Saturday, December 31, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Dumbfoundead - Murals
"This is an ode to all the past OGs and legends notorious in our neighborhoods,” explains Dumbfoundead to Noisey. “As a kid, I used to walk past these large murals and I always stopped to pay my respects as if they were actual memorials. I hoped that one day I’d also be immortalized on the walls of our liquor stores and bodegas.”
read here
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Exile
"Inside Azraq Refugee camp there is a space for children who arrive without their parents. All the stories are different. Some children lost their parents in the war, others lost them in transit across the border and some have parents than can not or no longer wish to care for them. The kids stay in a specific space that is an orphanage of sorts. They are not permitted to leave this space until they are either 18 or they are reunified with their parents. The space is in the desert camp with stark white pre-fabricated containers. Together with Fintan Magee, Jordanian artist Suhaib Attar and the kids, they painted their space. AptArt covered every bit of white space with colour."
read the rest here
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Monday, November 21, 2016
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Monday, September 5, 2016
Friday, August 26, 2016
Thursday, August 25, 2016
The Game - Sauce
“I’m calling out every rap nigga, every hip hop website or magazine… every media publication, urban radio station,” The Game said. “People out here starving, dying everyday & we got the platforms to have an immediate impact that can increase change at a faster rate than the people who stood up in our past. No more just posting a hashtag or a photo of injustice saying we gotta change… From today on out, I’m holding everybody with my platform & above or under accountable for actions that need to be taken by all of us to better this world.”
Read More: The Game Is as Brazen as Ever on 'Sauce' With DJ Khaled - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/rap-music/new-music/2016/08/the-game-the-sauce-dj-khaled/?trackback=tsmclip
Read More: The Game Is as Brazen as Ever on 'Sauce' With DJ Khaled - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/rap-music/new-music/2016/08/the-game-the-sauce-dj-khaled/?trackback=tsmclip
Monday, August 22, 2016
Thursday, August 11, 2016
"Tag Clouds"
“Tag Clouds principle is to replace the all-over of graffiti calligraphy by readable translations like the clouds of keywords which can be found on the Internet,” Tremblin describes his project. “It shows the analogy between a physical tag and virtual tag, both in the form (tagged walls compositions look the same as tag clouds), and in substance (like keywords which are markers of net surfing, graffiti are markers of urban drifting)."
http://www.demilked.com/painting-over-graffiti-removing-tags-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/
http://www.demilked.com/painting-over-graffiti-removing-tags-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/
Monday, August 8, 2016
Brazilian Hip Hop; "Turn Down for What"
"In Brazil noise has also gained local nuances around struggle. For
those interested in the legacy of anti-government protest, both from the
left and right, in the Southern Cone, there has been a resurgence of
the panelaço
(the piercing, incessant battering of the frying pan) in the last two
years in urban Brazil with particular vigor over the past weeks. This
noise marks a specific articulation; it is superficial to the long
history and deep stigma that barulho (noise) carries in Brazil. In a recent post, São Paulo sarau (open microphone events) organizations issued a manifesto called #PeriferiasContraOGolpe,
loosely translated as “The Periphery against the Coup,” in which they
use noise as an existential position of interlocution rather than a
simple sign of opposition.
We the residents of the periphery, who never slept as the so-called giant slept, are here to send a noisy, resonant salve to the fascists: we are against the coup d’état currently in motion, one that would affect us directly!
...
Sérgio Vaz, a leading sarau organizer, writes in his poem “A Mutt of Literature”:
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2016/08/03/turn-down-for-what/
We the residents of the periphery, who never slept as the so-called giant slept, are here to send a noisy, resonant salve to the fascists: we are against the coup d’état currently in motion, one that would affect us directly!
...
