PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond

(Peking Opera – Monkey King performance)

(Puerto Rican Vejigante mask)

(Puerto Rican fan making)

The 15th annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival & this year – Empanadas were added to the Eldridge street mix! The festival provides a fun opportunity to celebrate the joint cultural heritages of the historic Lower East Side and Chinatown with food, music, arts, & crafts! Jewish, Chinese, and now Puerto Rican culture were honored on this great day! On this 15th anniversary of the Festival, The Museum at Eldridge Street Synagogue wanted to showcase the contributions of the Puerto Rican community to the Lower East Side so hence the addition! Some highlights of this annual ethnic block party includes Chinese opera and acrobats, klezmer performances, bomba and plena music, Puerto Rican mask making, Hebrew and Chinese scribal art, & more! Last but not least – the stars of the show – kosher egg rolls, egg cream, & empanadas were for sale!

(Jewish Pickling techniques)

(Yarmulka making)

(Northern style chinese dumpling making)

(Yiddish lessons by mark sommerstein)

(Monkey King performance)

(kreplach-demonstration)

(klezmer-music & dancing)

(Mah Joong hustling!)

(Chess is for the birds – Mah Joong is where it’s at!)

(Jewish Scribal Arts)

(Chinese Calligraphy)

(Sifu Ken Lo can kick your ass w/ his Kung Fu techniques but before he does that he will share his knowledge of the traditional Chinese Tea ceremony)

(Challah making)

(WEPA! Bomba and plena music)

(Puerto Rican Vejigante mask)

(jewish cantorial music by eric freeman)

(decorating a chinese porcelain bowl on paper bowl)

Post celebrations of the festival had us appreciating more of the Lower East Side at an art gallery on 291 Grand Street by Eldridge. It happened to be the last day of a solo exhibit by an old school Nuyorican street artist who grew up in the LES – Lee Quinones. Leave it up to us to make the exhibit on the very last day. We are big fans of Lee’s aerosol art and his appearance in Wild Style the movie turned us on! It’s great to see that Lee Quinones’ art work remains relevant to this day! Lee’s pop-up solo exhibition puts on a display of his early, never been seen before drawings as well as his current works which collectively spans from 1975 to the present. This exhibition sheds light on Quinones’ love for drawing. From aerosol bombing of NYC subway trains to NYC public concrete walls, and now (has been) taking it to the studio – Lee Quinones’ work is still evolving as political and social messages are still be doled out throughout his art no matter what format he chooses!