even in darkness
big ups to peter gambacorta for front and back cover image and the mega photo spread that begins on page 80 this is pete as a little guy
Peter Gambacorta
Pete is a graphic designer and photographer for The Infamous Magazine, a Philly-based graffiti publication. He’s been on the scene since he was 10 years old, but he still ssees graffiti as if he’s falling in love for the first time. His photo spread enchants with what could be otherwise forgotten walls and spaces, but instead are beautifully preserved by his discerning eye and a ton of film.
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@voila_ theinfamousmag.com
Shawn Theodore Shawn is a Philadelphia-based multimedia artist and photographer. He works like a painter, seeing colors and his subjects with unbiased respect for their inherent beauty and story. Shawn has been getting some welldeserved attention for his stunning street photography and potraiture and we are just happy to have made the list. He may be used to telling other people’s stories, but we’re excited to include a bit of his own story as well.
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@_xst
Bad LIZ HAyes Bad Liz is a visual artist and one of the founders of House of Hayes. Along with being a willing consultant for me at every hour of the night on direction of the magazine, Liz also contributed the story “XST” (page 20), “The Death of Death by Audio” (Page 8) and she also interviewed and wrote the article for our cover story with Pete (page 80). Working, living, and loving in Brooklyn, NY and wherever planes fly and wheels drive.
buki akib
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@badliz badliz.tumblr.com Buki Akib is a Nigerian born menswear designer, who currently splits time between her studios in Ghana and Lagos. Though she was once a professional actress, she continued to explore her creative nature and eventually has become one of the most ground-breaking menswear designers in Africa, while making waves on the global radar by challenging the conventions of designing and the making of art objects. bukiakib.com
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Jenna is more affectionately known as Jenna Bear by friends and it’s easy to see why. A free spirit that is equal parts wild and warm, Jenna is a transplant to Los Angeles working as an assistant to photographer Christopher Wray-McCann in addition to pursuing her own photography. Her photo essay from a farm in California drifts between a dream and a beautiful nightmare.
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@jennabear_schreck jennaschreck.com
seun KUti & the Egypt 80 Seun Kuti is the son of legendary Nigerian- Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, but he is certainly also a legend in his own right and carrying the torch with style and grace in his own inimitable sound and performance. I was lucky enough to hop over to California for their west coast tour this summer in promotion of his most recent album, “A Long Way to the Beginning”. Story is titled “A Long Way to the Hollywood Bowl” and appears on page 41.
bogota, COlOmbia
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@shotsdboss seunkuti.com
Bogota is a city in Colombia, South America, with 6,778,691 inhabitants as of 2005. It is cradled by Andean peaks and is a cacophonic wonder of sounds and colors. It was everything I had hoped for and more. Photographs in this story were taken in color polaroids, black and white film and color digital in the course of a week in September.
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Death by audio A profile of the importance of a place to play music and the final days in Brooklyn, NYC’s DBA (Death By Audio), one of three beloved spaces in Williamsburg with DIY roots that have been claimed by the undertaker (VICE Media) needing to build more offices this year.
#RIPDBA
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contributors/in this issue
Jenna SCHRECK
artwork by Sarah Ruggieri
MORE...
“AND IN RESIDENCE”
“And In Residence” was a week-long artist residency at Ampersand in Savannah, GA that took place November 3rd-10th and included Kirchin Weston, myself and Sarah Ruggieri as the artists (pictured left to right). After a conversation with Sarah about the possibility of simply spending some time together focused on “making”, we started to formulate the residency. Our intention was to celebrate the experience and process while being fostered by creative community. With an open studio format, we met many wonderful new people throughout the week and all experienced breakthroughs in our work. As our friend Troy laughingly put it, “You can do a lot in a week, particularly if you are religious!” (i.e. biblical timeline of creation). The photo at left was taken by Emily Earl (whose wonderful work with polaroid photography was also featured in issue two of HXH). More photos can be found in next pages as well as online at thehouseofhayes.com and instagram (#andinresidence).
Kirchin’s camera obscura prints drying
I hope there’s a pool of mermaids at the bottom of whatever elevator shafts you dive into in 2015 and beyond. xoxo maggie hayes (@melanisticjaguar) maggie-hayes.com / thehouseofhayes.com
letter from the editor
“Even in Darkness’, is an issue dedicated to the fearlessness within all of us and we included some of the boldest examples of that we have come across. This is for the times where you took the leap of faith regardless of the outcome. The times where you deepened your purpose by sticking your neck out for something that mattered to you. The times you got brave, when you were invincible even for just a moment. The more you identify with that part of yourself, the more that part of yourself will grow. ‘Even in Darkness’ is also the title of a very important album by the Dungeon Family (if you don’t know about it, I promise I just did you a favor). “Rollin’” is track ten and maybe my favorite song ever. I probably should have just printed the lyrics here instead of writing this preachy letter. That would have done the trick, but since I didn’t, just go ahead and click play on that for me while you start flipping through this issue.