Sérgio Vaz, a leading sarau organizer, writes in his poem “A Mutt of Literature”:
You say you don’t understand
This noise that comes from streets
Don’t understand this voice
That walks with rock in hand
In search of justice, if not revenge…
We are the ones who scream,
Those without education, hospitals, w/o security
We are the orphans of the fatherland
The bastard children of the nation…
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2016/08/03/turn-down-for-what/
Hip Hop and James Baldwin
"The critical response to this project came with nothing but praise and many classified it as a proto-Hip Hop album due to the way Baldwin’s verses rode the beat. Although the validity of that statement is up for debate, the evidence is there and influence on Hip Hop can be felt. Artists like Nas, Most Def and Talib Kweli have by name stated Baldwin’s influence on their writing and career. Today, as Hip Hop expands, more artists are leaning towards jazz and funk inspired instrumentation. Most recently, Kendrick Lamar has pushed the envelope for poetic jazz rap with his To Pimp a Butterfly and untitled.unmastered albums, once again bringing the connection between jazz, poetry and Hip Hop to the forefront of pop culture."
http://thesource.com/2016/08/02/celebrating-the-life-of-james-baldwin-hip-hops-unsung-innovator/
bringing Mexican and US rappers together
Independent MC Fat Tony is hoping culture is more
powerful then the borders that separate them. Using his influence, Tony
is bringing American rappers to Mexico City, Mexico every month with his
“Function” series.
This week will be the second installment of the series in Mexico’s capital at the club Das Racist. Mexico’s Yoga Fire and California vocalist Cult Days will support the headlining artist Kool A.D.
Tony told Remezcla, a Latin news site: “Both cultures influence each other. It’s only right that these artists have a space to meet and share ideas instead of admiring each other from afar.” Tony used his opportunity to work a country that closely borders his hometown of Houston as a way to build a cultural bridge between the two countries.
He discovered Mexico City’s enthusiasm for Hip Hop in 2015 at Festival NRMAL, when he was booked to perform. He was later invited back a second time for the Hip Hop League DF after-party for Material Art Fair.
“Function is all about bridging the gap between two neighboring countries who should mingle more often,” says Tony. “Especially in each other’s cultural inventions and appreciations.
http://thesource.com/2016/07/29/houstons-fat-tony-brings-mexican-and-american-rappers-together/
This week will be the second installment of the series in Mexico’s capital at the club Das Racist. Mexico’s Yoga Fire and California vocalist Cult Days will support the headlining artist Kool A.D.
Tony told Remezcla, a Latin news site: “Both cultures influence each other. It’s only right that these artists have a space to meet and share ideas instead of admiring each other from afar.” Tony used his opportunity to work a country that closely borders his hometown of Houston as a way to build a cultural bridge between the two countries.
He discovered Mexico City’s enthusiasm for Hip Hop in 2015 at Festival NRMAL, when he was booked to perform. He was later invited back a second time for the Hip Hop League DF after-party for Material Art Fair.
“Function is all about bridging the gap between two neighboring countries who should mingle more often,” says Tony. “Especially in each other’s cultural inventions and appreciations.
http://thesource.com/2016/07/29/houstons-fat-tony-brings-mexican-and-american-rappers-together/
Lushsux covers Bikini Clinton in Burqa
Melbourne graffiti artist sprays burqa over provocative Hillary Clinton muralhttps://t.co/p1uH0cBNTc pic.twitter.com/tXSddz8nld— CNN Wire (@CNNWire) August 2, 2016
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/02/asia/australia-clinton-mural-artist-burqa/index.html
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Hip Hop in response to gang violence
"Project Blowed was also more than just a lyrical training ground. It was a sanctuary for young men growing up in the shadows of Crips and Bloods gang violence. Big Flossy had grown up affiliated with the Rollin’ 40s. As a young man, he got jumped into the gang and identified as a gang member. But things changed once he got serious about hip hop. Once, while reflecting on his life, he said: ‘I was young and dumb back then. Just on some stupid shit. These days, I try to keep it moving – try to do something positive because this music is everything.’"
read here
read here
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Medieval Graffiti
"Many of the markings discovered in medieval churches are all but identical. A survey of a church in northern England will reveal the same graffiti motifs and markings as those found in a church on the English South Coast. Even more remarkably, the same medieval markings recorded in most English churches are in churches across the whole of western Europe. Essentially, everywhere the medieval Christian church thrived, medieval Europeans inscribed their places of worship with the same graffiti marks. Known as ‘ritual protection marks’, medieval people believed that these symbols warded off evil influences. Today they are more commonly called ‘witch marks’.
