Graffiti Legend Trades Subway Cars for Bicycles To Aid...

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Hurricane Katrina Victims

Tuesday - November 29, 2005 by Sia Barnes

Puerto Rican graffiti pioneer Lee Quinones traded his palette for pedals this past October when he set out on a 1,500-mile bicycle trek from Brooklyn to Miami.

The 45-year-old Brooklynite embarked on his five-week journey in an effort to raise money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.

"This is a self-sustained project that came up in light of the aftermath of Katrina," Quinones told the New York Daily News. "I always think about children and their needs and their innocence."

Equipped with a custom-built mountain bike form Brooklyn Machine Works and the advice of some long-distance cyclists, Quinones bikes between 60 and 100 miles per day and is expected to arrive in Miami this Wednesday (November 30).

"I wanted to go into an uncomfortable setting just to get a glimpse of what [Katrina victims] have gone through," he said. "I wanted to feel that sense of struggle," he said.

His "Tour de Lee" has already collected $24,000 in donations and sponsorship towards the Boys & Girls Club which lost 12 facilities along the Gulf Coast in the storm's damage. The final total will be announced this week upon his arrival in Miami.

In related news, Quinones, the artist who got his start tagging subway cars has his artwork displayed on more traditional canvases in the Whitney Museum of American Art's permanent collection.
(sohh.com)