1984 Party 0f Life & Writing the Future: Jean Michel-Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation
Courtney Harmel
21 Dec 2020, 03:09
to Courtney, me
Hi Paul!
Lovely to hear from you. I hope you and your loved ones are doing as well as possible In these times of the pandemic and great uncertainty. All seems much better in the AU than the USA. The North and the Brisbane area seems too have done so much better than the South.
It was delightful to meet you in Melbourne. Thank-you for making the time Victor and I spent there even more enjoyable taking us to your coffee spot and to see art and culture in the city. Loved it and meeting you! How lucky I was to have timed my trip to the AU when I did.
I arrived back home to find NYC to be a Ghost town. It had been shut down the week before my return. However I’ve many blessings. Family and friends have all been safe and healthy, I’ve a large loft space to live and work in with sunlight and air, a roommate who has been working remotely and is a good person to have around and contributes to the rent. I’m in an exhibit at the MFA, in Boston that just shut down again but the show opened to the public at the end of October and runs thru May 2021 so possible I’ll get to see it. The BBC doc Keith Haring: Street Art Boy that used footage from the same event Haring’s 1984 “Party of Life” ( that was also in the NGV’s Haring-Basquiat show) was broadcast in the UK to great reviews in July and was broadcast on PBS in the US a few weeks ago. The PBS cut is under 60 min and the BBC cut is about 1 1/2 hrs. The cut in the UK doc uses quite a bit more of my footage.
So Thankful that a new administration will be in the Whitehouse soon. A key word of Biden’s campaign has bee healing. My country has been rent apart with the pandemic being so politicized with a complete lack of humanity , compassion and an abundance of lies and greed from the people in power over 3000,00 dead and a projection of thousands more over the next months. And the absurdly over the top reality show Trump’s been performing refusing to secede with his base giving him millions of dollars to “Stop the Steal” but it’s just going into his pocket. YIKES!!!
Just whatsapped with Victor last evening. All’s been going well. He’s been getting bookings for holiday parties and it’s a beautiful summer in OZ. Despite a recent COVID outbreak in Sydney about 40 people Life seems to be normalized there. In the BBC KH cut is the installation of my video on a monitor of Madonna performing nest to the outfit KH painted and she wore at the 1984 Party of Life that’s in the MFA Boston show Writing the Future: Jean Michel-Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation. There was a Virtual opening celebration and I was able to tape it.
I hope you enjoy the Holiday Season with friends and family! Stay safe and healthy!
XOxxoo, Courtney