Client Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle
Date 2009 – present
Service Provided PR Management (09-10), Project Manager (present)

The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle is a national, traveling, one-day, urban art competition that honors and advances creativity in the Hip Hop arts. The battle encourages participants to find new ways of communicating social issues, and building community. Founded in 2007 by Estria Miyashiro and Jason Mateo.

Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle
www.estria.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

September 13, 2010 (OAKLAND, CA) - Graffiti living legend Estria Miyashiro presents the 4th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle (www.estriabattle.com), a nationwide urban art competition that honors and advances creativity in the Hip Hop arts. The battle will be held on Sunday October 3, 2010, from 11am-5pm, at DeFremery Park (aka Little Bobby Hutton Park), on 16th and Adeline St. in West Oakland, CA. The event will feature 20 of the West Coast’s top graffiti artists competing for the title of the nation’s best of the best. Within the six hour span of the festival, 8’ x 10’ foot murals will be created by each artist, and judged by respected writers Crayone-TWS, Nate1-MPC, and Estria. Leading up to the day of the battle a series of events under the theme “Come To Conquer”, will include The Can Film Festival, Pecha Kucha Night Oaksterdam: Graffiti Verses Street Art, and the launch of a nationwide art show Rough Sketch, (details below).

“We are committed to keeping the battle a long standing tradition in the arts community. Not only do we want to promote visual art as a positive alternative for youth, but we want to promote change within the art form itself. By showcasing different styles from around the country we’re also promoting gender, sexual, racial and class equality in Hip Hop and the visual arts”, says Estria Miyashiro.

The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle has also partnered with the Life Is Living Festival (www.lifeisliving.org) for the 4th year, promoting a healthy, and sustainable lifestyle in under-served communities. The festival includes a concert, dance contest, skate park, youth poetry, and more. It is expected to draw over 5,000 youth, families, and community members.

Submissions for artists to compete in this year’s battle are still being considered, contact: estriabattle@gmail.com.

Come to Conquer Graffiti Series 2010 Event Schedule:

9/30 Thurs – The Can Film Festival
6PM: FREE
1:AM Gallery, 1000 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Featured Films - Dirty Hands (including Q & A with Director Harry Kim), and Beat Street.

10/1 Fri - Pecha Kucha Night Oaksterdam: Graffiti Verses Street Art
7PM: $10 donation at the door includes 2 drink tickets, 21+ over
Oaksterdam, 1600 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Featuring presentations by: Estria, 1:AM SF, Dream TDK (non mural work), 808 Urban, Trust Your Struggle, Angry Woebot, and Nicole Martinez on their history and perspective on graffiti and street art.

10/2 Sat - Rough Sketch Opening Reception for National Art Show
6PM-12AM: FREE
Pueblo Nuevo Gallery, 1828 San Pablo Ave #1, Berkeley, CA 94702
Featuring many artists from past Estria Invitational Graffiti Battles
Show runs Oct. 1-24

10/3 Sun - 4th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle at Life Is Living Festival 11AM-5PM: FREE
DeFremery Park (aka Little Bobby Hutton Park), 1651 Adeline Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Featuring 20 of the top graffiti artists in the West Coast
Activities include: Sketch book battle for youth, t-shirt stencil workshop, Graffiti Photo Booth, artists signing

10/3 Sun - Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle Official After Party
9PM: FREE
Liege Spirits Lounge, 481 9th Street Oakland, CA 94607

Social networking links to connect:
www.facebook.com/EstriaInvitationalGraffitiBattle
www.twitter.com/estriabattle
*twitter mentions use: #estriabattle

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*All media, photographers, and videographers must be registered by Friday, September 24, to receive a press badge for the events. Please contact catherine@papalodown.com for your confirmation.

download EIGB flyer here:
front: http://www.flickr.com/photos/estria_murals/4951861119/
back: http://www.flickr.com/photos/estria_murals/4952452570/

About Estria: Estria Miyashiro is an influential leader of San Francisco’s “Golden Age” of graffiti. He began spray painting in Hawai’i in 1984 and has since painted hundreds of murals worldwide, pioneered a variety of painting techniques, and is one of the originators of the stencil tip. Estria also teaches graffiti classes, and lectures at universities on graffiti´s social and political impact, and is the co-founder of the annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle, founded in 2007. Estria also co-founded Visual Element, a free mural workshop to empower youth through art. www.estria.com

About Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle: The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle is a national, traveling, one-day, urban art competition that honors and advances creativity in the Hip Hop arts. The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle encourages participants to find new ways of communicating social issues through graffiti and Hip Hop culture. www.estriabattle.com

Event Sponsors: Hard Knock Radio (KPFA FM), MTN Spray Paints, 1:AM Gallery, Pueblo Nuevo Gallery, Oaksterdam,  and Samurai Graphix.