Top (left to right): Premiere of “Expencive Porno Movie” in NYC (Mikey Detemple, Dane Peterson, Kassia Meador, and Alex Knost pictured); Cedric Smith at “And in Residence”; Sarah Ruggieri at “And In Residence” Middle: Kirchin Weston at “And In Residence”, Alex Knost (Tomorrows’ Tulips at the Bowery Hotel), Jeffery Jones and friend at EPM premiere Bottom: Tomorrow’s Tulips (Ford Archbold and Alex Knost pictured) at Bowery Hotel, Kirchin Weston, Grady Corbitt and Liz Hayes at EPM
Top (left to right): David and Sandra in Bogota, mural by Bastardilla (Bogota), Kirchin Weston after developing prints in her camera obscura Middle: Sarah Ruggieri during “And In Residence”; Maggie at “And in Residence” (photo by Cedric Smith, all photos by Maggie Hayes unless specified), Brock Scott of Little Tybee at House of Hayes in Philly Bottom: Emily Earl; Malcolm, Sylvia, Maggie, and Adolfo in Bogota, Sarah at “And in Residence”
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The Death of Death By Audio photographs and article by bad liz hayes
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” In December of 1973, CBGB & OMFUG opened its doors as a venue for “Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers,” voracious eaters of music. “Other music” ended up meaning legendary punk shows such as Bad Brains, the Ramones, Television, the Cramps, the Dead Boys, Suicide, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and the list goes on forever. CBGB was punk mentality, it was the DIY movement, it was home for bands that had nowhere else to play. And in October of 2006, after fighting a losing battle against rent increases, CBGB closed its doors for good. In April of 2007, Death by Audio opened its doors as an underground music and art venue with the same DIY mentality that made CBGB a beloved place. When push comes to shove, the people running a space under the radar and around the law are risking everything to bring music that may never have been heard otherwise to the people who care just as much as they do about hearing it. Without DBA, artists like Ty Segall, Future Islands, Thee Oh Sees, Pissed Jeans, and the Dirty Projectors wouldn’t have had a place to play in their beginnings and they know it. In the last week of Death By Audio’s existence, they transformed their space into a huge art installation and had bands that got their start there play secret shows which all sold out so hugely that every night there were hoards of people desperately waiting in line “just in case.” The last night of DBA was a big one. Grooms, JEFF the Brotherhood, A Place to Bury Strangers, and Lightning Bolt played explosive sets to send the space sweetly into the night. The crowd was in hysterics, crowd surfing and crying intermittently because it was this rowdy, bittersweet chaos of one last hurrah and goodbye all in one. Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt said, “How do you play the last song ever?” and held up an issue of Vice Magazine, “FUCK VICE.” Back issues of the magazine were thrown into the crowd who ripped the pages in protest. Earlier in the year, Vice Media purchased the massive block of buildings that included DBA and other venue spaces 285 Kent and Glasslands Gallery, forcing them to shut down so Vice could build out offices. The magazines became confetti, busting in the sky like fireworks, and as the last noises of the night droned on, the humans of celebration and sadness danced in the wreckage. And in November of 2014, DBA closed its doors for good. New York City has been the birthplace of counter culture movements for 60 plus years and despite the skyrocketing condominium industry that’s ravaging Brooklyn’s raw spaces, that will always be true. Starting over is never easy but it is necessary for progression, and as dismal as it seems to say goodbye to three of the most beloved DIY spaces in New York within the same few months, it is either leaving a gaping hole or a wide open space depending on what is done. It’s always hard to let the good ones go, but nothing lasts forever. Edan Wilbur, one of the founders of Death by Audio, wore a white t-shirt with the words “stART YOUR OWN FUCKING SHOWSPACE ” scrawled in black sharpie. Death is what makes life possible.
interview by Liz Hayes Photography by Shawn Theodore
Shawn Theodore, aka XST, keeps himself very busy. he’s a street photographer living and working in Philadelphia, PA. as cto, he manages the branding for Oyin Handmade, an all-natural hair and skincare company. and in addition to devoting huge amounts of energy to those jobs, he’s currently working on a short film entitled “Flight,” which he describes as a “ballet performed in the hood.” He attended Tyler School of Art with a concentration in Fine Art and graduated from Temple University with a degree in Journalism, PR and Advertising. But more significant even than any stats or job titles, Shawn Theodore is a man of great character with huge talent and a strong voice. He works tirelessly to bring light to a subject that is inherently dark, to bring color to a story that is innately bleak, to change the minds of everyone who has already made them up. It’s no easy task to show people who make unfair and biased generalizations about other people based on the way they look or dress or behave that their assumptions are unwarranted. But through art, that task becomes easier, and people open their eyes to their own harsh judgments without so much as a finger being pointed. through art, people can begin to see. HxH: How did you first get into street photography? XST: I was living in New York and wanted to take a break from my 9-5 technology PR job, get back to my creative self. Initially I was a painter who wanted to do collage, but I was open to all forms. I met Jamel Shabazz at his opening at MoCADA. We went around Prospect Park and I just watched him do him, it was around 2008 and he kind of introduced me to street style photography. I was a fine artist who liked abstracts and wanted my photos to look like paintings, that’s how I put my own spin on it. Bringing fine art and street together. HxH: What makes the photo for you? What’s the most important aspect of the image? XST: Color, composition, and conversation… in that order. You gotta shoot with what you got, the equipment isn’t what’s important. What’s important is the light and shadow, and then the conversation, the connection. I’m constantly scoping, HxH: Aside from telling people’s stories, what are you trying to say with your photography? XST: Most of the people I photograph might be dismissed by society as “homeless” or “bums” but I’m not showcasing poverty. I’m learning their real story and changing everyone’s minds that are already made up. You’d be surprised at how many people not only have homes, but have jobs and families. Street photography can be very exploitive and I’m not about that. Oakland was where I got my desire to shoot. I could walk through Oakland no problem, before it was soft, and there were so many characters and they have interesting things to say.
