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You
may not have heard of them yet, but you will. Write
To Eat is a community of graffiti artists in the Boston
area. The crew is the brain child of Oliver Mak, who
started the group in April of '03. "I wanted
a place for artists to meet and not have to look over
their shoulder….we take raw talent from the street
and try to help it, try to grow." The core members
in the crew include kids ranging anywhere from ages
14-26 and it's a good way to show kids who may not
have had any previous positively in their lives that
not only are they worth something, but so is their
art. By creating a credible outlet for youth, Mak
is busy teaching about graff culture and the artists
more about themselves. "These kids are active,
athletic, many of them are drug free, they're getting
up and doing things."
The
crew averages one show a week depending on what's
going on in the area and their presence is definitely
felt. In addition to being talented in graff, many
of the kids are breakers and bring their black books
with them to the shows. They eat, sleep, live and
breath graff and the purity of the old school hip
hop ways that are so much a part of what they're all
about. Not only are they a part of the scene, they're
helping to enhance it with what they have to offer
on their own terms. This is pretty much the heart
of graffiti itself, when you think about it. These
kids are taking something which already exists and
adding their own to it and nobody understands this
better than Mak. "When you walk around the city
with graff kids, you see the city in a whole new light.
You see every square inch."
They're
trying to bring validity back to graffiti; it’s
an art, a lifestyle a way of communicating a story.
Many of the kids in the crew are coming from some
of the hardest neighborhoods Boston has to offer and
instead of falling victim to another statistic, they're
rising. "People are amazed by what they can do.
That's why these kids show up, to be validated, to
keep creating; they know that people believe in them,
it’s just a matter of getting it out." Besides
painting pieces all over the city, the crew is promoting
themselves and their work by doing commissioned canvases.
They're known on the East coast for their graffiti
trucker hats, however. Each one is tagged originally
by hand by one of the artists in the crew and their
designs are the hottest ones in this trend that can
be found anywhere on the planet. They recently did
a pair of Chucks for famed rocker and art enthusiast
Tommy Lee. While the monetary gain is exciting, Mak
doesn't pretend for a second it's the end goal. "I'd
like to see some of the kids go to art college, maybe
go into design illustration. I'd really like to have
the kid’s tour with their art, bring them out
of their environment. To me, this is urban therapy."
Check
out Write to Eat
online at or drop them an email at writetoeat@hotmail.com
and check out karmaloop.com
for their hats.
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