Francis Powell comes from England (he always says jokingly “he’s neither Scottish nor Irish, but simply plain English”)- however, for the last ten years or so he’s been residing in Paris on a permanent basis. He has made a name for himself as a brilliant musician and a composer of electronic music, known as ‘DJ WISE’ and meanwhile he has been painting beautiful, sort of ‘Art Nouveau- Klimt meets Aboriginal Art’ paintings, all coupled with printed samples of his own creative writing and steady journalism. He often says that he belongs to a certain eclectic British tradition of visual artists who often turned musicians and then turned something else.
The first legitimate question that one can ask at meeting this interesting, Renaissance figure, is – how does he find time and energy to attend to his respective and multifaceted talents.The fact is that he does not attend to any of them superficially or half-heartedly which means that he has a tendency to be equally good in all of his fields of interest. However, this time we will focus on his painterly talent as he has just showed his visual art at the Collective-Coop Gallery simply called L’Usine (the Factory).

Question: What made you attend an Art school? What was it like, what kind of Art College?
Did it do you a lot of good in terms of developing your inner calling and, if yes- in what ways? Did the school do any diservice to yr original talent (stifling it, for instance, and so on?)

Powell: I went to an oppressive English boarding school, where my only retreat was in the art room. The biggest encouragement I received was from my art teacher in this hard institution, so when I was of the age when I needed to choose a career, art school seemed the only natural progression. It is hard to say what I gained from art school. When I was doing my degree in painting, the tutors tried to curtail my ardour for painting. They were restrictive, maybe with some reason, I was trying to let out all this energy I had bottled up, from going to this oppressive school from the age of 13-17 and I wanted to translate this into paintings, while they wanted me to paint basic still lives, in monochrome colours, so we were far apart in this respect. It was not until towards the third year of my degree, I was allowed to let rip. Art school gives you a state of mind, in the way you perceive the world, it teaches you to notice things, others might pass by and feel things others might not feel. It drew up lots of emotions, including frustration, rebelliousness. I learnt things not only about art, but also society, as we had some art-related studies to learn, because the course also had to be part academic to justify it’s status. It was also the period when Mrs Thatcher was vehemently against any course that she perceived as being non-profit making for the country (as opposed to science and business courses). There was a dismantling of the art school, which was an insane move on her part, as English art schools have been very productive and have a fine tradition.

Question: At that time, in England- if I’m not mistaken, and you confirmed that I was not,- interdisciplinary approach was big in art colleges (John Lenon, Eno etc). Who in particular influenced your thinking in an interdisciplinary sort of way- meaning, you’ve been doing music, painting and writing, all at the same time, right?

Powell: I don’t think the tutors at Art colleges, or at least at my one, encouraged students to do any other activities other than painting and drawing and taking photographs. The only piece of valuable advice I ever received from the tutor at my first art school, was to go and a see a film, at least once a week, because films have so much visual information you can feed off. At my degree course, quite a few students had a strong desire to form bands or be part of bands. I discovered a band via friends called “Pigbag” who played this fusion of jazz and punk. One of the members Chris Hamlyn had been a student of fashion at my art college and when I went to see one of their early concerts it just blew me away and I was introduced to a new style of music. I was given one of the first copies of their single “papa’s got a brand new pigbag” and wasn’t just a disciple of their music, I wanted to make similar music to them ,which involved buying a saxophone and learning how to play it. They went on to do world tours and their music received acclaim and their first single can still be heard today and people who love the eighties are still nostalgic about them.
I was part of a band for much of my degree course, and then much to my surprise the band was selected to be part of week of concerts featuring bands connected (supposedly) to Art colleges, which went under the witty banner “Pop goes the easel” On our night we supported The Mekons and Strawberry Switchblade, but on one of the other nights the Smiths played. As to writing, when I was at my first Art school, I was fortunate to meet through a friend a writer called Rupert Thompson, who was in the process of writing his first book “dreams of leaving” having been signed to the well known publisher Bloomsbury. His writing style just really grabbed me. I have not seen him in years, but whenever I see he has a new book published I buy it immediately. His style is so dark and often disturbing but full of imagination and invention. I liked his personality and humour.
He has lived in many countries, which means he has a strong and diverse backgrounds to his stories. I think it is more the like-minded people you meet inadvertently via Art school, than the art school itself that encourages a different range of disciplines.

Question: Tell us the truth- which one of the three is your favorite activity, and why so? How did you construct your DJ Wise personality?

Powell: It is hard to say. All I can say….painting drives me crazy, it is such an intense activity, I get paint everywhere, not only the target canvas or object, I can be in a wild frenzy…. Writing is calming and needs reflex ion. Writing and composing music is calming, but doing concerts/Djing can be tense and you are conscious of the audiences reaction to what you playing. But if the concert goes well, there is no comparable buzz or feeling. You put your head on the block, when you play music live, but if you get it right it is brilliant. Dj Wise personality just grew by chance. I had not Dj-ed for a long time, some people thought I was a Dj in Paris, and asked me to do an event, so I thought, why not and- things evolved from there.
Question: How do these different arts intercept one another and where do they merge?

Powell: I am not sure how they intercept, other than the way time is devoted to each activity.
I think my art and music merges on the account the fact that I love different ethnic cultures. There is a strong African element in my art and I have also used African rhythms/vocal chants in my music. Maybe in terms of my short stories, they are very visual and descriptive and surreal with a dark edge like some of my paintings.

Question: When it comes to visual arts, how come that you choose painting over sculpture or any other genre? What attracts you to painting, color? Drawing? what’s your “kick” or primary attraction to it?

Powell: I would not dismiss any other Art medium or say one is better than an other. At Art college we were given the chance to do sculpture and in a way there are elements of sculpture in work, I love finding discarded objects in Paris and using them in my paintings. My paintings are not flat and two dimensional and I have also used a lot of pieces of broken mirrors. I love the spontaneity of painting. I did an MA at Wimbledon School of Art in printmaking and I sometimes see a printerly quality in my work, despite the fact I have not used any printing process in years.

Question: You live in a foreign country and you’ve traveled a lot- how did your living in Austria enoble yr artistic expression? And what did France did for you? Can you name some of major influences in both places?I can see some great predecessors in your paintings, Matisse in terms of color etc..but I am sure there are some others..Can you elaborate?

