What are you doing with your chilly NYC Saturday? Lounging on the couch? Think again, kids – we’re supporting a post-Katrina grassroots art campaign at IRT with a  festival right now and a party tonight.

The details:

SLIGHTLYaskew hosts NoLA Rising Festival at IRT | 154 Christopher St. #3B

Main Exhibition: thru Nov 26 | Benefit: TODAY till 9 pm | Party: TONIGHT 9-4 am

The story:

Professors from Berkeley and Harvard have named Michael “Rex” Dingler founder of the largest grassroot movement in the contemporary art scene in the American South. Dingler and his post-Katrina art campaign, NoLA Rising, have spread art and hope to over 100 cities around the world. From November 21st through the 26th, New York-based art collective SLIGHTLYaskew will host NoLA Rising’s New York City debut in the NoLA Rising Festival.

The NoLA Rising Festival will celebrate the role public art has played in rebuilding and healing post-Katrina New Orleans. The main feature of the festival is the exhibit, A Tag of Two Cities. A multi-media art installation, A Tag of Two Cities showcases a collection of street art, murals and graffiti created by NoLA Rising in collaboration with celebrated Brooklyn street artists El Celso, Endless Love Crew, Robots Will Kill, and infinity. In the community based spirit of NoLA Rising, SLIGHLTYaskew hosted several paint parties in New York city parks, where locals from all five boroughs created signs of hope. These paintings will be displayed in the exhibit and will then be given to New Orleans city residents and public schools.

The festival includes a 24-hour art happening on Saturday November 22nd. Events and performances include live music by Lauren Pritchard (Spring Awakening, original cast) and James Subudhi, and funk reggae band Suspicious Brown and an all night dance party with DJs cassettenova, Vietcong Disco and DJ Theo Action Lorraine. Proceeds from the benefit will go to NoLA Rising and Young Audiences, an organization that provides art supplies and funds teacher salaries in public schools that have gone without art classes since Katrina. All participants in the festival hope to promote public art as a vital aspect of healthy communities, to encourage support for art therapy programs and to challenge traditional perspectives on street art.