ISSUE 001 SUMMER 2017
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COVER: DRE GRANERA
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Contents Contributors 5 Editor’s Letter 6 Curator’s Letter 8 60/40 10 Jerrod White The Plug 12 Music, Film, and Culture recommendations from the local plug Dre Granera 14 Interview with feature artist Dre Granera with selected works GONE 28 Ebrima Manjang
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Hot Air 36 Becca Chairin Care Free Black Summer 40 Mixed media collage portraying summer Jerrod White Ebrima Manjang Taylor Roberts Pola Dobrzynski Hit Us Up 48
Dre Granera
Jerrod White
Contributors
twitter: @dark__grapes
Indigo Asim
Ebrima Manjang
ig: @dregranera andreagranera.com
ig: @ebrima_m
Becca Chairin
Pola Dobrzynski
ig: @thickandaoutofcontrol
ig: @photo.slayer beccachairin.myportfolio.com
issuu.com/greyunderrain
(follow tf outta us)
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IG: TTAYLORROBERTS
TAYLOR ROBERTS, EDITOR AND CHIEF
EDITOR’S LETTER
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Getting this magazine started has been the weirdest process. It’s been all over the fucking place. Some ideas come and some don’t. I’m used the creative process to an extent, I knew shit wouldn’t just flow but I did, like an idiot, think it’d be a chronological 1-2-3 step process. Instead I’ve designed and redesigned pages a dozen times over, cycled through nearly identical fonts, and wondered if instead of obsessing over white space I should just die. This is a diary entry dressed as an editor’s letter. Anyway in this, GANGST’s first issue, we play around with an interview and photospreads and a lot of other very adult editorial words. Thank you to every artist who has contributed. Make sure to follow them all on ig. Follow GANGST too. Thanks for figuring out what GANGST can be with us. y
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PHOTO: EBRIMA MANJANG
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IG: @RRAINEHANSON
RRAINE HANSON, BRAND CURATOR
CURATOR’S LETTER
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PHOTO: VIVIEN LIU
Even though as an artist my own work, one of my with my artist friends. Ta “gangst” in an Insta capt like as I was reminded ye of creativity. When she t actually meant to her, I k more. I’m so grateful Tay bring this vision to life. I with what you see and fo
BRAND CURATOR
I love expressing and creating y favorite things is collaborating aylor first used the word tion and I immediately smashed et again of this woman’s level told me about what the word knew this needed to be someting ylor has allowed me to help her hope you all are just as hyped or what is to come.
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60/40 BY JERROD WHITE
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THE PLUG
In this issue, Indigo Asim tells us what to listen to, what to watch, and why.
The Glow Kit EP
Bbymutha This EP really got me to quick, fast, and in a hur song “Quickweaves” dra me and I don’t even hav one…
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SZA Listening to SZA talk about breaking bed frames and the sometimes twisted world of being a sidepiece while creating a mainstream discourse on polyamory is the real peek into young adulthood for the art heaux.
Everybody Works
Jay Som Song: Lipstick Stains This song is your perfect song to play as you lay under your fan and spray cold water imagining ur room has AC and the presence of God
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Cashmere Cat ft Ty Doll Song: Infinite Stripes Let the angelic vocals of Dolla $ign show you how bitter but beautiful.
ogether rry. The agged ve
Thangs
Steve Lacy This baby faced producer prodigy has the perfect songs for summer and pretending to be a fre*k on the low.
la $ign
f Ty w to be
Meditation
I Love Dick
Amazon Original TV Show I Love Dick is starting a conversation in pop culture about female desire. The show names drops people like Mickalene Thomas and Kerry James Marshall. Episodes are framed around the work of a different female filmmaker and will make you think about the endless possibilities of womanhood.
Goldlink ft Jazmine Sullivan FIRST of all this whole album was slept on! This is that bop for recreating roll bounce on the sidewalk in front of your house.
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D R E GRANERA PHOTOGRAPHER NYC
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Y’all know Dre?
A twenty-two year old photographer and actress and a bunch-of-other-shit kind of artist from Oakland who just graduated from NYU and lives and works in New York City.
GANGST: What do you make? DRE: I create visual experiences using various mediums that I’ve explored over the years first photo, then film, and now virtual collaging for my latest visual series called pobrecita. I also am an actor/performer and enjoy being part of visual storytelling, often serving as my own muse.
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G: Why do you make what you make? D: Arranging things visually is a very strong impulse I have whether I have a piece in mind or not. When I was younger I would draw very often, and now that I’m starting to figure out my artistic identity more, I’m noticing that visuals are just where my creative impulses really live.
ALL PHOTOS CREDIT TO DRE GRANERA
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G: Do you notice any more pressure as an artist post-grad? D: Not really, but I went to one of the most intense art schools in the country and did the theater program there. I felt restricted as an artist in that environment, it was extremely high pressure. I came out with some work I’m extremely proud of in the end that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world…but there was a lot of pressure that’s not the fun kind - like constant deadlines! I know there are deadlines in adult/post-grad life as well, but it’s different. I don’t feel more pressure, I feel a different kind of pressure, but it’s a pressure I feel like I can handle more. I feel like it’s the pressure of my own goals and expectations, instead of assignments.