...
Why are there no angels? The reason is quite simple. The graffiti on the walls shows only what those who made it thought was real and immediate. Angels were heavenly beings. They littered the pages of the Bible, but could not be expected to play a part in the lives of the people in the world. Demons, on the other hand, were very real indeed. It was demons who were responsible for any sudden illness or unexplained death. Demons brought down a blight upon the harvest crops. Demons unbalanced the mind of the simpleton, and brought on the terrifying storms that could lay waste a whole year’s crop in a single afternoon. Demons were real and to be feared. This fear drove medieval people to carve their counter-curses into the walls of the parish church."
read full article here
Underground White Rappers' Hegemonic Masculinity and Racial Evasion
By: Matthew Oware
Abstract:
Employing the concept of racial evasion—a derivation of Bonilla-Silva’s colorblind ideology theory—the author analyzes 237 songs of underground white and nonwhite rappers from 2006 to 2010. Performing a content analysis on their lyrics, the author finds that white artists make fewer references to racially political and social themes (e.g., racial profiling, police brutality, racist policies) than nonwhite artists—what the author terms racial evasion. The author speculates that white rappers, understanding that they operate in a specifically racialized black and brown cultural art form, deemphasize or mask their racial identity in their lyrics. This tactic is achieved through lyrically referencing hypermasculine tropes such as violence, misogyny, and homophobia to a greater degree than nonwhite artists. This work demonstrates the strategic use of hypermasculine discourse as a rhetorical strategy to achieve “hip hop authenticity” by minimizing or evading racial discourse within this popular cultural form. Furthermore, the author illustrates how the maintenance and manifestation of white male privilege operates via the process of deracialization as a form of meaning making. Ultimately, this work elaborates on the debate of “authenticity” within hip hop studies, providing a window into white racial identity construction within popular culture.
Full article here
Abstract:
Employing the concept of racial evasion—a derivation of Bonilla-Silva’s colorblind ideology theory—the author analyzes 237 songs of underground white and nonwhite rappers from 2006 to 2010. Performing a content analysis on their lyrics, the author finds that white artists make fewer references to racially political and social themes (e.g., racial profiling, police brutality, racist policies) than nonwhite artists—what the author terms racial evasion. The author speculates that white rappers, understanding that they operate in a specifically racialized black and brown cultural art form, deemphasize or mask their racial identity in their lyrics. This tactic is achieved through lyrically referencing hypermasculine tropes such as violence, misogyny, and homophobia to a greater degree than nonwhite artists. This work demonstrates the strategic use of hypermasculine discourse as a rhetorical strategy to achieve “hip hop authenticity” by minimizing or evading racial discourse within this popular cultural form. Furthermore, the author illustrates how the maintenance and manifestation of white male privilege operates via the process of deracialization as a form of meaning making. Ultimately, this work elaborates on the debate of “authenticity” within hip hop studies, providing a window into white racial identity construction within popular culture.
Full article here
Graffiti and Political Possibility in Athens, Greece
By: Othon Alexandrakis
Abstract:
Based on field research in Athens, Greece, this essay considers graffiti as a mode of political response to the material and symbolic violences of neoliberal governmentality. In 2010, the Greek state declared sovereign debt crisis and began to implement an aggressive austerity program in exchange for economic aid from a troika of international lenders. This resulted in the dismantling of public services, tax increases, salary and pension reductions, layoffs, and, generally, the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes. In this work I consider a crew of three young graffiti writers, both before and during the years of the crisis, as they came to realize a fear of becoming integrated into an economized social mainstream and responded by creating street art intended to bolster critical reasoning among Athenians. I argue that fear of abjection and the experience of being at the social margins served as a stimulus of critical agency, and that the crew’s intervention can be considered indirect activism: a mode of resistance whose critical agents attempt to bring about their ambitions and visions by activating other groups to undertake resistance of their own. I show how my interlocutors made political possibility by creating art that lessened the capacity of neoliberal governmentality to manufacture consent, thereby contributing to a thriving ecology of resistance action in Athens.
