Multi-Arts Festival set for Aug. 27 and 28.
Jaren Van paints at the Subtext Multi-Arts Festival 2010 under the Lawrence Avenue bridge. Members of the community gathered to celebrate The Bridging Project, a mural lining the Lawrence Bridge. This year's event takes place Aug. 27 and 28. (Sept. 11, 2010)
Staff file photo
The first time Mario TheRealVoyce Murray walked under the Lawrence Avenue bridge for Scarborough's Subtext Multi-Arts Festival, he didn't know what to expect.
Traffic was rolling overhead as artists were transforming the massive gray support pillars of the bridge over Highland Creek, a dividing line between the Kingston-Galloway neighbourhood and the highrises of Orton Park to the west.
"It felt like a good vibe," recalls Murray, a hip-hop artist performing this month as the festival returns for a second year.
"When you claim spaces for arts, it's always a beautiful thing."
Local groups and agencies are trying to link Kingston-Galloway and Orton Park. They have said the long bridge is barrier between parts of their community, especially in bad weather.
The Bridging Project (http://thebridgingproject.blogspot.com/) is using murals to fight the impression the bridge is somehow unsafe.
Subtext, which reappears Aug. 27 and 28 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., occupies not just the top of the bridge but spaces beneath it to "start a different conversation" about Kingston-Galloway and Orton Park, said Ben Lopes, program director for the Scarborough Arts Council.
"It's a challenge we eagerly accept," he added this week.
The unconventional spaces below the bridge, surrounded by tranquil green spaces many residents see rarely, if at all, will be a free showcase on festival weekend for Scarborough talent.
Organizers surprised themselves last year, Lopes said, when 500 people attended.
Included this time are Phase 2 Hip-Hop, a dozen emerging artists performing a new album of material for the first time, and the I Have A Dream Youth Dance Collective.
There's free food - a barbecue on the bridge Saturday Aug. 27, and hot dogs below on both days - as well as activities for children. More details and a schedule are at www.scarborougharts.com
Patrick Connors, a poet who grew up in Scarborough, will read a 30-minute set from the stage, and said people must have more chances to learn Scarborough has a thriving arts scene.
One of the best spoken word poets he knows, Ritillin - a stage name for Greg Frankson - grew up in Orton Park, said Connors, who called the festival's unusual setting "absolutely brilliant" and added he hopes the bridge can bring people together instead of keeping them apart.
Murray, who used to run the Beatz to da Streetz program in Kingston-Galloway, said hip hop started as underground music performed in such places as parks and spaces under bridges.
"For me, it's important to reclaim those spaces now that hip hop is commercially viable," he said, adding events "highlighting the positivity that's going on in Scarborough" need to continue.
Festival organizers are looking for volunteers to assist the artists and help people find the site which is reached on a pathway from the northeast corner of the bridge.
Some parking is available at the East Scarborough Storefront east of the bridge, but use of local bus routes is suggested.