Powell: I found Austria, a beautiful country, and Vienna a remarkable city, but the people very restricted and with a small country living in the shadow of German mentality. I did try to get some music out and distributed but there was not the same passion and music industry as in the UK, where there are many record labels. France, on the contrary, after just a few years of living there, has creatively proved to give me almost a second life I could never have imagined. In the UK in the early nineties, I was lucky enough to work with some well known Djs, to get records released and to do some big “raves” as was the fashion in those heady days.
However, I had some terrible managers who gave me terrible advice. In France I have been lucky enough to realise different activities. To have a one man show in Paris, means a lot.
Paris has re-ignited me, it is such a visually stimulating place, there are so many minute details you can see as you walk down the street, such carvings and gargoyles. I have met a lot of interesting people and done some interesting events. The city, rather than invidual painter, is the strongest influence.

Question: What attracts you toward original, aboriginal or so called “primary, primitive forms” in your art , that is, painting? And where does that use of gold leaves come from? Byzantine influences?

Powell:Who knows ? Maybe it was one of my previous lives? There is so much mystery, but at the same time wisdom in so called primitive art. I want there to be spirituality in work and for the element of a painting being a precious object hence the gold leaves.

Question: What are your projects for future, any projects in particular? Meaning, this is the inverse way of asking : how do you see your art developing, in what direction?

Powell: Sometimes with my projects, they seem to come to fruition a long time after my original conception. The idea of making soundscape installations appeals to me a great deal. I hope to work with another artist to create a “bande designe” (cartoons) for a short I have written. Last year I started to get involved with making short videos and this is something I hope to develop, but this is something very time consuming and not as immediate as painting and music.

Question: You are also a writer and a critic, journalist, correspondent… How does it feel to live a language without reference, meaning to listen to foreign language all the time? Nourishing or a reductive experience for you?

Powell: It is strange but sometimes I walk out of my apartment (if my mind is immersed in some creative pursuit) and it takes me a bit of time to take in the fact that I am in foreign country. Sometimes I am tuned into the foreign language, sometimes I am so immersed in m my own world that I don’t even hear it!

Question: Is there any other form of visual art that interest you, that you’d like to explore in future (such as film, video, etc…) Or, have you already worked on it and I am not aware of it?

Powell: Yes, principally video, as it offers another dimension combing the visual information of something I have filmed with my music and also poetry/video combinations.

Question: What is it in the French art world that you like, and what is it that you’d like to change? How different is it from the British “art market”?

Powell: I have a friend in the UK, who is a talented artist/printmaker Andrew Tyler whose work I really have admired, and he was in year above me at Art College. I feel he should have received a lot more attention, because his work is so special. Maybe if he had lived in a different place he might have been in a different situation. It is very hard in the UK, to gain gallery recognition and to make a progress as an artist. I was left in limbo for many years after leaving art college, frustrated at the lack of opportunities. I am not a great networker.
Of course in Paris, you have to be persistent, but if you can find a galley where you find a niche, it is a good place for Artists. I have also heard that Berlin is the place to be, as it offers cheap studio space for artists and a lot going on.

 

“Izm”
Works by HiCoup
Curated by Justina Mejias
A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery
285 East 3rd St., 2nd Floor, NYC 10009
June 19-July 31
Opening reception 6-9pm, Thurs. June 19, 2008

Racism. Sexism. Alcoholism. Hedonism. Opportunism. Nationalism…

Deconstructing the different “isms” that pervade society, hip-hop emcee and visual artist HiCoup (Haiku) presents a mixed media abstract impressionist rendering of the societal influences that bombard us since conception in the womb.

“Izm” is an artistic exploration of the landscape of humanity through it’s conditioning both conscious and subconscious.

The exhibit features both found items (Doors, specifically) as well as figurative works in more traditional manifestations echoing a microcosm of similar examination. Doors become the center-piece because of their three-dimensional ability to create the metaphoric body. Also chosen for their utilitarian, universal qualities, they evoke a personal relevance to those who stand before them. The viewer is invited to create their own narrative through the lens of their own “isms” as we are all casualties of societies influence.

Combing graffiti art, cartoonist comic book-like drawings, with a suggestion of Basquiat/Pollock-like technique, the works display an array of color palates, displaced anatomy, random text, and variety of emotionally charged reckless and intentional “spatterings.”

HiCoup is a hip-hop emcee and visual artist hailing from New Jersey. He received a BFA in Art from Jersey City University with a concentration in Painting & Drawing.
He has participated in both group and solo shows at many local galleries including the DBC Gallery in NYC and Iandor Fine Arts Gallery in Newark. An acclaimed emerging rapper, he has performed with such veterans as Ludacris, Dead Prez, Mos Def, Bootcamp Click, and Wu Tang Clan.

For more information contact:
Justina Mejias, Curator
justinamaria@msn.com
www.tribes.org

Time: May 25, Sunday, 12 - 6 pm, 2008
Venue: Union Square Park, New York City

*Frustrated with Pollution?
*CREATE A WORK OF ART!
* Make a Human Sculpture.
* Decorate artist Chin Chih Yang
with the various waste material provided.
*Have a ball, and do as you please!
*Sign your work, and take a picture with your creation.
*We’ll be sure to e-mail it to you.

Title: 1,000 years

Chin Chih Yang’s work addresses society’s efforts to protect itself physically and psychologically against various catastrophes, both natural and man-made. These include environmental problems, such as pollution, as well as the effects of totalitarianism, surveillance, plus quarantine and isolation.

1,000 dollars is not a lot. 1,000 days is not too long. But 1,000 years is a long, long time. Can you imagine how much waste we accumulate every day? Do you know that it will take more than 1,000 years for our trash to become biodegradable in the landfills, which emit harmful greenhouse gases ?

THE FADE OF CHARITY:

New Orleans’ Closed Hospital, Booker, and the Present’s Odd Friend–The Past

“Nothing being more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than its hour…”
So begins the holographic will of Jean Louis, a sailor who died in 1736 and left the seed money for the first Charity Hospital of New Orleans. “My debts having been paid and the above provisions [money for orphans and a large crucifixion for a church to be determined] having been executed, a sale shall be made of all that remains, which, together with my small lot, I bequeath to serve in perpetuity to the founding of a hospital for the sick of the City of New Orleans….”¹

From Louis’ benevolence, the first Charity Hospital was erected on the then-outskirts of town, the land between present day Rampart, Basin, St. Peter, and Toulouse Streets. Named St. John Hospital, by 1737 it had 5 patients and “served a dual purpose of hospital and asylum to the indigent poor.” Services and structure grew over the next 40 years, only to be destroyed by the hurricane of 1779. The effects of its loss can be seen in the laments of the Spanish Governor Miro: “Many sick paupers are now wandering throughout the city in quest of shelter and succor and are hourly exposed to perish up the very streets, or in some obscure by-corner.”

