Sep 12, 2008
Trust Your Struggle / jdavey at Afro Punk
THANKS TO Allford Trotman-u got some nice footage there dude!
-Rob/Tres
Trust Your Struggle Collective
Hey yawl, the Afro Punk fest was more than a month ago and they will be having more of it in September.We rocked live for 4-5 days in a row along side some other dope artists! But damn, i wished I would have been able to catch JDAVEY perform.Anyway, heres a video with our work (green portraits) and of course, u know who performing.Peace.
My last stop before the bay-Flagstaff, Arizona
And it still aint over yet.Although im in Cali right now-in the valley-jo(or right on its border) im going back to Nyc right way.So for those folks who can make it (in the bay) you must go to Galeria De La Raza on August 28th for the final show to wrap up the tour. Its promised by my comrades to be one of our most magnificent achievements yet!
So Arizona? Ok, ive been to Tucson before and Yuma when I went to visit my son's abuelito, tia's, and his cousin. But this was my first time in Flagstaff.Or "Flag" as they call it. We took hella long to get there because, well, Texas is HUGE! It took bout 16 or 18 hours to get there because we stopped to get yucky road food and everyone in the crew seemed to be bent on buying nick nacks or knives at spots along the way. We rolled up on the folks in what I found out was a city 7000 ft up! It was a nice cool break from the heat we had been in-100 degrees and higher! In this city it was the riny season, nice and breezy. We met some young people that were already working on a dope mural. Our contact Cy introduced us to the folks at Black Mesa Water Coalition 9a ntaive run NPO that you should che out to see the work they've done!) The young artists doing their thing and some community folks just chillin. We meeted and greeted-then headed to figure out where we could lay our heads to rest.
We ended up staying with the homies Brett and ELi-thx for the hospitality! We went out that night.Crazy! I wasnt even gonna go, but i thought, why not have a drink. Im a cheap drunk yawl, give me one drink and im on one. Yoshi bought me a white russian.
I started slangin zine like crazy in Flag dude.I must of sold about 10-15 zines in this city.Some folks were hell drunk, some were down to support, some i struck up a convo with.One things for sure, I still got it.I felt like a underground MC on telegraph (berkeley,ca) back in 95'. One thing tho POC(People of color)-i know you going thru it and you are just trying to keep youre head above water-i know this because if it wasnt for my mom, my stepdad,fam, and friends, i couldnt made it thru this tour.Bu damn, show a young brown brotha some love, please!!!! Anyway, when u sell any product whether its tapes or what have you-you always get a better response, face to face because you can actually explain to people shit, or you can relate. Slanging gives me the opportunity to give to people who really cant buy them-thats why Onierokrites is free to ALL youth 21 or younger.
Anyway, back to the tour. We started the next day earlier than we had gotten up in 3 weeks.9 am. We met with a group of native youth of full and mixed blood backgrounds.The majority of native folks in this town were from HOPI or DINE(Navajo) backgrounds. And we didnt even make it to the res (indian reservation) unfortunately. But we talked to some folks about what we did, and rapped about what they wanted to see. We went to work with their ideas and trust to come up w/ a sketch.
Some of the things the elders(young adults) told us was that there is a huge battle going on btwn the native community/+ other Flag residents to stop corporations from turning a Sacred mountain into a fucking ski-resort.Hughhhjjjkkkk! Yup, can you imagine having to explaint o white people, this land is fucking special, its sacred! Its not meant to be used as a tool to make u money! Anyway, it dont even snow that much in Flag either-they wanted to use treated water (in the middle of the desert) to make artifical snow! Wow."Goapele's "Change it All" comes to mind.
Not only that, but the area where we were at was literally on the wrong side of the tracks. This community had little black folks in it, mostly white, indian, and some latino. The area where we were was considered the south side, where all the POC were to be kept and couldnt cross the tracks to get to the other side of the city back in the day. I didnt feel any racism towards me while there-but the youth def spoke of it. Anyway, the young people came up with the idea that most folks were stuck, stagnant, or not moving. The place where the mural was to be done was in the middle of a community garden that folks worked hard to create from a field of dirt, broken glass, and trash.It was now a beautiful garden with corn, fruits, and veggies growing.And we were going to put a small mural there.
So we got an idea of people attempting to get out of a maze, and to pull themselves out using the corn stalks. It was an interesting process as we tried to work w/ the youth by helping them shape it, while giving pointers and advice.Some of the time that worked and some of the time it didnt.We a had to step back and let the folks run with it-which was another learning experience-even though we've all had teaching experience. Ok, so we keep ptg this and get offered the prospect of ptg another larger wall down the block.Everythig in the area was hella close-we would just walk from spot to spot. We started on a sketch for that and had our creativity and patience challenged because we had to rap w/ the folks.......especially Ms. Somana(Thank you!).We picked up a lot of game from Somana, and CY(A dope artist from the aea who helped organize this whole thing with our comrad Cece). We came up with sketches and ran em cross them and found out that som of the stuff was on the money and some was down right offensive.
You see, its not always cool for people who are not from a culture to go and paint something they've been told or have seen in a community.Thats why we asked and thats why every time we paint something we put some level of research into the idea before we paint. ARTISTS!! You must do this, or you could really offend some one.I dont mean censorship of you're art, i mean sacred things that are shared, not meant to be put up on a wall unless you're from that tribe. In this case were not even talking about white folks stealing brown folks' culture.Were a mixed group of artists (african amer, el salvadoran, mexican, japanese, european, phillipino, korean, and native) but none of us were from Navajo or Hopi tribes.
So we took some of the knowledge that was dropped and thought about how we could represent it in a creative and respectful matter. Go check www.trustyourstruggle.com blog to see what i mean.
Well, we def had a struggle in this town because an older white man who lived next door to the mural we painted with the young people didnt like what he saw-and changed the locks to the gate before we could finish it.Not only that, but he cursed out the homie brett( who helped organize these spots to paint) and cece. He threw huge stone into the garden, breaking corn stalks and fucking up the garden.Man, we were like "uh, lets go pay him a visit" but we all decided it would be better to chill and let him look like a fool-since he declared that he was going to destroy the mural and the community garden.It turns ou that he owned some part of the land where we painted this and was absolutely repulsed by the idea that we painted it using Aerosol.He said it was "graffiti shit, crap, not art".
