September 12, 2007
A-List
scrawling from the wreckage
Cry of the City Part 1: The Legend of Cornbread
Sun., Sept. 16, 2pm. $5. Arts Garage, 1516 Parrish St. www.cinema-alliance.com
Philly can’t win for losing. And neither, apparently, can our city’s graffiti artists.
Darryl “Cornbread” McCray began tagging walls and bombing SEPTA buses and subway cars a full two years before the slackjawed yokels in New York caught on. But Gotham goes down in hip-hop history as the birthplace of “writing” while Philadelphia is once again relegated to wooden spoon status.
Countless films have documented the contributions and lifestyles of graf writers in the Apple while Philadelphia’s Krylon knights are largely ignored.
Cinema Alliance’s Sean McKnight says bollocks to that. Taking a cue from the legendary Style Wars (which documented—yawn—New York’s graffiti scene), McKnight offers up a Phillyphile documentary.
Although filmed years after Cornbread’s reign as the city’s graffiti king (and his subsequent stint on former Mayor Goode’s Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network), the movie captures McCray from his brushes with fame after tagging the Jackson 5’s jet to the depths of his drug addiction.
Sunday’s screening is followed by a Q&A session with the legend himself as well as a screening of the groundbreaking Beat Street which celebrates—what else—New York’s contributions to hip-hop. (Joshua Valocchi)
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