Read full article here
Abstract:
Based on field research in Athens, Greece, this essay considers graffiti as a mode of political response to the material and symbolic violences of neoliberal governmentality. In 2010, the Greek state declared sovereign debt crisis and began to implement an aggressive austerity program in exchange for economic aid from a troika of international lenders. This resulted in the dismantling of public services, tax increases, salary and pension reductions, layoffs, and, generally, the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes. In this work I consider a crew of three young graffiti writers, both before and during the years of the crisis, as they came to realize a fear of becoming integrated into an economized social mainstream and responded by creating street art intended to bolster critical reasoning among Athenians. I argue that fear of abjection and the experience of being at the social margins served as a stimulus of critical agency, and that the crew’s intervention can be considered indirect activism: a mode of resistance whose critical agents attempt to bring about their ambitions and visions by activating other groups to undertake resistance of their own. I show how my interlocutors made political possibility by creating art that lessened the capacity of neoliberal governmentality to manufacture consent, thereby contributing to a thriving ecology of resistance action in Athens.
Read full article here
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
Joe Budden Freedom Freestyle
Budden:
"I was told there was once a world where slaves communicated with each other via music, and tho I wasn’t present for that, the Hip Hop I fell in love with always encouraged me to do the same (Thank you Public Enemy)…. Let this act as an unfortunate reminder that times change and they don’t. #BlackLivesMatter #YallLivesMatter #OurLivesMatter … I’m afraid to wonder what happens when we as a ppl decide to stop saying it. Some deem us threatening now by sheer design. We are not. We are loving, passionate, cultured and proud, even during unrest. However, with every life viciously and maliciously taken by costumed evil, we grow more and more afraid. What will occur when too many of us are afraid? #IfYouDontValueMyLifeEYEWill #GodHelpUsAll #TheMissionIsGreat"
source
"I was told there was once a world where slaves communicated with each other via music, and tho I wasn’t present for that, the Hip Hop I fell in love with always encouraged me to do the same (Thank you Public Enemy)…. Let this act as an unfortunate reminder that times change and they don’t. #BlackLivesMatter #YallLivesMatter #OurLivesMatter … I’m afraid to wonder what happens when we as a ppl decide to stop saying it. Some deem us threatening now by sheer design. We are not. We are loving, passionate, cultured and proud, even during unrest. However, with every life viciously and maliciously taken by costumed evil, we grow more and more afraid. What will occur when too many of us are afraid? #IfYouDontValueMyLifeEYEWill #GodHelpUsAll #TheMissionIsGreat"
source
Jay-Z makes playlist: songs for survival
1. Goodie Mob – “Free”
2. Curtis Mayfield – “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue”
3. Nina Simone – “Four Women”
4. Stevie Wonder – “Village Ghetto Land”
5. Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”
6. Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
7. Fela Kuti – “Zombie”
8. Bob Marley and The Wailers – “War”
9. James Brown – “Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud”
10. Stevie Wonder – “Love’s In Need Of Love Today”
11. The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child”
12. Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
13. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Redemption Song
14. Kanye West – “Ultralight Beam”
15. Common – “Forever Begins”
16. Mos Def – “UMI Says”
17. Nina Simone – “Feeling Good”
18. Beyoncé – “FREEDOM”
19. Nina Simone – “Here Comes the Sun”
20. The Staple Singers – “I’ll Take You There”
21. OutKast – “Vibrate”
22. Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up”
23. Donny Hathaway – “Someday We’ll All Be Free”
24. Sam Cooke – “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Read More: Jay Z Makes 'Songs for Survival' Playlist - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2016/07/jay-z-songs-for-survival-playlist-goodie-mob-kendrick-lamar/?trackback=tsmclip
2. Curtis Mayfield – “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue”
3. Nina Simone – “Four Women”
4. Stevie Wonder – “Village Ghetto Land”
5. Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”
6. Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
7. Fela Kuti – “Zombie”
8. Bob Marley and The Wailers – “War”
9. James Brown – “Say It Loud – I’m Black And I’m Proud”
10. Stevie Wonder – “Love’s In Need Of Love Today”
11. The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child”
12. Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
13. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Redemption Song
14. Kanye West – “Ultralight Beam”
15. Common – “Forever Begins”
16. Mos Def – “UMI Says”
17. Nina Simone – “Feeling Good”
18. Beyoncé – “FREEDOM”
19. Nina Simone – “Here Comes the Sun”
20. The Staple Singers – “I’ll Take You There”
21. OutKast – “Vibrate”
22. Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up”
23. Donny Hathaway – “Someday We’ll All Be Free”
24. Sam Cooke – “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Read More: Jay Z Makes 'Songs for Survival' Playlist - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2016/07/jay-z-songs-for-survival-playlist-goodie-mob-kendrick-lamar/?trackback=tsmclip
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Kendrick Lamar and Jeremiad
"Jeremiah was a prophet tasked with guiding the people through the loss of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Kendrick is navigating us through the loss of black life in a “post-racial” America. Both poets’ writings also reveal a deep conflictedness not only with their own inner life but with the realpolitik of their day."
