Street Dreams Cafe — Roadmap 1.0
As we embark on this journey with you all and grow the family together, we are excited to share pieces of the vision that we’ve been dreaming up for years, and break down how Street Dreams will develop in the metaverse.
Let’s build the future together.
In order to know where we are going, we need to remember where we came from. In the previous article we shared a little bit about our origin story. A bunch of city kids with cameras in their hands chasing immortality. 7 years, 15 bi-annual magazine issues, 50+ galleries around the world, and millions of people reached later, we are still the same kids chasing the same dreams, only bigger and more hi-def.
How Did We Get Here
In early 2021, NFTs swept into our world like a tidal wave and our eyes were open into the windows of the metaverse. Through folks like JN Silva (shout out to Animus) and Dave Krugman, both early Street Dreams founding members and pioneering NFT artists, our curious interest turned into intense obsession in a matter of weeks.
Back in March, we partnered with Pedro Vazquez aka Aimos to release our first photo project in the NFT space with his world-famous portrait of the late rapper XXXtentacion, the last portrait of him posted on his page before his murder. This image holds the record for most likes and comments of a photo of a person on Instagram to date- 26M likes and 10M comments at the time of the publication of this article. We launched the #NowCrediting movement with Aimos, as an effort to get artists their proper credit and for him to share the mental impact from his harrowing experience with this image. The 1-of-1 photo sold for $125,000, a record for a single photo portrait NFT at the time, and we were able to use proceeds from the sale to donate to The National Domestic Violence Hotline and Half The Story, an organization promoting digital wellbeing.
This project signaled the birth of Street Dreams Cafe, a web3 version of Street Dreams that could bridge the gap between the real world and the metaverse, and onboard millions of underprivileged and underrepresented people into crypto along the way. Shortly after this, we connected with the Solana Foundation via Stephen Hess and Austin Federa, and instantly felt a kinship with the team. They told us about Metaplex and its founding principles, we told them about Street Dreams Cafe and our vision, and we soon decided to partner and make history.
Then we started to build. We spent the summer creating our biggest gallery to date at The Seaport in NYC, a 3-month art and culture residency called Celebrating The Wins and decided to bring the success of this IRL experience into the metaverse.
The genesis for Celebrating The Wins on Street Dreams Cafe comes from something we’ve been mulling over for years, way before the NFT revolution of the past few months. What if we could make trading cards for creatives? What would that look like? Inspired by sports cards like Topps and NBA Hoops as well as other collectibles like Marvel cards, Pokémon cards, and even Magic cards, we fantasized about creating our version of this, our own MCU, the Street Dreams Universe.
With this project, we are creating digital collectible packs for the creative community, trading cards for photography if you will- something that has never been done before. At least not in the way we envision it. As for everything we’ve ever done, this is about community, inclusivity, and discoverability. You can expect the same authentic voice that we have cultivated since the very beginning, and the same curation and storytelling seen throughout the first fifteen issues of the magazine.
This first collection on November 5th is the gateway to all things Street Dreams in the metaverse, the first piece of the puzzle which will connect to everything else- merch, prints, events, music, and much much more. With that in mind, we’d like to give you a glimpse into our roadmap.
Our Roadmap
Chapter 1 — The Community
The Street Dreams Community is a big family of creatives and art lovers that extends throughout the world. Through our events, galleries, magazines, and social platforms, we’ve nurtured this community for years. Embracing Web3 and creating a more dynamic and community-driven Street Dreams is paramount to our future. The long term goal for Street Dreams Cafe is to follow a path of progressive decentralization and for the global Street Dreams community to have the opportunity to help us shape this future.
The first step on this journey was the launch of our new Street Dreams Cafe Discord this month. This will be the heart and the hub of SDC’s online community. Come join us HERE
In our Discord you will find:
- The Group Chat and Introductions page where the community can come together, get connected, and chop it up about everything and nothing.
- A channel introducing Celebrating The Wins and our upcoming collections.
- A place to share art and talk about approach and technique.
- A place to vote on upcoming drops and features.
- IRL events posting channel where the community can share exciting things they’re doing or going to.
Soon, we will add:
- More community votes so that our vision is designed with the help of the community.
- Specialist Speaker Sessions.
- Street Dreams Founding members
- Our partners- Metaplex, Audius, and more.
- NFT collectors and builders
- The Legal Corner- expert legal advice to help you navigate the space.
