Interview with REE

Partial Transcript: B: Welcome to the Bronx aerosol arts documentary project. My name's Butch 2, and I am joined by REE. Welcome Ree.
R: Thank You, welcome to be here.
B: Please introduce yourself!
R: Hi, my name is Ree, A.K.A. OPAL, PRAD 174, PULL 174, UNIT 2, I did so many different names that I'll go more or less giving you the history on their stories.

Segment Synopsis: Narrator REE, a graffiti pioneer and founding member of the MTA (Mad Transit Artists) Crew and Interviewer Butch 2, another graffiti pioneer and liaison for the Bronx County Historical Society, introduce themselves.

Keywords: Butch 2 (Graffiti artist); Ree (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti

Partial Transcript: B: Tell us a little bit about your parents: family history, background.
R: Family history, um, I came to the Bronx in 1967 of November. And I came to my mom's house. My father stood back in Dominican Republic. I was raised by my moms, my uncles, and cousins, and aunts: family members on my mothers side.
B: Give us a little breakdown, like tell us about your aunts and uncles. Was it a big family?
R: It was a big family! As a matter of fact one of my oldest brothers he wrote RAY 179.

Segment Synopsis: Ree describes his early life in the Dominican Republic. He was raised by his great grandparents until the age of 5 when he was sent to live with his mother in the Bronx. He discusses playing a game with an explosive ball, as well as and the circumstances around his being sent to live in the US.

Keywords: migration

Subjects: Dominican Americans; Dominican Republic

Partial Transcript: B: Tell us about growing up on Daly, I know Daly.
R: Growing up on Daly Avenue, I don't know if you noticed it or pictured it this way; Daly Avenue runs from 180th at the edge of the Bronx Zoo all the way to the Cross Bronx Expressway, which is still a One Way Street. I lived at 1891 Daly Avenue at the very edge of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
B: That like 174th
R: No, No, 174th is further down, it's 176th. Right where the Cross Bronx is done. And by growing up in that particular building it was to me, early 70th and late 60s all I have is good memories of being out there. Playing Ringolevio, Pony on the.... Anything that was meant to be played before 7:00 we was out there playing it.
B: Right. Skelsies,
R: Skelsies, Crack Top, Spin the Bottle, anything that was a game.

Segment Synopsis: Ree discusses his early childhood in the Bronx on Daly Avenue. He would often play Ringolevio and Skelzies with the other neighborhood children. The only radio station he can remember listening to was the Soft Rock on WABC. He attended P.S. 6 and P.S. 118 Lorraine Hansberry. He listened to a lot of R&B and Salsa. Ree first saw graffiti on a wall, and then could not stop seeing it everywhere. He was from then on compelled to tag. He began writing in 1973 but the height of his writing career was 1975-1977. He credits the relative affordability of graffiti compared to other outlets of artistic expression to graffiti's popularity in the Bronx. When graffiti became a felony offense in 1977 Ree stopped painting to avoid a much more severe penalty than he had been risking.

Keywords: Children--New York (State); Cross Bronx Expressway

Subjects: Bronx (New York, N.Y.); Children's Games

Partial Transcript: B: Alright well tell us about your early years of graff. What were the first times in the yard, anything.
R: I started off on Broadway, and coming in from the 1 yard which is very difficult. You had to jump in and out. That 1 yard was located on Van Cortlandt Park. And it was elevated and the rest was flat. So for me to get to that 1 yard I had to go through an obstacle course. Meaning I had to get past certain individuals to make it up that hill. To come down that hill to go across. So, it wasn't easy! And I still have tags inside the 1 yard. And then I learned about the 1 tunnel, that was a piece of cake! That was, going there for lunch, come out, go back in there again, spend the weekend in there if you had to! That's how wonderful and skillful that area was.

Segment Synopsis: Some of Ree's earliest writing was at the 1 train yard, which was a very difficult yard to enter. He soon began to prefer the 1 tunnel, which was comparatively easier to enter. He also speaks about his relationship with Chino Malo, the president of MTA, who was Ree's writing partner through the height of Ree's writing career.

