7/12/23
Exhibitions
sampling: Collaborative Hip-Hop Mural
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This summer, we worked with teens from NYC's oldest alternative high school City-As-School to create a series of collaborative murals celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. The murals will be on view in the windows of the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space through August.
Students took a deep dive into The New York Public Library's storied Picture Collection to gather imagery for the collage.
The teen artists also included portraits of themselves alongside early pioneers like Notorious BIG and TLC. It pays to get up close and personal with these works!
“This mural is special to me because it gave me the opportunity to allow a lot of Black faces that you wouldn’t necessarily see to be put up .. you’re able to experience all of Black history and the things that led up to Hip-Hop in bite-sized pieces of artwork.”
"Hip-hop allows me to be myself, how I want to be, and allows me to evolve."
"People should be allowed to interpret it on their own and find what speaks to them the most."
All of gratitude to our partners at The New York Public Library for the archival materials, Hudson Square Properties & Hudson Square Business Improvement District for supporting the installation, and WNYC for amplifying the voices of these emerging artists.