Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) and DUMBO Improvement District (Dumbo) today announced that Brooklyn-based social enterprise and creative house Brooklyn Brujeria is presenting the Shine Shrine Intention Walk at sites throughout Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn from August 19 to September 18. To activate the first Shine Shrine, Brooklyn Brujeria is hosting Rumba de la Musa and a silent disco with Sabine Blaizin and others on August 19, 6pm at the Pearl Street Triangle in Dumbo.
Curated by performance artist Chiquita Brujita and bearing her geometric artwork, the Shine Shrine Intention Walk is one of the projects funded through the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund, under New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Part of the State’s approach to create vibrant neighborhoods and boost local economies, Downtown Revitalization Initiative investments are a crucial part of the State’s strategy to revitalize communities.
The Shine Shrine Intention Walk will place non-secular altars, or shrines, marked by colorful flags in key spots throughout Brooklyn, starting with Pearl Street. Additional sites include P.S. 307, Vinegar Hill Community Garden, and Albee Square Plaza. Together, they will create a walkable route connecting diverse Brooklyn neighborhoods through public altars that celebrate strength and beauty. Each installation features hand silk-screened flags that seek to lift the spirits of New Yorkers during this period of mourning, transformation, and recovery. Brooklyn Brujeria will activate each altar with multi-disciplinary performance events of music, dance, magic, tarot, and apothecary, creating experiences that inspire hope while also serving as a reminder of all we have overcome.
“Support from the Downtown Brooklyn Placemaking Fund will provide a transformative opportunity for Brooklyn Brujeria to engage a diverse coalition of creatives in lending their talents to spread light, magic, and art through the creation of the Shine Shrine Intention Walk,” explains Chiquita Brujita. “By visiting multiple sites, the hope is for visitors to experience familiar spaces in an unfamiliar way.”
“A large part of what makes Downtown Brooklyn so vibrant and resilient is its diverse community and we hope Brooklynites from all walks of life see this reflected in the Shine Shrine Intention Walk,” said Regina Myer, President of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. “These vibrant and engaging activations at key Downtown sites is the latest iteration of the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund, which aims to renew a critical sense of hope for our neighborhood while bringing people together to celebrate art, music, culture and expression.”
“This kind of art and performance has the power to really move the body and soul,” adds Alexandria Sica, Executive Director of the DUMBO Improvement District. “We are so pleased to bring such intentions to our community.”
Connected through art and collective healing and rooted in the beauty and traditions of the African Diaspora, the Shine Shrine Intention Walk will encourage New Yorkers to safely gather at each activation and see their neighborhoods through a new lens. With four activation events centered around visual interpretations of freedom, resilience, magic and joy, the community is invited to participate in silent disco, drumming, poetry, sound bath and apothecary, tarot readings, a vintage market and more, or walk the pathway connecting each shrine at their convenience through September 18.
The Shine Shrine Intention Walk is one of twelve new public art and performance projects and five accessibility upgrades to cultural venues that are taking place throughout the greater Downtown Brooklyn area as part of the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund led by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) and DUMBO Improvement District (Dumbo). The fund was one of the projects selected as part of New York State’s $10 million Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), which seeks to connect and transform downtown neighborhoods into vibrant communities.
