Allentown Art Jam – Brightening Up The Path in the Queen City
Written by Ana Candelaria
Photos by Ana Candelaria
The city of Allentown in Pennsylvania will forever hold a special place in my heart. Located in the county of Lehigh, Allentown, also known as “A-Town” or the “Queen City”, was where my grandmother lived and where I spent my summers as a child with my dad. The third biggest city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, within the past few years Allentown has stepped up its public street art scene with dozens of new vibrant and empowering murals gracing walls throughout the downtown Hamilton District. I don’t recall seeing any murals in Allentown when I was growing up. Now, as an avid street art enthusiast and documentarian I’m ecstatic to see more artwork in “The A.”
Produced in conjunction with Dripped On Productions and Allentown Mural Arts, the Art Jam consisted of 17 international and local artists. When I first found out about the mural fest I was happy to see some familiar names from the New York City art community like Boogie Rez, Souls, Ratchi, Jappy, Humble, and Outersource.
Co-founded by seasoned artists Denton Burrows and Jonathan Neville, Dripped On Productions or DOP, an art production company, has worked with big named corporations and non-profit organizations to produce large scale murals throughout the northeast since 2014. DOP also has a traveling art residency program called Dripped On The Road. Writer Tyler Bruett originally covered Dripped on the Road in UP MAG Issue 2: Travel and Places.
Allentown Mural Arts (AMA) works closely with communities to beautify and uplift neighborhoods by providing artists opportunities to paint murals in Allentown.
A few of the artists that participated in Art Jam like Lena Mac, Souls, and Humble are resident artists of Dripped On The Road. Allentown Mural Arts (AMA) works closely with communities to beautify and uplift neighborhoods by providing artists opportunities to paint murals in Allentown. If you happen to be visiting and would like to see the murals in person, AMA conveniently contains a downloadable PDF of a public walking tour map on their website.
The artists arrived three days before the Art Jam to get a head start on their murals. The Path, an alleyway located at 932 Hamilton Street is about the length of two city blocks. Over 4,000 square feet of space nicely tucked between two buildings. Neville of Dripped On stated “the location was chosen because it connects a large parking lot to the main strip, providing a bright colorful alley to walk through.”
It was drizzling when I arrived on Saturday around 1:30 PM. I was a bit worried the event would be canceled due to the rain but thankfully it held off. I decided to get there early to scope out the layout. When I arrived, I was eager to get a sneak peek at the murals and meet some of the local artists. I was amazed by what I saw. Matt Halm, Miss Birdy, Wing Chow, Lena Mac, Kram, Max Meano, Rigo Peralta, Hector Castro, Kyle Edwards and others collectively transformed The Path into kaleidoscopic beauty from Hamilton Street down to W. Maple Street by painting 16 murals in just four days! Even the steps were painted by Lehigh Valley muralist Kyle Edwards.
The first mural I saw walking into The Path was by Miss Birdy, an artist from Columbus, Ohio. Titled, The Ambiguous Mother, her mural made me feel as if I walked into a mysterious tropical oasis. She depicted her version of Baba Yaga, a slavic folklore character. It was incredible. Directly across from Miss Birdy was Richmond Virginia based artist Wing Chow. Wing Chow’s style blew my mind away. She painted beautiful and colorful warped shapes on the wall reminiscent of a gigantic lava lamp from top to bottom. It was amazing to witness these two talents paint large scale murals side by side. It was interesting to see the diversity of artwork as I walked down the path observing the walls.
A few artists were still applying some final touch ups when I arrived. Partners Denton Burrows and Ratchi collaborated on a really cool piece in their signature styles shouting out A-Town. Denton also hand-painted signs that read “The Path with the words Walk this way underneath on both ends to guide people towards the walkway. About half of the murals were already completed by the time the Art Jam started at 4 PM.
I met graffiti artist and tattoo shop owner Max Meano as he was wrapping up his contribution to the festival. A Puerto Rican flag with his name Meano written in graffiti style. He painted a beautiful portrait of a native Taino woman at the end of the flag and a little boy wearing a traditional pava straw hat and guayabera, the classic Puerto Rican tailored shirt on top of the flag. This mural hit home when I saw it because I’m half Puerto Rican from my father’s side and Allentown is where the majority of the Puerto Rican side of my family lives. In fact, my cousin’s house whom I was staying with lives within minutes from The Path. I fell in love with the details in Boston, MA artist Lena Mac’s mural titled ‘Everything is Everything.” Dynamic duo Riiisa Boogie and Rez Ones, also known as Boogie Rez representing Poughkeepsie, NY graced the walls with a super dope CREAM mural paying homage to the Hip Hop culture. Riisa Boogie painted a girl with purple hair rocking shades that read KEEP on one of the lenses and ROCKIN on the other lens holding a grape Charms Blow Pop. Her other half Rez Ones painted a girl with rainbow hair wearing a hat with the acronym C.R.E.A.M written on the crown. CREAM stands for Creativity Rules Everything Around Me.