As a result the dude who organized the spots to paint at was very cautious about us doing anything that looked too much like graffiti for fear of other residents' rage.Damn! Talk about resistance against art. It didnt matter though because we used cans and brushes and still collaborated with the community artists to make two dope murals that i personally recieved many compliments on while i was painting.
We even got offered to stay at and paint a Cafe in the area (after we slept on Black Mesa's floor twice!). The AppleSauce Tea House which is run By Derrick and his wife was dope.Another case of community folks taking us in.Derrick was hella cool. He not only gave us the key to his shop and gave us a nice place to crash, he also helped us get a discount on further repairs on our van "MONA". We chilled and started freestyle ptg on his walls at about 2 am!Were crazy! It turns out Derrick had heard about us and was following the tour online-he was an ex Graf Writer from the Bronx-transplanted to Flagstaff,Arizona!Wow, he told us some war stories about his train bombing, his struggle to keep open a venue that welcome the young, weid, vivrant, strange, punk, and hip hop heads in the area. Many neighbor's hated on his shope because he held live shows that brought plenty of young folks thru who didnt fit the 'normal' box. But we hooked up the theater (which is now a booming Spoken word spot) and we traded ideas with Derrick.Thank you!
Anyway, another homie Somana who gave us history lessons also cooked a dinner for us.Twice! With the entire native arts, and political movement in Flag eaing with us and doing a prayer-which i couldnt quite understand because it was in DINE(navajo language).But it was hella positive and we got to meet and kick it with many folks who brought all kinds of food for us. And you thought we were crazy for doing this art for free? The people showed us how much they appreciated our exhange and restored som of my faith in humanity! Peace to Somana's husband "Yaiva" -hes a native mc who has shared the stage w/ some prominent folks up there. Somonas told some great stories and had us laughing hella times as she talked bout the birthing process (which i remember vividly) and their visit to SF and "standing out" on Muni.
Then, another friend whos name escapes me at the moment, opened his home to us for a home made pizza party with him, his sons, alot of music playing/jamming, cookies, and cake.Whew.We ate better this week than we had in hella long! Thank you!!! Flagstaff.We wrapped up last paint touches, thx for the love francis!, made soem friends, and said our goodbyes.
No matter what happends after the tour, whether people know about it or not we got hugs, and personal thank you's from people.Face to face, hand to hand.And the fact that we could have an exchange like that is what matters most. Art is seriously needed yawl.So if you have to do some corporate shit to pay the bills-im def not mad at you.But do something for the people-they need it the most and will thank you for it.They'll even open their hearts and their homes to you if you give them that gift. I may be broke as fuck right now, but i became so much wealthier with friendship and experience.I know i could go back to any of those cities and theyd give me a place to stay-theyd share whatever they had-and theyre struggling too!
"The job of the revolutionary artist is to make the revolution irresistable".
Change comes the minute we exchange.
-Rob/Tres
A proud member of the Trust Your Struggle Collective
2008
So Arizona? Ok, ive been to Tucson before and Yuma when I went to visit my son's abuelito, tia's, and his cousin. But this was my first time in Flagstaff.Or "Flag" as they call it. We took hella long to get there because, well, Texas is HUGE! It took bout 16 or 18 hours to get there because we stopped to get yucky road food and everyone in the crew seemed to be bent on buying nick nacks or knives at spots along the way. We rolled up on the folks in what I found out was a city 7000 ft up! It was a nice cool break from the heat we had been in-100 degrees and higher! In this city it was the riny season, nice and breezy. We met some young people that were already working on a dope mural. Our contact Cy introduced us to the folks at Black Mesa Water Coalition 9a ntaive run NPO that you should che out to see the work they've done!) The young artists doing their thing and some community folks just chillin. We meeted and greeted-then headed to figure out where we could lay our heads to rest.
We ended up staying with the homies Brett and ELi-thx for the hospitality! We went out that night.Crazy! I wasnt even gonna go, but i thought, why not have a drink. Im a cheap drunk yawl, give me one drink and im on one. Yoshi bought me a white russian.
I started slangin zine like crazy in Flag dude.I must of sold about 10-15 zines in this city.Some folks were hell drunk, some were down to support, some i struck up a convo with.One things for sure, I still got it.I felt like a underground MC on telegraph (berkeley,ca) back in 95'. One thing tho POC(People of color)-i know you going thru it and you are just trying to keep youre head above water-i know this because if it wasnt for my mom, my stepdad,fam, and friends, i couldnt made it thru this tour.Bu damn, show a young brown brotha some love, please!!!! Anyway, when u sell any product whether its tapes or what have you-you always get a better response, face to face because you can actually explain to people shit, or you can relate. Slanging gives me the opportunity to give to people who really cant buy them-thats why Onierokrites is free to ALL youth 21 or younger.
Anyway, back to the tour. We started the next day earlier than we had gotten up in 3 weeks.9 am. We met with a group of native youth of full and mixed blood backgrounds.The majority of native folks in this town were from HOPI or DINE(Navajo) backgrounds. And we didnt even make it to the res (indian reservation) unfortunately. But we talked to some folks about what we did, and rapped about what they wanted to see. We went to work with their ideas and trust to come up w/ a sketch.
Some of the things the elders(young adults) told us was that there is a huge battle going on btwn the native community/+ other Flag residents to stop corporations from turning a Sacred mountain into a fucking ski-resort.Hughhhjjjkkkk! Yup, can you imagine having to explaint o white people, this land is fucking special, its sacred! Its not meant to be used as a tool to make u money! Anyway, it dont even snow that much in Flag either-they wanted to use treated water (in the middle of the desert) to make artifical snow! Wow."Goapele's "Change it All" comes to mind.
Not only that, but the area where we were at was literally on the wrong side of the tracks. This community had little black folks in it, mostly white, indian, and some latino. The area where we were was considered the south side, where all the POC were to be kept and couldnt cross the tracks to get to the other side of the city back in the day. I didnt feel any racism towards me while there-but the youth def spoke of it. Anyway, the young people came up with the idea that most folks were stuck, stagnant, or not moving. The place where the mural was to be done was in the middle of a community garden that folks worked hard to create from a field of dirt, broken glass, and trash.It was now a beautiful garden with corn, fruits, and veggies growing.And we were going to put a small mural there.