In the wake of the destruction, Miro was encouraged and supportive of a new benefactor, Don Andreas de Almonaster y Roxas, who offered to fund the rebuilding of Charity and direct its operations. For the great amount of $114,000, he had one provision: that the material salvaged from the wreckage of the old hospital should be used in the construction of a new structure. Apparently this struck many New Orleanians as utterly ridiculous, and the public rebukes of Almonaster were harsh enough to bring a defense from Miro:

And why should this worthy alms-giver be looked upon in so questionable a light? If, at the time when the building was still standing, someone would have offered to build an annex to it, would any objection have been made, had one of its walls looking on the improved side been utilized in the same construction?….It is not less surprising that you should have taken this matter in hand at the very time when unexpected assistance is being tendered from other quarters, and which might be withdrawn, were I to acquiesce in your pretentions to have this worthy gentleman appear before you, and beg your leave for the accomplishment of a work of public utility. ²

Three years after the hurricane, ground was broken and the building was completed in 1784. Soon after Miro left for Spain, Almonaster struggled for control of the hospital and fell into dispute with the new governor, Baron de Carondelet. The contest went all the way to the court of the colony at Havana and finally to the King of Spain, and ended with Don Almonaster losing his founders rights. By 1792, a letter from Pontalba to Miro, now in Spain, noted that Don Almonaster “is entirely disgusted with being benevolent.” Almonaster died in 1798 and his remains were interred in St. Louis Cathedral in what is now Jackson Square.
**

One Saturday in April 2008, I spend the afternoon on the lawn of the shuttered hospital, sitting and thinking about James Booker, the great piano player. I do this at lunch some days, whenever I have the time and bent. This time I’ve brought a new camera. A few months ago, barbed wire fence went up and I can no longer walk to the main entrance or ascend the wheelchair ramp to the emergency room door. The focus of the lens is my recourse for detail.

As I put the camera back in the van, a truck pulls up on Tulane Avenue. An older man with white hair and a short goatee and sunglasses sits in the driver’s seat. His passenger is a younger guy, close-cropped brown hair and green eyes, a little edgy.

“We’re looking for Charity Hospital,” the driver says with a smile. “That’s it,” I say, thumb over my shoulder, “but it’s closed.”

“It’s closed?” He asks.

“Been closed.”

The passenger visibly sinks in his seat, lets out a low groan.

“Thank you.” They pull away.

**

The Charity Hospital that stands vacant in New Orleans today is the 6^th structure to carry that name, erected for the same purpose as its predecessors—providing welfare for the indigent. Previous buildings had either burned or were worn out. The 5^th edition closed in 1937, replaced by the present giant on Tulane Avenue. Like so much of life in Louisiana at that time, the transition to a new hospital played out under the shadow of Huey P. Long.

In 1933, the hospital applied for federal Public Works Administration funding for a replacement. The boiling feud between FDR and Senator Long stalled what might’ve been an easy process. Long’s prohibition of federal aid to the state, passed by the Long-controlled state legislature, effectively killed the application until Huey himself was assassinated in September 1935.

By the following year, the Roosevelt administration and Baton Rouge were on good terms again, and the money began to flow. FDR even made a stop at Charity during a visit to New Orleans as part of his reconciliation with Long’s successors. The construction of a new building was approved in September 1936.
Demolition of the old hospital was complete by February of 1937. In a fitting turn on Almonaster’s clause of 1779, building materials from the old Charity were spirited away by Long’s circle, ending up in new mansions on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The ensuing scandal–or rather this scandal’s place in the larger ménage of scandals–brought down several of the Long faction, including Governor Richard Leche (whose name graces the cornerstone of the current Big Charity).

What rose in place of the plundered ruins was the second largest hospital in the US. The architects followed the design of the New York City Hospital (now known as New York-Presbyterian), with some modification: separate floors for black and white patients.

According to the hospital’s 1942 Annual Report, the leading causes of death at Charity in 1939 were diseases of the heart, influenza and pneumonia, nephritis, cancer, and tuberculosis. The statistics are broken out into columns for Total, White, and Col., or Colored.

**

It is nothing to say that Charity resembles a fortress; that is obvious yet out of date. Now it is a fortress-turned-ruin, or, rather, a ruin in the making, whose original purpose is still clear, reachable. Little imagination is involved to conjur the original condition. Much more for a vision of a future.
Dark plywood closes off the front door, one of the handrails lies toppled on the steps. Closer to the curb stand two guard posts, one on each side of the sidewalk. Blanched mini-blinds remain on the windows of the right post, hang down its glass door. The left building is knocked open at one end, the tile walls off-white, bared to nature. The plywood covering the windows is so light it blends into the pale limestone. All of it behind barbed wire fence.

The hospital’s face is smeared with a black soot, uneven and rough, like swipes of charcoal. The whole neglected body seems to loiter, shamed and unemployed. Really, the neglect of so much of the city is what leads to any permanence, not direction or purpose. We grow long grass, plastic bags, chipped brick, and wildflowers. Not just daisies, but little pink things. New Orleans: fading to agrarian all over the banged up landscape.
I move down to the path to the entrance, and sit on one of the empty planters. After a few minutes, I realize a large caterpillar is riding on my arms, and I shudder and brush it off. This is where people used to smoke, I think.
**

The hospital is closed because a new hospital must be opened.

Charity is within the Louisiana State University hospital system. One of the centerpieces of the planned recovery is a new LSU teaching hospital, with “high-end specialty care that can also attract private-paying patients.” (TP 5/29/08). Mayor Nagin and his recovery chief, the star-crossed Ed Blakely, are onboard, and an historic residential neighborhood may be demolished to make way for this great biomedical beacon. In his May 28^th State of the City speech, Nagin asked the audience to travel with him to the future, where “[Y]ou pass through the biomedical district, where researchers and residents are leaving their offices after a hard day’s work of cancer or diabetes research. You pass beautiful mixed income housing developments and a state-of-the-art justice complex….”³ The old Charity must rot until the yellow-brick road to its replacement is clearly laid.

Like much of the so-called recovery process, it didn’t have to be this way. Yet, from the first days of Katrina, the writing was on the wall—Charity had to go.
According to a doctor who worked through the storm, morale at Charity remained high, despite countless challenges, including the total loss of power, rampant diarrhea, and sniper fire:

At the suggestion of our nursing co-director, we made a banner from sheets — “9 West has a big heart, Katrina can’t tear us apart” — and hung it out the fire escape. In 24 hours, 15 more banners followed on other units. One night, we hosted a flashlight-illuminated talent show, to which we invited everyone — including the patients with tuberculosis, who donned N95 masks.

