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Thursday, June 1, 2023
A slice of street art for Two Boots
A colorful new mural by Tats Cru — via the LISA Project NYC —went up today on the corner of Avenue A and Third Street outside Two Boots. (Thanks for the tip, Newman!)
Note to Tats Crew...I know the East Village demographic has changed with gentrification but the woman is clearly a white woman or girl. Phil Hartman , Two Boots owner . is old skool LES and has always been inclusive in what or who he helps or supports so that is not represented in this art work which , by the way , is not bad work. I just have a problem with the subliminal message of the white girl and the gentririers who made the neighborhood a mecca for wealthy white people which it never was before.
That was our corner where we would set up and sell clothes and hang them on the chain link fence before that corner was built on. One time this couple dressed to the nines the guy wearing a suit and bow tie and the women a red evening gown purchased a pair of high heels and exclaiming where else but New York can you purshased a pair of high heels at 4:00 am in the morning.
7:58, I'm with you. John Penley, I'm discouraged that you take offense because a painting of a single person (not a group) depicts someone who appears, to you, to be Caucasian.
Are you saying it's racist to depict whites in the EV -- that images of humans installed in the EV are racist unless they all depict non-whites?
Are you saying whites are unwelcome in the EV?
You've jumped the shark with this DEI thing. The concept of diversity is supposed to INCLUDE people, not exclude. You yourself use the word "inclusive" as you call for EXCLUSION. (An artist who listened to you would always have to EXCLUDE depictions of single white people, at least in EV-installed works.)
Whites are people, too, John.
Separately: You claim that the cartoon-looking pizza-eating girl is "clearly a white woman or girl." But she could easily be Latina or Middle Eastern or North African or Asian or mixed-race. Maybe she's transgender or LGBTQ. If so, would that be "inclusive" enough for you?
Really? This is an issue for you? Just go to No Bar at the EV Standard Hotel. There is a brand new mural, beautifully done by a very talented young man of Nubian women in a rainbow of colors. Get out and walk around this neighboorhood and you will be very pleasantly surprised by the amount of art and the diversity of ideas, that makes the East Village a constantly evolving canvass.
Agree completely with this view. It's not about one depiction in isolation but the complete landscape throughout the EV.
And while there has been a lot of development, especially in the last decade, it's hardly gentrified. People throw that term around but never see themselves as part of the process - it was always great when they got here and changed sometime after.
Seems there's more "othering" than inclusion in the East Village these days.
Um. I look pretty similar to this girl. I'm ethnically mixed, including Ukrainian and Puerto Rican. Both of my parents were born and raised in the LES/East Village and I have also lived here my entire life. I'm the opposite of a wealthy gentrifier. Do I have to hide my face here because my skin is light? The girl in this mural would have been appropriate were she drawn Black, Brown, or white, which is the beauty of this neighborhood. In fact, there are lots of murals featuring lots of different people all over the LES/EV. This is a bad take.
No one tell John Penley about the history of Eastern European, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and other light skinned people in the East Village. What absurd nonsense to spew.
2 boots if u see this pls move the Jim power statue closer to your wall instead of in the middle of the busy corner where it somehow migrated many months ago thank you
If I did this mural I would have two women [one clearly not white ] walking hand in hand eating pizza. I lived down the street from Two Boots for over 40 years and saw the block and the neighborhood get wealther and whiter over the years and finally left because it was so expensive and boring. It is on Hartman's store and therefore reflects him and like I said he was very inclusive and my suggestion would more reflect his life. Glad to see this did spark some thought and discussion and wonder how long my critics have lived in Alphabet City or even know it was called that instead of East Village for many years.
This constant suggestion that long term residents have some kind of exalted status, which apparently endures even after they've left, and get to approve of who and what goes on here, and what artists can express in their work, is reductive.
Claiming a belief in inclusion on the one hand while expressing disdain for boring white people and leaving because of them is something else altogether.
Alphabet City has always been, and still is, an area within the East Village and refers to the lettered avenues, not a name used instead of EV. But I've only been here 25 years, a relative newcomer, so happy to be corrected on that!
Yeah, I've lived here all my life (not 40 years yet, but a respectable 35) on Ave D and I always cringe when people call it Alphabet City. I've only ever heard people who don't live in this neighborhood call it that. It's the Lower East Side or the LES. Where this mural is located is the East Village though some would still call it the LES. No one says Alphabet City. Maybe 40 years ago they were saying that, but in the past 20 years at minimum that's an absolute no for people who actually live here. It gives me the same vibes as people who call the city "The Big Apple."
How do you think the Ottendorfer Library got its name? It was established by German philanthropists as the second free library in NYC in 1884 along with the Stuyvesant Polyclinic next door when the East Village was a German neighborhood.
16 comments:
Looks great!
