramento. Sacramento Press stopped to check out the happenings on 16th Street between S and T, and was lucky enough to have a friendly chat with Hydroponics's manager Dave West and graffiti artist Steve Yorgason. "He volunteered," West said, referring to the story of Yorgason's reaction after West first pitched the idea of painting the mural. "I think it is awesome," West said of the product, which was nearly complete by 6 p.m. Yorgason, a veteran of graffiti art and the artist be

 You can’t escape it if you’ve been downtown for more than 5 minutes. Whether it’s a large mural, a few hastily scrawled “letters”, or an unintelligible scribble. Graffiti, an art form to some, a nuisance to others. I’ve seen it on cross country trips as Amtrak passes any number of freight trains. It’s nearly the signature of the New York City Subway system. What is graffiti? It depends on who you ask. The most common, and in my opinion least attractive, is tagging. Usually done with a paint pen on a street sign or a business door or window. The kind of graffiti I saw on those trains is a more elaborate form of tagging. Sometimes it’s a persons nickname, other times it’s a word, occasio

Graffiti On my morning walk today, I noted additional new graffiti in midtown.  As readers may have noticed, there two distinct types of graffiti. One type has some artistic merit.  The other type is made by vandals, including gangs, who mark their territory--much like dogs and cats when they urinate on various surfaces.  Animals do it because it is their nature.  Vandals do it for complex psychological unnatural reasons. Those who paint graffiti for art purposes, sometimes find a permanent spot for their work.  I'm told that some photograph their work and sell it to interested magazines or for  CD and DVD covers.  If any of them read this article, respond in comments, and I'll refer him

 In my previous articles, "Graffiti artists vs. property owners" and "How you can affect graffiti" (which you can view by clicking the Storyline tab to the right), the discussion played mostly on property owners, graffiti removal and costs involved. That's only a a part of the issues involved with graffiti. There's a lot I'd like to know about the person holding the spray paint. What happens when a tagger (the person colorfully broadcasting their moniker) gets caught for vandalizing property? Under Penal Code section 594, the penalty given depends on the dollar amount of damage done. Essentially, the cost of property damages done by a tagger determines whether he or she is charged with a

 This article is a follow-up to "Graffiti artists vs. property owners." Please see "Graffiti artists vs. property owners" by clicking on the green Storyline tab to the right. If you are a property owner in Sacramento, you can expect to be cleaning graffiti off your building at some point or another depending on where your property is situated. "Midtown typically has the highest incidence of graffiti," states Code Enforcement Officer Noel Eusebio. Midtown, along with neighboring areas, sees more graffiti simply because it's packed with people and buildings. Seems obvious, right? "Vandals looking for notoriety look for population and structurally dense environments," continues Eusebio. Sinc

The streets are blighted with mismatched paint. Large cream colored splotches speckle tan walls and if you were to stare directly into the side of a concrete building structure you would almost certainly find faint outlines of words, messages and names; all pressure-washed or bleached into a ghostly existence.  While most property owners view graffiti as an unsightly blemish, is painting over that graffiti with a slightly different color much better? It all depends on your perspective. While there are those who maintain that graffiti has an aesthetic value, there are others who call it a nuisance. Some people will urge you to recognize the artistry, or the underlying message graffiti pres