So we got an idea of people attempting to get out of a maze, and to pull themselves out using the corn stalks. It was an interesting process as we tried to work w/ the youth by helping them shape it, while giving pointers and advice.Some of the time that worked and some of the time it didnt.We a had to step back and let the folks run with it-which was another learning experience-even though we've all had teaching experience. Ok, so we keep ptg this and get offered the prospect of ptg another larger wall down the block.Everythig in the area was hella close-we would just walk from spot to spot. We started on a sketch for that and had our creativity and patience challenged because we had to rap w/ the folks.......especially Ms. Somana(Thank you!).We picked up a lot of game from Somana, and CY(A dope artist from the aea who helped organize this whole thing with our comrad Cece). We came up with sketches and ran em cross them and found out that som of the stuff was on the money and some was down right offensive.
You see, its not always cool for people who are not from a culture to go and paint something they've been told or have seen in a community.Thats why we asked and thats why every time we paint something we put some level of research into the idea before we paint. ARTISTS!! You must do this, or you could really offend some one.I dont mean censorship of you're art, i mean sacred things that are shared, not meant to be put up on a wall unless you're from that tribe. In this case were not even talking about white folks stealing brown folks' culture.Were a mixed group of artists (african amer, el salvadoran, mexican, japanese, european, phillipino, korean, and native) but none of us were from Navajo or Hopi tribes.
So we took some of the knowledge that was dropped and thought about how we could represent it in a creative and respectful matter. Go check www.trustyourstruggle.com blog to see what i mean.
Well, we def had a struggle in this town because an older white man who lived next door to the mural we painted with the young people didnt like what he saw-and changed the locks to the gate before we could finish it.Not only that, but he cursed out the homie brett( who helped organize these spots to paint) and cece. He threw huge stone into the garden, breaking corn stalks and fucking up the garden.Man, we were like "uh, lets go pay him a visit" but we all decided it would be better to chill and let him look like a fool-since he declared that he was going to destroy the mural and the community garden.It turns ou that he owned some part of the land where we painted this and was absolutely repulsed by the idea that we painted it using Aerosol.He said it was "graffiti shit, crap, not art".
As a result the dude who organized the spots to paint at was very cautious about us doing anything that looked too much like graffiti for fear of other residents' rage.Damn! Talk about resistance against art. It didnt matter though because we used cans and brushes and still collaborated with the community artists to make two dope murals that i personally recieved many compliments on while i was painting.
We even got offered to stay at and paint a Cafe in the area (after we slept on Black Mesa's floor twice!). The AppleSauce Tea House which is run By Derrick and his wife was dope.Another case of community folks taking us in.Derrick was hella cool. He not only gave us the key to his shop and gave us a nice place to crash, he also helped us get a discount on further repairs on our van "MONA". We chilled and started freestyle ptg on his walls at about 2 am!Were crazy! It turns out Derrick had heard about us and was following the tour online-he was an ex Graf Writer from the Bronx-transplanted to Flagstaff,Arizona!Wow, he told us some war stories about his train bombing, his struggle to keep open a venue that welcome the young, weid, vivrant, strange, punk, and hip hop heads in the area. Many neighbor's hated on his shope because he held live shows that brought plenty of young folks thru who didnt fit the 'normal' box. But we hooked up the theater (which is now a booming Spoken word spot) and we traded ideas with Derrick.Thank you!
Anyway, another homie Somana who gave us history lessons also cooked a dinner for us.Twice! With the entire native arts, and political movement in Flag eaing with us and doing a prayer-which i couldnt quite understand because it was in DINE(navajo language).But it was hella positive and we got to meet and kick it with many folks who brought all kinds of food for us. And you thought we were crazy for doing this art for free? The people showed us how much they appreciated our exhange and restored som of my faith in humanity! Peace to Somana's husband "Yaiva" -hes a native mc who has shared the stage w/ some prominent folks up there. Somonas told some great stories and had us laughing hella times as she talked bout the birthing process (which i remember vividly) and their visit to SF and "standing out" on Muni.
Then, another friend whos name escapes me at the moment, opened his home to us for a home made pizza party with him, his sons, alot of music playing/jamming, cookies, and cake.Whew.We ate better this week than we had in hella long! Thank you!!! Flagstaff.We wrapped up last paint touches, thx for the love francis!, made soem friends, and said our goodbyes.
No matter what happends after the tour, whether people know about it or not we got hugs, and personal thank you's from people.Face to face, hand to hand.And the fact that we could have an exchange like that is what matters most. Art is seriously needed yawl.So if you have to do some corporate shit to pay the bills-im def not mad at you.But do something for the people-they need it the most and will thank you for it.They'll even open their hearts and their homes to you if you give them that gift. I may be broke as fuck right now, but i became so much wealthier with friendship and experience.I know i could go back to any of those cities and theyd give me a place to stay-theyd share whatever they had-and theyre struggling too!
"The job of the revolutionary artist is to make the revolution irresistable".
Change comes the minute we exchange.
-Rob/Tres
A proud member of the Trust Your Struggle Collective
2008
texas on the mural tour
OK, I had no idea what I was in for when we pulled up to the Victory Grill. From what Burner said it sounded like a spot that was in my head "retro blues club, maybe latino owned, maybe this maybe that".
We were greeted by a brother named Cliff who was originally from Trinidad and spoke with a "i tell it like it is" accent. He showed us some cool hospitality and we spoke about the city we just visited and the mural. He spoke a bit about the spot and hinted at a need for art and for the spot to maintain its historic glory. Historic glory?For real? I found out what this meant later. So Cliff offered to take us to get some food since we were not asking for any payment for the huge mural we were going to paint.
We went outside and it was about 100 degrees! The wall was about 120-150 feet wide and about 20 feet tall.It was split up in one section that was really long, then about 8 feet that wrapped around, then another long section, with an upper area that I had to climb up and steady myself on.
So we went to work, asking questions, kind of throwing out our pre-concieved notions.Which is what happends at almost every wall and community we encounter. Cliff told us it would be good to speak to Ms Eva Lindsey. So we went to the store, then back to our homie Courtney's house. Thank you Courthey Y Martin! Shes hella cool and let us crash at her house-which was dope.It makes me hella anxious to own my first spot.Soon......soon.
