By Alex Paramo

Each year the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta attracts hundreds of thousands of folks from all over the world! Balloon enthusiasts fill the streets of this beautiful city, while hot-air balloons add more colors to the already magnificent color palette of it’s mesmerizing sky! Year after year the Balloon Fiesta seems more breathtaking than the previous and a visit to Albuquerque is not complete without a visit to the International Balloon Fiesta Museum/Park. Every year Albuquerque seems more vibrant, with an increasing number of attractions and must-experience venues!

The Heart of the City

Located in beautiful Barelas, the Rail Yards Market is part of that ever-expanding list of must-experience venues but it is not easily classifiable. It is much more than a market but rather a meeting place, where a vortex of sights, sounds, aromas and tastes congregate, every Sunday from 9am to 3pm! Artists of all mediums converge with educators and a dedicated community of volunteers to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience! It is truly a world-class event where patrons can shop from local growers, listen to amazing music, partake in mindful stretching, learn from dedicated educators, and be exposed to cutting-edge art while being exposed to ideas regarding sustainability and a reintroduction to traditional ways of living.

Education through the Arts

At the Pop Up Arts Zone we have an Interactive installation by  Rosalie M. López “¿No estoy yo aquí, Am I not here? Ms. López is a Chicana conceptual artist whose work revolves around reforming religious and cultural iconography to express ambivalences in contemporary culture. Her work often discusses the duality of dysfunctional social cycles juxtaposed with positive expressions of cultural identity and communal strength. She primarily uses printmaking, installation, and the altar/ofrenda to relay experiences of survival, loss, and hope. She is currently working with students of Working Classroom to create contemporary installation altars dedicated to this lost to preventable deaths. The work will be displayed in an exhibition November 2 at 100 Gold Ave. SW (corner of 1st and Gold).

The Children’s Zone features Africana Leadership Opportunity Team (ALOT), LLC which provides innovative educational solutions for the community, in higher education, and for New Mexico’s children through Africana Cultural Arts. Children will have the opportunity to create art while exploring Africana history and culture, and using interesting new tools. ALOT will also provide art made by Third World Outliers, an artist collective within ALOT, to support the no cost educational programming. ALOT creates well-developed and content rich project-based curriculum that meets the New Mexico State Standards, as well as exceeds the benchmarks set by the New Common Core Initiative and recommendations by the Arts Education Partnership and the National Collation for Core Arts Standards. Through innovative programming, ALOT has served over 200 youth and over 150 UNM Students just this year through the ALOT Summer School for Educational Transformation (ASSET), the ALOT Cultural Arts Program at APS, and art seminars across the city. ALOT is comprised of certified teachers, UNM Faculty, students, and community members who believe that art, learning, and teaching are the most radical of acts.

The Sustainability Zone will be promoting the concept of sustainability through the SUVA school hunger program. Donnine Canamar will be talking about student hunger and why as a system, we need to correct this imbalance. She will be handing out literature about the program as well as info about where people can donate.

On our Stages

We have many entertainers schedule for this Sunday including (complete schedule):

• Morning Movement with Melanie on the Community Stage
• Poetry
• The Whiskey Priest

Specials for Balloon Fiesta Patrons

We welcome you at the Rail Yards Market after your balloon experience with great specials courtesy of our amazing vendors, and growers! We are open from 9am to 3pm every Sunday through November 2. Visit the Rail Yards Market and you will be able to tell your friends that you had a unique Albuquerque experience! See You Sunday!

Alex Paramo

Alex Paramo is an Author and Co-Founder of Community Publishing. Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities.

We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market.#JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org