HxH: Do you feel like your personal background affects your subject? XST: I shoot the same wherever I go, no matter the city. Color is the only indicator. Corner stores, barbershops, they all have a certain color. The hood is no different place to place. HxH: What life experience have you learned the most from? XST: Being shot and stabbed. I was 28 and I got jumped outside of 48th and Baltimore. There was a gunfight between the guys who jumped me. This was when I was very cavalier and gave no fucks, but I had severe nerve damage. I almost lost that leg, I was told I would never walk again and it was 2 years before I did. That experience really cleared the decks. After that, I was real light on money, barely any to speak of, I had no job, I had cops up my ass, IRS up my ass. I came out of the hospital and had to completely start over. HxH: Who is your hero? XST: Grandpop, Walter Holland Sr. He taught me everything I know. HxH: What is your wildest dream? XST: To travel Iceland, Reykjavik, Aurora Borealis, the fjords… HxH: What is your greatest fear? XST: (shakes head) I’m pretty fearless after being shot and basically coming back from the dead. But if I’m afraid of anything, it would be of having to give up what I’m doing now, for it to have no impact. I want to bring this positive image of self, I want my work to speak to someone.
PLACE - Paris (then Vegas, then San Fran) ARTIST- Aaron L Douglas, Barkley Hendricks DRINK- Black russian PHILLY THING- The anger, you gotta get past it to get to real people PRESIDENT- Harry Truman BAR- My house, it’s well-stocked RECORD- Miles Davis (Elevator to the Gallows soundtrack) BREAKFAST- Crispy crust pizza with an egg SPIRIT ANIMAL- Elephant SIGN- Libra (Oct 6th) COLOR- Black, easy to match with FEATURE- Hands PLANT- Orchid SHOE- Wingtips for business, chucks for walking PIZZA TOPPING- Anchovies QUOTE- “True art conceals the means that conceived it.” x
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interview by maggie hayes
sometimes the fantasy finds you first... i could barely fathom what i was looking at when i first saw buki akib’s fela collection in a book about new african designers. I only knew that i would never think about menswear in the same way. the impossibly sumptuous blend of colors and textures were laid upon the shoulders and legs of a truly brilliant looking man, but the clothing itself had a gravitational pull and held me in wonder for years before I had the chance to speak to buki from across the atlantic. though buki’s work speaks quite profoundly on its own, it was only fitting that I would have a few questions about the motivations and inner workings behind the designs and a woman redefining menswear for africa.
BA: When I started the process of the research, it was womenswear really, and I remember a guest tutor came in and
looked at my work and she said, “You know, your stuff is kinda menswear, would you consider menswear?” and I said, Ummm, okay…why not? I’ve got nothing to gain and I’ve got nothing to lose. Why not try it? I’d never done menswear before, the discipline of menswear at all. It was challenging and it was scary because that was my final collection. I decided to try it and it was such an organic thing. It just took me time to find menswear. and when I did find it, it was just meant to be. It was the right groove and everything happened organically. Even though I made it, I felt like it was an out of body experience. I felt like I was out of control, allowing the creativity to lead the way. We want to control things, we think we know everything, and sometimes, you have to take a leap of faith and let things just happen in its own natural course. I think thats what happened with that collection, I really just let it happen and I learned a lot about myself, about the texture and even just making the fabrics and knitting. It is such an organic thing, because you’re doing it by hand. Everything you’re doing is not mechanical, it’s actually very emotional and organic. So if I was to knit a fabric, and I was to knit the same type of pattern on that fabric, it’s not going to happen the same way as I did it the first time. My mood has probably changed or just the feeling has changed. So, I think I really like that about the way I work, because things change, the moods change, and the textures change. I think because I can feel it, the person who looks at it can also feel it too.
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Yes, he was a sex symbol, he was very rock n roll. But he really told the truth about what was happening in Lagos at that time, with the politicians, with poverty, with the injustice... He was the voice for the underprivileged, the people that didn’t have a voice and there are still people now that don’t have a voice. I think Fela’s music still resonates and that is incredible because it just shows how much of a remarkable human being he was. Yes, he had flaws, yes, he was a human being. But, it was extremely brave of him to stand up and speak the truth. And I think that is the hardest thing for any human being to do because the truth is real and it hurts and it’s raw and it’s hardcore, it punches you. Nobody wants to hear that. You have to be very brave and I think that’s why the collection has such an explosion is because that’s what he brought, that kind of explosion. for people to stop and think and listen, and really listen....
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that was really based on the present because at that time, in 2012, there was the oil subsidy in Nigeria and then in Egypt, and I kind of got the mood, that there are these young men, rebellious and standing up for their rights as Africans, and saying that no, enough is enough. and I kind of got that vibe. The collection was shot in black and white because most of the pieces were black and white. We shot it at an old railway station here in Lagos, and the railroad tracks served to sort of represent the journey that we’re going through and what we can face ahead.
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HXH: How was the transition because thinking about your work as fashion to thinking of them as art objects? BA: I’ve always thought of them as art objects. But when you’re in this industry, you try to put yourself in that box
or people try to put you in that box. and you’re still finding yourself. and I knew in my heart of hearts that I wasn’t going to go on the same route as a typical fashion designer, thats just fresh out of fashion school and doing a show at London Fashion Week or whatever. I just knew that it wasn’t my path, and I had to be very truthful with myself and say “Where do you want to go?”, “What are you trying to say?”, “What are you trying to convey?”, “What is your story?”, and “How can you do this without following the same route but still using that medium to tell a story about what’s happening in West Africa, my culture, my spirituality, my customs?” It’s probably taken me up to now, about three years, to say to myself, you know what, I’m actually an artist...I’m an artist that uses different mediums to convey what I’m trying to say, and this is it. When you look at a painting, you appreciate it and you take time to look at it and take time to explore why the artist has done this brush technique or this marking or this sculpture.. and I think with fashion, because it’s so fast paced, people don’t actually have time to really look or see the details or wonder why the artist or designer did it that way or what they are trying to say. I wanted to slow down the pace and let people really absorb and marinate with what I’ve done.
