Names on Trains

Poetic words from young artists struggling in the South Bronx during the 1980s. Painting trains enabled the artists to have their work seen by people across the city as the trains travelled from the South Bronx to lower Manhattan. A traveling gallery.

“We started writing on trains cuz here we are livin in the South Bronx it’s all so dilapidated you know, we had no where else to paint. Someone got the idea to, let’s put our names on that train and it caught on, it became like a voice for us, a voice of the ghetto.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOk8lFJ_mwY&feature=related

Cops vs. Graffiti, the legendary graffiti wars. Above is a scene from Beat This! Hip Hop History made in 1984. New York graffiti artist Brim and the MTA vandal squad discuss graffiti.

“They don’t like something they can’t control…. In NYC it’s the way we express ourselves. …The war against graffiti has gone on for ten years and they haven’t won nothing.”

► TONIGHT in NYC! Teenage blog has been asked to present our fave YouTube vids featuring teens for Migrating Forms’ upcoming event Tube Time!. What are your favorite teenage-centric YouTube vids? Post your submissions on our Facebook page. Hope to see you there!