Dual Murals in Jamaica Queens

 

 

 

On a recent trip to Jamaica, Queens – my first time there – saw these dual murals, at the end of the E Line, at Archer Avenue & Parsons Blvd across the street from the large subway station.

The rapper mural is next to a mural for recycling, featuring a call to recycle by none another than the President of the United States. The murals – evidently by different artists – contain some wonderfully moody illustrations and while each has distinctive themes, the juxtaposition creates additional layers of meaning and irony.

You can put what I know about rap or hip hop music in a thimble and still have enough room for your thumb. So, go darn those darn socks and forgive me if I can’t name everybody in this mural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rapper mural of course has multiple agendas. Yes, it pays tribute to artists beloved by the community – and in the case of 50 Cents (aka “Fitty”), Queens native hometown hero – but this expression of cultural pride is tempered by a purposeful requiem. The deaths of the young artists here, in the center of the mural, were results of violence – inherent in hip-hop culture or American culture – if you want to pretend there is such a difference, that some great divide separates these two culture or that violence– specifically gun violence, witness the Aurora premier of the Dark Knight –than you are a fool.

Not in the center, floating on a nearby cloud – near but not in what looks like heaven – is a young man in red, is 50 Cents (says so on his baseball cap) who was a famously a victim of a shooting, so he is sort of knocking on heaven’s door, an unmistakable cautionary image. On his shirt are the words – No More 50 Shots – the reference is to the 2006 shooting by the NYPD, which happened in Jamaica, Queens, which resulted in the death of the unarmed Sean Bell. Gun violence is just about one segment of American culture, or simply ascribed to one motivation, like greed or race, it is the connective tissue of our culture and we need to start thinking about solutions that are both pragmatic and idealistic. That old NRA saying, guns don’t kill people, people kill people, may be only half right – stricter gun laws are necessary –but it’s not just about the availability of firearms. This mural doesn’t offer an answer either, but its invocation of the afterlife and its undeniable imagery of wasted youth, including the near death of a young man, encourage a mediation that could lead to some sort of answer.

The mural is subtle and spiritual, glorifying the artists and what their music meant to fans and music lovers yet not ignoring the tragic facts of their deaths or the American culture that played such a dominant role in their demise.

If anyone can tell me the significance of the faceless man on the motorcycle – or the guy in a suit, which his back turned looking at a branch, please email or comment. The sky-blue background and wisps of clouds, the floating visages all invoke a heaven, the yellow graffiti is trippy. I love the large, almond eyes and slightly exaggerated lips, noses, chins, portraits whose illustrative intent invokes a devotional spirit. The tear dripping of Tupac’s eye is so poignant. The tear for and by the poet, the tear we share, the tear that opens up the context and subtext of the picture for everyone who sees it.

The Obama mural is not so overtly lofty. As quotes go, “We must not come in second when it comes to recycling,” is not one of Barak’s most memorable quips but you can’t deny its albeit pedestrian wisdom. A large mural, greens and blue (a sky darker than and perhaps not as heavenly as the rapper mural), publicizing a single, direct issue – recycling. I don’t know the context of the president’s original words, but I imagine it was more national in scope –New York State & city has one of the best recycling programs in the country! – but it can be better as most things always can be.

Obama’s has a very comic book inspired profile, which is a compliment. He looks like a leader. His head is turned – more specifically –turning over his shoulder, the skin on the nape of neck rippling, with an expression that beckons us to follow him towards a better world. The depiction seamlessly combines realism and idealization.

Adjacent murals, one of the here and now and the other about the after life. The thing about heaven and earth if you believe in heaven, an afterlife, it is present in the material world. The deceased watch over us some say, but the concept that I sometimes contemplate with the afterlife, the here and the hereafter, that now is now here or in eternity. African American continuity, the link between the rappers and our current president is created by these two murals being adjacent to each other. Both convey distinct although complementary political message. Both conduct a dialog between the material and the spiritual world within themselves – and between each other.