TheSource.com congratulates Source Magazine editor Sha Be Allah , Rodney C and Ralph McDaniels for being the 2015 Writer’s Bench recipients
Throughout the history of the New York City subway’s aerosol art movement there were meeting places for writers known as writer’s corners or writer’s benches. The majority of these meeting places were in the subway system. The last active location was the 149th Street Grand Concourse subway station in The Bronx, on the 2 and 5 IRT lines. It was active from the 1970s until the decline of subway painting in the late 1980s.
Writers from all over the city congregated at a bench located at the back of the uptown platform. This station was an ideal location for a writer’s bench for several reasons. It was a station where the 2 and 5 lines converged. The 2 and 5 lines featured some of the most artistic works in the city. The fact that many lay-ups and train yards for the 2s and 5s were located in both the Bronx and Brooklyn made creativity on these lines extremely competitive. An overpass connecting the uptown and downtown platforms was an ideal vantage point from which to view the passing trains.
Old school New York writers occasionally visit the site for the sake of nostalgia. Writers post 1989 and writers from outside New York City occasionally visit it as a historical location. 2015 three recipients received lifetime achievement awards from the Writer’s Bench.
Check out the exclusive Source.com 2015 Writer’s Bench awards ceremony above and the gallery below and watch as James Top presents awards to Sha Be Allah, Rodney C and Ralph McDaniels…
#WritersBench2015
-Infinite Wiz (@InfiniteWiz)
