Urban Art Fest brings free, youth-organized celebration of hip-hop culture to Riverfront Park

When Alex Buron discovered Urban Art Fest as a high school student, it felt like coming home. The youth-organized event at the time was small enough to fit under a picnic shelter at Riverfront Park — just a few canvases of graffiti art and someone rapping. “It just looked like a family reunion,” Buron recalled. There, he found teens from across Salem who were interested in beatboxing, hip-hop and other urban arts that rarely received much airplay in classrooms. “They were dressed like you. They listened to the same artists as you, they know the ongoing history,” he said. In the days before Spotify, the event was a forum to swap music and share artists. Buron is now an outreach coordinator for Latinos Unidos Siempre, which is bringing back the event — renamed the People’s Urban Art Fest — for its 10th year this Saturday, Aug. 31, at Riverfront Park from 1-8 p.m. It’s the first Urban Art Fest held since the Covid pandemic. The event is free and intended to empower working-class and marginalized Salem youth and families to become civically engaged and inspire them by featuring artists and performers from their communities.  Buron said a goal is to...