Further proof that a hip-hop event in Oakland can be a peaceful, positive & uplifting, as well as extremely entertaining occurrence was offered up once again this past Saturday (Oct 8th) at the annual hip-hop themed Life Is Living Festival in West Oakland's historic DeFremery Park. Now in its third year the multi-faceted hip-hop themed event, that featured live music performances (including Los Rakas, Pete Escoveda, Jennifer Johns, and ?uestlove), interactive art, graffiti art (Estria's 5th Annual Graffiti Battle Finals), and lots of speakers and booths disseminating information on healthy living. It was just fantastic, as was balmy Bay Area Indian Summer weather that accompanied it.  I arrived mid afternoon at the event that began at 11am and unfortunately missed the set by Latin music legend Pete Escovedo and his orchestra. Luckily however I was there in time to catch another Latin flavor East Bay group: the hip-hop duo of Los Rakas who live in Oakland but are from Panama and rap mostly in Spanish. Their set, while not quite as long their recent one at the Hella Fresh festival at the Fillmore, was pure energetic fun with the audience of several hundred grooving to their infectious melange of contemporary Oakland hip-hop and reggae flavors.

Meanwhile scattered around the grounds of the East Bay park, which as one of the speakers on stage reminded folks features as its centerpiece a beautiful century old Victorian building, were drummers, art tables, food and clothing vendors, and various live graffiti installations. These various vibrant live aerosol art installations were all part of the weekend long 5th Annual Estria Graffiti Arts Festival which began two nights earlier with the Can Film Festival in SF and an exhibit at Oakland's SMSHBX Gallery, and continued the night before in downtown Oakland with various events that coincided with First Fridays and included the Pecha Kucha Night at the Oaksterdam University with all women artists under the title "Women Creating Public Art." The graffiti artists on Saturday, as part of the Life is Living Festival in DeFermery Park, included Doves (NY), Meres (NY), Woier (LA), Level (LA), Katch (HI), Ckaweeks (HI), and Vyal (LA) who took the title this weekend for the second year in a row.

Then on Saturday (July 23) at 6:30 PM at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA there will be a screening of the entertaining European feature film about the trials and tribulations of four young graffiti artists WHOLETRAIN. The German film's director Florian Gaag (a former graffiti artist turned filmmaker), who was interviewed by the Amoeblog last November when the film was released on DVD (look for it at Amoeba), said that it took him six years (five years longer than projected) to complete the film due to constant opposition due to its illegal art subject matter.

The Art in the Streets exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), which has an opening party on Saturday, April 16th, followed by an official run starting Sunday, April 17th through August 8th, is unique in that it is the first major museum survey of the history of graffiti and street art to be presented in the United States. And what an exhibit it promises to be, with 50 impressive installations by diverse artists from the graffiti and street art community, dating back to the seventies and including such globally known figures as Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Futura, Margaret Kilgallen, Swoon, Shepard Fairey, Os Gêmeos, and JR (the Paris artist whose guerrilla street photo art won him a TED award this year).

The MOCA exhibit also gives much shine to the photographers and filmmakers who've tirelessly documented graffiti and street art culture, including early graffiti documenters Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, and James Prigoff, with a comprehensive time-line illustrated with artwork, photography, video, and ephemera.

Fittingly, the LA exhibit will place an emphasis on the vital role that Los Angeles has played in the evolution of graffiti and street art (including special sections dedicated to cholo graffiti and Dogtown skateboard culture and featuring projects by such local artists as Mister Cartoon, SABER, REVOK, and RISK).

Graffiti fans should make a point of attending the California screenings of the powerful new European graffiti themed feature film WHOLETRAIN that screens this evening (Feb 24) in San Francisco at the Goethe-Institut and on Monday (March 1st) at the same institution's center in Los Angeles. After the screenings in each city director Florian Gaag will be on hand for a Q&A session.

Gaag's first feature, WHOLETRAIN was shot in Poland, has English subtitles and has already been a film festival fave. It tells the story of a tight knit crew of graffiti writers, Tino, David, Elyas and Achim, who go through a lot of troubles (including run-ins with the law and a growing feud with a rival graf crew) in pursuit of their art.

WHOLETRAIN is full of wonderful, memorable scenes like the one where Tino (convincingly played by Florian Renner) is trying to persuade his friend and ever-frowning crew mate David (played by Mike Adler), who is on his last strike with the authorities, to go back out that night on an important train "bombing" mission in which they have a final opportunity to prove their worth against the rival graf crew.

If they miss this last chance, "We look like a finger painting group. Unless we do a wholetrain, we can battle housewives in the local drawing class," warns Tino.