{"id":19462,"date":"2021-05-21T17:20:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T21:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=19462"},"modified":"2021-05-26T08:39:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T12:39:44","slug":"back-against-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/05\/21\/back-against-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Back Against The Wall\u2019 Showcases Graffiti Artists In Grove Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artists Apex, Deme5, Kwest, ProBlak, Sobek, Soem and Vex transformed the side wall of Moses Auto at 58 Geneva Ave. in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15 for the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event.<\/p>\n

Jeremy ‘Sobek’ Harrison\u2014who organized the initiative, with sponsorship from Sparc Mobile, the Center for Art and Community Partnerships at MassArt, and Moses Car Shop\u2014said the aim was creating \u201clegal graffiti\/street art walls in the more underserved areas of Boston and promoting more sparks of creativity with opportunities for visual expression for all residents. The main goal is to identify the first legal graffiti wall in Dorchester specifically for the purpose of organized aerosol art for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hoped my neighborhood would have a stress-free day to reconnect with family and friends through art. What happened was the largest family reunion Boston has ever seen,\u201d Sobek writes. In addition to painting the wall, people painted Jersey barriers in the lot next to Moses Auto, across from the Grove Hall Community Center and Grove Hall Branch of the Boston Public Library<\/p>\n

Sobek writes that he organized \u201cBack Against the Wall\u201d to \u201cpromote the creative thinking and history of writing (graffiti) in Boston. Presently too many residents associate graffiti with gang vandalism not knowing that the term itself was not created by the pioneers of the art. It is unfair that the world gets to appreciate an artform that has a strong history in Boston, yet the residents cannot. \u2026 This event and more are needed because they bring communities together for the purpose of art and culture. Writing (graffiti) is a sacred Black culture that has taken the world by force which is now seen in all forms of media and advertisements. My communities need the chance to see and feel all this artform has to offer because it creates opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe painting on Moses car shop may be a one time thing,\u201d he writes. \u201cI’m in conversation with him. There will be future events in the same lot though. My goal is to find the location for an organized rotational wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sobek is planning another painting event, “Healing Through the Arts.” with a “live mural lineup” on Juneteenth, Saturday, June 19, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Ripley Road Park in Boston. (Rain date: June 21.) “We will be celebrating the life of Dwayne Corey Ross aka Xerox, with a live mural. Followed by a candlelight vigil for the community in remembrance of their loved ones,” he writes. The event will be preceeded with a neighborhood cleanup led by Maat Culture on Saturday, June 12, then preparing the walls for painting on Friday, June 18.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, nature, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2021 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Poster<\/a>
Poster for \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Soem created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Deme5 created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Kwest created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cBack<\/a>
\u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Apeks created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Sobek and ProBlak created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Art<\/a>
Art by Vex created at the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event at Moses Auto in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15, 2021. (Courtesy Sobek)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists Apex, Deme5, Kwest, ProBlak, Sobek, Soem and Vex transformed the side wall of Moses Auto at 58 Geneva Ave. in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on May 15 for the \u201cBack Against the Wall: Graffiti in Grove Hall\u201d event. Jeremy ‘Sobek’ Harrison\u2014who organized the initiative, with sponsorship from Sparc Mobile, the Center for Art and Community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105,112],"tags":[37,43,867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19462"}],"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=19462"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19527,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19462\/revisions\/19527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}