Since December 5 was the 20th anniversary of the once beloved hiphop platform, Mugshot, I wanted to recognized and big up my roots. The figures and stories behind the founding of Mugshot are legendary. As I said on social media, “This is where I got my start, Mugshot Magazine. I was a kid fresh out of college and the founders, Peter Feld, Amber Fosse, and Gida Snyder took me in. They turned every perceivable roadblock into a possibility. After taking …
Tag: graffiti
This past Saturday on December 6th, 2014 I had the opportunity to attend the local All Tribes San Francisco Chapter of the Universal Zulu Nation’s community event “Meeting Of The Minds.” It was a six hour session of sharing, learning, building with Hip-Hop heads, community organizers, activists talking about what’s going on in the community here in San Francisco, and making connection to the national, global social-political-economic conditions going on right now. When I came through the doors of the …
Hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, artist Zezao got into street art in the early 90’s when kids world wide were being indoctrinated into graffiti after watching flicks like Style Wars, and Wild Style. Zezao’s blue abstract monochromatic symbols, or “flops” as he calls them, could easily be viewed as alien scripture, deciphered only by it’s author. His work was birthed out the old code that whatever one come’s with, it better be original. No second coming toys allowed. Zezao dwells in the subterranean, literally. He’s …
Keith Haring (May 4th, 1958 – February 16th, 1990) was a graffiti artist, a pop artist, a social activist, a LGBT activist, and a HIV/AIDS activist. He was a contemporary of Jean-Michael Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Haring’s work is considered one of the most recognizable visuals of the 20th century. He was able to bridge the sensibilities of graffiti art, street art with pop art styles, all the while infusing his social-political messages into the images. His work has appeared all over mainstream …
San Francisco has a rich history of graffiti art, but over the last decade or so, due to gentrification, new tech businesses setting up shop in the city, and anti-graffiti enforcement by the city, nearly every thing has been buffed (cleaned up) save for the few legal murals. Places like Psycho City (Van Ness and 12th Street), Silver Terrace park, Crocker Amazon park, West Portal Muni tunnels are all long gone, only surviving in photos in private collections or online. …
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