OOoooooeeee back from Stockholm, Sweden! Wow. What a beautiful 3 day trip to Europe, and what a dope project to take part in. I had a great time at the ART OF THE STREETS event. Everything, and I mean everything was well organized and taken care of. I really appreciate and give much props to folks that put events like this together in a professional manner. Shout out to Jacob Kimvall, Tobias Barenthin, and producer of project Ceyan Holago for organizing Art of the Streets, and making my stay such a pleasure. You guys rock!!! I big thank you Riksteatern and the Sodra Teatern who help make events like this possible to support artists, and ideas that need a voice and a well respected platform. I didn’t realize how tough it had been for Stockholm to get an urban arts project like this to happen. The media was going bonkers over this. Apparently there is a lot of controversy surrounding an event that celebrates graffiti and street art. I guess I should have noticed. Stockholm is a very clean city, and the traditional folks in power are definitely not in support of graffiti or any type of illegal vandalism that could influence youth to go messing with their streets. The debates were pretty intense, I didn’t speak a word of swedish but I could feel the tension. Change is inevitable folks. The new generation will have it’s part and say just like you did. Graffiti and street art is not going anywhere. It’s only getting bigger and wiser. It will be just a matter of time until we are the ones in power making a few minor adjustments here and there to create the world we want…and on that note here’s to the beginning of it { cheers! }

DAY 1 – 14HRS LATER…TF HAS ARRIVED!

Hello Stockholm! Hello Scandic Malven Hotel! Flight was hella long but worth the wait to get to this flyyyyy hotel. Shout out to homie Ayman picked me up at airport, along with Adam Mansbach who wrote for Stress Magazine back in the days. Small world!  Had a nice chat on our way to airport. Peeps is peeps:)

Dope hotel. Organic breakfast buffet was no joke! Wow…too bad I have no flick of that. Really dig that they got Jamie Oliver from Food Revolution TV show to team up on their meals. Love that show!

Room 508, Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Ayo Cinik your on a wallpaper at the Sandic Malven hotel in Stockholm Sweden! lol, I think you better look into it. I wonder what the culture minister would say about this? hmmm….Is this graffiti? is this wallpaper? hmmm….

6PM. Approaching location. Eeek! nervous, but mad excited. Ready to rock a presentation and share my life’s work & Younity up to this point…

Sodra Teatern
Sweden’s foremost International venue for Music, Theatre & Debate!

Ghetto-electronica from Angola, Mexican punk-salsa, political drag from New York, streetsmart flamenco, avantgarde rock from Tokyo, and Senegalese hip-hop.

Every corner in the world has its own aesthetic expression… it’s  picked up, transformed, influenced by and influentially transposed into a world that is both microscopic and awesome at once. In our micro cosmos, we are always searching for new life-models and alternative outlooks.

Södra Teatern holds up the mirror to the world we see around us; presenting music, performance, debates and festivals. We are particularly fascinated with the world’s big cities, where cultures mix and clash to form scintillating new subcultures. On our stages we strive to expound upon new angles in culture, and to open your minds eye to places you have never been before. Here, we want to question identity, mix up reality and have a ball while we are doing it. We want to be the exciting watering ground where everyday you can meet interesting people, discover contemporary artistic expression, and be inspired anew!

Södra Teatern is a part of Riksteatern. We present events all year round on our three stages; The Main Stage, Södra bar and Kägelbanan. In 2007 over 160,000 people visited our venue and saw over 500 productions from all around the world!

Jolie was up first. I was so bummed we didn’t get a chance to catch up:( Haven’t seen her since Berlin in 2008! Wasup Jolie!!! Tough timing homegirl I’ll hit you up through FB. Huggggz!