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G: You good, fam? D: So nice of you to ask, I’m actually doing so much better than I was through out this entire school year. I’ve been so weighed down by existence, relationships, the world, etc. That stuff really messes with your flow as an artist. I’m so proud of myself for getting
through the school year with so many things on my shoulders everyday. I’m so proud of all of us! I was always so excited to graduate but I could never even see past the end of the week (including up until the very last week) but here I am. I’m taking some summer classes to finish up and it’s significantly more chill and stimulating because I actually have time to process and bring myself to the work in a healthy way, and I really feel like I’m reaping the benefits of a year of adversity that forced me to do some serious self reflection and grapple with my biggest insecurities. Now everything isn’t feeling so scary anymore. I’m more sure and confident of who I am than ever before…but it really took so many days of feeling hopeless to get here. It’s still so hard and the challenges aren’t going anywhere, the work will never be done, but I’m finally catching a bit of a break and perspective at this moment.
G: Oakland or New York City, and why? D: I’ve come to find they serve different purposes. What I find in New York is just not what I find in Oakland/The Bay Area. In The Bay Area I feel really sinked into myself and comfortable, and free and fun. As much as I miss that, as much as I miss driving and listening to music and really living in the moment, I can’t take for granted that in NYC I am taken seriously as a professional and as an artist. That’s so cool to me, that you come to this city and tell people you’re an actor, a photographer, a director, whatever it is, and everyone’s really supportive, interested, and has creative trades of their own. So I could never choose one or the other, it just depends on what I’m needing out of life, and right now I’m feeling really focused on working on art.
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G: Describe your most intense experience as an artist to date, has anything floored you or greatly inspired you more than anything else? D: This past semester we had the opportunity in my acting program to take a play we love, play the protagonist, direct and piece together a 20 minute excerpt using the scenes we thought were most important. I chose a play called Marisol by José Rivera. It’s a play that deals with death, destruction, religion (especially latincatholic based faith), war and utter chaos in a whimsical way (there are angels, the moon has disappeared, there’s essentially an apocalypse). My piece included a scene where Marisol is visited by her guardian angel, then a scene where she is visited by a friend who is male and pregnant, he gives birth to a stillborn and then they have to bury it in a street cemetery that is a fire hydrant. It was extremely cathartic for me to play this character and throw myself into these given circumstances: though it was very grand and other worldly, it was extremely personal in terms of my own relationship with religion as a latin woman. I stretched myself in a way I never imagined I could in terms of vulnerability and thoughtful storytelling. Going back to my visuals, though, the way I got to direct and arrange the stage was very special to that channel of my art. I used latin prayer candles that I had growing up as well as rosaries. These are themes that are still going to be ghosting through my upcoming work! It was so special to get to play and perform in the world I curated. There are some pictures on my instagram of the project!
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G: Where can we follow you or see your work? D: andreagranera.com @dregranera on instagram There’s an art show coming up this saturday 6/17 [at 9 pm at 28 Locust St] in NYC! An all latina art show about girlhood, our collective is called Mijita. I’ll be showing a new visual series called “Pobrecita” which I hope to develop into a zine later this year, this is just the beginning and I’m excited to share!
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PHOTOS AND STYLING: EBRIMA MANJANG
G O
pants ADIDAS shoes RAF SIMMONS sunglasses RAY BAN
N E
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sweater ZARA pants and shoes ALL SAINTS
shirt ORIGINAL pants ZARA sunglasses RAY BAN
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pants ALL SAINTS
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PHOTOS: BECCA CHAIRIN
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HOT AIR
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PHOTO: JERROD WHITE
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PHOTO: JERROD WHITE
LEFT PHOTOS: EBRIMA MANJANG RIGHT PHOTO: JERROD WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS: TAYLOR ROBERTS
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PHOTO: JERROD WHITE
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S.S.A.D. or Summertime Seasonal Affective Disorder I felt its onset in my timid replies ringing in the moans and hums that came out of me when asked, unrelentingly --repetitively-"WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING THIS SUMMER?"
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I could somehow envision my current state in a bed of quicksand sinking in the enveloping ennui suffocating in my sheets drowning in night sweats and hazy nightmares where they kidnapped my baby And so I carry on in the day in a bleary mess of hot confusion of not knowing each day as it's own dog day to do lists crumble into dust slipping through an hourglass feeling anxious for wasting time is the most indulgent guilt I've ever felt
-- POLA DOBRZYNSKI
PHOTO: JERROD WHITE
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GANGST is a seasonal magazine boolin out of Boston that accepts submissions from people of color in writing and whatever you classify as visual art. If you can send it we can take it. Send submissions to gangstmag@gmail.com
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