This doctor also watched

… helicopters ceaselessly evacuating insured patients from the roof of nearby Tulane Hospital while our 250 patients were evacuated by twos or threes in boats said to lead to buses that sometimes did not appear. These halting efforts were interrupted for hours by gunfire. No National Guard was in evidence, other than as intermittent rescue personnel. Even colleagues at the neighboring Veterans Affairs hospital were unaware of the desperate conditions at Charity. Because our unit had a functioning telephone line and I had friends with media connections, I was able to communicate our situation to television and radio reporters. I received calls offering helicopters and one from CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. When I sought clearance for him from hospital officials, they gruffly asserted: “He can film whatever he wants; the media is our rescue plan now.” When television cameras were pointed at us, the help came faster and more effectively.⁵

After the storm, a team of doctors, volunteers, and military personnel worked to clean up several floors in the hospital for temporary use. Citing a ruined electric system and the effects of the heat on asbestos (ironically, derived from the Greek for “fire resistant”), LSU refused to open the floor or take any steps toward repairs. In January 2008, a group of uninsured residents filed suit against LSU, charging that the hospital refused to allow independent inspectors to investigate the hospital and the possibility of salvaging it. As one activist noted, “Basically, you have the state and other government entities getting out of the business of delivering any public services,” to people in the city.⁶
**

Booker was born and died in Charity. His ghost and the ghosts of thousands have the hallways and stairwells and wards to themselves. The poor of the now get the underside of an overpass and a clinic in a double-wide, if they’re lucky.
The story is that Booker was left at the hospital that day in 1983, left maybe by a frantic coke buddy, perhaps someone he’d just met at a bar on Orleans Avenue, and then left again by the hospital staff, to die unattended in the waiting room. Booker always wore a patch over one eye, and the story goes that the nurses assumed his eye was the ailment that had brought him to the emergency room, and so didn’t think his was an urgent case.
The story also goes that Booker lost his eye after a money dispute with the, um, unsavory crew of Ringo Starr. (This was his explanation for the sequined star on the patch.) Booker told friends that Ringo had beat him out of session pay, but Booker’s friend Dr. John told me that Booker had scammed to get paid 3 consecutive times over the course of a few hours, preying on the Starr crew’s acid-addled short term memory. On the third try, the crew got wise and Booker lost his eye.

I guess I believe Dr. John.⁷
**

One description of the characters who frequented that waiting room in the 1980’s includes the story of an old fellow who

…repeatedly came to receive care for asthma and for foul-smelling, severe leg ulcers covering his ankle and calf areas. He used various home remedies for his asthma and leg ulcers and insisted on wrapping his lower legs with some form of foliage that appeared to be banana leaves. One day, after receiving his usual treatment of antiseptic soaks, slight debridement, and topical antibiotics, he mentioned that ‘roach tea’ helped to retard the progression of his asthma and his leg ulcers. When asked how the tea was prepared, he said: “You goes to the kitchen late at night and turns on the light quickly and grabs up the roaches before they can run away…. Then you puts them in boiling water to make tea.” ⁸

**

Within a year of completion, the new Charity began to sink into the marsh of New Orleans. “By January 1939, it was nine [inches] below its starting point, more than two and a half times the average settlement in the city.”⁹ The pilings that formed the footprint of the building should have clued the architects into the coming “settlement.” According to one eyewitness, “It was really something to see when only one blow of the pile driver would send even one of the long pilings completely through the muck on which the foundation was being laid. They would disappear right before your eyes.”¹⁰ Rumors spread that the first floor had disappeared into the soil, so that when you walked in the front entrance, you were in the second floor. This wasn’t the case, but the sinking continued until 1943, when the building settled at 17.86 inches deep.

James Booker belonged to the first generation of babies born at the new Charity. He came into the world on December 17, 1939, when approximately 13 inches of the first floor had sunk into the mud.

**

In May 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservation declared Charity Hospital and its surrounding neighborhood one of the “11 Most Endangered Places” in the US. The trust’s director noted:

The reuse potential as well as the architectural and cultural significance of Charity Hospital should not be ignored in the process of determining the fate of this historic treasure. We cannot afford to stand idly by and allow the loss of such a valuable and architecturally significant building, along with the destruction of a large portion of the nearby historic neighborhood.¹¹

Other places on the list include California’s National Parks and the Lower East Side.

**

A block down Robertson Street, between Tulane & Canal, there sits a bar. Surrounded by parking lots, the bar is one of those narrow, rowdy, isolated spots we love down here. Sometimes I sit on that back deck and stare at the ashen face of Charity.
The Art Deco symmetry is supplemented now by dashes of coppery green below most windows.

A faded red curtain hangs in a corner window. The floodlights mounted atop the guard’s post appear intact. On one of the flagpoles, the cord is still attached, waiting on a flag. The LSU sign is in good shape.
“Charity Hospital of New Orleans” is engraved in the limestone in an Art Deco font. Above both guard stands, in the same font: “Visitors.” The branches hang down low over the sidewalk, and would impede an ambulance, or a speeding car.

Booker must have been someone’s emergency. How did it happen? Was he taken up the emergency room ramp on the side of the building, or dumped at the curb, or did someone grab a wheelchair, rush back out and take his slumped body out of the car, then wheel him in and dash?

Earlier, when he was born, Booker must have lain among all the other newborn black babies in the black ward, and screamed. In that scream was the voice I listen to late at night. The hands he balled up in the crib would grow into the hands of “The Bayou Maharaja,” “The Black Liberace,” “The Piano Prince of New Orleans.” Booker was a phantom genius, one in a beautiful, tortured line that began before there was any such thing as a state, or a nation.

He was born and died at Charity Hospital. Where would he be born now? Where would he die?

A Gathering of the Tribes and The Aquarian Arts (aquarianarts.org) are co-sponsoring a poetry contest. First prize will be $150 and publication in Tribes literary magazine. Second: $75, Third: $50. Deadline is July 1st. Send up to 3 poems (include SASE for winners) and a $5 dollar entry fee made payable to The Aquarian Arts, 502 Plandome Road , Manhasset , NY 11030 . Deadline is July 1st.

