ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
One Direction: The Movie - DAY BEFORE:
The CIA's Iranian Coup - DAY BEFORE THAT:
The Man Who Invented Seat Belts - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
The Fake King of Albania
ON THIS DAY
The Godfather of Graffiti
Darryl McCray, better known as ‘Cornbread’, was honoured at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem on 24th August, 2013. But it was in 1960s Philadelphia that he’d made his name… by spraying it all over the city, becoming street art’s first serial ‘tagger’ in the process.
Unlike gangs, who tagged to claim turf, the teenage Cornbread simply wanted to be noticed – and he was, declaring his love for a girl named Cynthia by writing “Cornbread Loves Cynthia” across the city, much to her parents’ horror. Cornbread’s antics grew ever more daring; he famously tagged an elephant at the zoo, and even the Jackson 5’s airplane, solidifying his reputation as the “Godfather of Graffiti.”
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why this new form of self-expression particularly appealed to Philadelphia’s disenfranchised Black youth; consider the influence of tagging on later movements such as hip-hop; and reveal how Cornbread got his name…
Further Reading:
• ‘CORNBREAD: The Graff Pioneer who Tagged an Elephant’ (Blankslaps, 2023): https://blankslaps.com/blogs/blog/cornbread-the-graff-pioneer-who-tagged-an-elephant
• ‘First graffiti artist Cornbread shows new work at Philly gallery’ (WHYY, 2019): https://whyy.org/articles/cornbread-the-first-graffiti-artist-shows-new-work-at-philadelphia-gallery/
• ‘CORNBREAD Lives’ (Mass Appeal, 2016):
ON THIS DAY
The Godfather of Graffiti
Darryl McCray, better known as ‘Cornbread’, was honoured at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem on 24th August, 2013. But it was in 1960s Philadelphia that he’d made his name… by spraying it all over the city, becoming street art’s first serial ‘tagger’ in the process.
Unlike gangs, who tagged to claim turf, the teenage Cornbread simply wanted to be noticed – and he was, declaring his love for a girl named Cynthia by writing “Cornbread Loves Cynthia” across the city, much to her parents’ horror. Cornbread’s antics grew ever more daring; he famously tagged an elephant at the zoo, and even the Jackson 5’s airplane, solidifying his reputation as the “Godfather of Graffiti.”
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why this new form of self-expression particularly appealed to Philadelphia’s disenfranchised Black youth; consider the influence of tagging on later movements such as hip-hop; and reveal how Cornbread got his name…
Further Reading:
• ‘CORNBREAD: The Graff Pioneer who Tagged an Elephant’ (Blankslaps, 2023): https://blankslaps.com/blogs/blog/cornbread-the-graff-pioneer-who-tagged-an-elephant
• ‘First graffiti artist Cornbread shows new work at Philly gallery’ (WHYY, 2019): https://whyy.org/articles/cornbread-the-first-graffiti-artist-shows-new-work-at-philadelphia-gallery/
• ‘CORNBREAD Lives’ (Mass Appeal, 2016):
ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
One Direction: The Movie - DAY BEFORE:
The CIA's Iranian Coup - DAY BEFORE THAT:
The Man Who Invented Seat Belts - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
The Fake King of Albania
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OLLY MANN
Olly Mann made his name with another trivia-wielding podcast, Answer Me This! with Helen Zaltzman – and now presents The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped, and Four Thought for BBC Radio Four. He also has an A-Level in History, so Dan Snow beware.
REBECCA MESSINA
Rebecca got a passion for podcasting working at The Week magazine and a passion for trivia appearing on University Challenge in 2011, making The Retrospectors her natural home.
ARION MCNICOLL
Arion started out in satirical news in Australia, then moved to the UK to work for ostensibly serious publications including The Times, CNN, and The Week… before realising that since around 2016 the news has all been satire really.
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