So then we sketched.Straight to working on how the mural would look, flow, be balance, the color, everything. Two things we all practiced alot on this tour was how to freestyle together and to plan an actual composition, which is hella hard.Especially when everyone has talent and can hold it down there selves; we steeped up and stepped back
Next day:We wake up, hella tired, kind of delirious but ready to talk to Ms. Lindsey. Mannn, she dropped so much history on us, i felt like i went rhough a whole class. But she did it by telling stories and beign there made you feel what she was talking about.It turns out that BB King, Bobby Blue Bland, Count Basie, Ike and Tina Turner had performed there. Wow, I had no idea! Not only that, this venue had been one of the spots on the historic "Chitlin Circuit".This is back when "black folks couldnt go to certian clubs" and "people liked to jook(dance)". The historic Victory Grill was established in 1945 and was still going strong!
So we took notes, tried to film everything Ms. Lindey was saying and began making our sketch. Miguel came up with the best put together idea for the wall. At first i was slow to get on this idea which was hella doable, but once we started it worked. We were able to bust out something cohesive and balanced quickly.
Took us about 4-5 days to do, we got to meet some cool folks as we painted.Much respect to Mofoz-the homie mark helped us out greatly. Sloke and spain, and loomit came thru plus hella austin and texas in general came thru. We rocked it once again, kicked at Marks show, washed clothes, and were out. Another exhcnage of history and life for some artwork(that if we did it right) reflects those experiences. Were in Flagstaff,AZ right now.More soon.
-Rob/Tres
Trust Your Struggle Calamity
"Come Bien" Books
CA-NYC
We were greeted by a brother named Cliff who was originally from Trinidad and spoke with a "i tell it like it is" accent. He showed us some cool hospitality and we spoke about the city we just visited and the mural. He spoke a bit about the spot and hinted at a need for art and for the spot to maintain its historic glory. Historic glory?For real? I found out what this meant later. So Cliff offered to take us to get some food since we were not asking for any payment for the huge mural we were going to paint.
We went outside and it was about 100 degrees! The wall was about 120-150 feet wide and about 20 feet tall.It was split up in one section that was really long, then about 8 feet that wrapped around, then another long section, with an upper area that I had to climb up and steady myself on.
So we went to work, asking questions, kind of throwing out our pre-concieved notions.Which is what happends at almost every wall and community we encounter. Cliff told us it would be good to speak to Ms Eva Lindsey. So we went to the store, then back to our homie Courtney's house. Thank you Courthey Y Martin! Shes hella cool and let us crash at her house-which was dope.It makes me hella anxious to own my first spot.Soon......soon.
So then we sketched.Straight to working on how the mural would look, flow, be balance, the color, everything. Two things we all practiced alot on this tour was how to freestyle together and to plan an actual composition, which is hella hard.Especially when everyone has talent and can hold it down there selves; we steeped up and stepped back
Next day:We wake up, hella tired, kind of delirious but ready to talk to Ms. Lindsey. Mannn, she dropped so much history on us, i felt like i went rhough a whole class. But she did it by telling stories and beign there made you feel what she was talking about.It turns out that BB King, Bobby Blue Bland, Count Basie, Ike and Tina Turner had performed there. Wow, I had no idea! Not only that, this venue had been one of the spots on the historic "Chitlin Circuit".This is back when "black folks couldnt go to certian clubs" and "people liked to jook(dance)". The historic Victory Grill was established in 1945 and was still going strong!
So we took notes, tried to film everything Ms. Lindey was saying and began making our sketch. Miguel came up with the best put together idea for the wall. At first i was slow to get on this idea which was hella doable, but once we started it worked. We were able to bust out something cohesive and balanced quickly.
Took us about 4-5 days to do, we got to meet some cool folks as we painted.Much respect to Mofoz-the homie mark helped us out greatly. Sloke and spain, and loomit came thru plus hella austin and texas in general came thru. We rocked it once again, kicked at Marks show, washed clothes, and were out. Another exhcnage of history and life for some artwork(that if we did it right) reflects those experiences. Were in Flagstaff,AZ right now.More soon.
-Rob/Tres
Trust Your Struggle Calamity
"Come Bien" Books
CA-NYC
TYS in New Orleans, LA
New Orleans! I have already bounced to two or three other cities since NOLA. But, i thought Id let you know what it was like.HOT! Dman, i thought ATL was hot, it was burning up there.
The space we were painting at was called the Craig Cultural Center in Algiers section of NOLA-Which was not flodded by the storm.But it was damaged severely afterwards with most of the previous office spaces inside and the roof being damaged by the storm water. After the storm, the main organizers of the spot left town and returned later.
In fact, most people we talked to including organizers from YAYA in the 9th ward left the city and came back. So about the CCC in Algiers. Because we were delayed in ATL for so long we missed out on an opportunity to paint with their young people( who did an amazing project of color wood cut outs of life size people as symbols in the 9th ward), so we found a spot to crash with a great homie named candace who eric hooked up.Thank you Candance! Then we headed over to CCC checked out their outside wall and a wall they had inside. Then we tried to weigh our options because if we did the wall outside we might have faced hella rain-and we only had 4 or 5 days to do it. So we went and got a little R&R and relaxed for a day-then we decided on ptg the inner wall.
which you can see if you go to www.trustyourstruggle.com
This was a interesting process.We all came up with sketches, and i came up with a solid idea for a sketch which would involve a march of activists, mardi-gras dancers, nola indigenous tribes, children, even super human folks. We started on that idea and everyone got to working.We got about 40-45 % done with the mural and decided the flow wasnt working, so we repainted it!!!!!!
It was hard to erase some hard work, but Este/Shaun Turner came up with a really good idea for how to use elements of the piece and change the flow of people marhcing. So we re did it.Workingf from about 2 or 3 in the afternoon till about 5 or 6 in the morning most days. It was inside too so we got our fair share of paint fumes-even w/ ventilation. We got a lot of ideas and actual art direction which was hard to take at times but comforting because the homie Vince who was running the center with his brother Todd knew what he wanted to see.
