Category: Art
Cast from Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020, 154 min.). (Photo: © David C. Lee) Spike Lee is our generation’s Martin Scorsese, making films about New York stories that have largely gone untold in Hollywood. From Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X to 4 Little Girls and Da 5 Bloods, Lee’s gift for filmmaking […]
“Wild Style, woo-woo!!” That’s how subway graffiti pioneer and lovable lunatic TRACY 168 would announce himself to me—and everyone else—when he’d visit. He used to stop into the gallery I used to run in the early 2000’s, to talk shit about the scene and and bless me with quickly drawn canvasses and hit the in-house […]
📷: © Guzman As the 1960s came to a close, the empire struck back crushing the radical movements of the counterculture. Using both legal and illegal means, the United States government systematically dismantled those on the frontlines of the fight for human rights by infiltrating organizations, jailing revolutionaries, assassinating leaders, and denying basic public services […]
Disingenuous broadcaster Fox News frequently traffics in lies, so no one’s really all that surprised when they gloss over critical details, but even by their shitty standards, the network couldn’t have gotten a simple story about an artist, a mural, and Donald Trump’s mug shot any wronger. After being mocked by the internet for fawning […]
📷: Eric B & Rakim, NYC (1987) ©Janette Beckman In 1982, British photographer Janette Beckman landed in New York with plans to spend Christmas with a friend but was quickly entranced by the city’s singular mix of creativity, rebellion, and decadence. After a decade of “benign neglect” promulgated by the Nixon White House, New York […]
Mike Maldonado, Iowa, 1998; from Ed Templeton: Wires Crossed (Aperture, 2023). © 2023 Ed Templeton The year was 1990 and SoCal skater Ed Templeton went pro, ushering in a new era of sport, art, and business that could only emerge from the underground. Just 18 years old, Templeton stood at the vanguard, winning the first […]
All photos © Eddie Otchere Back in 1994, word on the street was out: Wu-Tang Clan had landed in London for a concert at the Kentish Town Forum. Deeply immersed in the city’s underground music scene, Vauxhall native Eddie Otchere knew his moment had arrived. Then 20, the young photographer made a few calls and […]
Barreto’s on Stanton Street (1987) | 📷: Tria Giovan On May 28, 1984, New York Magazine announced the death knell of the Lower East Side (LES) with a cover story declaiming the arrival of gentrification. “There Goes the Neighborhood,” the weekly warned, above a photograph of white hipsters in front of a graffiti-covered wall that’s […]
(Jamel Shabazz: Albums | Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation) As a young boy growing up in Red Hook during the 1960s, photographer Jamel Shabazz lived in a mythic city that has long since disappeared but for the people, photographs, and stories that preserve a bygone era. His family lived in one of the newest Brooklyn housing […]
Over a month’s time, graffiti-trained, NYC artist VEW painted nearly two dozen pieces in the historic Park Avenue Tunnel. The thoroughfare has been shut to traffic for a few years now, with the roadway undergoing renovations by the DOT. This closure created the perfect opportunity for VEW (and other writers) to get up, in broad […]