HXH: The rebellion against the whole pre-fall, fall/winter, pre-spring, spring, super fast-paced, somewhat torturous timeline year after year for a lot of designers.. BA: Yes, I have to have time to explore life, you need to absorb life. any form of art, it’s problem-solving...It really does
take time. I think a lot of people don’t realize. Even thinking in itself. It takes time and its exhausting, you know? And I need to think, because I’m that kind of person, I’m a slow thinker…It takes a lot of time for me to process things, and when I finally get to it, it is a beautiful thing. But you’ve got to allow that process and I enjoy that part because it’s very testing. It’s very difficult, it’s all kinds of emotions, but it’s actually good because it shows in the work, I believe.
HXH: Definitely, you get the feeling back out of it as a viewer. I love to hear that, Because while having the internet as a very fast-paced way to share what we’re working on, we’re still not often sharing the whole problem-solving process and are focused on the results.. I have to tell people that I need to spend a lot of time daydreaming to come up with the ideas that I end up exploring and working on.. BA: Yes, big up to daydreaming. Day dream all day. HXH: Are you still exploring acting? I know you have also been a working actress. BA: No, I went to drama school in my late teens and then after that I was acting for a good 7-8 years. I was one of those crazy people, I just decided to explore my art. Because prior to acting, I used to do a lot of art classes, painting and things like that, so the art was always behind it, just niggling… So I joined an illustration class and one of the teachers was like, “Why don’t you explore your art? You’ve got something there...” and I said okay, and applied for art school, and the rest is history. I started developing myself as an artist.
HXH: how did you feel like the “Trading Styles” exhibition let you go even further than the fashion work you have done and into this kind of full experience, walking into a room and having it entirely filled with strokes of your thinking? BA: Oh, It was so nerve-wracking! Honestly, I was really catching myself like, “What have I let myself into?”, but it was the best thing I’ve ever, ever done because it’s exactly the way I like to work. I had a chance to look at all of these historical artifacts. It was really a privilege. Not a lot of designers have that chance to do that, to really take time to look at all of the pieces from history, and learn from history and touch it and smell it. There was one time when we were in the African section; we were looking at the jewelry from East Africa, maybe Somalia, and all of a sudden, I just felt emotional..I wanted to cry, because you learn about why they made the jewelry in such a way, the emotion behind it. That is how I think artists should portray their work, it’s an emotional thing. I did not see the lady that made the jewelry, or know of her, or her history or what she looked like, but the piece that I saw, that was made by her own bare hands, made me feel emotional. That is an incredible feeling. It was very difficult, I must admit. It was like a tug of war, battling with “What am I doing here?”, “Is this right?” “Is this wrong?”, “What the hell?” and you might get a mind-blank, feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing but when you can let that go, things start falling into place really. But it really opened my eyes to designing about myself. It was a great platform for me to say, this is the type of path that I want to start going into, exhibiting in spaces and galleries. This collection that I’m working on now, I definitely want to show in odd spaces and galleries and anything like that. But yes, it was a really great experience and I’m very very grateful.
HXH: And what is inspiring your current collection, working into that storytelling process even deeper? BA: Yes, it’s a lot deeper now, because this collection is about myself. Other collections have been about Africa from the
past, the present and the future. This now, is probably opening the doors to almost just talk about myself and how I feel as an African, as a Muslim, and just as an artist too. Mixing all of that together is going to be quite interesting. Last year, I had the privilege to go for the haaj, a haaj is like a pilgrimage. It was such an amazing experience. It was so amazing for me. I guess I wanted to just kind of express that through my work and through my identity as a Nigerian too. So there’s a lot of storytelling, because I talk about certain things that I fight with. and sometimes, how I seek solace when I am feeling a bit lost in the midst of the demands of this world and questioning things. Then sometimes, I get an explosion coming through my head, it’s like something is telling me that it’s going to be okay. It sounds really weird but I see everything in colors and patterns, so I guess that is also how I express myself spiritually. I feel as if it’s almost an out of body experience while I’m doing certain things in regard to the color and textures, I’m not myself. I know that sounds really weird, because I am myself, I know what I’m doing...but there’s something that takes over that’s just “wooo”. I think a lot of artists sort of experience it, but they don’t know what it is, so that’s the thing. I don’t know what it is, it’s hard to explain. We live in a world where we feel everything has to be defined and because I cannot define “this” it has to be about the feeling. and that can come through in the work. So anybody, even if they’re not spiritually inclined, can get it.. because it’s a feeling. Everybody has a feeling, if you know what I mean.
HXH: So when you’re thinking about creating these collections, do you kind of envision the person that would be wearing them? Or these qualities that would go along with someone that you would see wearing what you make? BA: Shall I let you into a secret? When I’m making it, I actually don’t think about who’s going to be wearing it or the
consumer, I know that sounds really weird..I think maybe because I don’t come from a fashion background, so the way I think is probably completely different. I mean, yes, obviously, if a model is going to wear my stuff, it has to fit accordingly. Lots of generalists have asked me, “Who’s wearing your stuff?”, I’m like I really don’t know. even if I told them, I’m lying because I really don’t know (laughs).
HXH: Well, you don’t have to lie, don’t worry. BA: I really don’t know! Because when I just create, I start with a cloth, I start with a piece of yarn. and then I just let it all follow. So it’s always a surprise for me, (laughs) and I’m the one that’s making it. As much as it is a surprise for you, it is for me too.