Man, this was a huge growing lesson as an artist-why?? Because some of my shit got painted over and my idea was not the original one it formed into.
BUT, as an artist in a group, you have to work together and you must be ok with making what will turn out the best for the center or spot.And it did-it came oput really dope! I swallowed my artist ego and invested in working with the group so that one artists stuff wasnt dominating one particular area.
We all have diff styles so we mixed up the placement of people and styles so it looks more like a group of people and not "I drew those characters", "I did that", etc. Which is hard-because we are all so dope individually-we come together and form much better artwork when we allow each other to take the lead, when we take adviuce from each other, and when we go with the flow-instead of saying "im not going to do it because its not my way"-even tho sometimes u feel a little frustrated-I sure did. This is a lesson for all you artists out there reading this-be dope on youre own and with a group of other artists!
We also collaborated with a brother there named Monk-who kept the dope music flowing when he wasnt at school.
We got to meet some of the folks from YAYA-and they gave us a quick tour of the 9th ward.Mann, yawl, there were about 5% of homes left where there used to be a neighborhood. The grass, the weeds, the earth had overgrown the whole area.They spoke of their experience there, their return, fema's response, the markings to tell you who was alive or dead in the homes, how there was so much anger, desperation, and yet-defiance and triumph over all that. I wish I could get into it more-but I'll just say that YAYA is doing some great work and bringing up their youth right.
We met some interesting characters too in this city.When we were chillin w/ the locals in some of the clubs or after hours areas- i discovered that you could pretty much drink anywhere outside as long as you had a cup-not a glass, that people there have a rich istory of jazz, blues, partying, and that their resilience wont stop. The care-taker of the CCC was an interesting cat named Farley-who always referred to himself in the 3rd person and well, ask me more if i see you. The dude Vince was a activists, spiritual, about the upliftment of the black community, not down with cracker ass bullshit, muthafucka. He was dope-and cussed every other word.Also we met this old brotha they called the Ghetto ,scientist-homie was trying to blow shit up-for real.
We also were lucky enough that we met some folks Greg and Jankai in ATL who hooked us up in NOLA. Greg was a retired police officer(who gave us all a new outlook on brothas in the police force-because he was so cool), and Janaki (gregs wife)who was hella invited us to their home in the ATL and brought some prominent media to interview us there-which was really great because when Vince saw them -he was super juiced!
Ahhh, we rocked it-and just finished at about midnight and jumped into the van to drive to Austin,TX.The folks really gave us a heartfelt goodbvye-and actually told us they would miss us.Wow, I was touched.
-Rob
since then we ptd a mural in TX, and escaped TX, and were now in Arizona planning another one.I cant wait to see my boy!
The space we were painting at was called the Craig Cultural Center in Algiers section of NOLA-Which was not flodded by the storm.But it was damaged severely afterwards with most of the previous office spaces inside and the roof being damaged by the storm water. After the storm, the main organizers of the spot left town and returned later.
In fact, most people we talked to including organizers from YAYA in the 9th ward left the city and came back. So about the CCC in Algiers. Because we were delayed in ATL for so long we missed out on an opportunity to paint with their young people( who did an amazing project of color wood cut outs of life size people as symbols in the 9th ward), so we found a spot to crash with a great homie named candace who eric hooked up.Thank you Candance! Then we headed over to CCC checked out their outside wall and a wall they had inside. Then we tried to weigh our options because if we did the wall outside we might have faced hella rain-and we only had 4 or 5 days to do it. So we went and got a little R&R and relaxed for a day-then we decided on ptg the inner wall.
which you can see if you go to www.trustyourstruggle.com
This was a interesting process.We all came up with sketches, and i came up with a solid idea for a sketch which would involve a march of activists, mardi-gras dancers, nola indigenous tribes, children, even super human folks. We started on that idea and everyone got to working.We got about 40-45 % done with the mural and decided the flow wasnt working, so we repainted it!!!!!!
It was hard to erase some hard work, but Este/Shaun Turner came up with a really good idea for how to use elements of the piece and change the flow of people marhcing. So we re did it.Workingf from about 2 or 3 in the afternoon till about 5 or 6 in the morning most days. It was inside too so we got our fair share of paint fumes-even w/ ventilation. We got a lot of ideas and actual art direction which was hard to take at times but comforting because the homie Vince who was running the center with his brother Todd knew what he wanted to see.
Man, this was a huge growing lesson as an artist-why?? Because some of my shit got painted over and my idea was not the original one it formed into.
BUT, as an artist in a group, you have to work together and you must be ok with making what will turn out the best for the center or spot.And it did-it came oput really dope! I swallowed my artist ego and invested in working with the group so that one artists stuff wasnt dominating one particular area.
We all have diff styles so we mixed up the placement of people and styles so it looks more like a group of people and not "I drew those characters", "I did that", etc. Which is hard-because we are all so dope individually-we come together and form much better artwork when we allow each other to take the lead, when we take adviuce from each other, and when we go with the flow-instead of saying "im not going to do it because its not my way"-even tho sometimes u feel a little frustrated-I sure did. This is a lesson for all you artists out there reading this-be dope on youre own and with a group of other artists!
We also collaborated with a brother there named Monk-who kept the dope music flowing when he wasnt at school.
We got to meet some of the folks from YAYA-and they gave us a quick tour of the 9th ward.Mann, yawl, there were about 5% of homes left where there used to be a neighborhood. The grass, the weeds, the earth had overgrown the whole area.They spoke of their experience there, their return, fema's response, the markings to tell you who was alive or dead in the homes, how there was so much anger, desperation, and yet-defiance and triumph over all that. I wish I could get into it more-but I'll just say that YAYA is doing some great work and bringing up their youth right.
We met some interesting characters too in this city.When we were chillin w/ the locals in some of the clubs or after hours areas- i discovered that you could pretty much drink anywhere outside as long as you had a cup-not a glass, that people there have a rich istory of jazz, blues, partying, and that their resilience wont stop. The care-taker of the CCC was an interesting cat named Farley-who always referred to himself in the 3rd person and well, ask me more if i see you. The dude Vince was a activists, spiritual, about the upliftment of the black community, not down with cracker ass bullshit, muthafucka. He was dope-and cussed every other word.Also we met this old brotha they called the Ghetto ,scientist-homie was trying to blow shit up-for real.
