Street Art & Graffiti: We are Here
An excerpt from my novel, Rockit Crew (The Adventures of Teenage Hip-Hop Misfits)
Oftentimes our creativity and fantasies would spill out of our minds and onto an ordinary wall that was in dire need of decoration.
The prospect of spray painting our neon dreams for the general public to see was challenging, mostly because we were so worried about getting caught. The key was preparation. We would draw the picture to scale on paper first, being careful to denote specific colors, shading, etc. And we would always do the deed at night, with flashlights, and at least one designated “lookout” person. And you had to move fast. There was no time for perfection. If we dripped, so be it.
Although there were times when we would simply “tag” a location with nicknames, words or phrases, the real achievements were the glorious colorful productions, which required planning, time and risk. The adrenaline rush of accomplishing those masterpieces in the dark, and the pride we took when seeing them in the daylight, was the coveted prize we sought.
But looking back at this time, there was something else that we were aspiring to do, something much, much greater than simply showcasing our disregard for laws. The real motive, whether we realized it or not at the time, was that we felt like we were invisible and wanted to be noticed. Boys like us, on the fringes of normal, who didn’t trust most adults, who were a little too loud and rough around the edges, were not the center of anybody’s attention. I know now that what we were really doing was shouting to a busy world that we were alive, right here, right now and had something to say, whether you wanted to hear it or not.
Although those walls have long since been painted over, I’ll never forget those spray-painted nights and the teenage graffiti souls who dared to be noticed.
Rockit Crew (The Adventures of Teenage Hip-Hop Misfits) is available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and stellar indie bookstores. The audiobook is available in the US and UK on Audible.
