Yusuf Hassan: The NYPL has a picture collection. Over 1.5 million photos in this picture collection. So it’s like an endless amount of collected photos, clippings, everything from like––all based on subjects—so, hats, or if you say hip hop. Different things. Not even just actual hip hop artists, but whether it’s a photograph of something that refer- enced hip hop, you can research photos based on that. I told you I was going to do a fellowship at NYPL, last year, but the scheduling was just bad. It didn’t work out, so I’m going to actually do it in 2025. We’ll do it next year in the spring. I got back in contact with them and said aside from the fellowship, I want to come in before and just go through photos based on subjects that I’m interested in; which was architecture, graffiti, jazz and hip hop. And I pulled photos all from those entrances, then I compiled them based on how I want- ed it to read. So the zine that I want is called Slow Drag. And I’m thinking about this idea of how; going through photos, my correlation to visuals, understanding visuals, and understanding photos, thinking about imagery, thinking about all these aspects of visual presentation, and thinking about the zine that I did, “Come and Get Me,” which was also inspired by me thinking about film, poetry, and photography.
For the fellowship, I was thinking about how I want to use the fellowship as a way to take my time and go through everything. Slowly go through everything. And this was a jazz song that I saw called Slow Drag. And I was like, this is the title. And it’s speaking to the process of just taking your time and compiling based on that. So I did it in three installments over the course of two weeks, with three different pulls from the library. And I compiled all of them. And then I have them cut down to size. So just everything, unbound. So this is a lot of things, trinkets of me that’s interjected. My son, where I grew up in Hollis, Queens, then Graffiti.
Morian Mikhail:When I see you work in color I’m always like, why did he keep it colored? Because the majority is black and white print.
YH: Oh, so with this one, I just thought that the colors were really good to keep. Photos that I felt like would keep its integrity with the color. I kept them in color because it’s also this aspect where I take the color away because it allows for more focus as to what’s taking place. And then in other cases, I’ll make it black and white. So it’s actually going between both, color and black and white. A lot of it was just like films, clippings from old newspapers. All from the New York Public Library’s photo archive.
MM: So when you see a mural like this, and then it jumps to jazz, what are you communicating?
YH: So, I’m really interested in things that don’t belong next to each other. I’m thinking about how to create conversation with things that may not have ever been in conversation otherwise. We did a program last year at Emmett Foundation called “Sampling as Life”. We talked about the techniques of sampling from Madlib, J Dilla, and we spoke about Doom and then it segue to James Brown. So this was a photo that I took of the film playing at, at Emmett Foundation, of Madlib mixing. And this is a circle that we use a lot in our work.
We think about how everything comes back in different forms. So this circle is very prevalent. And then this piece right here is a really beautiful jazz improvisational piece that’s played. It’s called graffiti in two parts and it’s such a beautiful song. You need to lis- ten to it, it’s fantastic. I was thinking about the language of graffiti, but not just graffiti, like I said, they’re writers. And thinking about the writers. Then it crosses over into one of my favorite Amiri Baraka poems, which I’m always thinking about poetry and thinking about language. So I just wanted to merge all of these into one publication to think about the correlation between film, photography, architecture, and specifically graffiti. Which is also a very territorial type of thing to do, because rival graffiti artists always, they may go over, you may see a tag here today, but it may be gone tomorrow. The city may take it off, a rival graff writer may go over it, the owner of the business may paint over it. So graffiti also has a very short lifespan. It exists very fast. It’s times that I’ve seen something thrown up, and came back in a few hours, and it’s gone. So I love the lifespan of graffiti. I love that it’s short, but it makes good documentation. So I’m always thinking about these [subjects].
MM: The life of something.
YH: The life of something. Yeah so I’m thinking about life in transition.
MM: " In World War II, even your muse will get killed.” That title is crazy.
YH: This is by Amiri Baraka, who was such a radical thinker. I know his daughter, Kelly Jones, she’s a professor at Columbia University. I did a class at Columbia University three years ago, me and Kwame, and she sat in the class. And two years ago when I was in residence at the Center for Book Arts–– Each year they pair each residence with a living poet. That year, Amiri Baraka was there, to be selected, but he was the only dead poet that they ever had on the list. And nobody took him. And I’m like, nobody wants to do a broadside on Amiri Baraka. And I always said he was waiting there for me. I can pull it and do the broadside on him. So, I did the broadside and I gave his daughter the first copy.
