Edward Birzin

Edward Birzin wrote more graffiti in New York City in the 1990s than anybody you know, wrote books about graffiti (he wrote them under different aliases so you’ll have to ask him the titles) and has now completed a Ph.D. on the topic of how graffiti grew from child’s play to an original art in the 1970s titled Subway Art (efact). He studied in Berlin, Germany for seven years where he learned to be kind, to think clearly, to take his time (don’t rush) and to speak German. He also made the most beautiful babies with the most beautiful woman in the world. He teaches liberation to eleventh graders in the South Bronx and is an adjunct at Brooklyn College. He thinks there should be more books, articles and press about Mailer’s influence on graffiti; please contact him so that we can make these books and let the world know that Mailer influenced the growth of graffiti. And graffiti is the art of deconstruction. 

What I find exciting about Mailer and Graffiti is that graffiti is still here today (all over Europe), and it grows, and it actually is as deep as Mailer said it was, especially when looking at the world through Mailer’s lens. Mailer “determine(d) that a relationship of cause and effect should exist between writing and acting: ‘there is no communication unless action has resulted, be it immediately or in the unknown and indefinite future’” (Adams (1976), pp. 3). I laugh so loudly when I think of Mailer in 1973 writing The Faith of Graffiti and then I think of all of the years I spent painting my name and obsessed with graffiti, and I wonder “Mailer, did you do this to me?” Thank you, Norman.

Written by Edward Birzin