{"id":12085,"date":"2019-05-31T17:35:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T21:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=12085"},"modified":"2019-06-03T08:50:29","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T12:50:29","slug":"rob-problak-gibbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/05\/31\/rob-problak-gibbs\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look At Rob ‘ProBlak’ Gibbs\u2019 New Roxbury Mural ‘Breathe Life 3’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI grew up on Lenox Street, 69 B Lennox St., born and raised,\u201d Rob \u201cProBlak\u201d Gibbs tells me. \u201cI was traveling between Lenox and Orchard Park housing projects.\u201d He\u2019d wait after school at his grandparents\u2019 place at Orchard Park for his parents to pick him up and take him home. \u201cBobby is what they know me by around here, after my Dad. He\u2019s Rob as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lenox housing in Boston\u2019s Roxbury neighborhood is just around the corner from 808 Tremont St., at the corner of Camden Street, where Gibbs has been painting a mural with support from Kate Gilbert\u2019s Boston-area public art producing nonprofit Now + There. \u201cBreathe Life 3\u201d<\/a> depicts two African-American children, a boy lifting his little sister upon his shoulders.<\/p>\n

The mural-in-progress is the third in the 42-year-old Boston artist\u2019s series of \u201cBreathe Life\u201d murals. \u201cThe little boy that was on part one, he has a sister that\u2019s on part two that he\u2019s uplifting here,\u201d Gibbs says.<\/p>\n

His design is meant to evoke stained glass, \u201csacred geometry,\u201d the red, black and green of Black nationalism, Afrofuturism, the hip hop he grew up on, and the covers of Miles Davis\u2019s albums from his fusion period, like \u201cBitches Brew.\u201d A free, public project celebration is scheduled at the mural for Wednesday, June 5<\/a>, from 4 to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always easy to highlight negative shit and everybody piles up on it,\u201d Gibbs says. \u201cTake a moment and stop and do something positive, breathe life into the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs paints his “Breathe Life 3” mural at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Graffiti caught Gibbs\u2019s eye when he was a kid studying at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Lawrence Avenue in Dorchester. \u201cI used to copy out of comic books, the comic strips, anything that had to do with video game characters and such, and I was incorporating letters in it.\u201d He learned bubble lettering from his classmate and pal Jorge Cepeda. Gibbs would paint designs on girls\u2019 jeans or books (\u201cthat\u2019s how I was getting cool with them\u201d). Then he convinced the school principal to allow him and friends to paint a mural in the school auditorium. \u201cWe graduated with it behind us on the stage,\u201d he recalls with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the year the shit started,\u201d Gibbs says. \u201cWe had this little crew. We were always involved in positive things around the school. \u2026 Anything we could do around the school to be the cool guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbs studied a book on aerosol art given to him by his middle school teacher Ms. Harris when Gibbs moved up to Madison Park High School in 1991. \u201cThat\u2019s what taught me how to do graffiti. I was so hungry, looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs’s mural “Breathe Life 3” at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gibbs adopted his artist name ProBlak. \u201cI was finding my own sound. There was an artist called Paris and he had an album called \u2018The Devil Made Me Do It.\u2019 He said \u2018pro Black\u2019 so much that it sank into my subconscious,\u201d Gibbs says. \u201cI never say I picked the name. I said the name chose me. \u2026 Pro is for and Blak is my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

His best friend Damon Butler drew caricatures of the guys as superheroes on the walls of cellars and old buildings. \u201cIt bugged me out that he could do that out of his head,\u201d Gibbs says. \u201cHe could do the characters and I could do the letters and then we could be a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all practiced at the studio of Susan Rodgerson,\u201d Gibbs says, on Thayer Street, in Boston\u2019s South End, near the Pine Street Inn. The initial crew included Butler, Jason Talbot, Carlo Lewis, Chad Hill, Anthony Garcia, Tekeon Forman. \u201cWe were always there kind of honing our craft, honing our skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the origin of what has grown into Artists For Humanity, the youth development nonprofit now located 100 West Second St. It offers teens paid work in art and design. \u201cIt was the cool afterschool studio job while I was in high school,\u201d says Gibbs, who\u2019s now paint studio director there. \u201cWe started this organization to give other kids opportunities. \u2026 It stressed the need for artists to walk the talk and give young people an opportunity they would never have under professional leadership, mentorship, apprenticeship, and that became our life work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs paints his “Breathe Life 3” mural at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gibbs and friends would head out to paint \u201cabandoned buildings, everything that was away from the street, dead end trestles, anywhere graffiti writers would do their thing.\u201d They linked up with other graffiti writers and formed bigger crews, and eventually ALA, the African Latino Alliance of black and Latino graffiti artists from across the city. \u201cWe made sure we were putting up artwork that reflected us, that mattered,\u201d Gibbs says.<\/p>\n