Finalist Judge will be Yerra Sugarman who received the 2005 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry for her first book, Forms of Gone, published by The Sheep Meadow Press in 2002. Her second book, The Bag of Broken Glass, was published in January 2008, also by Sheep Meadow. She is the recipient of a “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Prize, a Chicago Literary Award, the Poetry Society of America’s George Bogin Memorial Award and its Cecil Hemley Memorial Award. Born in Toronto , she lives in New York City , where she has taught creative writing in undergraduate and MFA programs. She is currently teaching poetry at Rutgers University and is Writer in Residence at Eugene Lang College - The New School for Liberal Arts.

Winners will be notified and posted online.

By Andrew Ranard and Lincoln Anderson

John Ranard, an East Village photographer known for his work documenting boxing, Russia during the period of perestroika and AIDS in Russia, died of liver cancer at Mt. Sinai Hospital on Wed., May 14. He was 56. …

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_264/johnranard.html

If you have any writing about or in memory of John please send it to info@tribes.org

He is missed.

Anne Van der Linden comes from a wealthy middle-class French family
who allowed her at an early age to launch into an artistic adventure
which he has never returned from afterwards. She was born in England, in 1959, but she was raised in France. She started drawing in the
stream of conscioussness manner age seventeen, only to trasfer
her interest to other genres while studying at the French Academy of
Beaux-Arts. Perhaps it was this negative experience of the art school
that prompted her to work all alone in her studio. She understood that
the joy of contemplation and a challenging emotion could also serve the language of figuration and that these could be equally expressed
through an expressionist drawing. Her drawings thus became at the
same time serious and reminiscent of those ancient echtings of Dürer
and Bosch and also critically charged and merciless somewhat like
those caricatures of Otto Dix and Max Beckmann.The artist’s drawings challenge those ‘dangerous’ or socially (un)acceptable topics– she often asks a question whether all our relationships, including the family, sexual and the ones at work - are just a simple exercise of power ? The artist always answers this question in a brave and humorous manner as she reaches for the heritage of her great predecessors, notably authors such as de Sade, Bataille and Frida Kahlo who, in their turn, refused any given socal norms that stood in their way of being creative. The drawings of Van der Linden’s are more than provocative- they are often ladden with the ‘erotic’ symbols as exemplified by the beautiful females resembling the top models placed on the torture table of the Great Inquisitor who, in splashing their sex with boiling oil represents, perhaps, common reason and consciousness. There are also in there the fallen angels who descend from Bosch’s inferno and who devour penises in the red houses of Amsterdam and Antwerp.The constant themes of the artist’s obsession are the following: the terror of racism, neocolonisation, consumerism and an overall industrialization of the society staggering both under the social regulations and family norms as well as under an influx of the pseudo-scientific and technological consciousness. And in an ancient expressionist manner her drawings also criticize the sanctum of motherhood, as they are critical of the Virgin and the Saint and of our new Holy father who hides a knife, an animal and a telephone in his pants instead of the penis. We could surely say that the girl who makes love to a phone receiver evokes more a naif symbolism of the neo-technocrat world than that she leads us to the erotic connotation of Van der Linden’s image.

The artist complains that despite the fact that “all that she has always wanted to do is to be a painter” she gets sollicited by the publishers only as an illustrator. This is mainly due to her painfully precise analyses of the contemporary society, that is her drawings which often decorate the texts that are serious textual analyses of such. She treasures that painterly approach to color and the painter’s material which often does not reveal itself to draughtsmen. Van der Linden had been visiting for some time psychiatric wards- an experience which left an impact on her; after such an experience she conceived the painting “Total peeling” on which a patient tries to peel off her own skin and flesh. In a certain way, the whole oeuvre of Van der Linden’s enters the category of “peeling off” of the conscious as the paintings evoke the reality peeled off and penetrated to the bone. Her palette is very heavy and sombre resemling a bit Diego Rivera’s, although her overall sensibility belongs to the European art history.

The artist has also got involved in theater (through 1990s), performance and film, earlier with her legendary partner Costes. Her short films such as the “Ironing” and the “Well”, 1999,treat cruel subjects: the problem of an alcoholic mother and life of a cleaning lady who gets literaly ironed by her boss. And although these films are both committed and heavy just like the artist’s very painting they are also capable of keeping our attention on them- the phenomenon which surpasses many a contemporary artist and his work these days. If we were to ask about the number of Van der Linden’s group or solo shows in the world we would learn that such number is big; and if we wanted to inquire about the importance or a scope of the places where she showed her work we would also learn that it has been very present in many prestigious places in the world. However, when we start thinking of the artist’s work, this particular thing is not something that we begin to think of. The important thing is that her art approves of thinking, so to speak, and at the moment when she flashes her art like a gun or a glove , to the face of the spectator, he takes a good look at it- and starts thinking about it.

Her work is to be seen most recently at Les Singuliers Gallery in Paris.

1. Question: What made you draw and paint in your life to begin with? Do you
remember your earliest stages of interest?

Anne Van der Linden: As a child I had access to art books and art pieces as my mother managed a small art gallery in Paris - she sold contemporary prints.
My first drawing experiments happened in the 70’s. At that time
everybody smoked pot and I did the same for a while, so in that sort of context I started drawing the improvisations, free association figures, objects and shapes, all of which were very distant from the academic type of artwork, meaning that they appeared very spontaneous. Then I went to art school and lost that manner, but in a way I kept the “free association” mood until now.

2. Question: I called you a sort of “female Durer”…What draws you towards drawing
and etching as medium, and do you prefer that medium to oil painting ?

Anne Van der Linden: In the beginning drawings and etchings were the skeleton on which I had built my painting skill (isn’t that a classic one?!), that was the place where the idea materialized, nothing
more or less than that. Then a friend suggested that I just show my drawings
as he thought them very good, and I followed his advice.
However, the truth is that I still prefer painting (mix of oil and acrylic) to any other tehnique. Painting is really the cult object for me…maybe because the painting material makes the object look like a corpse, as it smells, shines, and appearing sometimes repulsive and at some other times
attractive, it is more ambiguous, and interchanging according to lightning etc…

3. Question: What are its advantages and what are the limitations of that medium?

Anne Van der Linden: Drawing is easy to be reproduced, you hardly get bad surprises, also you can draw everywhere, you don’t need much room.
Drawing is the place of research, and by using the line you try to bring out
ideas, and you can throw away the sheet if you are not satisfied with the result, thing that you cannot do so easly with painting, because it is so sticky and wet it
becomes quickly fused and saturated with color. Plus, you don’t want to run through the canvas too quickly because of the high price of the material!
But drawing -the way I conceive it - is a very austere technique, I sit at my table
for hours and sometimes I get hand cramps. Also it can take me quite a long
time to fill the blank space and « kill » the paper sheet, unlike the medium of painting where you use a few brush strokes and that’s it, the space of the canvas is conquered in no time- it becomes my space!