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Afefe”, is the future. Because staying here in Lagos, the weather has changed from how it was here in the 70’s and 80’s when I was growing up...it’s funny because when it rains in rainy season, it really rains, it really floods. and when it’s windy, it’s really windy. when it’s the dry season, it’s really hot. and that kind of changes people’s dress sense and people’s behavior. that made me think about how the future of Africa would be…”Afefe” in Yoruba, means the “change in air”..it’s hard to translate it in English...so I think that’s what I was trying to illustrate... the change in the air and the continent will change along with the clothes and the behavior. Not so sci-fi, but just the mood and everything is going to start changing. It’s so funny, because it’s very, very cool at the moment, and I saw a girl wearing a furry waistcoat. She was wearing it, and I was like “my god”, I am in Nigeria and I am looking at a girl wearing her fur waistcoat. But it’s so cool, that’s just the craziness of it.
HXH: But you have used a model several times for different collections, he’s got a very cool look. BA: Yes, I saw him on the train, on the subway. and he’s never modeled before. There was something about him, I don’t
know how to describe it. But I just went up to him and I said, “Excuse me, I’m not chatting you up or anything, but have you ever modeled before?” and he was like “No?” and I asked if I could take his number. It’s funny, I kind of looked at him as, how can I say it…I looked at him as maybe how an artist looks at a canvas?
HXH: That comes across though because he has this very strong look but it highlights the clothing so much because he has this beautiful strong sense, but it comes across as this universal person. BA: Exactly, that’s what I felt about with him. It’s really great because I’ve used him so many times, and I’ve gotten to know him as a person and we converse and speak and we have these really interesting topics of conversation so it’s really really good. It’s great because he’s not a model, so he doesn’t really know about how to do the model-y kind of stuff. It’s quite good for my work, because I’ve tried other models before, just to experiment, and see what else could work for me and it just doesn’t work. Using somebody that’s not a model, they’re not consumed by what they look like...He didn’t think he was that good-looking or anything. It’s very humbling. It’s very refreshing. You’ve got to be humble in this business, because sometimes you can go left field. It’s good that you surround yourself by people that bring you back to the ground. He’s very very special, and I was just lucky to meet him on the train and he accepted.
HXH: Awesome, I’m glad to know the background. That’s a great story. So you’ve lived in London a lot, but you are back and forth between Lagos and London now? BA: Well, I live now in Ghana. I’m back and forth here and Lagos. Because my weavers are here in Lagos and my studio
is in Accra now. And yeah, I really like them both. I really love Ghana, it’s really very peaceful. Its like a small village in a city, that sounds kind of funny. But I really do like it. and my late mother was born there, so she used to tell me a lot about Accra, so I don’t know, I feel that I am carrying on her legacy because my mother’s maiden name is Akib and that’s why I decided to use Akib. I just really felt at home and it’s a great place. Because Lagos is hustle and bustle and really fast, which is great, but I also need some way to also retreat, where I can think. And hey, I talk about Africa, so what better place to be? So yes, I’m very content right now where I am.
HXH: Looking at music as a form of communication and a repeated idea of inspiration to you…how do you feel like music is influencing the current collection to you? or maybe a soundtrack for what you’re doing now? BA: I will tell you what I’m listening to a lot which is helping me with this current collection that I’m doing, is Florence
and the Machine. You know the album “Ceremony”? Yes, she is very very amazing. I may be interpreting the words and the music, but it’s very spiritual. It’s really been the soundtrack for what I’m feeling while I’ve been doing my work.
HXH: Any Advice for someone on a creatve path? BA: Just keep going, and if you’re truthful about what you’re saying, I think people will respond definitely. Just keep
going, I know it’s hard, it’s really really tough. It is a lot of work, trust me, I know. and with funding, and money, it’s so tough and sometimes you just think “What the hell am I doing?” but there’s a purpose for all the madness.
“Fela Lives” (seun’s tattoo)
a journey west with seun kuti and the egypt 80 story & photographs by maggie hayes
It was a cloudy Friday afternoon in Manchester, Tennessee as the band prepared to play to their first Bonnaroo crowd. It had been about two and a half years since I had seen Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80. Seun is essentially pronounced “Shayoon”, but more appropriately, it should be sung rather than spoken, blending into a single lilting syllable. You will be challenged not to smile as you say it. In the time since I had last seen him, he and beautiful vocalist and dancer Yetunde Ademiluyi brought a daughter named Adara (Adi, affectionately) into the Kuti lineage and he had also released a ferocious new album (his third) entitled “A Long Way to The Beginning”. As the first notes of the show cut through the thick air, beads bounced around on the hips of Iyabo and Joy. Their rhythmic shaking enchanted the audience to instantly forget their sluggishness and catch the groove. Seun shortly later wailed in on his alto-saxophone, glistening with lightning and electricity (as he most always is). He steered his bandmates of the Egypt 80 through an hour long set that left a strong impression on the festival’s stacked weekend. After slipping out of his stage costume into a t-shirt, we made our way to the cinema tent for a screening of “Finding Fela”, which had only recently been released to the festival circuit. Being in a bubble of the emphatically music-educated, I forget that some people still do not know of Fela Kuti’s music and his truly remarkable impact on the planet. Of course, a great many are also deeply familiar, but the documentary continued to provide insight to the life and times of the legend that was (and truly still is) Fela Anikulapo Kuti. I sat next to Seun and his manager Arnaud Granet, as the portrait of his father was given a few new layers with accounts from various personal connections. It also went a bit into the coming about of the broadway play that is based on Fela’s life as a political revolutionary and musical visionary as well as his home in Nigeria and large family that notably included 27 wives…Though his energy was profound throughout the film, only around the time that the footage began to roll of Fela’s funeral did the true scope of his impact on Nigeria begin to seem tangible. It is estimated that about one million people were in attendance and as they panned across the sea of people and then upwards, a 14-year old Seun Kuti was poised on a balcony to deliver a powerful speech. I turned my head, swollen with the weight of the scene, to see the 31 year old Seun seated next to me, looking on. Beneath the permanence of his boyish smile, I realized how very young the strength and bravery of a man must sometimes be