- Channels dedicated to education and advice for navigating the space as a creative.
- Discounts for partner products and events.
- Opportunities to be part of our future group shows and galleries.
All of the programming on our Discord will run alongside our regular Twitter Spaces where we’ll keep an open and inclusive environment for discourse, for guest speakers, and for our community to learn and level up together. Big WAGMI energy, follow HERE.
The Return of Events:
We outsiiiiiiiide. In 2021, we returned from a year of isolation to a full summer program of events at South Street Seaport.
We opened a Flea Market for local designers, we organized an NFT Day to educate the community about Web3, we threw a block party under the banner of Street Dreams Radio, and we curated an outdoor gallery featuring 35 photographers that was free for the public and became the genesis for our first Street Dreams Cafe collection.
In June, we went to Bitcoin Miami and threw the party of the week with Metaplex and some help from our friends Silent Addy and Just Dimy. On November 9th, we’ll be doing the same at Solana’s first annual conference Breakpoint in Lisbon.
In 2022 and beyond, we’ll be doing more of these events around the world, not just parties but also gallery shows, workshops, photo walks, and impromptu meet ups. These will happen in NYC, our HQ, but also Vancouver, LA, Mexico City, London, Tokyo, and wherever the community and the opportunities take us.
In partnership with our friends at A Better Life Foundation we will be continuing our social work and do our part to help secure upward mobility for those living in the margins. Keep an eye out on this as we are cooking up something really special together this coming year.
Chapter 2 — Art & Commerce
Celebrating The Wins — Packs:
This is the first collection for Street Dreams in the NFT space, a new paradigm for photography, collectibles, and artist discovery.
For this first drop, inclusivity and accessibility were paramount. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to join in on the fun and for a ton of you to hopefully get your first NFT.
Creating trading cards for photography was always a fantasy for us, and that fantasy is coming to life on November 5th. As you purchase packs and collect your cards, we will reveal Easter eggs and different sets and combos that will unlock additional layers to the collection and benefits of Street Dreams Cafe. This is our collective dive into the Metaverse.
Future Collections:
Following the Celebrating the Wins collection, we will release additional collections in the subsequent months. Cafe Creators including Steve Sweatpants, Patrick O’keefe, Joseph Rodriguez already have works in the clip that will be released via Street Dreams Cafe.
We will also do curated collections and more group collections similar to CTW, giving the community opportunities to vote on the next drop and helping us shape the future of our curatorial schedule.
Apparel / Lifestyle:
Street Dreams has been selling out merchandise at our pop ups for close to 5 years now. Tees, hoodies, totes, hats, and more alongside our physical magazines.
This year, we partnered with Staple for a Steve Sweatpants collection and on November 19th we will be releasing a full Fall line with Daily Paper.
Soon, these items will be accessible through our Metaplex SDC store front and we will make some pieces exclusive to our Discord members.
Street Dreams Radio:
As of November 2021, Street Dreams Radio is officially coming to Audius- the first blockchain powered streaming service. Our community and our universe will have a constant soundtrack to our new adventures in the Metaverse.
Street Dreams Radio will deliver weekly hour-long DJ mixes and music shows as well as original EPs, mixtapes, and special projects once a quarter.
Eventually, some of the content on Street Dreams Radio will be token-gated for members only as we deliver special mixes and music to our Cafe members.
Chapter 3 — Street Dreams Cafe
In its next iteration, Street Dreams Cafe will open in New York City as a real brick and mortar location for us to get together, showcase art, discuss ideas, and build the future with a cup of coffee in hand.
On the road to this grand opening, we will bring the concept to different cities and events/conferences as pop ups to test the concept and spread the vibes globally.
After NYC, we hope to open Cafes around the world. Tokyo and Mexico City are particularly exciting for us. Everything we are building digitally and with every chapter outlined in this vision will congregate in the Cafes with IRL experiences and real human connections.
Chapter 4 — Sky Was Never The Limit, We Only Aim Higher
This is the part of the map we are still drawing, and we hope to do this with each and everyone of you.
There are many things we are dreaming up at the moment.
They’re not promises or commitments. Just dreams and visions.
Everything starts with a dream, and every dream starts at street level.
So here we are putting our intentions in writing and hoping that years from now, we can all look back at this with pride, laughter, joy, and dignity.
Let’s ride.