Keywords: MTA––Mad Transit Artists (Graffiti group)

Subjects: Graffiti

Partial Transcript: B: There was a story about a friend that you had that was struck by a train in the 70s.
R: It was me!
B: MEAN?
R: Me! Me!
B: Right. You were struck by the train?
R: I was struck.
B: I never knew that
R: See that scar that I have on my head?
B: I see it.
R: That scar was, I think, I could be wrong, 75-76. It was me, POW, TED, LIZ, Z28, POLE. The thing was we all worked together. [inaudible] MOOSE 106... We all worked for the Youth Corps and yeah so we never took care of the kids the kids took care of us. All we did was give them lunch so haha. That particular day we were supposed to meet up by my house and catch the train going into the city so we could all meet up. The rest, the kids and everything were going to Bear Mountain. So I get on at Tremont Ave and before I hit 174 I had this scar across my head. While he was being medicated, he slowed down, but picked right back up.

Segment Synopsis: Ree discusses his experience with a train accident as well as the dangers of painting in the tunnels in general. He was struck between Tremont Avenue and 174th Street while riding the train. He was sticking his head out the window trying to get a good look of the tunnel graffiti and was hit by a signal. He didn't lose consciousness and made it home on his own power. He was mostly worried about his mother being mad, which she was and he got an earful, but got to Lebanon hospital where he received over 40 stitches.

Keywords: Subway accident; Subway stations--New York (State)

Subjects: Accident victims; Subway line; Subway stations; Subway tunnels

Partial Transcript: B: What about some of your crews, man? Mad Transit Artists? Stuff like that they go way back.
R: Well me and Chino came out with Master Taggers Association. And it was just local until it got to the point where I told Chino, yo, we gotta take it up––take it to the next level. We'd been going to Broadway, we'd been tagging it up, but let's make statements. And Chino says, "well, you know, we can do it it's just that we don't have enough guys." I said just you and I doing it! We don't need no more everyone else will just follow suit. And that's exactly what took place. And he listened to me from that point, he was very happy with it.

...

B: Any other crews?
R: Yeah yeah yeah, at that point when I started moving on up like they say I ran into different crews, crew members, and they gave me their blessings of taking place with their crews. I met a lot of guys along the way such as yourself.

Segment Synopsis: Ree discusses the formation of MTA, as well as his role in the leadership of it. According to REE, CHINO MALO did not believe they could go from a local to an all-city crew without recruiting, but REE convinced him to just start, and the recruits would follow. This did occur, and REE had a much bigger role in MTA from then on. He remained vice-president, however with CHINO being the president. He also mentions some other crews.

Keywords: MTA––Mad Transit Artists (Graffiti group)

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artist groups; Graffiti artists

Partial Transcript: B: Alright well, you know what, walk us through the process of doing a piece, like if I wanna be a writer.
R: The process of doing a piece. You want it in the yard? In the Layup? In the tunnel? Because it's different heights. People don't realize the wheels play a big factor in the game. If I'm in the 1 yard the wheels were up to my chin, so I had to either step on the third rail to get a good height from window-down to make it work. If I'm in the 2 layup, I worked the 2 layup and you've worked the 2 layup as well. I worked station to station. I found the bad way that painting in between stations you constantly have to be alert. Meaning the uptown train is gonna be coming every half hour. So from the corner of your eye you gotta constantly keep an eye out for that light. It's not like painting in the station because once that train pulls up into that particular station, I'm here. I have to find a safe place to be, meaning under the car or in between cars just to let that train go by so I can continue painting. It was a process. Now painting on the station was cutting the process down in half. Meaning I don't have to hide under the car no more I can come back and stand on the platform and be on the platform. And on top of that in the middle of the station there's two bars on each side on the uptown side and the downtown side. Stand on top of the bar, which you pulled off a lot of top-to-bottoms from there, I said to myself this is great! I don't have to be short no more I'm the same height or maybe a little smaller depending on the height that we are. And I felt that more exciting because yes you're paying attention but you're also paying attention to the people on the platform.

Segment Synopsis: Ree speaks about all sorts of issues of technique, including getting into yards, finding ways to get up to the height of the trains, transporting paint, and so on. We get a lot of detail about actually navigating in the tunnels. For instance, working through the different tubes and internal elevation changes. He preferred painting on trains pulled into a station because it offered an ease of access to the deceptively tall trains that is not available deeper in the tunnels. It also offered excitement in the form of an audience on the platform.

