Laurent Courtines Free Online

Product manager for Oberon Media, Baseball Fan & Husband. A man with opinions on everything - but expertise in online products and online casual games.  
Filed under

el barrio

 

Become your Dreams Strikes again - Why Graffiti Matters

2010-05-07_10

My wife and I have noticed in our travels through East Harlem an interesting graffiti bomber. The artist chooses piles of garbage and finds a flat surface and writes clearly "Become your dreams"
I find this inspirational matra uplifting each time I see it.  For some reason, choosing piles of garbage as the canvass multiplies the effectiveness of the art.  El Barrio has spent so many years as a downtrodden neihborhood seeing art crop on its garbage moves me.
It is this sort of Graffiti, like beautiful train murals of 30 years ago and James De La Vega in more recent memory, that show that a neihborhood is alive.  That in the midst of the struggles of the poor or immigrant communities that hope is always there. That people are thinking and want opportunity to improve.
As a child of El Barrio I have first hand knowledge of what happens when you grow up in a tough hoods.  You grow up with simply no frame of reference for success.  You have no idea what the first step is.  There are no maps, no guides, there is nothing.  You think you'll never amount to anything.
I am thankful for the inspiring graffiti and hope more people in East Harlem/El Barrio will let their art out and share their mantras of hope.

Become your dreams indeed!

Filed under  //   dreams   el barrio   motivation  

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The final stretch home

2010-02-19_23

 

102nd street heading east towards 3rd avenue.  The 23rd precinct is on the right side.

Filed under  //   102nd   east harlem   el barrio   home  

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The Morning Commute - 103rd Street.

2010-02-19_10

Taken from the downtown train platform towards end.  There has always been an odd gap in the columns in this spot.  Image is of the uptown platform.

Filed under  //   103 street   commute   east harlem   el barrio   new york  

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