We also were lucky enough that we met some folks Greg and Jankai in ATL who hooked us up in NOLA. Greg was a retired police officer(who gave us all a new outlook on brothas in the police force-because he was so cool), and Janaki (gregs wife)who was hella invited us to their home in the ATL and brought some prominent media to interview us there-which was really great because when Vince saw them -he was super juiced!
Ahhh, we rocked it-and just finished at about midnight and jumped into the van to drive to Austin,TX.The folks really gave us a heartfelt goodbvye-and actually told us they would miss us.Wow, I was touched.
-Rob
since then we ptd a mural in TX, and escaped TX, and were now in Arizona planning another one.I cant wait to see my boy!
Aug 22, 2008
the tys mural tour US 2008-ATL
Peace yawl, whew its called HOT-lanta for a reason homie. So we ruff'n it homez-today was my first hot shower in like 7 days. The make shift shower we got here at the center (where were ptg a dope! mural) is a water hose taped up over a fence really. But, its nothing if youre down to just ruff it. Also, sleepn on thee floor in the addict w/ 7 other homies.
The crew of painters:
Ben-Borish
Cpac-Cece
Yoshi-Erin
Miguelito-Bouncer
Rob-Tres(me of course)
Burner-Shaun
Crew of instigators:
Mikey 1 soul!-Blogg, net specialist
Eric Camins-Videographer
Man, today we had some ol southern hospitality-Some santeria practicin Lousianers in ATL scooped us up, let us take showers at they crib (which was rather fly-byt ), and they fed us yawl! They mde a jumbalaya.who knows what im talkin bout? That aint all-they gave us a car package full of nice soaps and extravagant smells for our trip.
yep folks have been showing us hella love out here-tellin us how much they appreciumated the mural, bringing us small donations(and folks are str8 strugglin'-half of the homes where we are in the Swats are boarderd up!but were literally down the block from Morehouse)
The only draw back is someone jacked one of our cameras we use to do time-lapsed fotos/animations of the mural to show yawl, the folks, and possible funders.
We went to a spot called MJQ-which was crackin! hella lil jon, bonecrusher, crucial conflict, even some jayz, reggae,dancehall, and a kind of ill rock set.As TYS members were moshin-i was checkin out the atl bboys breakin to southernplayalisticcaddilacfunkymusic.
It tayk bout fo five hourez tah unnerstand whut they be sayn, but when u git it, iss awl guud shawty!
We havin some serious car trouble too-but we aint fitna let that stop us-nola is up next. I cant wait to see my cousin and my aun tie-and im getting myself mentally prepared for the shit im bout to see-shit is real.
I ben wonderin when big boi finna come by and see us, where keisha cole and tyler perry live and why folks think the braves logo is raw-that shit is hella racist.If u reading this and u have a few dollars to spare, please hit up the blog and donate what u can shawty.Holler at me if you know of :
Reporters
Artists
Musicians
Business people
Radio DJ's
Good restaraunts in the following areas:
ATL
New Orleans
Austin,TX
Flagstaff,AZ
Phoenix,AZ
werd!
-Rob/Tres
TYS Calamity
"Come Bien" Books
ca-nyc
www.trustyourstruggle.com
peace to my homies/TYS folkers who couldnt make it- Skot La Rockwell,Pele
awmoss fahgot.These people im working with are some of the most talented and silly people ive ever worked with-and i love them.
If u get a chance to holr at one of them-thank them for doing this because it takes a lot of courage,respect,humbleness, ganas, balls, clit, stamina, and hunger to do this.Not only for your own elevation as an artist in your own craft-but as someone who truly believes in doing something for communities to help uplift!!!!!!!!And by the smiles and hugs i been getting from people-we might be broke monetarily-but with love and respect-were the wealthiest people i know.........
Live youre dreams yawl-DONT BE AFRAID-whatever u want out of life....take it,punto.
The crew of painters:
Ben-Borish
Cpac-Cece
Yoshi-Erin
Miguelito-Bouncer
Rob-Tres(me of course)
Burner-Shaun
Crew of instigators:
Mikey 1 soul!-Blogg, net specialist
Eric Camins-Videographer
Man, today we had some ol southern hospitality-Some santeria practicin Lousianers in ATL scooped us up, let us take showers at they crib (which was rather fly-byt ), and they fed us yawl! They mde a jumbalaya.who knows what im talkin bout? That aint all-they gave us a car package full of nice soaps and extravagant smells for our trip.
yep folks have been showing us hella love out here-tellin us how much they appreciumated the mural, bringing us small donations(and folks are str8 strugglin'-half of the homes where we are in the Swats are boarderd up!but were literally down the block from Morehouse)
The only draw back is someone jacked one of our cameras we use to do time-lapsed fotos/animations of the mural to show yawl, the folks, and possible funders.
We went to a spot called MJQ-which was crackin! hella lil jon, bonecrusher, crucial conflict, even some jayz, reggae,dancehall, and a kind of ill rock set.As TYS members were moshin-i was checkin out the atl bboys breakin to southernplayalisticcaddilacfunkymusic.
It tayk bout fo five hourez tah unnerstand whut they be sayn, but when u git it, iss awl guud shawty!
We havin some serious car trouble too-but we aint fitna let that stop us-nola is up next. I cant wait to see my cousin and my aun tie-and im getting myself mentally prepared for the shit im bout to see-shit is real.
I ben wonderin when big boi finna come by and see us, where keisha cole and tyler perry live and why folks think the braves logo is raw-that shit is hella racist.If u reading this and u have a few dollars to spare, please hit up the blog and donate what u can shawty.Holler at me if you know of :
Reporters
Artists
Musicians
Business people
Radio DJ's
Good restaraunts in the following areas:
ATL
New Orleans
Austin,TX
Flagstaff,AZ
Phoenix,AZ
werd!
-Rob/Tres
TYS Calamity
"Come Bien" Books
ca-nyc
www.trustyourstruggle.com
peace to my homies/TYS folkers who couldnt make it- Skot La Rockwell,Pele
awmoss fahgot.These people im working with are some of the most talented and silly people ive ever worked with-and i love them.