4. Question: How do you chose your subject , your themes in painting? Do you search for them or do they come to you?

Anne Van der Linden: It comes from varied sources, some images come from what I saw and that particular experince then influenced and inspired me to paint it, or also, there are ideas which I am not fully aware of and which come to me from the ‘back room’ of my mind…
Most of the time things appear to my mind as set choreographies, and then the
action becomes more precise from one study to another. The idea
develops simultaneously with the shape, and after a few aborted attempts at legitimate existence it reaches the state of harmony, I mean I experience it as such when the image starts “talking” to me.
Sometimes I take over the subject from one image to another, developing the so called ’small variations’ of the original version.

5. Question: Given the fact that your subject is often political (social commentary etc), Would you call yourself an « engage »? A committed artist of a sort? How do you see your work in a larger context?

Anne Van der Linden: My art talks about mankind and doesn’t avoid any aspect of humanity, I use obscenity, violence, sexuality and all our orifices as means of
expression, and automatically that makes a committed artist out of me, as I have to account for the choices I make.
A Feminist? It is a questionable tag for me to get- sometimes I can adopt a feminine point of view and explore some subjects that have been unexplored because they belong specifically to women’s domain of work. Sometimes these are themes which women have not dealt with much until now,
so it is interesting to use certain paths to explore them.
But in general my position as an artist is the one of “transgender”, meaning being beyond sexual determination, just like an animal is,so that I could feel more free in such an operating space.
Also I happened to be rejected by so-called feminists, who thought
that I was presenting a degrading image of women. I thought that their opinion was so unfair and boring! Such a mental sclerosis!

6. Question: What’s the situation like in French contemporary scene? Closed or
open? Likable, or rather dislikable?

Anne Van der Linden: Well, viewing things from my personal experience, the French scene is quite shy, at the same time full of the inferiority complex and conservative, always looking up to foreign countries art scene and deciding what is good in art or not, and the result of such a process is disastrous as we all know. Also the institutions have been adamant for decades that their rôle con sisted in promoting the old conceptual art, and all of us painters sculptors etc…could just go and die elsewhere.
However, on the other hand, here in France I can make and broadcast pieces of
art that could easily put me in trouble if I ‘d shown them in other parts of the
world. That lack of censorship here IS good!

7. Question: What’s your experience with film, video? Do you like working with
that media?

Anne Van der Linden: I have made 3 short films some years ago (2000-2001), and I used to develop and extend the themes of my paintings into film, in order to make them move into action, and this sort of experience was interesting. What I mean is that these films were close to performances, with a more material, everyday life aspect to them than my painterly images had before.
But the filming of these images hasn’t been an easy process- Ii had conflicts with the technicians I was working with and this problem has been blocking me and my filming process eversince.

The first time we encounter John Cage, we think that he is somewhat interesting.  

Teaching a music appreciation class to a small group of high school students, I performed 4′33″ for them one day outside.  About 30 seconds into the first movement, one of them said, ‘oh, I get it.’  Still, I think there is some legitimacy for the school of gradual enlightenment.

The second time we encounter John Cage, we think he is a dilettante.  

Sometimes it is hard to see the extent to which Cage’s work participates in the modern Western musical tradition.  But the fact that he studied composition with many big names (”Schoenberg,” e.g.) gives him an interesting credence.  In addition to the later compositions which stretch the concept of music to its breaking point, he does have a number of more understandably musical works, which are in their own way very successful pieces.  Percussionists have noted to me that it is Cage’s earlier work for percussion, etc. ensembles which are most widely appreciated in their circles, while most of the world thinks of 4′33″ as Cage’s most famous piece.  In any case, neither his thoughts nor his compositions are the ramblings of one ignorant of music.  The issue of silence in Cage’s music, for example, though rich with many non-Western ideas, still maintains its relation to occurrences in more strictly western academic music.  The notion of musique concrète has been a legitimate compositional technique since Varèse.  Indeterminacy, as Cage himself argued, has been around for much longer.  In fact, it was only within a very limited historical period in which all musical elements were completely determined by the composer’s dictations as written in a score.  Calling the noise of everyday life a piece of music is merely an additive process using both the notions of sampling and indeterminacy.

The third time we encounter John Cage, we think he is more interesting than we had realized before.

A collection of 91 measures of rest in ¾ meter, where the quarter note equals 60 beats a minute turns out to be precisely four minutes and thirty-three seconds.  A fermata in music can also be dictated with a length of time as needed.  What is the significance of the indication of “tacet” which constitutes the instructions for this piece?  Tacere - to be silent; an excellent mode for listening.  Counting rests keeps the musician’s attention in the music.  The trumpet parts for Beethoven’s third piano concerto, second movement, indicate tacet-a sense of relief of being able to just take it all in.  Imagine the peace of having all three of the movements indicate tacet.
One of the prerequisites for taking Cage seriously is taking Buddhism seriously.  Today, we make a vague connection between hippies and Eastern thought, and for many hippies themselves it was doubtfully any more than vague.  But despite such an association, or perhaps because folks in the 60’s popularized it in the West, the philosophical ideas within of Buddhism, Taoism, and other ways of thought from Asia have come to be taken as very legitimate and productive notions with which to work.  But for musicians and composers, the concepts Cage was working with are very difficult to harmonize with traditional beliefs.  Brought up on the concept, however vague, of the genius, of self-expression through music, of pieces of music composed, owned, and appreciated by the subjectivities of individuals, to consider for a moment that there is no self that underlies all of it contradicts the very idea of music.  If I am not metaphysically more significant than the wind in the trees, how could my creations be qualitatively different?  To be sure, we all enjoy the wind in the trees.  People sell CDs of it.  But to say it is the same is to break down every possible barriers of what music is and is not.  A Zen koan is a pedagogical tool, in a sense, but it teaches us very little about Buddhism.  4′33″ is a musical composition, and this tells us everything about what music is.  Cage continued to compose music, after he negated the concept - a kind of Bodhisattva.

The fourth time we encounter john cage, we think he just copied Marcel Duchamp.

