Graffiti artists take to the Knight Theater lobby ahead of Breakin’ Convention
The Breakin’ Convention, an “International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Culture,” comes to Charlotte this weekend. It’s about more than just break dancing. It’s about all aspects of hip-hop culture, including graffiti.
This week, 10 artists are lugging cans of spray paint into the Knight Theater lobby and filling the large white columns with graffiti. With permission, of course.
“We thought that it would be really cool to bring graffiti into the Knight Theater and incorporate it as people walk in, and be immersed in it,” said Michelle Youngs, Blumenthal’s assistant director of education. “It’s incredible. Just the different ideas everyone has when they’re working on it and what comes out of them is amazing. … So much creativity.”
The artists were given no direction, other than that the art had to be family friendly. Each column has its own feel and character.
Graffiti is illegal in Charlotte, which is why four of the artists are identified only by nicknames and why DeNeer Davis wouldn’t tell me her graffiti name. Davis, a 28-year-old Charlotte native, has been doing spray paint art for about a year and a half.
“Graffiti tells stories,” Davis said. “Without me having to speak to you, I can put my story in my art.”
She decided to paint her version of the alphabet on one of the columns.
“I never know what I’m going to do until I get ready to do it,” she said. “I can have a whole concept a week before, but then I’ll come in and do something completely different.
“Today I decided to do the ABCs because it’s kid-friendly, but also graffiti, it’s in the font.”
Matt Hooker, another one of the artists, loves the idea of bringing street art into an uptown institution. (If that name sounds familiar, he and Matt Moore are the ones that painted that sweet mural at the entrance of the new NoDa location.)
“It’s the same thing I’m trying to do, where I’m trying to combine the uptown crowd with the Midwood crowd,” Hooker said. “It’s getting different factions together to compare differences and realize a lot of this stuff is the same stuff, different name. It’s the unifying aspect of it, mainly.”
The inspiration for his column? “When in doubt, paint a girl,” he said. “I do like portraiture, no matter what medium. If I have to paint something and it’s off the top of my head, it’s going to be a face of some sort. … And, you know, just loud colors.”
Matt Moore‘s contribution: It should look like it’s “shattering.”
The other artists are Ivan Aku Andujar, Joe Dobson, John Hairston, Marcus Kiser, Miss Lotus, Rebus and Strife.
The graffiti will be on display in the lobby throughout the convention, which runs Friday and Saturday. In the U.S., the Breakin’ Convention is only coming to Charlotte and New York City, and it has a three-year commitment in Charlotte, so it will be back next year and the year after.
This year’s event includes:
– Performances at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 and 10 by groups like the world b-boy champions (The Ruggeds), London’s innovative BirdGang Dance Company and local acts.
– A free festival Oct. 10 at Spirit Square, including live DJs, workshops, free demonstrations and a drum circle, among other things. You can also try your hand at graffiti.
The convention is “going to allow us to, you know, understand hip-hop,” Davis said. “A lot of people, I don’t think they understand what true hip-hop is. I think they just know what rap is on the radio and consider that hip-hop. They don’t know the true background of hip-hop, and once you understand it I think you’ll be able to understand graffiti, MC, DJ, break dancing.”
If you go to see the graffiti, take a picture, because it won’t be there long. After the convention, the columns will be sanded down and repainted.
Photos: Corey Inscoe
This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Graffiti artists take to the Knight Theater lobby ahead of Breakin’ Convention."