Monday 2, last day working on the crate.

Our deadline was March 1, but the Chelsea Visits Havana crew had some delivery delays so...

After organizing and documenting all the donations, we put hem in boxes in a way they fit inside the crate (this was the hard part!). We taped and closed each box, to make sure that if the crate gets open they don't do party with our stuff. I named all the boxes with a marker all around... eventually this changed cause we had to make more space inside the crate, until we puzzled it out. So we fit all in 5 boxes, the use skateboards are in the middle, some shoes and wheels are at the bottom, and the rest is inside the boxes.

Crate #31 (part of the Chelsea Visits Havana event) departs to the 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba.

The inventory (part 1)

Here we will like to share some pictures of our shipment to Cuba. This past weekend I have been working unstoppable organizing our inventory of donations and loading the boxes on the crate. I has been kinda difficult to fit all inside the crate, but today I finally figure it all out. What a puzzle! Know I even have an extra little space, maybe for some extra paints. Oh! Yeah! did I told you that I am gonna paint Red Bull's skate park down in Cuba? ... That's part of the plan as well... lot of fun and work.

The crate has 29 used boards (thanks to KCDC, Nocturnal, friends, Bainbridge Skate Shop, Sofia, Luis, etc); 11 new boards (5 decks from 5BORO; 3 from Bodega; 3 One Skateboards Co.); 12 trucks (from Philadelphia, and Blades, NY); a bunch of wheels (thanks to One Skateboards Co., KCDC, Nocturnal, Bainbridge Skate Shop)...

The rest are shoes from ETNIES & VANS, plus a diversity of clothing by KCDC, VANS & ETNIES. I will post the exact amount on the week at "The Inventory (part 2)".

Donations from Philly... and "el carrito"

Melissa and I met at 8:30 AM in Colador Cafe, a Dominican owned coffee shop, in the corner of Bedford and Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn. There we had our cafe con leche con expreso, plus a nice breakfast to start our long trip to Philly.

It was our first time in a Chinatown bus, so we were kinda lost at first. While on tour we did our usual girl-talk, enjoy the view and sleep. Melissa called her twin sister Mariela who told us the good news of yesterday's boxing fight at Madison Square Garden. Mr. Cotto (our puertorrican amazing boxer) won last night against the other guy. Yeah! I bet half of Puerto Rico is celebrating this victory on the beach, mean while our Sunday back in Philly was a rainy and gray day.

Two hours later... the bus finally arrived to Philly's Chinatown. We walk to the mall grabbed a salad in the food court, then ask for directions where they told us to get the 57 bus. With the map in our hands we realized that we were not that far from South St. so we decided to walk. It was like a 15 min. walk... it was cold, windy and rainy, but we made it to a coffee shop in from of Nocturnal Skate shop.

Fresh Chai Tea served by the owner, a very social Palestinian man.

After a great cup of coffee, another of chai tea and baklava we were warm and full of energy to picked up a bunch of donations from Nocturnal and Bainbridge Skateshop. In Nocturnal, Braxton hands up a bag full of wheels, some trucks, like 8 used boards (one of it was from Luis a friend from Puerto Rico), and 3 new decks from One Skateboards Co. At Bainbridge Caezar gave us 3 used boards, and another bag full of wheels. Yeah! Melissa and I where hands full of equipment... cool! but how are we gonna get all this back to NYC?

This is when imagination come very handy... so we built "el carrito" from a skateboard and a recycle bin that we got for free at a gallery in Bainbridge St.

OMG! We were laughing all night long of our funny-weird invention. Hahahaha!!!!

Melissa making sure to tight the handles, and placed in the luggage compartment "el carrito" in the bus.

Sofia pulling "el carrito" from the bus station and ridding it around Brooklyn.

Thanks Melissa, for helping me transport the donations from Philly to NY!
And thanks to all you guys that donated equipment to make this project possible!

"the CRATE"

Today we woke up early... Jorge cooked breakfast for us, then he went to the post-office. One hour later Priscila and I walk down our hood to meet him at Home Depot. It was a sunny and warmer day. Our mission today was to build the crate for the shipment to Cuba. So we bought wood panels, screws, and other materials. We cut the wood panels at Home Depot were they did a pretty crazy job, so our crate is gonna end kinda funky looking. Then a rastaman help us to transport all the wood to the house... yep! he had some good vibes in his truck.

Jorge (from Los Vigilantes) helping to built the crate...
we haven't made it without him.

Priscila says, "Baby, what you doing there?"

I thinks this crate is almost done, we just need to fill it with all our donations and paints!

Our first donation from 5BORO!

Photo by Prisila Vazquez.

Yeah! We just received via mail our first donation of boards from 5Boro!!! I got home from work and my roommate, Priscila, told me, "Hey! Esto te llego por correo." I didn't wait a second to open it... and look what we got, five dope boards. It was a really exiting moment, this 5Boro guys just made my nite. Hahaha!!!

This is just the beginning of our project. I know good things are waiting for our humanitarian project. Tomorrow I am planing to stop by KCDC, let see how many stuff the locals have donated.

Keep the good vibe! Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Trip to Philly

This weekend we went on trip to Philadelphia looking for more donations of used skateboarding equipment. Philly has a great vibe... love it!

On Friday we visit Bainbridge Skateboard Shop were we talk to Ceazar who will post our poster an hopefully will help us out. Then we went looking for some mural spots for summer, but that's for our next project (top secret!).

Saturday morning we stared the day with the best cappuccino coffee at a small shop owned buy the nicest man in Philly, which is located in front of Nocturnal. OMG! I could say that's life: a good coffee shop in front of a skate shop. I guess Sofia is falling in love with Philly already (sorry for that girly moment)... ok, back to work...

In the afternoon we walk into Nocturnal, really cool shop with a huge selection of decks, shoes and clothing. Braxton, manager of Nocturnal Skateshop, was kinda busy with the locals, but we were lucky to chat a bit with him about our Skate My Patria proposal. He was great, appreciated our poster and told us to count with them for a donation before the end of the month. Yeah! It seems like we are starting to meet wonderful people that believe in our humanitarian art project in Cuba, even thou we are living in hard economic times. Also we must thanks Anabelle Rodriguez and Sebastian our tour guides around this great city.

SKATE MY PATRIA (proposal)

Cuba here we go!
Visit Americas Quarterly blog for more information on the project,
an interview by Danielle Renwick.

Previous work by Sofia...























The Tropical Storm Bowl.
Paiting by Sofia.
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (2008).