If u get a chance to holr at one of them-thank them for doing this because it takes a lot of courage,respect,humbleness, ganas, balls, clit, stamina, and hunger to do this.Not only for your own elevation as an artist in your own craft-but as someone who truly believes in doing something for communities to help uplift!!!!!!!!And by the smiles and hugs i been getting from people-we might be broke monetarily-but with love and respect-were the wealthiest people i know.........
Live youre dreams yawl-DONT BE AFRAID-whatever u want out of life....take it,punto.
Jul 7, 2008
Sketchbok funk!
this was a sketch that i came up with for the Danny Simmons Rooftop-TYS Mural Tour Launch party. Look, if you wasnt there. whew!It was crackin.Hella beautiful fokers, drinks, music, art, and a gang of support that we needed to get this tour crackin! If you wasnt thurr and u still want to help.Hit up www.trustyourstruggle.com and hit up the donation button!!!
This is just $%^&* around, messing with the comic format and talking bout growth from trying to educate our youth w/ art thru the school system-to putting the art on they block or in a book that they can read "when they feel they want to" NOT when theyre forced to.
-Rob/Tres
TYS Collective
"Come Bien" Books
CA-NYC
listening to that Fabby Davis Jr. aka Mistah FAB! Bay area whut it do?!
Drawings-for Summer school assignment
they subscribed a summer school assignment-and the theme is Obsession
.Im having a hard time staying on topic when someone else prescribes it and theyre not paying me. But music is ever changing, all encompassing-so thats my topic.
i WAS listening to that Jdavey when i drew this.Man, something about love or sexiness in a strong beat drivenSLAP,Pound,Knock, format that gets the juices flowing everywhere.
this sketch is hella rough but i was there and so was he. Let me just tell you that I saw several old school cats (chubb rock, Jeru, Buckshot, Evil Dee, Special Ed, OC) and PREMIER delivered the most exciting part. I havent seen a Gangstarr show since 2000 so this was hella tight to hear Premier drop the classic joints! Watch out for the series of artistic influences book!
a partial list of music on my mind to get.
-Rob/Tres
TYS, COme Bien
.Im having a hard time staying on topic when someone else prescribes it and theyre not paying me. But music is ever changing, all encompassing-so thats my topic.
i WAS listening to that Jdavey when i drew this.Man, something about love or sexiness in a strong beat drivenSLAP,Pound,Knock, format that gets the juices flowing everywhere.
this sketch is hella rough but i was there and so was he. Let me just tell you that I saw several old school cats (chubb rock, Jeru, Buckshot, Evil Dee, Special Ed, OC) and PREMIER delivered the most exciting part. I havent seen a Gangstarr show since 2000 so this was hella tight to hear Premier drop the classic joints! Watch out for the series of artistic influences book!
a partial list of music on my mind to get.
-Rob/Tres
TYS, COme Bien
"SS " pt. 2 Coming Soon yawl
Ive done about a quarter of the drawings for the new zine-by the time i get off the tour-im going into full finish mode! If you know of some stores where i can slang this-holler !
-Rob/Tres
TYS Collective
"Come Bien" Books
CA-NYC
May 3, 2008
the sketches-TURF
the was the first doodling session
There wasnt no fotos of folks doin it really, so i had to hit play and pause hella times on youtube to get some gestures.
2nd round critique
Back to drawing board
Couldnt find the final.but it was a mixture of figures in the forefront and the background.Overall I wasnt happy with the final illustration, it was the process of doing it that was dope+it added to research of a story you'll one day see.
-Rob/Tres
TYS Crew
"Come Bien"
There wasnt no fotos of folks doin it really, so i had to hit play and pause hella times on youtube to get some gestures.
2nd round critique
Back to drawing board
Couldnt find the final.but it was a mixture of figures in the forefront and the background.Overall I wasnt happy with the final illustration, it was the process of doing it that was dope+it added to research of a story you'll one day see.
-Rob/Tres
TYS Crew
"Come Bien"
Apr 21, 2008
turf assignment-supasickwidit + hellla other folks
Peace yawl, got an assignment for school for drawing a dance troupe. The folks listed were of many dance styles.Ok.....i was born in the Bay so my gut went straight there.So many styles to draw from(Breaking, popping, strutting,etc.) The newest dance that has kids literally forming crews in Palo Alto, San Jo-i think, Oakland, Frisco, Richmond, and probably Berkeley, Concord, Pittsburg, and Vallejo is TURF DANCING-gigging, going dumb, are part of it.
Its BAY fa sho', but influenced by Poppin, strut, a dash of this and that-but its like water man. Old school cats be talking hella shit bout' the youngsters-but I seen some of these crews first hand and well, to put it the way my students in East Oakland said THEY "GO"!!!!
Heres a partial list of crews ive seen in person(SF,Oak), on you tube, and on myspace:
Supasickwidit
Turf Fienz
Architectz
Go Bots
Turf Finatikz
Misfitz
Turf Stars
Turf Jerks
Yellow Bus Boys
Turf Stars
Retro Kids
For some history on the mvmt. peep
http://www.turfdancing.blogspot.com/
heres some videos and sketches(coming soon);that shit is hella hard to capture.
Its BAY fa sho', but influenced by Poppin, strut, a dash of this and that-but its like water man. Old school cats be talking hella shit bout' the youngsters-but I seen some of these crews first hand and well, to put it the way my students in East Oakland said THEY "GO"!!!!
Heres a partial list of crews ive seen in person(SF,Oak), on you tube, and on myspace:
Supasickwidit
Turf Fienz
Architectz
Go Bots
Turf Finatikz
Misfitz
Turf Stars
Turf Jerks
Yellow Bus Boys
Turf Stars
Retro Kids
For some history on the mvmt. peep
http://www.turfdancing.blogspot.com/
heres some videos and sketches(coming soon);that shit is hella hard to capture.
Jan 26, 2008
Pretty Brown Eyes-new new version, aint evem came aht yet!
If youre a fan of 90's soul you should remember Mint Condition right?Peep the remake by
SCSU(Southern Carolina State Univ) Band.The freaked it.Thats the type of shit that makes me wish I went to one of the home comings at Howard!
And the original of course...
Universal wont let me post the video-haters.Go peep it on youtube!
