Inaugural Harlem Arts Festival Organizers Want to Showcase Local Artists

Inaugural Harlem Arts Festival Organizers Want to Showcase Local Artists

February 6, 2012 4:22pm | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

Neal Ludevig, executive director of the Harlem Arts Festival at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park. (DNAinfo/Jeff Mays)

HARLEM — When Neal Ludevig promotes the Harlem Arts Festival he's planning for the summer in Marcus Garvey Park, the first response is usually: "I missed last year's."

It'll be the inaugural event — there was no last year — but Ludevig still sees the positive in the innocuous mix-ups.

"It shows that the desire is there and that this is needed," said Ludevig, executive director, standing in the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater, the festival's main event stage.

Planned for this June, Ludevig and fellow festival founders J.J. El-Far and Chelsea Goding want the festival to be a multi-discpilnary display of art that is relevant to Harlem.

So while dance, theater and comedy are taking place on the main stage, artist chats, organizers hope, will be going on elsewhere in the park. Visitors could also check out works for sale along the gallery walk entrance to the park or take their kids to some of the children's programming.

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