Bad Brains on the Bowery with Shepard Fairey and Glen E. Friedman

Photos and reporting by Daniel Efram

Five-plus years after debuting the Blondie mural on Bleecker Street, Shepard Fairey, in collaboration with the Lisa Project NYC and Glen E. Friedman (below right), has completed a new mural in tribute to Bad Brains.

The mural, located directly across the street from CBGB at the Bowery and Bleecker, honors the D.C. band that broke new ground during the 1970s and 80s with its hard prototypical reggae-punk. 

Bad Brains also helped pay tribute to the club that championed its unique sounds by performing a trio of goodbye shows in 2006. Additionally, the location is special to Fairey as his first NYC solo art shows took place at the CBGB 313 Gallery, then curated by Jonathan Levine.

Friedman, the acclaimed East Village-based photographer known for his work with cultural icons, skaters and musicians, including some of Fairey's favorite artists, such as Public Enemy and Run-DMC, provided the photographs that Fairey compiled for the large-format piece.

"All of the photos in the collage were made at CBGB during the holidays in 1981 or 1982," Friedman says. "The Bad Brains annual Xmas matinees became a great thing for all us punks who didn't care or didn't have a place to be during the holidays. We'd all go and congregate there and see some of the best shows of our lives."

The mural's location was secured by the Lisa Project, a program dedicated to beautifying the community via mural art. Several members of the public had grown attached to the Blondie mural and wondered why it was being replaced. According to sources on the scene, the wall is supposed to be refreshed every three years but was delayed due to the COVID pandemic.

"After the Bad Brains left Washington, D.C., they moved to New York and were living here on the Lower East Side. They played CBGB a lot. In fact, their music came into its ultimate highest power when they were living and playing here," Fairey tells me about the project's roots in the East Village and Lower East Side community. 

"[They were] a defining band in terms of the sound of hardcore but a unique band in that they were all Black in a white genre," Fairey continues. "It's incredible to have Bad Brains get some love here because they have such a strong connection to NYC and CBGB. They recorded their first album at 171-A in Alphabet City." 

The four-person crew — (from the left) Fairey, Rob Zagula, Praxis and Osk — installed the mural on Monday and Tuesday ...

Here's a look at the elaborate work that took place this past week...

Daniel Efram is an East Village-based photographer-curator. He is the producer of "The Steve Keene Art Book."