Gothamist: Crack is Still Wack Twenty Years Later

jessebeller

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 18:13:52 -0500

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

samuraiphotog

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:01:31 -0500

The playground is called "Crack Is Wack Playground", to boot. It always makes me smile as I drive by.

cm

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:34:30 -0500

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.

jlost

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:39:06 -0500

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.

C.H.U.D.

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 16:06:52 -0500

Haring was hung like a Shire horse.

Joe

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:37:15 -0500

I remember reading that the art gets repainted every few years.

gabe

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:24:20 -0500

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.

Tyrone Biggums

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:04:47 -0500

Whoever drew that mural has obviously never tried Crack.