Keywords: New York (N.Y.). Transit Police Department; Racking; Subway line; Subway stations; Subway tunnels

Subjects: Art--Technique; Electric railroads--Rolling stock; Graffiti; Railroads--Rolling stock

Partial Transcript: B: I have a couple of categories: taking photos and blackbooks. Did you ever get into photos, the little yellow instamatics?
R: I got into photos late in the game, but I wasn't good at it because I'm not a photographer. I wasn't skilled to be a photographer. It was just, you know, oh hey [makes shutter sound]. Whatever came out came out because it wasn't digitized like it is today. Again, that was another racking day. I went to Alfred E. Smith High School. Korvettes was on 3rd Avenue. So I used to go there to get my film. And on that film, 35 to 110 to 126. On the back came an envelope to mail it out. So that was just another tool of the trade to know as you went through the racking business.
B: All right, blackbooks. Tell me about blackbooks when did you first save them, give them to someone to hit, when did that hit?
R: Blackbooks, with me, I wasn't a blackbook person because of what I experienced, what took place at the bench. At the bench you,
B: They might've took your book.
R: Well to me it didn't matter because I wasn't a blackbook person, but I have seen guys, "Yo take my book" and two months later, "yo what happened to my blackbook?" "Oh that was yours, man? I passed it to Moe and Moe passed it to Curly and what do you know you're not getting it back."

Segment Synopsis: Butch asks Ree if he had any experience with the graffiti photography and blackbook aspect of writing culture. Ree says he did do a little photography but found he had little talents in it. His blackbooks kept getting stolen so he stopped getting them and getting other writers to hit them.

Keywords: 80's sketchbook; Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.; Sketchbooks & albums

Subjects: Instant photography; Instant photography--Films; Racking

Partial Transcript: B: Any particular colors or brands of spray paint or markers that you preferred?
R: Well when it came to spray paint, to me, Red Devil was the ultimate paint for me. The reason why I felt: I made mistakes, plenty of mistakes. But the Red Devil always seemed to cover my mistakes. There were some yellows, some oranges, and some pineapple looking colors from Wet Look that you put it on and if it doesn't have a good outline on it that's gonna look like garbage. I trusted a lot the Red Devil can to give me a good outline. But, I also love Rust-Oleum. Rust-Oleum to me, the marlin blue, the cascade greens, all federal safety colors, we to me the ultimate crime weapon. Meaning every time you go to rack them they're not there no more! It was search and destroy!

Segment Synopsis: Ree preferred Red Devil spray paint above all other brands due to its supreme opacity. It was able to cover up mistakes that other brands would still leave visible. Ree also appreciated Rustoleum, however for their range of colors, which became rare because of how desirable they were.

Keywords: Jifoam oven cleaner; Niagara spray starch; Red-Devil spray enamel

Subjects: Rust-Oleum (Firm); Spray paint; Spray painting

Partial Transcript: B: Whatcha working on now? What have you been up to lately?
R: Lately I have been working on canvases and also, you know, keeping myself occupied. Painting within legal walls and stuff like that.
B: You have any paint partners today?
R: Paint partners? I have a few that keep me up and going. CLYDE, and Frankie FTD 56. They're still with me and doing our things/

Segment Synopsis: Ree talks about what he has been doing lately, and the people he has been doing it with. He speaks about the differences in his graffiti experience from the outlaw day to the legal art scene he is a participant in nowadays. He also discusses the role of gallery art in the wider graffiti movement, and how he sees himself fitting in that scene. He keeps busy painting legal walls and the occasional canvas, but he's slowed down on gallery shows.

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artists

Partial Transcript: B: One question: What is the Bronx?
R: The Bronx is home. The Bronx has been in my life ever since it came into my life. Like, I live in Jersey, yes but my heart still stays in the Bronx.
B: A lot of guys are going to Jersey. How, if you don't mind, how did you have the privilege or luck to get to Jersey?
R: The privilege or luck of how I found my way to Jersey was 9/11. When those two planes hit the towers, I was living in Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the scene what I saw with my own eyes and I couldn't move from where I was to that place. Meaning I was working on 14th St. but I couldn't get to work because all the trains were being shut down. So once my wife's brother explained to me, listen, you could live in Jersey but it doesn't have to be deep into Jersey.
B: Right on the other side of the Bridge, beautiful.
R: Right across the Bridge.

Segment Synopsis: The Bronx, for Ree, is home more than anything else. It's a place of culture and of origination, but as Ree moves around the word he associates with the Bronx without a second's hesitation is "home." He also tells the story of how 9/11 precipitated his move to New Jersey on the suggestion of his brother-in-law.

Keywords: Bronx County (N.Y.)

Subjects: Bronx; Bronx (New York, N.Y.)

Segment Synopsis: Ree writes his tag for the Bronx County Archives.

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artists