"The all-encompassing, oppressive ideology of Jeremiah’s day was lauded by the urban elite, the religious, the imperial superpowers and local politicians who created hell on earth for the poor. Jeremiah’s cry can be summed up in Kendrick’s lyric, “Some of us never did wrong but still went to hell.” For Kendrick, hell is America’s creation of the ghettos, its prison industrial complex, its clandestine torture dungeons in poor neighborhoods."
read the rest here:
http://religiondispatches.org/kendrick-lamars-hip-hop-jeremiad/
"The all-encompassing, oppressive ideology of Jeremiah’s day was lauded by the urban elite, the religious, the imperial superpowers and local politicians who created hell on earth for the poor. Jeremiah’s cry can be summed up in Kendrick’s lyric, “Some of us never did wrong but still went to hell.” For Kendrick, hell is America’s creation of the ghettos, its prison industrial complex, its clandestine torture dungeons in poor neighborhoods."
read the rest here:
http://religiondispatches.org/kendrick-lamars-hip-hop-jeremiad/
Korea's acceptance of breakdancing
"Wing got his big break after winning first place at the prestigious Red
Bull BC One competition in Paris in 2008. Then in 2010, Jinjo Crew went
on to win the Battle of the Year competition. They emerged as one of the
hottest B-boy crews in the world and continued to win at major
competitions across the globe.
Since then, the B-boy craze in Korea has skyrocketed. It is now not only a well-recognized type of dance, but a popular form of entertainment enjoyed by both younger and older audiences, attracting local and international spectators alike.
Today, there are countless nonverbal plays featuring interludes of break dancing and even plots based entirely on B-boying, including shows like “Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy,” “Jump,” “B-boy Musical Marionette” and the popular “B-boy Kung,” the only B-boy musical in the world to have an exclusive theater.
“I can’t even begin to explain the huge boom in the B-boy movement in Korea over the past several years,” Wing said. “The B-boying culture has become so popular in Korea that even many senior citizens here have heard of it and know what it is, which was unthinkable to me years ago.”
“Even though break dancing was invented by Western dance crews, Asian B-boys have created a reputation for elevating the level and complexity of the dance moves,” he added. “Something about our body type allows us to make for the ideal B-boy dancers.”
The country continues to make great strides in promoting local break dancing and creating an internationally recognized reputation for its pool of talented B-boys and fiercely competitive dance crews.
Capitalizing on the dance form’s substantial popularity here, the Korean government established in 2007 the R-16 Korea, an annual international B-boy competition hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism."
read rest here
Since then, the B-boy craze in Korea has skyrocketed. It is now not only a well-recognized type of dance, but a popular form of entertainment enjoyed by both younger and older audiences, attracting local and international spectators alike.
Today, there are countless nonverbal plays featuring interludes of break dancing and even plots based entirely on B-boying, including shows like “Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy,” “Jump,” “B-boy Musical Marionette” and the popular “B-boy Kung,” the only B-boy musical in the world to have an exclusive theater.
“I can’t even begin to explain the huge boom in the B-boy movement in Korea over the past several years,” Wing said. “The B-boying culture has become so popular in Korea that even many senior citizens here have heard of it and know what it is, which was unthinkable to me years ago.”
