Festival De La Tiza
By Jose B. RiveraThe 6th Annual East Harlem Festival De La Tiza" or Chalk Festival took place this Saturday, September 12, 1998. The event was sponsored by Grupo Tizonor Chalk Group and took place on 104th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. The festival allows children to draw with chalk on the street. Festival Organizer, Jose Morales also invites artist to work with the children while they draw.
The event also included music played by a group called Son Boricua, and they were pretty good. The adults danced while the children drew. Below are the pictures of the event. Be aware that there are 10 pictures in all and they are each about 50K. I could make them smaller in size, but they would not look at good. Who wants fuzzy pictures! So be patient and enjoy.
Mmmmmmm, Hambergers!
A little boy draws street character with chalk.
Chalk drawing of the Lady of Guadalupe. Great Work
What would a Chalk Festival be without Music? Here a group called Son Boricua plays
while people dance to the music. The group is playing at the entrance to Hope Community.
Children love to draw especially on a medium they are not usually encouraged to draw on.
And what would a chalk festival be without East Harlem’s biggest artist, Fernando Salicrup. Fernando currently run the Julia Del Burgos Cultural Center on East 105-106 Street on Lexington Avenue.
Is there any place, any event which Harry Rodriguez (left) does not appear at? Harry is talking to Mark Alexander of the Hope Community, Inc. How’s it going Mark?
Remember this gentleman? If you grew up in East Harlem you would more than know that face.It’s Morris Wittenburg, of Morris Toyland Fame. Yes, he is still around and is now an Inspector for the Auxiliary Police here in East Harlem.
Event Organizer Jose Morales (left). He was busy handing out chalk boxes most of the day.
This is the booth from which Jose Morales gave out chalk to the festival’s participants.
Back to the chalk festival, the happiest people there were the children.