Note to Tats Crew...I know the East Village demographic has changed with gentrification but the woman is clearly a white woman or girl. Phil Hartman , Two Boots owner . is old skool LES and has always been inclusive in what or who he helps or supports so that is not represented in this art work which , by the way , is not bad work. I just have a problem with the subliminal message of the white girl and the gentririers who made the neighborhood a mecca for wealthy white people which it never was before.
That was our corner where we would set up and sell clothes and hang them on the chain link fence before that corner was built on. One time this couple dressed to the nines the guy wearing a suit and bow tie and the women a red evening gown purchased a pair of high heels and exclaiming where else but New York can you purshased a pair of high heels at 4:00 am in the morning.
Dude, the mural is by Tats Cru, not Phil Hartman. Nothing white or “gentririers” about it.
7:58, I'm with you. John Penley, I'm discouraged that you take offense because a painting of a single person (not a group) depicts someone who appears, to you, to be Caucasian.
Are you saying it's racist to depict whites in the EV -- that images of humans installed in the EV are racist unless they all depict non-whites?
Are you saying whites are unwelcome in the EV?
You've jumped the shark with this DEI thing. The concept of diversity is supposed to INCLUDE people, not exclude. You yourself use the word "inclusive" as you call for EXCLUSION. (An artist who listened to you would always have to EXCLUDE depictions of single white people, at least in EV-installed works.)
Whites are people, too, John.
Separately: You claim that the cartoon-looking pizza-eating girl is "clearly a white woman or girl." But she could easily be Latina or Middle Eastern or North African or Asian or mixed-race. Maybe she's transgender or LGBTQ. If so, would that be "inclusive" enough for you?
...at 4:02 AM
Really? This is an issue for you?
Just go to No Bar at the EV Standard Hotel. There is a brand new mural, beautifully done by a very talented young man of Nubian women in a rainbow of colors. Get out and walk around this neighboorhood and you will be very pleasantly surprised by the amount of art and the diversity of ideas, that makes the East Village a constantly evolving canvass.
at 4:02 AM and 7:58
Agree completely with this view. It's not about one depiction in isolation but the complete landscape throughout the EV.
And while there has been a lot of development, especially in the last decade, it's hardly gentrified. People throw that term around but never see themselves as part of the process - it was always great when they got here and changed sometime after.
Seems there's more "othering" than inclusion in the East Village these days.
Um. I look pretty similar to this girl. I'm ethnically mixed, including Ukrainian and Puerto Rican. Both of my parents were born and raised in the LES/East Village and I have also lived here my entire life. I'm the opposite of a wealthy gentrifier. Do I have to hide my face here because my skin is light? The girl in this mural would have been appropriate were she drawn Black, Brown, or white, which is the beauty of this neighborhood. In fact, there are lots of murals featuring lots of different people all over the LES/EV. This is a bad take.
No one tell John Penley about the history of Eastern European, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and other light skinned people in the East Village. What absurd nonsense to spew.
This art looks great.
2 boots if u see this pls move the Jim power statue closer to your wall instead of in the middle of the busy corner where it somehow migrated many months ago thank you
ignore the troll, dude can't be serious, if so he's brainwashed
This mural is beautiful as are the majority of the comments in this thread (especially June 2, 2023 at 11:20 AM!)
If I did this mural I would have two women [one clearly not white ] walking hand in hand eating pizza. I lived down the street from Two Boots for over 40 years and saw the block and the neighborhood get wealther and whiter over the years and finally left because it was so expensive and boring. It is on Hartman's store and therefore reflects him and like I said he was very inclusive and my suggestion would more reflect his life. Glad to see this did spark some thought and discussion and wonder how long my critics have lived in Alphabet City or even know it was called that instead of East Village for many years.
This constant suggestion that long term residents have some kind of exalted status, which apparently endures even after they've left, and get to approve of who and what goes on here, and what artists can express in their work, is reductive.
Claiming a belief in inclusion on the one hand while expressing disdain for boring white people and leaving because of them is something else altogether.
Alphabet City has always been, and still is, an area within the East Village and refers to the lettered avenues, not a name used instead of EV. But I've only been here 25 years, a relative newcomer, so happy to be corrected on that!
Yeah, I've lived here all my life (not 40 years yet, but a respectable 35) on Ave D and I always cringe when people call it Alphabet City. I've only ever heard people who don't live in this neighborhood call it that. It's the Lower East Side or the LES. Where this mural is located is the East Village though some would still call it the LES. No one says Alphabet City. Maybe 40 years ago they were saying that, but in the past 20 years at minimum that's an absolute no for people who actually live here. It gives me the same vibes as people who call the city "The Big Apple."
How do you think the Ottendorfer Library got its name? It was established by German philanthropists as the second free library in NYC in 1884 along with the Stuyvesant Polyclinic next door when the East Village was a German neighborhood.
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