"keep seeing you out alone....pretty brown eyes"
SCSU(Southern Carolina State Univ) Band.The freaked it.Thats the type of shit that makes me wish I went to one of the home comings at Howard!
And the original of course...
Universal wont let me post the video-haters.Go peep it on youtube!
"keep seeing you out alone....pretty brown eyes"
Mores sketches from that time
The concept was of love and riots-little did we know we would do two shows with this name.One in Sac and one in Jersey City.Inspired by protests, actual riots taking place, the hyphy movement,etc.
1st sketches for TYS flyers in Sacramento and Oakland
These are some sketches I showed the crew when I was doing the TYS flyers for our back to back shows in 06'.One in Sacramento-which i couldnt freakin' finish the painting for for(it was too big).And One in Oakland which went well cuz it was home.
Jan 4, 2008
ICE CUBE-Still one of my favorites
Mr. O'shea Jackson is one of the ILLEST Rappers/MC's you'll ever hear.I put this video first to let you know from the late 80's to 08' this %&*$# still flips it-even w/ a Minnie Ripperton sample. Brings up a lot of old memories.Feel me?
-Rob
"searching my car, looking for the product, thinking every %&*$ is selling narcotics!"
Now why did i put this?Cube wrote this and most of Eazy's rhymes!
peep some of L.A.'s finest writers painting in the background....
Larry Fishburne drops some of the best qoutes ive ever heard in this movie.
"why is that the only time black folks get to ride in a limo?!"
old school rap city
"Classic"......"the product"
peep the news reporter in the beginning of this classic collab w/ Chuck D from Public Enemy- That shit was true, an ave of 4-700 young black youths were being murdered every year!
Anybody remember this?Well, stop by J.D.'s myspace page and lend some words cuz the brotha is locked up.Free em all!
Ok, let me drop some TYS knowledge here.
Cube illustrates a REAL story of the spread of crack from the west coast to the south and the midwest.Real talk. Crack cocaine was brought in by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)for two reasons(San Jose Mercury News-Gary Webb).
One, to fuel the genocide of black, then brown, the poor and working class people. Also, around the 80's there were rebellions like the US had never seen before in Guatemala, Nicaragaua, and El Salvador.The money made from Crack sales, went into guns and funds to illegally fight against the Sandinistas and other guerilla armies.Around this time, an epidemic of gang warfare escalated, hundreds were murdered,and even more were "disappeared" or murdered in those Latin Amer. countries. .........peep what Cube says about his jail sentence and the public defender..This was right on because this began the culture of imprisonment, where you now have over 2.3 million "Americans" in prison, and even more on parole or probation.And people of color (Black, Latino,Native American, Asian) make up 80% of the population!
hey, im from oakland, but he had to call him out-he was doing seven much...
the cover doesnt match, but peep these lyrics-think bush is new?Bush Sr. was in office around this time, crack cocaine?hmmmmmmmmmm.
this shit was tight, dont give a fuck what any body say.Peep "Red Hot Chili Peppers" in the background
.Peep the little girl wearing "cross colors"-everybody was wearing those back then. The jam!!!!Isley bRothers sample!
"the message" of course!+ Das Efx!
"Society itself is failing!"-What can i do?"Mack 10" AND "kAusion" hit around this time i believe.Bsides and Bootlegs LP
going back to Ms. Champagne of course...
they pulled out the old school actors for this one-motion pict shit.This was when Snoop dropped the "Murder was the Case" LP
Movies like Trespass,Friday, then Higher learning
after that, im hanging up the line.All i can say is the films got better.A few good cuts sprinkled here and there though.Much love and respect.
-Rob
-Rob
"searching my car, looking for the product, thinking every %&*$ is selling narcotics!"
Now why did i put this?Cube wrote this and most of Eazy's rhymes!
peep some of L.A.'s finest writers painting in the background....
Larry Fishburne drops some of the best qoutes ive ever heard in this movie.
"why is that the only time black folks get to ride in a limo?!"
old school rap city
"Classic"......"the product"
peep the news reporter in the beginning of this classic collab w/ Chuck D from Public Enemy- That shit was true, an ave of 4-700 young black youths were being murdered every year!
Anybody remember this?Well, stop by J.D.'s myspace page and lend some words cuz the brotha is locked up.Free em all!
Ok, let me drop some TYS knowledge here.
Cube illustrates a REAL story of the spread of crack from the west coast to the south and the midwest.Real talk. Crack cocaine was brought in by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)for two reasons(San Jose Mercury News-Gary Webb).
One, to fuel the genocide of black, then brown, the poor and working class people. Also, around the 80's there were rebellions like the US had never seen before in Guatemala, Nicaragaua, and El Salvador.The money made from Crack sales, went into guns and funds to illegally fight against the Sandinistas and other guerilla armies.Around this time, an epidemic of gang warfare escalated, hundreds were murdered,and even more were "disappeared" or murdered in those Latin Amer. countries. .........peep what Cube says about his jail sentence and the public defender..This was right on because this began the culture of imprisonment, where you now have over 2.3 million "Americans" in prison, and even more on parole or probation.And people of color (Black, Latino,Native American, Asian) make up 80% of the population!
hey, im from oakland, but he had to call him out-he was doing seven much...
the cover doesnt match, but peep these lyrics-think bush is new?Bush Sr. was in office around this time, crack cocaine?hmmmmmmmmmm.
this shit was tight, dont give a fuck what any body say.Peep "Red Hot Chili Peppers" in the background
.Peep the little girl wearing "cross colors"-everybody was wearing those back then. The jam!!!!Isley bRothers sample!
"the message" of course!+ Das Efx!
"Society itself is failing!"-What can i do?"Mack 10" AND "kAusion" hit around this time i believe.Bsides and Bootlegs LP
going back to Ms. Champagne of course...
they pulled out the old school actors for this one-motion pict shit.This was when Snoop dropped the "Murder was the Case" LP
Movies like Trespass,Friday, then Higher learning
after that, im hanging up the line.All i can say is the films got better.A few good cuts sprinkled here and there though.Much love and respect.
-Rob
Ms. Evelyn Champagne King!
Y'all dont hear me!
i remember when i came across this sample, all my crate diggers feel me, its like finding a piece to a puzzle.
i remember when i came across this sample, all my crate diggers feel me, its like finding a piece to a puzzle.