As with a lot of avant-garde art, the initial reaction to much of Cage’s work is something along the lines of “well, I could do that!”  Or to be dramatic, one might attribute the ability to something even less intelligent than one’s self.  “Well, my dog could do that!”  “Well, my infant could do that!”  When it comes to some works, this is simply not true.  When people mistake technical simplicity for facility, for example in Mondrian, they fail to realize what went into creating such clarity.  With Cage, however, we can write and perform work at a technically comparable level.  True, from 1960 on, we would be copying Cage.  But in contrast to the discourse in the plastic arts, Cage shares with Fluxus a feeling of welcome-that it would be good for us to listen to and ‘compose’ some happenings, some chance occurrences, or some periods of silence.

The fifth time we encounter john cage, we begin to appreciate his genius.  

We could say that people like Cage, Morton Feldman, and all those others were a product of their artistic era.  But we could also say that the 1950’s and ‘60’s - as we now understand the time period 40 years later, was a product of these people.  Creativity itself has been changed by what Cage did and wrote, and even though music seems to have continued though nothing has happened, it is as a child who plays in a field even though he has learned to climb the fence.

LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES

Dear Editor,
In another two weeks we invite tenders to participate in our art festival ARTRMX COLOGNE VOL. 01! Artists worldwide are called to apply and be part of our art off show in Cologne at August 2008. We would be very pleased, if you publicise the last call for our open tender at your web page.

Photographers, street artists, graphic artists, painters and video artists can send in their works to the given subject “WHERE IS MY MIND?” until April 15th 2008. In collaboration with artistic advisors, the artrmx e. V. will assemble and distribute the artworks among different off-spaces throughout Cologne. The jury members are as follows: Dr. Barbara J. Scheuermann (curator “Tate Modern London”), Claudia Stein (chief editor “photography now”, Berlin), Gérard Goodrow (former director “Art Cologne”), Rik Reinking (curator | collector, Hamburg), Zevs (street artist, Paris), Boris Hoppek (street artist and graphic designer, Barcelona), Wolfgang Zurborn (artist, gallery owner “Lichtblick”), Markus Schaden (publisher, “Schaden.com”) , Prof. Julia Scher (artist | professor “KHM”, Cologne), Georg Elben (curator | head of “Videonale” 10 und 11 in Bonn) etc.

Alert, unconventional and inventive artworks are wanted, reflecting the present artistically or in documentary style. The participation fee amounts 40 Euro. For further information, participation conditions and application forms, check our web page: http://www.artrmx.com.

The friendly art society artrmx e.V. is responsible for the ARTRMX COLOGNE conception, the organisation, the PR and execution of the programme as well as for the realisation of an exhibition booklet and a catalogue. In addition the artrmx e.V. will arrange a frame programme, a symposium, a vernissage and a finissage party. Profits of sales out of the works created will go directly to the artists. They also will be given an exemplar of the catalogue and have free entry to all events related to the festival.

The festival will take place between the 22nd of August until the 30th of August.

Press release: http://www.artrmx.de/ARTRMX_pressrelease.pdf

Picture download (free of charge by naming the photographer “Martin Menke”): http://www.artrmx.de/ARTRMX-KeyVisual.jpg

With pleasure we also answer all additional questions on the phone.

With best regards,
Iren Tonoian

Susanne Lee
227 Waverly Place, #6A
New York NY 10014
(212)620 -0165

Directions for being Colored, Asian/Female
Sample Dialogues & Exercises
Levels: Beginning to Advanced

1. Basics
   (Repeat as many times as necessary.)
   • “Where are you from?”
     “L.A.”
     “No, where are you really from?”
     “L.A.”
     Note: The inquisitor wants and expects answers like Taipei, Shanghai or Hong Kong. Any American city confuses them; not that they are really interested in any of the locations. They cannot wrap their minds around the notion that you could be from anywhere else less foreign.
   • “I really like your dim sum.”
     “And I love your puttanesca, your osso buco, your spaetzle and schnitzel, your bangers and mash, your spotted dick, your cuisse de grenouille and of course, your cervelle de veau.
   • “I’ve always wanted to visit the Orient.”
     Well, let me, as an official representative of the Orient, that nebulous region somewhere between Formosa and Siam, be the first to welcome you. Here is your visa –and your voucher for a 20% discount on all souvenirs — embroidered silk robes with dragon motifs, counterfeit DVDs of last week’s Hollywood releases, an hour shiatsu massage with Rei, a sheet of Astro Boy stickers, fake Qing dynasty porcelains, counterfeit Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Prada bags, pornographic manga and a set of Hello Kitty cell phone charms.
     Note: The inquisitor flatters himself and believes he is being sophisticated by talking about “Oriental things.”
   • “How long have you been here?”
     Avoid the more inflammatory, “Since I came out of my mother’s vagina.” And opt for the more modest: “I was born here like you, sweetheart.”
     Make sure the sweetheart is coated with honey-like sarcasm, which the inquisitor will, most likely, miss. The college educated ones prefer this question. Apparently, it sounds more refined to their ear, but actually, they are baffled by your language skills and are only slightly too polite to ask where you learned to speak English so well, since it simply cannot possibly your native tongue.
   • “Excuse me, where did you did you say you were from?”
     Repeat the first instruction as many times as necessary. It may take years.
2. Instructions for Assumptions
   Level 2, Second Generation
   Increasingly rude responses when questioner lack manners
   Characters: Trendy converse, horned-rimmed glasses wearing gel haired dad with child
   Colored girl with mixed child
   Location: Greenwich Village
   “Is he your son?”
   Not acceptable: “No, he’s my boyfriend.” “I am his wet nurse.” “I borrowed him.” “I stole him.”
   A slightly inappropriate volume and insipid vague smile: “Yes, what’s your son’s name?”
   “Sebastian.”
   Follow up with, “Did you get that from Shakespeare?”
   It’s Twelfth Night actually, but that detail will probably go over faux hip daddy’s head.
3. Smart Sex & Death: Advanced Education
   Character: WASP college boy
   Colored Girl
   Location: Ivy League University“I’ve never had an Asian girl before.”
   Avoid the following: “I think there is a spare room here.”
   “I pity you for I have been studying the Kama Sutra since I was 12.”
   “Actually, how much is it worth to you?”
   Note: Fulfill one of the classic stereotypes of the Asian overachievers by attending an Ivy League school; however, contrary to the other stereotypes, do not excel at Math or Science or Engineering or IT, much to the dismay of the traditional family. More importantly, do not be particularly quiet or well-behaved and challenge and defy authority frequently.
   Besides attending classes, go to a lot of receptions and cocktail parties, listen to many speeches where the speakers tell you that you are among the “Best and the Brightest,” and believe it all with a wink.
   Endure more propositions than you’ve heard in your entire life to this point. Leave the school with the conviction that there are more Asian fetishists per square inch there than any place else on earth, and with much more confidence than you will actually need, and the reassuring knowledge that if you ever win an Academy award or Nobel, make a scientific discovery, plagiarize a novel, murder someone or unfortunately, fail to live up to your potential and get murdered, the press will use its shorthand and simply and neatly reduce you to “the Harvard-educated blank.”

