First skateboarding festival in the dominican republic

Taking place in the capital city of Santo Domingo from February 23 - February 25, 2023, HHF Director of Creative Careers, Kava Vasquez, went to the Dominican Republic to co-organize + co-host the country's first ever skateboarding and arts festival. The goal of the festival was to showcase the past, present, and future of Dominican skateboarding.

The festival began on Thursday 2/23/2023 with "Caras Del Skate", a photography exhibition by Ricardo Blandino featuring portraits and media documenting the past 20 years of skateboarding in DR at ModaFoca Gallery from 7-11pm. Several portraits in the exhibition are of NYC-based Dominican skaters such as Carlo Carrezzano, Mario Cairo, and Luis Torrentino who for over a decade have maintained strong relationships with skaters on the island and helped establish the Dominican Republic's presence in skateboarding globally.

On Friday 2/24, Bronx Girls Skate sponsored a film screening of Puerto Rican skate short "See Ya L8R" at EatWise RD 7-11pm. This film - which takes place between Washington Heights, NYC and San Juan, Puerto Rico - shares the story of a Nyuorican skater named Julia who reconnects with her homeland of Puerto Rico by joining a local queer and femme skate crew. Although HHF/BXGS hosted 2 of See Ya L8R's first international screenings in July 2022, this will be the first screening in a fellow Caribbean nation. In addition, this film lends important visibility to women and queer skaters in the Latin Caribbean as well as in the Puerto Rican diaspora in NYC - representation that's virtually non-existent in mainstream media both in and outside of skateboarding.

On Saturday 2/25, local Dominican skate groups and NYC-based skaters and organizations hosted a skate pop-up at Plaza Simon Bolivar 1-5pm. There was a community skate jam (open to all ages and genders) and product giveaways.