Gibbs says he spent a year studying at Bunker Hill Community College aiming to transfer to Emerson College, but Emerson didn\u2019t pan out. Instead he worked at the YMCA\u2014everything from monitoring the gym to running the teen center, while learning community leadership\u2014for five years before returning to work at Artists For Humanity.<\/p>\n

The African Latino Alliance painted mural-scale pieces across Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and the South End. The handball court at Peters Park, near the Orange Line’s old Dover station, in the South End was \u201cour wall of fame,\u201d Gibbs says. It had been declared a legal graffiti spot in 1986 under Mayor Ray Flynn, as part of an anti-vandalism initiative. In 1990, Timmy \u201cZone\u201d Allen spent three weeks painting “Revolution is Evolution\u201d there, an elaborate composition including dinosaur and James Brown.<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs paints his “Breathe Life 3” mural at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the early 2000s, the Alliance organized annual “Doing It in the Park\u201d hip hop celebrations featuring rappers, break dancing, and painting by competing graffiti crews invited from out of town. “The city never had anything like that before,” Gibbs told The Boston Globe in 2003. “Now they get to see people from other places, other countries, other parts of the city. People they probably see on the bus every day and didn’t know that they did it.”<\/p>\n

For the 2002 event, he, Zone, Kwest, Deme5 and Marka27 painted a mural called \u201cFrom the Pyramids to the Projects.\u201d Inspired by poem by Boston writer Askia Toure, it showed a shining pharaoh\u2019s head linking Africa and Boston. The Boston artists also traveled to other cities to paint walls.<\/p>\n

During renovations of Peters Park by the city around 2007, Gibbs says, \u201cThey knocked it down and moved it 15 feet in. We fought to keep it as it was, because it was history.\u201d City officials were at first resistant, but finally relented to African Latino Alliance painting a mural on the new wall. \u201cWe are not interested in participating for the new gentrification of Peters Park and the South End,\u201d Victor “Marka27” Quinonez had written to the city. \u201cWe consider the old handball court wall the People\u2019s Wall. We will continue to allow the people\u2019s voice to be heard throughout the city of Boston through positive and uplifting murals without compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the new wall, Gibbs, Quinonez, Deme5, Odesy and Bamboo2 painted \u201cSoul Revival\u201d in 2007, showing a great wave crashing over African Americans, including one at the center wrapped in an American flag. It was dedicated to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Gibbs, Quinonez and community organizations raised money for a new 2017 mural that Genaro \u201cGoFive\u201d Ortega, with some help from friends, was commissioned to paint there. It depicts a black woman, wrapped in an American flag, breaking free from shackles as pigeons carry the chains away.<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs paints his “Breathe Life 3” mural at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gibbs\u2019s murals can be found at Madison Park High School, on the old Mississippi\u2019s Restaurant on Terrace Street, at Underground at Ink Block under Route 93 in Boston\u2019s South End.<\/p>\n

His first \u201cBreathe Life\u201d mural went up in 2017 at the UCERM Empowerment Center at 324 Blue Hill Ave. at Lawrence Avenue, near his old middle school. Another in the series is planned for Cambridge\u2019s Central Square. \u201cBeing Boston-raised, I wanted to pay respect and homage to areas that made me the artist I am today,” Gibbs said in 2017. \u201cI wanted to \u2018Breathe Life\u2019 back into the neighborhood that helped me launch my gift into the universe.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s things that need to be properly documented, for us by us,\u201d Gibbs tells me, \u201c\u2026to encourage other young brothers and sisters coming up. This is me giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Rob<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs paints his “Breathe Life 3” mural at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs’s mural “Breathe Life 3” at 808 Tremont St., Boston, May 24, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jazz<\/a>
Jazz mural by ProBlak, Rath, Kwest, Marka27, Deme5, Clark, Wys and others, c. 2003. At 94 Terrace St., Boston, Oct. 8, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jazz<\/a>
Jazz mural by ProBlak, Rath, Kwest, Marka27, Deme5, Clark, Wys and others, c. 2003. At 94 Terrace St., Boston, Oct. 8, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Collaboration<\/a>
Collaboration by Problak (Rob Gibbs) and Imagine (Sneha Shrestha) at O\u2019Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, Oct. 8, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mural<\/a>
Mural at O\u2019Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, a team of graffiti artists \u2014 including Problak (Rob Gibbs), Imagine (Sneha Shrestha), Soems, GoFive (Ge Ortega), Hannibalskepter, Geobany, Wisogee, Hypetimes, Bostonbravez and Brandalizm, Oct. 8, 2016. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI grew up on Lenox Street, 69 B Lennox St., born and raised,\u201d Rob \u201cProBlak\u201d Gibbs tells me. \u201cI was traveling between Lenox and Orchard Park housing projects.\u201d He\u2019d wait after school at his grandparents\u2019 place at Orchard Park for his parents to pick him up and take him home. \u201cBobby is what they know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105,112],"tags":[573,37,43,38,575,574],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12085"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12277,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12085\/revisions\/12277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}