A Brooklyn neighborhood tradition is returning this summer with a celebration of art, music, dance and community.
The STooPS Summer Festival will take over Bedford-Stuyvesant on Aug. 8 for its 13th annual free block party and art crawl, featuring performances, visual art, activities for children and more.
What You Need To Know
The STooPS Summer Festival returns Aug. 8 in Bedford-Stuyvesant
The free block party and art crawl is celebrating its 13th year
The festival features music, dance, theater, visual arts and activities for children
Most events will take place on Decatur Street between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
One of the featured performers is Krista Martins, who will lead a Soca dance class called Wukkout!, inspired by the music and energy of Trinidad and the Caribbean islands.
“We are basically trying to recreate Carnival, a Caribbean Carnival in a class with that freedom, the joy and the exuberance of it all,” said Martins.
The festival was founded by dancer and choreographer Kendra J. Ross after she moved to Bed-Stuy in 2009.
“STooPS came about to be a bridge between newer folks, artists, homeowners, business owners, residents, visitors. So we could all come together for the sake of building community,” said Ross, who is the founder and director of STooPS Art and Community.
Vocalist and dancer Mónica Ortiz Rossi, also known as MOR, will perform with Sanctuario, the Afro-Latin music and dance ensemble she founded.
“Sanctuario has a lot of live, kind of a beautiful Afro-Latin kind of creation of music, dance, and so we are going to do a little snippet of it which is live drums and original songs,” said Ortiz Rossi, who grew up in Brooklyn.
Artist Dig Ferreira will also be part of the festival, creating a live painting on a giant canvas.
Ferreira, who moved to Brooklyn from Brazil eight years ago, uses a unique technique of painting with the brush in his mouth and describes his work as a form of performance art.
“Those people who organized this festival are the people in the community looking forward to keeping the roots and the story of the neighborhood,” Ferreira said.
The festival’s main hub will be on Decatur Street between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues. The event runs Saturday, Aug. 8, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information, visit stoopsbedstuy.org.