There are no words to describe how important New York was to the 80’s Art Scene. Not only did you have money and culture, but everyone seemed to be caught up in a movement of raw, expressive, heavily commercial creation. And it’s in this scene where we find today’s artist, New York’s very own: Jean-Michel Basquiat. And this ain’t your SAMO, SAMO. We mourn the man we lost, and wish that someone could have looked at him like a human-being in need of a friend and not a factory capable of printing masterpieces.
Join us as we contemplate the double-edged sword of success, become acutely interested in joining the punk movement through spray painting, offer unaccredited medical advice to a boy who lived too fast and died too young, and briefly live in a world where offering a postcard to Andy Warhol could change your life.
Things have changed, but we're changing with it.
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Donate to Black Lives Matter LA, the Action Bail Fund, Black Visions Collective. Please be sure you've signed petitions. If you like what we do, you can support BYWAP over on our Patreon!
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Our music was written and recorded by Elene Kadagidze.
Our cover art was designed by Lindsey Anton-Wood.