Zine Preview: Keith Haring’s Murals at Public School 97 in the Lower East Side, 1985-1988

This Wednesday, I'm self-publishing a zine on the history of some school courtyard murals Haring made in the mid-Eighties, at my old high school

Hi all—

I’m excited to announce the release of my latest zine on Keith Haring’s Murals at Public School 97 in the Lower East Side, 1985-1988. The zine will be available for purchase exclusively in-store at the following stockists this Wednesday, July 31st:

— Village Works Bookstore (12 St. Mark’s Pl.)
— Printed Matter, Inc. (231 11th Ave.)
— Human Relations Bookstore (1067 Flushing Ave.)
— Spoonbill & Sugartown Books (218 Bedford Ave.)

I printed in full color on thick paper stock with unseen photographs and video stills of Haring painting his series of murals, including his first ever mural at Junior High School 22 in the Summer of 1981 alongside graffiti writers including Futura 2000, TEE2, CEL, LAC, among others. I wrote a preface explaining my relationship to the school’s building being my high school alma mater, and how I combed through Facebook posts to learn about these long-lost murals.

My writing covers the destruction and deterioration of the murals, celebrity appearances like Andy Warhol and Public Enemy, and theorizing the inspiration behind Haring’s decision to paint at PS 97, such as a local graffiti crew’s presence that Haring befriended through the Lower East Side-raised graffiti artist Angel Ortiz (aka LA2). I interviewed a full spectrum of artists, writers, and people close to Haring at the time of his mural-making including a local who helped fill in Haring’s mural.

The zine is printed in an edition of 50, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 23 pages, $20 retail.

On August 1st, 1985, in the courtyard of the elementary school Public School 97 at 525 East Houston Street, there was a block party with local neighborhood DJs including Ralphy Munoz and Enrique Padilla, celebrating the late artist Keith Haring’s finished unauthorized mural. Andy Warhol was in attendance as well; he photographed the event, music, dancing, and Haring drawing on kids’ and adults’ Summer outfits. Victor Font, founder of the label Sole Channel Music, was around 11 or 12 years old at the time, and watched Haring a couple of days earlier paint in the courtyard from late afternoon to midnight; he remembered Haring took three days to paint the entire mural.

Haring had “one big wooden ladder” and “his silver Sony small cassette deck radio,” Font remembered. “He wore shorts since it was hot that day and a white t-shirt along with the hat that was backwards, which had a checkered pattern.” Font remembered Haring answered questions from everyone. “I actually thought he was going to get arrested because police did show up but he showed a paper and they went away,” he continued.

From then to the Summer of 1988, Haring completed three murals, with the help of schoolchildren and locals, in PS 97’s courtyard, below the late mural artist Alfredo “Freddy” Hernández’s Cityarts Workshop commissioned mural, “Por Los Niños” (1976). Hernández grew up in the Lower East Side’s public housing and had no formal art training, but got involved with Cityarts Workshop spontaneously at 17 years old when he walked by mural artists working on a commission and telling the artists how they weren’t painting it right.

Like Haring, Hernández’s mural involved schoolchildren, but these junior high school kids helped painted during school time, unlike Haring’s condition of illegality. Hernández was commissioned by Cityarts Workshop at other locations in the Lower East Side to collaborate with schoolchildren.