cultivated. Seun began to play alongside his father while in single digit years and then inherited the band upon his father’s death. The Egypt 80 still includes original members to this day. As we went to wander around a little thru the other music offerings, Seun was stopped to pose for famed music photographer Danny Clinch who took a few polaroid shots of him against a backdrop in the artist area. The overlapping of so many different creative worlds is the coolest thing about going to festivals to me. Almost everyone shows up as a fan of something, even when they’re big-timers. Whether it’s Jay-Z and Beyonce side stage watching Odd Future and Gary Clark Jr. or Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers getting down to Bad Brains, the energy of live music is simply contagious and festival line-ups often cross boundaries of genres and generations that bring crowds and bands together in unique crosssections. Later that evening, Kanye West was headlining and we managed to find ourselves dancing for a bit with only a partial view before watching the remainder of the set from the roof of the Preservation Hall tour bus. And before we knew it, we were tucked in our own bunks on the bus and heading to North Carolina for their show the next day in Black Mountain…It was a random enough recycling of events, as two and a half years previously, I had hopped onstage to dance with Yeide and Iyabo at the end of their set at the LEAF Festival in Black Mountain, NC. We ended up all hanging out for the evening and becoming friends. The performance this summer was at the Pisgah Brewery and had an intimate and casual outdoor atmosphere set against the Blue Ridge Mountains. Seun addressed the audience saying, “What makes us human is being able to interact, to share ideas freely, meet each other freely.” As evidenced on his recent album as well as in person, Seun is politically impassioned and not afraid to speak his mind. He is a voracious reader and keeps himself well-informed of happenings around the world watching documentaries and following alternative news outlets. Even knowing him as someone with off-the-charts intelligence, I would still get caught off-guard sometimes with his sharpness and quickness. And that’s across the board whether he would just be throwing out a witty jab at someone or making an incisive statement about any number of broad-ranging topics. He went on to say about globalization, for example, “The world is divided, because there is no real globalization except for capitalists’ benefits. I believe that the real globalization should start between humanity. Where we can say we’re not really different, that people can come to your country and you can go to their country. And there’s nothing bad about it. Because there’s a lot of Americans in my country too. A lot of you don’t know this. They have 5 times the salary of a Nigerian. We don’t complain that immigration is the problem. If you want to talk about taking jobs, Americans take African jobs. A lot of African jobs, at 5 times the price....” (continued page 49)
Danny Clinch and Seun
Kola at the Airport, Atlanta
Baba Ani outside of the bus
Glad and Sad cacti in San Diego
Ironing board in dressing room
Seun performing at Sierra Nevada Fest
Seun talking to David as they try out new instruments in the band’s dressing room
Justice and David
the hollywood bowl (view from the stage before the show)
sketch of Seun on the bus
Seun, Janelle, and Andre 3000
Hotel pool reflection, mendocino
train tracks, santa cruz
Joy and Iyabo
Seun and Binga backstage
“... You never hear our president say, “Oh, the immigration of the westerners to our country is the issue.”, No, we don’t use that gimmick….But we’ve already accepted that immigration is the problem with America (laughs). Not your corporations, and your rich executives getting all of the money and not giving you a good enough salary to live… Executives bonuses keep going up, salaries stay the same.. taxes go up, salaries stay the same. That’s not the problem. The problem is these Africans, and Mexicans, and Indians fighting their way into this country. So, if you solve that, you’ll solve everything. Ha. Ridiculous. And if they tell you the about the European Union, how they are “uniting” Europe, it’s bullshit. It’s just that the rich people of Europe are tired of going to different offices to get approval to sell their goods in another country. They want to sell something in Italy, they had to go to the Italian parliament..they want to sell something in France, they’d go to the French parliament, they want to sell something in Spain, so on…they were tired of that, so they said let’s form one office. The EU are completely against immigration too. They allow you into their country, but as soon as you get there, they complain just like the Americans. What are these jobs that these immigrants are really taking? Street sweepers, tree cutters, the jobs nobody wants to do…If my money can come to the U.S. without visa, I believe I have the right to follow that money. “I’m right behind you, just go, I’m coming.” That is the real meaning of globalization.” His empathy and openness lend him to connecting to people in a different way than a lot of performers. After the NC show, I had a couple of people come up to me that were enthusiastc fans and asking about meeting Seun. Despite the long days of traveling and performing, when I asked if he might be able to speak with them, he simply invited them back into the dressing room to hang out and chat over a beer and take a few photos and they were elated of course…. As he said, “What makes us human…” How true. We piled back into the bus later that evening to drive to the airport in Atlanta. Arnaud and Seun had a different flight and I was tasked with helping Timo (the tour manager). We collected and divvied up passports and tickets to everyone, once we had all carried the bags and instruments across the street in the rain. The chain of command within the band is fairly well-defined, but the chain of command in the airport gets a little dicey and I lost track at moments as few of the guys switch between arguing in Yoruba and English. The big drum that is played and cared for by Kola is brought into suspicion for lacking any protective packaging for travel but Timo assures the clerk that is how it has been being transported across the globe for years and years. The wait is not terribly long and Baba Ani shared some almonds with me once we sat in the terminal. I offered to share my ice cream but he doesn’t do sugar too much anymore. Baba is very magical and whenever I was within a short radius of him, it was always both a comfort and a delight. Our flight arrived in San Diego, the only city where we had a couple of days off. Somehow, I haven’t yet mentioned that the shared enthusiasm for the World Cup games was at an all time high at that point of the summer and everyone was well-absorbed into watching in the rooms and on the bus. But similarly to whenever I sit down and watch American football with my Dad, watching a sport with people who truly know and love the game is much more exciting and the Egypt 80 is full of devout fans. Everyone operates fairly independently or in smaller clusters. Going on errands or off to eat sometimes, but the downtime is cherished by a lot of the guys to be able to get rest on the off-days. I take a couple of excursions to explore the city, getting out to the beach, grabbing a coffee or catching a yoga