Curated by Sacha Jenkins, Creative Director of Mass Appeal, and noted artist and historian David “Chino” Villorente, the all-day event will attract scores of graffiti/street art enthusiasts. The event will also feature local vendors, live music and a books signing by Henry Chalfant and Sacha Jenkins in support of their new book, Training Days: The Subway Artists Then and Now.
“The Burning of Kingston” will be free and open to the public on September 13 from 12-6pm at The Trolley Museum of New York (89 East Strand, Kingston, NY 12402.)
Q: What’s your goal with the “Burning Of Kingston”?
A: Well with the Burning of Kingston, I want people to sort of be able to experience what it was like being in a train yard, what it was like for artists, how these masterpieces were painted. In the past, the trains would show up in the train station and people would see it and either love it or hate it but either way they had no idea what the process was like. Up in the trolley museum in Kingston they have an actual New York City subway train. That’s kind of the ultimate canvas, that’s where the art form was born so to be able to have this kind of event in 2014, to have these legendary artists paint legally on an authentic New York City subway car is something that I think folks will find exciting to experience.
Q: What do you think graffiti means to the culture of New York?
A: Graffiti, or what many people refer to as writing because before it was called graffiti the kids that did it referred to it as writing because that’s what they did, was born at a time when New York was on the verge of being bankrupt. New York has changed dramatically since then. I mean there are cameras everywhere, neighborhoods have been gentrified, and a lot of people who were responsible for the flavor, not just in graffiti but in hip-hop, young people who came up in the city at a time where things were also crazy but exciting. People didn’t have distractions like the internet and cellphones, graffiti represents an old New York. It represents a New York that has now influenced the world, it’s a language that’s global now. The root language is born here in New York City, some refer to the work that was done here as sort of a Latin. A root language that now has multiple dialects around the world. So although the New York that I knew no longer exists, a part of New York has now had an impact and influenced places all around the world.
Q: How did you feel about 5 Pointz getting painted over?
A: 5 Pointz was powerful, you know? It gave folks a legal place to paint and it became an attraction. I grew up in that neighborhood and what 5 Pointz did was, tourists from all over the world went there and I know that 5 Pointz had a heavy hand in transforming that neighborhood. The landlord was kind enough to let the art happen for as long as he did. We live in capitalist America and frankly because of all the art that was happening there, it transformed the neighborhood and it improved his investment. I think New York City should wise up and consider more spaces like 5 Pointz to create opportunities for folks who express themselves and create opportunities for tourism. People really enjoy and respect the art, and people will travel far and wide to experience it.
Q: Tell me about your new upcoming book.
A: My new book is called “Training Days: The Subway Artists Then and Now” and it’s with Henry Chalfant who did the book “Subway Art” which was pretty much the first serious book on subway art. That book traveled the world, it helped us spread the gospel on what we were doing here in New York City. This new book highlights a lot of photographs people haven’t seen from Henry’s collection and the different between this book and subway art is also that there are in depth interviews with a lot of the artists back then. So it’s really heavy on text because I wanted to have these first person narratives breaking down what it felt like, what it smelled like, what the experience was, what New York was like back then. So that book is soon to hit stores any day and come october I’m teaching a class at Pratt Institute called “Graffiti for Designers” and that might be the first class that delves into the history of writing culture but also makes the connection between writing culture and popular culture by way of popular art through graphic design and the other influences and impact that writing culture has had on mainstream society and fine art in general.
Q: Where do you see the overall graffiti culture heading towards? What’s the next step for the graffiti community?
A: Well I mean when we were kids doing it nobody was thinking about what was next. Kids were just going out and painting trains or writing on things. Now people aren’t naïve, the culture isn’t naïve, the culture isn’t brand new anymore, it’s been around for well over 40 years. Now when I was growing up there were kids who were drawn to graffiti for the dangerous aspect of it, or the outlaw aspect of it. Now, it attracts kids who are just artistically inclined. If you’re an artistically-inclined kid in 2014 you know that you can design video games, you can design clothing. These are things that folks who’ve come out of graffiti culture, there are enough examples of people who have made the transition into video games, into film, into fine art. So again I look at it as language and I think that the language that was developed here in New York and in Philadelphia and other places, that will continue to live. It just has to continue to evolve by way of the artists who are pushing the letter form to new places but also how the art and the elements of the art are incorporated into these larger platforms whether it’s the web or clothing and etc. So I think there are actually more opportunities than ever. If you’re talking illegal graffiti it’s extremely difficult if not impossible. The penalties are way stiffer and there are cameras everywhere so I’m not telling people to go out and do illegal graffiti, I’m not telling them not to, but I will say that the penalties makes it extremely challenging to say the least in terms of someone who wants to go the traditional route and keep it real. So I think that as long as there are human beings on the planet there will be people writing on things that don’t belong to them.
Q: With events such as The Burning of Kingston, do you think there will be more programs in the future for graffiti?
A: Well for instance this museum, the Trolley Museum of New York, I am now on the Board of the Museum. My plan is to do more of these events and ultimately I would love for the museum to serve as a sort of what Cooperstown is for baseball. I would love for Kingston New York and the Trolley Museum to represent the same thing for graffiti. There hasn’t been anything like it anywhere in the world and yes of course the Europeans and folks outside of America are always quick to recognize and to appreciate things that we create here but I think it’s high time that we as Americans pay tribute to this art form that was born here. The event is called The Burning of Kingston because it’s taking place in Kingston, New York. In 1776 the Red Coats marched out of Kingston New York because they were on the verge of being surrounded they burned the town down. So the people in Kingston every two years do this commemorative event where they burn things down to sort of commemorate what happened. So in graffiti culture the term “burner” refers to a superior piece of work. So I wanted to incorporate sort of this graffiti vernacular and mix it in with the context of American history in Kingston also as a way to say hey listen, the “settlers,” the people who broke away from England and the Queen, they didn’t want to pay taxes. They came to America, they went against the grain and of course many of us were on the opposite side of how that turned out. But I’m saying that if you want to just be non-biased and just look at the history of America, it’s always been about going against the grain and I think graffiti is no surprise that an art form that goes against the grain would be born in America. So I definitely want to find a way to get to embrace it more. I think people are intimidated by graffiti because like any language you don’t know how to speak, it’s intimidating. So I think the more education we have, the more opportunities we have for artists to express themselves, in the end everyone can win.
Q: Any upcoming projects or shoutouts?
A: There’s the book, the class, I’m doing a book with the Beastie Boys, I don’t know. There’s all kinds of stuff to talk about but again really the focus is I’d love to make Kingston the Cooperstown of graffiti. I’m really excited about being able to teach a class on something that I did as a kid and never expected to make money from, never thought that it would go beyond my teenage years. To know someone like Henry Chalfant whose book was a huge influence on me as a kid. You know I remember sitting in the back of class in the sixth grade just studying subway art to be a man and have an opportunity to collaborate with Henry and do a new book that continues the conversation and talks about the importance of this rich history that I’m loosely related to is exciting for me and being on the inside of documenting history I’ve learned firsthand that there’s always going to be biases. There’s always going to be things that you don’t see as a documentarian. So I encourage more people, especially who are of the culture and that’s what’s really exciting about graffiti is that there are folks inside of it who are in a position to tell the story and I think we need more people, not just me but multiple people to tell the story so we get the most complete view and I’m just working to give people the most complete view not just for me but for history, for the world and what it means on a grander scale.
-Jagpal Khahera
