Five Questions for Sacha Jenkins About Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005

Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005 by Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente is a true page-turner, compelling the reader to keep looking and looking, diving deeper into the treasure trove before them. A follow-up to Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers, which documented the early years beginning in 1973, it shares a sense of purpose in its drive to showcase the colorful bouquet that is graffiti as practiced by  "writers" who sketched ideas and full-blown pieces in notebooks they carried with them and passed around. As a one-time editor of the much-missed Ego Trip magazine, Jenkins knows this scene as well as anyone. So we asked him five questions:

David Hershkovits: I notice you call them "writers" not "artists." Is there a reason and significance to that?
SJ: "Writers" is the term that started it all; "writers" is what the kids who started this culture way back in the late '60s called themselves. Because that's what they did -- they wrote. All of this colorful, fantastic "art" that we see all over the world all evolved from the writing of very stylized signatures. Many of the founding mothers and fathers of the culture take issue with the term "graffiti'; some consider it a slur on par with the word "nigger." The fact that "writer" is a term fashioned by the creators themselves means a lot to me. Years before I'd ever written for a magazine or a television show, I was calling myself a writer. I think that self-affirmation is mad powerful.  Being a c-list writer as a kid has done a lot for me and scores of other folk.
 
DH: The first Piecebook covered the years 1973-1987. Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005 basically covers the years after the heyday of subway-centric graffiti. Do you think moving the work away from the subways has helped or hurt the movement.
SJ: I think both books prove that writing is a living organism, a beast that will continue to manifest its own destiny. This beast has the ability jump from a drawing in a book to a subway car to canvas to clothing to video games...The possibilities are endless. Now, there are purists who will argue that true graffiti died when the subways went clean in May of 1989, and they'll argue and they'll have some great points. These days, you can spend a week to paint a wall, which is all the time in the world when you consider that, back then, you were painting in dark tunnels with the threat of rats, a whole lotta electricity via the Third Rail, rival writers, and rogue cops who weren't afraid to spray your face black. On the flip side though, the penalties that go along writing today can radically alter your life. Folks are getting serious time. Kids today would favor getting sprayed in the face over having to troop a jail bid. And to the older peeps, I will say that there is a very active writing culture on America's freight trains that deserves their respect. So now, the piece you painted in Delaware might end up in California a month after you painted it. Writing culture--the illegal end of it--will always take a beating. But the beast can take the pain and convert it into a golden blues song. Again and again.

DH: In looking around today, people have noted that the movement seems to be taken over by white boys from the suburbs. What do you think?
SJ: White boys from the suburbs come from a place where there is an understanding in regards to the culture of commerce. They're bred to understand the value of things, they're also bred to be in the position to determine the value of luxury items like fine art.  But hey, that's the world at large, right? Why should the writing world or the graffiti world or the street art world or the gallery world be any different? I imagine it's difficult for folks of color to get on in the mainstream art world. Basquiat did it, but he was fetishized by whites who found him to be this wild, exotic savage who happened to be a stunningly articulate visionary.   The truth of the matter is, white boys have been a part of writing culture since the beginning, and there are plenty of Caucasians with talent who deserve to get theirs by any and all means. They go out there and they bomb! The writing on the 1970s and '80s was cultivated in a city constantly on the brink of bankruptcy. A lot of the writers doing the writing then--weather they were white, black, yellow or brown--were poor. But the books and the movies and the writers who joined the military helped to spread the virus, and the outsiders in the 'burbs caught the bug.

And there are guys like Cope 2--a wild Puerto Rican from the Bronx--who is getting his around the world. Cope was initially just a guy who had a simple bubble letter style who now is an in demand artist who has done co-branding with giants like Converse, who travels the world on somebody else's dime spreading his gospel. And it's the "wild Puerto Rican from the Bronx" that people around the world want to see. But really, Cope's a really savvy dude who is getting' that paper land exposure like the white boys and I love it!
 
DH: How do you feel about the term "street art" which seems to be gaining currency as opposed to graffiti.
SJ: "Street art" is a term that rich folks can discover and feel like they're buying into "danger". That's why folks buy art, no? For the crazy stories attached to these artists. Owning a piece and sipping tea under it and telling your guests the wild stories about the "street artist" who created it. Meanwhile, your typical street artist these days isn't from the streets. They're crafty art students from outta town who have discovered that this is a great way to transmit their ideas to a mass audience. I'm not mad at them, but there is often times a conflict between them and the so-called traditional graffiti artists. Now the two are fighting for wallspace and recognition. My thing is, we got into writing to write, not to be in galleries. Sure, the game has changed, but to me, writing is about writing. So-called street artists want to speak to a larger audience, while writers typically want to communicate to cats within their exclusive community. So if you're  a writer who is mad about street artists getting more recognition than you, then perhaps you should go around stenciling a pink dinosaur can call yourself Prideful Dino. You'll make it. Big.
 
DH: Now that graffiti has become a mass movement has it lost its edge as critical currency?
SJ: For the folks who are still out there doing it, there's a lot of edge involved. These cats almost have to live James Bond-esque lifestyles. So I'm in no real position to say. I'm boring these days. To me, again, it all starts with writing and those who are doing it. As long as the writers continue to adapt, the critics have no real say. Because the streets are the truth, and the proof is in the work you put in, young blood.