Wow I was SOooo honored:) Presentation went great!!! It’s a lot easier when you speak from the heart. People respect and get inspired by the honesty and risks one takes in order to follow their dreams. It’s a universal language when you show people you care and how you made the journey to discover who you want to be in this world.  The more you fight for it the more folks will support you because they understand how powerful it is to just do it! I thank everyone for their questions, and chance to understand where I came from and how I got to this point. I’m still thinking about many of the things you guys asked. Truly felt { Loved } THANK YOU!

Finally got a chance to meet and kick it with RosyOne! Love her work. Her style. Her attitude. Look out for her new book coming out soon. Congratulations Rosy!!!

Live painting by ROSYONE

Classic Steelo. PROPS hommie I’ll be in touch!

First night was awesome. Kicked ass on the presentation, the organizers welcomed the tooflowers with open arms, met Rosy, and ate some delicious fish and shrimp with potato…

YUM. This was just the beginning of them little food tickets they provided the artists with. Riksteatern knows how to treat their artist! { bowing with many many thanks }

DAY 2 RISE & SHINE!

Big day today. Woke up and saw the news was all over the event….

Big ups to Ceylan Holago  producer of Art of the Streets event. Woohooooo!!! Breaking barriers one at a time…

Tobias representing for graffiti and street art with the culture minister of Sweden! wow…I couldn’t understand a word they were saying but it felt intense. eeek!

Ok seriously I wanted to pinch myself every time I had them meal tickets and sat to eat at their beautiful terrace…

I was in heaven. Every meal I had was amazing…yum…

TOOFLY WORKSHOP: STYLE 2-3PM

Time to get to work. My Style workshop went pretty smooth. Everyone got hooked up with an unlimited supply of Art of the Streets special sketchbook and markers. There were about 15-25 members and their ages ranged from 10-30+. I was especially happy to see a graffiti dad and his two sons working on pieces together, sketching, and coloring.  That was awesome! Shout to that dad, who reminded me of how much better this all is when you have the support of your family. There is an amazing power and magic that happens when you can share this with your children. Those kids are gonna be amazing when they grow up. You can count on that:)

Zoned out…Art is theraputic…you can’t deny that.

A little technique secrets to go around and folks felt comfortable enough to rock their aerosol skillz. Practice makes perfect…

Shout out to Lotta rocking out on the free for all wallz. Not many women stepped up to rock, and I was especially feeling this drippy marker. Gonna get me one and try some pieces with it, shit is fresh!!! I love drips…drips drips drips…

LIVE GRAFF BY TOOFLY 4-5PM

Here we go…Got 2 hours to share my live classic steelo with the Swedish community…

ART OF THE STREETS – STOCKHOLM 2010 baby!

After a long day of painting, workshops, and panel discussions I headed back to hotel which was only like 5 minutes away. Had to get ready for the closing party!

Found a little bit of street art along the way…

Party time!

{ Drum roll please } If ya don’t know now it’s the time to find out.  The Secret Wars was in full effect for the first half of the kick off and closing party. These guys from what I think I understood are the original art battle creators of the live marker art performance. What a freak’n awesome performance this was. Amazing!!! and the best part is I got a chance to participate:) Yay!

This is how live art indoors at club events should be done. Been saying it for years in NY. You gotta go all out like this if you really want to do it right. Shout out to Secret Wars for developing this idea you guys are AWESOME!!!

Even though I’m personally not a fan of art battles, I needed to feel this one out. 90 minutes of music, marker lines, and some freestyle flows. ATOM & TOOFLY Get Free…

Shout out to our competitors. I was especially digging Olli’os steelo on them vines. I’m still not down for art battles but guess what…Atom and Toofly won the battle wooohooo!

Time for jamz. DJ’s were off the hook. Mad beats…

Sweden’s Hip Hop community…

What an awesome event. No redbull to hold me down just pure happiness and some club soda with Ice. Ahhhh….I feel the blessings. Thank you peeps! You are great people. You have love, and the warrior spirit. Together we can and will share the dopeness and inspire folks to bring back the love:) Big hugggz to all, and many many thanks for this beautiful experience!

Day 3: GAMLA STAN coming soon….

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