Press Coordinator:
Catherine Judge
catherine@papalodown.com
415-412-4674

Sponsorship Contact:
Paloma Belara
paloma@papalodown.com
415-992-1428

Volunteer Contact:
Kim Ganade-Torres
estriabattle@gmail.com
415-341-7047

2009 is coming to an end… it’s been a beautiful year for growth and change, and risk taking.  As you may know by now graffiti living legend, Estria, is a client I’ve been working with this past year, and he also happens to be one of the key players in supporting my career move of starting my PR business. THANK YOU E!!

I wanted to share with you what he’s worked on and his accomplishments from 2009, which in turn is also a reflection of the work I’ve done this year.  I really feel blessed to be part of his team, and fortunate that I can work with a client who is responsible, ambitious, organized, and respectful, amongst other qualities, like an amazing artist, and business person, (who’s also become a mentor).

Estria worked on a total of 14 Murals this year! Lots of paint, lots of beautiful work, check out Estria’s top picks: *click on link to view full size

4 Guardians (Oakland)

Estria also traveled to Hawaii, Chicago, and Harlem, in search of the nation’s top graffiti artist. Finals were held in Oakland, CA, and the results were amazing! TDK’s very own Vogue took home the championship. Watch the official video recap:

Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle – Oakland 2009 Finals from Estria Battle on Vimeo.

A few weeks after the battle we had an in-store event at Shoe Biz on Haight St. in SF, where 20 pairs of Adidas Shelltoes and Stan-Smith kicks painted on by this year’s graffiti writers were displayed for an auction to help youth in Oakland and orphans in Africa. Shoebiz donated all proceeds to: YouthSpeaks.org and YouthAgainstPoverty.com. Watch the official video:

ShoeBizSF / Adidas x Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle from Estria Battle on Vimeo.

The year ended with the book release of “Mission Muralismo” which features work by Estria.

Birthed in the early 1970s, a provocative newstreet art scene transformed San Francisco’s legendary Mission District into an art epicenter that crosses popular culture, fine art and political audiences. “Mission Muralismo,” is an ever-growing movement of accomplished street art combining elements of Mexican mural painting, surrealism, pop art, urban punk, eco-warrior, cartoon, and guerilla graffiti that has catapulted many San Francisco artists into the international spotlight.

Featuring over 500 full-color photographs and 30 essays, including artistsEstria, R. Crumb, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Barry McGee (TWIST), Rigo, and Spain Rodriguez, Street Art San Francisco comprehensively exposes more than three decades of this expansive and vibrant public art movement. www.missionmuralismo.com

So what’s next??

We’re working on it… you’ll hear back from me soon!  Thanks to everyone for their continued support! Also, you can catch the Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle on FUEL TV in a few weeks!

Show will air – Monday, January 11th at 6pm PST/9pm EST and later again that evening at 9pm PST/12am EST. www.fueltv.com

These past few weeks I’ve been working with Estria, a graffiti artist from Oakland, CA, via Hawaii.  I worked with a dope, and efficient team, and experienced the beauty of Hip Hop in its truest form, through community, youth, expression through art, and social justice.

Here’s a photo recap of the project via TiRone (my iphone).

I’d like to thank everyone that helped spread the word, came through to the events, and contributed to making this year’s battle a success.  We’re still gathering all the press and photos, so look out for a more in depth recap of EIGB 09 soon!

For the past few months Bay Area graffiti legend, Estria, has traveled to Harlem, Chicago, and Honolulu, in the 3rd Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle (EIGB).  This year’s battle is in collaboration with “The Life Is Living Festival” curated by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and will come to an end on October 10, 2009, where one graffiti artist will be crowned champion.  Winners from the Harlem, Honolulu and Chicago battles will be flown to Oakland to compete in the finals!  
 

SF Graffiti Legend – Estria, is featured in this video produced by Graffiti Collective. It always inspires me to see the art created by artists that use this medium of expression, and seeing the entire process in this video is pretty dope.

Estria hollered at me when this video was being edited to see if I had any tracks to use for the background music, I think I did a good job with my selection, what do you think?

Estria at Element SF from Graffiti Collective on Vimeo.

The song featured in the video is from one of my favorite emcees – Gigio. The track entitled “One Man 4 The job” is off his sophomore release Church Musick.

Don’t sleep on Gigio, and be on the look out for Estria’s work! I am truly blessed to be in good company, the economy may be in the toilet, but the art i’m surrounded by keeps me motivated and colors the gray skies enough to see a few rainbows in the horizon…

It’s times like this where art and community are needed more than ever, so thank you! To all the artists – keep moving forward, keep creating, and know that it doesn’t matter how many magazine covers you grace, or how many albums you sell… it’s the individual connections made through your art that will make a lasting impact.

www.graffiticollective.com
www.estria.net
www.ggoraps.wordpress.com

Sorry, side note… my younger brother Mono, who inspired me to get into music, put this video together with the homie Gus from KMEL, at the Living Word Festival that went down in Oakland last weekend. 

Featuring another homie, SF graff legend Estria and Oakland’s Scraper Bikes:

www.estria.net
www.youtube.com/user/mono415