When I was in California two weeks ago, I went to see A.J. at his studio. We’ve become very close over the last couple of years, and he sent me this photo right here, LA Haze.
This one, he took them at different periods of time in California. And this is the performance artist, Ralph Lemon. This is a performance piece that he’s doing. Look at it. It’s crazy.
This guy right here is a huge inspiration to me. This is like one of very few documentation photos of Larry Neal, the founder of the Black Arts Movement. And he was a critical writer, a critical thinker, composer, and poet, just a mastermind of the craft. So, I wanted to pair it with this quote right here, from Rammellzee, which I found to be very funny.
MM: I remember seeing the screenshot that you sent me of this. And it’s like when he said, “I’m not an artist. I entered the art scene as a gangster.” It’s literally how I feel like any self-taught per- son enters the scene.
YH: No formal experience or formal training. Like you’re doing it off of realm. I guess that’s why I’m also so drawn to improvisation, because there’s really no one way to operate, think- ing about operating under these realms. And even this right here, Miles ahead.This was a Miles Davis homage. There’s the poet Ted Jones, [he has] one of my favorite poems. He says “they say they have risen above jazz. I leave them there for Miles Davis.” And every time I read that poem, I think about it from this aspect that Miles is the apex of jazz. And when people say, ‘I’m jazz”. It’s just like, no, I’m going to leave you there for Miles, hash that out with him. And if Miles jumps in there and does his thing, it’s not going to be anything left of you. That poem to me, it’s such a short poem in duration, but it holds so much depth. And “Miles Ahead” was this––have you ever seen this?
This is from Oakland, California. This was on the door of Black Panther brother. And this was something that he wrote on the door. This was a documentation photo of it from Oakland. This was, I want to say 64 or 74. One of them. But this I found to be so heavy in language. You know, may the curse of the law be on the one who killed my brother. And I just thought it was heavy in depth with the words, and it also made me think about the door of Fred Hampton. The bullet riddled the door from when the police shot into his house. Kerry James Marshall actually bought the door. He has the actual door that they shot up. I don’t know if they had it in an auction. But yeah I heard he bought the door.
MM: So this one. It’s almost this vinyl/sewer lid. That’s the vibe I got from it, when I first saw it.
YH: I also feel like Miles revolutionized every era and point that he was alive in jazz. He just kept coming back with sound.
So these are from fliers that were in the archive. I’m also thinking about how language conveys and communicates ‘community’. Thinking about community. Because a lot of times, this is how the word was [spread]. This is the original Instagram. They would post this up on the pole and you always have to see it based on that okay. ‘Ok, They’re doing a hip hop party. They’re DJing a set.”
MM: I’m also looking at their interpretation of the map. This is Queens, Long island city and then Rikers, Bronx. And they got Harlem all the way up until ––Wow. You know, it’s insane. And then the turntables right here, and then we end right here with a mic and a speaker.
This is crazy. This is beautiful. Where did this fit in, the Congo.
YH: Oh this. There was a folder that I pulled from Congo. There was a folder that had a few images of some architecture that I had scanned. So I was looking for some photos of the architecture from the Congo, and there was not really much in there. And inside of this particular photo–– this was actu- ally an architecture photo. And I was like, maybe it was a mix up, but I was just drawn to the colors. And also just like the portrait of him eating the bread.
Yeah. So the Muslims, we have something called the Miswak. it’s a stick, You can brush your teeth with it.
They even got Miswak toothpaste that you can use. It has miswak and black seed oil. And it’s really good for your teeth. Then they have the sticks you can chew on or just brush and you can put it back in your pocket.
So this is how I grew up. You go get a loaf from the bakery down the street and the sugar cane. And you know how people have the ‘chew sticks’? We used to chew on the sugar cane and clean our teeth with it.
MM: Miswak?
YH: It's called Miswak.
MM: That’s beautiful bro.
YH: So this is Slow Drag.
MM: Slow Drag, from the title to the final image. I love this.
YH: I'm thinking about paperweight. I like the texture of this one. This is my go to paper that I use, a dry cotton paper.
MM: Right.
YH: This is the same book. Just three different forms. From three different visits.
Read the full interview in CM-i.4. SHOP HERE.