The beats were provided by DJ Byg Fury of Lehigh Valley Radio Station 88.1 FM who was DJ’ing live on Hamilton Street. He kept the crowd rocking with classic hits as they checked out the art and the artists bopping as they kept working on their murals. Drinks were provided by County Seat Spirits, a local distillery and cocktail bar and the food by Amigo’s Mexican Grill. The turnout was great. Lots of people stopped by to meet the artists, hang out, and admire the work. All of the artists had full creative control to paint what they desired. Dripped On supplied the paint via NBQ Pro Spray Paint and the ladders. There was a bench covered with NBQ spray cans of all sorts of rich, bright, and bold colors. Each mural complimented the next, despite each artist’s unique style and design. It was absolutely beautiful.
One of my favorite things to do is document artists at work. I felt like a kid in a candy store walking back and forth photographing the artists. It was great to see Barcelona artist Kram working on a cartoon style dog character holding a bat and baseball. Outersource’s holographic mural titled Light Body was really fun to look at with 3D glasses. It was super cool! Pau’s beautiful and vibrant multi-colored patterns soothed my soul. Rigo Peralta’s portrait of a native indigenous woman wearing a gold headpiece looked like a goddess. Humble’s mural of a tiger fighting a cobra was killer!
Events like the Art Jam are important for communities because it promotes creativity, inspires people, and enlivens neighborhoods just to list a few of art’s greatest powers. I reached out to Dripped On Productions for comment. “The festival was an amazing way to bring artists to a city that has become our second home! It’s been cool to see the mural and arts scene in Allentown evolve over the past 7 years, and to be part of building an amazing community in a fun area with great artists who have welcomed us so warmly. We are hoping that Art Jam becomes an annual festival and we keep getting to bring artists from around the world to Allentown and work with established, new and rising artists from the area.”
“It’s been cool to see the mural and arts scene in Allentown evolve over the past 7 years, and to be part of building an amazing community in a fun area with great artists who have welcomed us so warmly. We are hoping that Art Jam becomes an annual festival and we keep getting to bring artists from around the world to Allentown and work with established, new and rising artists from the area.”
The look on the children’s faces was priceless as they walked through The Path pointing in awe. Some even stopped to take photos with the artists. It was nice to see the artists interacting with the kids. One of the highlights for me was when a few of the artists signed and drew on a little girl’s jean jacket with markers and spray paint. She was super happy to show off her new personalized jean jacket when I asked her for a picture. Speaking of cool, during the festival Allentown artist Hector Castro encouraged kids to “tag” or write their name on his mural titled Love Wins with markers. He hand painted a robocop figure aiming a sunflower at a couple of kids tagging the words “Love Wins” on the wall. The detail in his work was incredible.
Another memorable highlight was when I met and shook hands with the Mayor of Allentown Matthew Tuerk. We spoke about art and UP Magazine which he followed right away on Instagram. I even got to take a cool photograph of him standing in front of Dripped On The Road resident artist Soul’s amazing comic book style mural dressed comfortably in sweatpants and a cool Allentown t-shirt to represent. I also had the pleasure of meeting Maddie Sterns and Jane of Allentown Mural Arts. I originally reached out to AMA on Instagram when I saw the post about the Art Jam to introduce myself and to let them know I was interested in documenting the event on behalf of UP Mag. I’m really happy I made the connection. It’s always a pleasure to meet people who share the same passion for art. Overall the festival was a huge success. An event isn’t an event until the Mayor shows up!
The residents of the downtown Hamilton district appreciate the art. Within a week Allentown rap lyricist EZ Pennybagz visited The Path and shot a music video showcasing some of the murals in the backdrop. It’s the perfect spot for creatives to create. Although my visit to Allentown was short and sweet it certainly will not be my last. The next time I stop by I will be sure to take the time to revisit The Path and check out some of the other murals scattered throughout the town. It hasn’t even been a month since the Art Jam took place and I’m already looking forward to the next one.
Ana Candelaria is a Lower East Side based photographer. She is currently an active contributor for Street Art NYC and a member of Shooter Street Art. Ana’s work has been featured in YV Magazine, displayed in MIKEY Likes It Ice Cream Shop, Unbound: Authentic Visions and Voices as part of a series, as well as Home Grown, a group show that featured Lower East Side natives. Ana has also collaborated with artist My Life In Yellow on a limited edition run of prints. Within the past three years she has established herself as a self taught street art photographer, writer and artist and has received recognition for her photos from street artists from all over the world. She enjoys traveling and nature.
