June 26, 2006
Crack is Still Wack Twenty Years Later
On June 27, 1986, Keith Haring got a $25 dollar ticket for painting an unauthorized mural on a handball court on East 128th Street. A few months later, the Parks Department invited him back to finish it, and twenty years later, it's still there-- an iconic reminder of times past. Bonus fact: the piece is probably one of the most-seen in the entire city, as it sits a stone's throw from the Harlem River Drive.
Pictures from Bluejake, taken during the NYC Graffiti Tour in October 2005.
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Whoever drew that mural has obviously never tried Crack.
Cool - I always imagined that the little wall required more upkeep than your average piece of art, being outside, in a constantly used park and near all the exhaust fumes of the FDR - it must be disintegrating all the time and subject to creepy vandals - but it still looks great. Do you have an info on who maintains it and what they do to keep it in shape? I'm sure one day they'll restructure the park and have to move it (MoMa? The Museum of the City of New York is my vote), but until then it would be nice to know how it survives day to day.
I remember reading that the art gets repainted every few years.
Haring was hung like a Shire horse.
What the fuck is this? How dare they promote crack like that in a poor neighborhood. Everyone knows black people like to talk in code. For example, Ill, Nasty and Bad mean good. Like that cellphone is ill son. So Wack must mean magically delicious.
it's a really powerful sight from the harlem river drive, too. something about it still chokes me up when i catch a glimpse in person.
The playground is called "Crack Is Wack Playground", to boot. It always makes me smile as I drive by.
i was raised on keith herring, but hundreds of miles from new york. crack is wack was the first, and perhaps only, work of his ive seen in its natural environment, so to speak