I first met Ben Ruttner (DJ B-Roc) through my sister at our high school in New Hampshire. He was a freshman who wore big t-shirts and sold mix tapes out of his backpack. At the time he was the only DJ in our school. He was also probably the only serious entrepreneur. (All the drug dealers I knew smoked way more than they sold, and everybody else mostly just worked at a bagel shop or hung around the parking lot at the video store.) From his personal mix tape circuit, to packed talent shows, to being a junior DMC finalist, Ben had way more hustle then your average 14 year old dude. He’s 21 now, and living in New York City. The hustle hasn’t stopped, and the music has only gotten better. B-Roc is like Rick Rubin and Russell Simons all at once, a gifted music maker with a mind for the business that I know must go way beyond his years. If in 20 years we’re all downloading Chinese Reggae to an invisible chip in our third ears, I bet B-Roc will have something to do with it.

You just opened up a studio in Chinatown, right?

Yeah. It’s exciting, man. “Heavy Roc Music.” I’m in here every day, and the place is fully operational now. My production partner, JPatt, and I (together “The Knocks”) work out of here now, but we also rent out time to other people to pay the bills. I actually just started doing DJ lessons out of here too, which is fun.

On the production side, tell me about your current project.

It’s called SAMUEL. He’s a singer and a New York kid born and raised. Then it’s JPatt and I doing all the production. Ww’re about to drop our single, “Say Goodbye,” which features Wade, the guitarist from the band The Virgins.

How did the Samuel project start up?

I met him through a friend. The two of them used to sing in a band called Ghost Town Symphony. Samuel had some really rough music, recorded on Garage Band in his laptop. JPatt and I heard it and thought there was mad potential. Now we’re about to blast off that single, “Say Goodbye.” Mark Ronson is going to play it on EVR soon.

Doing this pop singer stuff is different from a lot of your other work, which is mostly hip-hop based.

Yeah it’s really different. I still do some hip-hop stuff though. I have a Sheek Louch track coming out - featuring The Game and Bun B - on his new album, “Silverback Gorilla.” But I’m steering away from hip-hop. And now with the studio it’s been dope because I can bring in people playing violin, guitar, or whatever. I feel like I’m actually producing and not just making a beat and trying to sell it.

Should we look out for a Samuel EP dropping soon then?

Yeah, but right now we’re not sure if we’re going to do it independent still because we got some serious label interest. They see him as the American Lilly Allen.

(Laughs)

I mean the New York, male Lilly Allen. That’s how labels talk. It’s pretty funny.

The Samuel stuff kind of sounds like a Justin Timberlake / Timbaland kind of thing.

Yeah. It’s a real fusion between our normal sound, which is strictly hip-hop and then Samuel’s emo-hipster vibe. We definitely try to make the beats still knock.

Last summer you were on the road touring with Sean Kingston all over the U.S.  How did you like that?

It was an ill experience, man. Something I’ll remember forever. We went all over the country, rode in private jets, and shared a stage with Beyoncé, and played huge arenas.
I’d typically come out on stage first to get the crowd hyped, and that feeling when people scream in response to your voice is crazy. I mean it’s one thing when it’s an auditorium in high school, but 200,000 heads is different. Now I want to go on tour with Samuel. I feel like things will be peaches and cream.

Have you been DJing in the city at all?

Yeah, a lot. Spots like Gold Bar, Marquee, Runway, PM, but I also throw parties with my dudes weekly where all our people can come and chill while we DJ.  And I’m about to go to Virginia to DJ with Benny Blanco at Virginia Tech. That’s going to be fun.

What type of stuff do you notice going over well in the clubs these days?

If you go to the nice places, it’s all dance music obviously, but a lot of oldies too.
MIA is big. All the hipster stuff really kills it. Justice is big.

What do you think of Justice?

I like them but that genre is getting really saturated now. My dudes come up to me with new music all the time. Some weird producer from Sweden or something, that makes Justice-esque shit. It all starts to blend together for me and sound the same.

Yeah, I know what you mean. With that kind of stuff so big these days do you think there’s still room for hip-hop? Where are the raps going?

I think hip-hop is actually finally taking a turn for the better. I mean there’s always going to be the bullshit - the Soulja Boys and the snapping - but then people like Mark Ronson are doing really well. He just got a Grammy. He just beat Timbaland! Hip Hop is just so oversaturated, but that’s why people like Will I Am and Kanye and Mark are standing out. Because they’re switching it up and bringing in different aspects and new sounds. Like I was in the studio with D.O.E. the other day and I was playing him beats, and once I played Sam’s shit, he flipped out. He was like, “I need some shit like this. I need him on my tracks! This is what the bitches listen to!” Rappers are realizing that and putting people like Mathew Santos or the homeboy from Coldplay on a track. People who they think are going to stick around, not who spits the hottest 16, because Tupac and Biggie already spit the hottest 16. I mean I want to make the kind of music that’s going to be in jukeboxes in twenty years, stuff that makes you remember an era, stuff that you can party and drink 40s to - or drink a glass of wine with your grandmother.

So you want to make music that can crossover as much as possible?

Yeah, man. If you want to sell records and have a real impact, it’s got to cross over.

Is it harder to produce for singers than it is rappers?

Only if you can’t play. But that’s why we have a serious advantage. JPatt can play anything. When we make beats it’s dope because I might have an idea in my head and all I got to do is hum it to him and then he’ll tweak it or something.

You’ve worked out of Vermont and Boston among other places, but how has New York been influencing your work? What’s this city like for you?

Being downtown in the music scene is really dope because you’re surrounded by creative people, whether it’s clothing lines, artists, musicians, whatever. And everyone around me is still very young. Most of the kids I hang out with grew up either in New York or L.A. It’s kind of funny for me having been in Vermont. Everyone’s like, “Yo, where are you from?” But it’s cool because it kind of gives me an extra edge coming from the middle of nowhere. We had a show the other week at 205 and we packed it without even rally promoting it. That felt really good.

That’s a good sign.

Yeah, kind of makes you feel like you can take on the world.