“Even though break dancing was invented by Western dance crews, Asian B-boys have created a reputation for elevating the level and complexity of the dance moves,” he added. “Something about our body type allows us to make for the ideal B-boy dancers.”
The country continues to make great strides in promoting local break dancing and creating an internationally recognized reputation for its pool of talented B-boys and fiercely competitive dance crews.
Capitalizing on the dance form’s substantial popularity here, the Korean government established in 2007 the R-16 Korea, an annual international B-boy competition hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism."
read rest here
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Calligraffiti: “anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.”
"On the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, lies the community of Manshiyat Naser, famous for providing informal trash and recycling services for the city, but also notorious for the mess and smell that go with that role."
"The mural blends aspects of Arabic calligraphy with contemporary graffiti, all while highlighting the architecture of the area. The entire work is only visible from the nearby Mokattam Mountain."
read rest here
"Take your money out of this dog's hands" - Killer Mike
“Take your money out of this dog’s hands,” he says. “It’s time to get these dogs out of office that care nothing for you.”
"Mike’s point is that speaking with money is a faster way to change as corporations will notice a monetary shift more than any other. He applauds Atlanta and the police force there for continuing to create a safe environment for black communities, but notes that by galvanizing their financial interests, they can inspire change throughout the country."
watch interview and read the rest here
"Mike’s point is that speaking with money is a faster way to change as corporations will notice a monetary shift more than any other. He applauds Atlanta and the police force there for continuing to create a safe environment for black communities, but notes that by galvanizing their financial interests, they can inspire change throughout the country."
watch interview and read the rest here
Friday, June 24, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Old Hobo Graffiti
"Anthropologist Susan Phillips had spent a career examining the graffiti that covers urban walls, bridges and freeway overpasses.
Phillips had uncovered a peculiar, almost extinct form of American hieroglyphics known as hobo graffiti, the treasure trove discovered under a nondescript, 103-year-old bridge spanning the Los Angeles River. At the time, she was researching her book, "Wallbangin': Graffiti and Gangs in LA."
"It was like opening a tomb that's been closed for 80 years," the Pitzer College professor of environmental analysis said of finding the writings and occasionally the drawings of people who once signed their names as Oakland Red, the Tucson Kid and A-No. 1.
"There's an A-No. 1, dated 8/13/14," she said, pointing to a scribbling during a recent visit to the bridge just around the bend from a modern-day homeless encampment.
Although all but forgotten now, A-No. 1 was the moniker used by a man once arguably America's most famous hobo, one of the many itinerant wanderers who traveled from town to town in the 19th and 20th centuries, often by freight train, in search of brief work and lasting adventure.
Read rest here
Phillips had uncovered a peculiar, almost extinct form of American hieroglyphics known as hobo graffiti, the treasure trove discovered under a nondescript, 103-year-old bridge spanning the Los Angeles River. At the time, she was researching her book, "Wallbangin': Graffiti and Gangs in LA."
"It was like opening a tomb that's been closed for 80 years," the Pitzer College professor of environmental analysis said of finding the writings and occasionally the drawings of people who once signed their names as Oakland Red, the Tucson Kid and A-No. 1.
"There's an A-No. 1, dated 8/13/14," she said, pointing to a scribbling during a recent visit to the bridge just around the bend from a modern-day homeless encampment.
Although all but forgotten now, A-No. 1 was the moniker used by a man once arguably America's most famous hobo, one of the many itinerant wanderers who traveled from town to town in the 19th and 20th centuries, often by freight train, in search of brief work and lasting adventure.
Read rest here
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Friday, March 18, 2016
Art in the Streets
"Street artists engage in activism in a unique way: by moving their art out of the museum and into ordinary life, street artists do not merely comment about the state of the world; they intervene and change our world with their works. Inserting art directly into the real world (not the artworld) allows street artists to actively construct a different world to inhabit. Street art is designed to cross the boundary between art and an actual act of protest – that is its point!