class. Seun played at the World Beat cultural center, a fun and funky spot amidst sprawling Balboa Park. We had a long drive all the way up to San Francisco for the next show, but the tour definitely came to a boiling point with a huge sell-out at the SF Jazz Center. The facilities there are exquisite and very modern but a bit stoic, and I was stationed with the merch in the lobby for most of the show. Once I was able to pop inside of the actual venue space and see what was going on, the energy was incredible. People were dancing so wildly in the balconies that it was questionable if people would maintain balance well enough not to fall into the audience below. Seun crouched down low with his legs wide facing away from the audience and as he continued to move while maintaining that position, every one was in a excited fever from floor to ceiling. I returned to my post as they rounded out the finale and I was inundated with people wanting to take a piece home, grabbing at t-shirts and vinyl for themselves and friends. The Sierra Nevada World Fest was up next, and we made our way on up to Boonville, California in Mendocino County. The hotel was situated down from the mountain and we took vans another 40 minutes up the narrowly winding roads to the festival site. The vibe was super easygoing and diversely populated but still pretty granola. Ozomatlli had been scheduled to perform before Seun but their flights had been rerouted and they were being delayed on arrival, so The Egypt 80 graciously agreed to switch time slots and brought in a beautiful sunset.
One of my favorite songs from the new album that they perform is Black Woman. The song stretches over an intoxicating jazz intro and into the verses for around 9 splendid minutes. Seun said he wrote the song, “Trying to teach young black women who their real heroes are… because you turn on the television and all their heroes are half-naked with fake hair. In fact, I saw a black Marilyn Monroe…so when I’m writing the song, I’m like “Well, there’s already the black Maya Angelou, there’s already the black Angela Davis, why do we need a black Marilyn Monroe?” That’s when you realize that it’s not black and white or even sexual equality... The real battle is intellectual equality. Women have to compete intellectually with men. Even in the most advanced countries in the world, this is a battle that women are losing politically, but they don’t realize it. Politicians should be 50/50. When you look at your members of parliament, well here it’s congress, members of congress and senators. It should be 50% men, 50% women. But even in Switzerland and Norway where they are the most advanced, it’s still a poor 75/25. So women need to enter this battle, because the more they do, the vote can begin to change. So I wrote this to help them realize their role models, and to try to reignite seeking intellectual equality.” The next day was Santa Cruz with a performance at the Catalyst. A fun two-room venue, with Seun and Fitz and the Tantrums sharing the building from different sides. The space was intimate and buzzing. Generally, there will be some young men gathered on the side of the stage that Iyabo and Joy dance on (stage-right, in case you are hoping to show up prepared) and this was accented with the effect of a fairly short stage that evening where you could get right up close on all the action. I was standing next to Joy after one of the shows and a girl had ran up towards her gushing, “You’re so amazing! You gotta teach me to shake my ass like that!”, and Joy gave a wry smile and replied, “Thank you. It’s a gift.” It truly is incredible though and the girls are as mesmerizing to listen to as they are to watch. Providing vocals that add something to nearly every track and complement Seun’s deeper sound. In August of 1984, Peter Tosh and Fela Kuti set out to embark on a U.S. tour that was supposed to kick off at the Hollywood Bowl. The date was pushed to September when Fela encountered legal issues obtaining travel documents in Nigeria, but ultimately the September date, as well as the rest of the tour, was canceled because neither performer could make it. As per an article in the Los Angeles Times (by Terry Atkinson), Kuti had been arrested at the airport for trying to “smuggle” $2,000 out of the country. The concert was to be his first U.S. appearance in 15 years. Now, as of this summer, his sons Femi and now Seun have both performed at the iconic venue. The day was spent getting ready onsite, exclusively just getting loaded in, sound-checking, and eating. The stage rotates in a full circle so Janelle Monae’s black and white staging was all set up on one side. It was powerful to see her without the concert get-up, though she looks stunning even in sweats and with her hair down. To hear her voice raw and echoing out into the empty Hollywood Bowl amphitheater sent a chill down my spine that reminded to give thanks for the waking dream I was in. The evening did not disappoint the anticipation. A positively beautiful night in Los Angeles, Caifornia. The set times were all very tightly structured, with an early start and curfew. Roman Gianthur beganthe evening and Seun was second on the line-up. Everyone sounded wonderful and I danced and watched from a few rows back, feeling so proud and grateful to have shared the past week so closely with such beautiful people. The crowd was in pure delight, but I realized I’ve never experienced Afrobeat music that wasn’t well-loved by the audience. There is something about it that makes it exceptionally likable, something so genuine and subconscious translated through the rhythm that it resonates with people in making them dance but also in their deepest selves. Seun and the band packed every minute of the set with energy and easily won over anyone who had attended unknowingly. Janelle graced the stage with every bit of flawless vocals and choreography that I have come to expect after seeing her perform a few times. Stevie Wonder, however, was a surprise, as he joined the band on keys and sang a duet with Monae soaring from “Tightrope” to the James Brown classic, “I Feel Good”. Once the confetti had flown, I ventured backstage again towards the dressing rooms and spotted friend and collaborator of Janelle, Andre Benjamin (aka Andre 3000, Three Stacks, etc. etc.) of Outkast and the Dungeon Family and several other creative pursuits. He was every bit as cool as you would imagine and equally down to earth (or “down to mars”, if you will). He mentioned to Seun that he’d never been to Africa, kind of with a sense of embarrassment almost to admit it, and the phrase “I’ve never been to Afrika” showed up just a couple weeks later on one of his jumpsuits that he performed in throughout his tour. Seun was ecstatic to meet him as well, and you realize the circles of inspiration run deep for everyone. Even though it wasn’t technically a festival, it went right back to that collective feeling like everyone is just human, hanging out to experience great music and art. The bitter part was only that it was coming to a close for me. I had a flight back to the east coast at 6am. Though the Hollywood Bowl marked the finale for their west coast run, Seun and the Egypt 80 still had a few more months of touring and were headed to perform at the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK in just a few days. I only shared a small part in the capsule of their long year of touring but I will cherish it always.
