CROWN HEIGHTS — Live mural painting, pie-eating contests and skateboard lessons are a few of the dozens of attractions set to greet Crown Heights at the third-annual Kingston Avenue Festival this Saturday.
The event, produced by the Arts to End Violence campaign, features a colorful program of more than 85 activities held on Kingston Avenue between Pacific and Bergen streets — with the goal of highlighting the strengths of a neighborhood that's historically suffered from street violence, organizers said.
Life-sized chess and stilt walkers are some of the other larger-than-life attractions set for the block party, which runs from noon to 5 p.m.
“The idea is to make it an oasis of positivity,” said Amy Ellenborgen, project director for the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, which organized the event in collaboration with Save Our Streets (S.O.S), The Kingston Avenue Merchants Association and the NYC Department of Transportation.
“The big picture is to make the neighborhood safer, more fun, healthier," Ellenborgen added. "We want to use art as dialogue to point out how the community would look without the violence.”
Following this weekend’s festival, Arts to End Violence continues its campaign with a gallery opening on May 23 that will feature the winners of an art contest and exhibits from professional artists taking on the topic of street and gun violence.