This activism is made possible because of its aconsensual methods of production. No matter what style, medium, or political agenda, all street art is made without consent of the property owner. This aconsensuality transforms the art-making process into an act of
political and social protest. It is the umbrella concept under which the diverse facets of street art come together into a single, unified group that does justice to the social, political, intersectional, environmental and legal aspects of street art.
Street art is a sign of the times – where consumerism has become a forced way of life, where the artworld’s institutional pressures suffocate emerging artists, and where marginalised artists struggle to make their voice heard, street art represents an unexpected opportunity to opt out of the artworld system altogether. But these artists are not going underground; they are taking to the streets! There, they have the freedom to create their own art, in their own style, on their own terms. Street art presents a new alternative path for artists – one that allows them a chance for authentic expression, an opportunity to develop a set of alternative customs, traditions and norms that operate alongside, but definitely far away from, the “official” code articulated in art schools. The street is a logical escape from it all."
read more here
by Dr. Sondra Bacharach, Victoria University of Wellingtom
This activism is made possible because of its aconsensual methods of production. No matter what style, medium, or political agenda, all street art is made without consent of the property owner. This aconsensuality transforms the art-making process into an act of
political and social protest. It is the umbrella concept under which the diverse facets of street art come together into a single, unified group that does justice to the social, political, intersectional, environmental and legal aspects of street art.
Street art is a sign of the times – where consumerism has become a forced way of life, where the artworld’s institutional pressures suffocate emerging artists, and where marginalised artists struggle to make their voice heard, street art represents an unexpected opportunity to opt out of the artworld system altogether. But these artists are not going underground; they are taking to the streets! There, they have the freedom to create their own art, in their own style, on their own terms. Street art presents a new alternative path for artists – one that allows them a chance for authentic expression, an opportunity to develop a set of alternative customs, traditions and norms that operate alongside, but definitely far away from, the “official” code articulated in art schools. The street is a logical escape from it all."
read more here
by Dr. Sondra Bacharach, Victoria University of Wellingtom
J Pink
Futuristic
Futuristic...We see you Koreacredit: 제이핑크 & 핑키칙스 - J Pink & Pinky Cheeks
Posted by Illegal Musik on Saturday, March 5, 2016
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Canadian Indigenous Hip Hop: First Ladies
Even within the aboriginal hip hop community, there was some initial reticence to softer female voices talking about hard issues—and
skepticism about their skills. ”Hip hop in general is a man’s world,”
says Christie Lee Charles. “So it was hard as indigenous women,
especially as young indigenous women.” But in the last few years, the
First Ladies Crew members have been gaining notice both within and
outside of their aboriginal communities as part of an uprising. Their
audiences are bearing witness to the traditional sharing of aboriginal
oral history through new music.
“We
aren’t just rappers, we aren’t just MCs,” says Charles. “It’s not just
us telling our stories. I am not just up there [on stage] spitting an
ill verse. I am up there sharing our oral history.”
The
First Ladies are encountering an interesting time on Canada’s timeline:
Past wrongs against the nation’s aboriginals are being more openly
acknowledged. For years, indigenous children in Canada were taught to deny their culture through a residential school system. The last residential school closed only a decade ago and, after a five-year inquiry, the process was deemed “cultural genocide” in 2015. Further, voters and activists have called on the Canadian government to address the thousands of indigenous women who have gone missing or been found murdered over the last decade. (The newly elected government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised an inquiry.)
...
The
empowerment of the First Ladies is deeply rooted in the matrilineal
nature of indigenous culture. “For me, JB the First Lady is bringing
First Ladyship back to the rightful owners: indigenous women of Turtle
Island,” said Webster. She speaks in reference to the role of aboriginal
women in traditional politics and society and the legend about the
creation of the earth by a female figure. “Not the queen, not the
president’s wife, but indigenous women. That’s my name and that’s what I
want to bring forward.”
Monday, January 4, 2016
Chance the Rapper raises $60K
For homeless Chicagoans
read more here
This coat turns into a sleeping bag for homeless. Homeless are hired to make the coats. https://t.co/43Is78SKRM pic.twitter.com/RVJiAJKtvX
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 17, 2015
read more here
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Friday, January 1, 2016
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