Remembering the Pope, Street-Style

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Following up on Curbed's post about graffiti artist Chico's tribute to Pope John Paul II, it seems that many people with cans of spray paint want to pay some respect to the late pontiff. De la Vega, who had been the bane of his community, has created a Pope and Jesus-on-the-crucifix mural on a Spanish Harlem security gate that he hopes will be permanent. And reader Marisa pointed us to how someone in Long Island City is remembering PJPII. We can only imagine that Pope John Paul II appreciates even street art, as he did have breakdancers perform for him.

Detail of photograph from LICNYC

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Comments (13) [rss]

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Its good to hear some shout outs for the Pope. This weekend i'll be pouring out 40's in his honor as well.

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I think he prefers to be known as PoJo

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Enough already with the using of lame black stereotypes for fun. It's not funny. It's not constructive and it surely hurts more than it helps for a bunch of white guys to be popping off "niggas" and pouring out their 40's. Long Island City is primarily white at around 50% based on the 2000 census.

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Don't miss the pope mural at houston street caught by trevor little...

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yeah, I saw those guys on houston doing the pope mural yesterday. I stopped for awhile to see how they could do that with just a bunch of spray paint cans. Those guys really know what their doing.

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lol Shut up Patrick

Why can't a man show some respect for somebody who has made a difference without it being turned into stereotyped BS. Ok fine, I wont pour a 40. Will a can of Miller Light do?

And whats your point when you say Long Island City is 50% white? Thats a pretty well mixed neighborhood, even for NYC. When you point out a neighborhood as being 'primarily white' by your standards, point to Great Neck or Forrest Hills, not LIC.

Is it even 50% white???

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Whoa, when does calling him a "nigga" and then discussing forties not qualify as lame black stereotypes? Perhaps this has become so mainstream to have white people call each other "niggas" and say so and so is "ghetto", but that doesn't make it devoid of the roots in lame black stereotypes.

Also, my point in saying that the neighborhood is primarily white is only that the chances are great that the graffiti posted was done by someone white. That's just based on the statistics. You can check them out here: http://www.licbdc.org/planning/census.htm

Hey, New York is all about races getting along and this kind of thing doesn't help.

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They are lame black stereotypes, but Rap and R&B stars don't hesitate using the terms in their music at all, mostly because where they come from, that’s just how it is. Thats probably another reason why its so mainstream now.

But sadly white people start using the phrases too, and thats what makes it lame.

And I'm sure it wasnt a white person who sprayed that.

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haha... PoJo. that's good.

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Y'know, that's got to be THE most heartfelt tribute to the passing of the Pope. And I would like to think that whomever wrote it, regardless of of his/her ethnicity or color, meant it as such.

Yes PoJo. That's good.

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Patrick,
Since when did any "white guy" here in the forum or in the article call the pope their nigga? Also, unless you have proof that the people who tagged that wall were white, then you're shit out of luck here buddy. Can you be anymore uptight? Getting along also means being able to recognize stereotypes and jive (oh no! is that too 'urban' for me, a non african american to say?)and play off of them for laughs. There's a line, but it sure as hell wasn't crossed here.

it had to be a white guy that sprayed that, a black
man wouldnt waste his his money on a can of paint.

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