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alt="Artist James De La Vega: Experiencing The Become Your Dream Museum, Part 1" class="left" width="200px" height="225px" />
“Walter thinks women should have a ten pm curfew,” read a hand written sign, one of about ten or so that were taped up in the window of the De La Vega Museum, all about what Walter thinks about women. Who is Walter and why does he think such things? Well…Walter is a snake if that explains anything: “He is the pet of the fish,” relates the artist, James De La Vega—referring to his signature fish jumping out of its fish bowl, which drawn with the tag line “Become Your Dream,” has become the trade mark of this original New York artist and “sidewalk philosopher.”
A Cornell educated resident of Spanish Harlem, he first made his mark as a muralist and “street” graffiti artist. He opened the Museum at 102 St. Mark’s Place, between 1st Avenue and Avenue A, five years ago: “I wanted to try something new.” Hello! That is what New York City is all about!
“This place is something you must experience. It’s not a place to come and copy or write down what I have written. That would be doing this place an injustice,” De La Vega tells me, as I quickly put away my pen and notebook. “Hopefully you will get something out of your visit here.” And he doesn’t mean one of his bangin’ tee shirts, a post card, or some most excellent stickers, or a Become Your Dream tote bag— which are all must haves. Nor does he mean even one of the signed drawings or paintings that line the walls, hung salon style, if you got it like that (his work sells at Christie’s). The artist has a concept he is marketing that is more important to him than money. “My message is a thought provoking concept: Live Your Dream.
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I just finished my training to become a volunteer at Learning Leaders.
I found out about them from Ms. Bertilia Diaz, the Parent Coordinator at Hamilton Heights School in Harlem. She was so enthusiastic about them that I had to check them out. I had been trying to get involved as a volunteer in my son’s previous school but was incredibly frustrated when I found that I couldn’t even give away free services because nobody ever called me back. I did not want to pursue another dead-end opportunity to get involved.
Well, I was pleasantly disappointed in my determination to be frustrated again when I walked in for my training that first day. I was met by a great group of parents with similar interests, hot coffee and fresh bagels with cream cheese in the school lobby. After our yummy breakfast, we all moved onto the school library where we met we Luis Lopez, one of the Program Coordinators for Learning Leaders. Mr. Lopez was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and drew you into his high energy almost immediately. For some reason that I never quite got, parents and schools have been pitted against each other in New York City for too long – each often viewing any input from the other as “interference”. Mr. Lopez understands that at a very basic level since he coordinates volunteer opportunities for parents and has had personal experience as a public school parent. Learning Leaders works very hard to help parents and the schools to work together for the greater good of the children and the community at large.
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