no crying on the mountain
photographs byjenna shreck
I remember one day watching as a black helicopter circled above us for hours. A huge crane of an arm extended from it with a camera facing down on us. Big Brother is watching. Word travels fast on the mountain, so people from neighboring farms all came to check on us and discuss. They offered to move me to a safe house in case of a raid. But something told me to stay. Something told me if I stuck it out, I would grow from this fear I had never experienced before. That, I hid my money, put my passport in my back pocket, took my memory card from my camera and put it in my front pocket, put on my shoes and laced them up tight... and then laid down and tried to fall asleep. Not knowing if tomorrows sun would wake me, or something else.
“...entonces?� a week in bogota, colombia by maggie hayes (35mm B/W film, color polaroids and Digital photographs)
mural by bastardilla
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Pete Gambacorta embodies everything that graffiti is about. This culture of constant struggle and caring about what you’re doing no matter what. Knowing your significance and importance despite all of the Anti-, despite all of the resistance, the illegality of it, the unacceptance. Despite the neighborhood watch. Knowing the difference between art and vandalism and that white-wash doesn’t discriminate. Knowing that a cop finding a can of spraypaint on you could get you thrown in jail. Graffiti is all about giving a fuck and not giving a fuck at the same time. Pete works as a photographer and graphic designer for The Infamous, a Philly-based graffiti publication. Between tagging walls all over the world and documenting the everevolving, forever changing enigma that is modern day graffiti, he stays on his grind. Bar-backing a few nights a week for steady cash-flow, he still manages to make art the absolute priority. Passion and hard work don’t always translate directly into bills being paid but he doesn’t let getting off work at 4 am stop him from creating. He’s obsessed, in the best way possible. Beyond the aforementioned productivity, he also carefully curates and compiles albums of his photography that are standalone works of art. There’s no way he sleeps, there’s just no way. HxH: How did you first get into graffiti? PG: I was probably around 10 years old when I first got into graffiti. I would just see it around, on highway signs, all over. I would go to Tower Records and look through graffiti magazines and when I was in 4th grade, I met this NE Philly kid who wrote and that’s around when I got into it. HxH: What was the first tag you ever did and where is it? PG: Tagged my name on a dumpster in Mount Holly, NJ in ‘98 HxH: What came first for you, skating or graffiti? PG: Skating first but they go hand in hand. It all came around the same time. The first magazine I saw graff in was Thrasher. It was an article they put out in ‘98 about skateboarders who wrote. Skating’s an art form on its own too. Skating and graffiti are all about the culture of the youth and wherever they’re from. HxH: How does Philly influence or contribute to your work? PG: The city of Philadelphia influenced me immensely as a kid, and it still does today. When my parents would drive into the city, I remember looking out the window to see the rooftops along I-95... They were all covered with with graffiti...My friends and I would ride our bikes to the city, or take the train to paint and take pictures. I discovered all the neighborhoods; the architecture in North Philly, the reservoir in Juniata, the people in Kensington. I liked Camden too. We were always into something, we racked all of our film and took all of our prints. (Thank you Wal- mart). I look back on those days and appreciate the fact that we couldn’t resort to google or youtube to find out about what we were into. I took everything in much differently. We had to actually travel and visit someone just to find out about things, or to see their photographs, and to hear about the past. And there is a lot of history in Philly, when it comes to graffiti, and just about everything else. Over the years, I have documented so much in Philadelphia, and in all of those neighborhoods. It is what I do best with a camera. Almost all of the graffiti has either been buffed or gone over by someone else. The tags underground last the longest because there is no sun light to fade it. But soon, that too will vanish. And it’s the same thing with film... It has become more of a novelty but still, you can no longer find the good stuff. I wish things were more old fashioned. As things change, I see them lose authenticity and I wish I could preserve that. This happens to me in Philadelphia especially, and thats where a lot of my art comes from.
HxH: What do you feel is the distinction between graffiti and street art? PG: They’re definitely different. I feel like you get different things from graffiti than you get from street art. There’s just a different mentality, graffiti isn’t gallery mentality. There’s exclusivity in street art and graffiti is for everyone, nothing off limits. HxH: What about the guys doing both? PG: If I knew more about showing work in a gallery, I would probably be into it. Ideally, I would make ends meet with my art. There’s nothing wrong with graffiti artists showing and selling work, good for them. But they’re not selling their tags, they’re making work to show in a gallery. HxH: What’s your dream collaboration? PG: Cy Twombly