Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wednesday Search Challenge (5/23/12): Who's the artist?

mural image of black man with hand on face
I was sorting through some photos I happen to take a while ago and it happened again.  I found this extraordinary picture of a mural.  It's one that I really like, but I can't figure out where or when or who or what it's all about.  Arrgh!  


As often happens with memories (and this is key in many difficult search tasks), I DO recall a couple of odd associated facts.  
(A) This picture was taken somewhere in the south. 
(B) Near where this photo was taken, I remember a high school
        that had an interesting cultural mix. In particular, there were         two languages spoken at this school (one was English). 


Can you help me out?  The challenges here range from the simple to the complex.   


1.  Where was this photograph taken?
   
 (I'm looking for the street address or at least the nearest intersection.) 



2.  Who's the artist? 


3.  What two languages are spoken in the nearby high school? 




Search on!

23 comments:

  1. Total time, about 8-10 minutes

    1) A Google Image Search for the image produced a link to an article about Little Haiti: http://goo.gl/VyfYR

    That page links to the Wikipedia article about Little Haiti, which -conveniently- has the same image with the following caption:

    Wall mural on the corner of Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street in northern Little Haiti

    2. Searching for "mural NE 2nd Ave and 79th Miami"
    turned up a result with an article about the Mural's origins. Kevin Morris and 11 other artists did the work:
    http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2011/01/local_artists_commemorate_the.php

    3. Back to Google Maps: With the marker at the corner of 2nd and 79th, a "Search Nearby" for highschool turned up a few results, among them:
    Miami Edison Sr. High School uses French and Spanish

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  2. It is in Miami, in little Haiti or Lemon City. Photo is at NE 2nd Ave. near NE 79th Street. Languages would include Creole. Artist is Kevin Morris for the MLK Community Mural Project. Took me a while to find the artist so about 15 minutes. Started with an image search.

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  3. Search by image remarkably pulls up some results. Tracing back from those results shows that the mural is somewhere in the Little Haiti region of Miami...but *not* the mural on the Little Haiti Cultural Center. Searching for "little haiti murals" yields a Miami New Times article "Local Artists Commemorate Haiti Earthquake with Little Haiti Mural". Confirmed with street view on google maps:

    1) Approximately 7908 NE 2nd Ave, Miami FL, at the intersection of 2nd Ave and NE 79th St.

    2) It was a collaborative work; according to the article, the lead artist was Kevin Morris

    3) The nearest high school is Miami Edison High School, 6161 NW 5th Ct. Classes are offered in English and Hatian Creole.

    Results obtained and confirmed in 10 minutes or so.

    Cheers!

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  4. 1. corner of Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street in northern Little Haiti - used Google image search, which led to a Little Haiti site, which I looked up in Wikipedia, which gave the intersection in a caption for this mural

    2. Wolf Senatus - searched for Little Haiti murals, which led to a site about multiple murals in Little Haiti, then matched the right mural.

    3. Miami Edison

    10 min.

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  5. 1. Where was this photograph taken?

    In the vicinity of 7925 NE Second Ave, Miami, FL

    Used image search to locate the mural then followed a link to a news article. The news article stated the mural would be unveiled at 7925 NE Second Ave. Google Maps Street view confirmed the location.

    2.  Who's the artist? 

    The mural was a joint project of the Little Haiti Optimists Club and the MLK - Moving the Lives of Kids - Community Mural Project. The artists that participated in creating the mural are listed on the LHOC web stie as "Kyle Holbrook, Chris “Punch” Purdy, Kevin “Smurf” Morris, Veronica Estrada, Serge Toussaint, Cairns “Nice” Athouris, Darrin Watson, Bayunga Kialeuka, Lordgyn “Gino” Belizaire and Guy Syllien. "

    I listened to a series of interviews with different artists and could narrow it down that probably Serge Toussaint, Bayunga Kialeuka, Veronica Estrada did not paint the part in your picture. http://www.prx.org/series/32016-little-haiti-mural

    What is mentioned that the overall design came from Kevin Morris working with some of the group.

    So I'll go with Kevin Morris (with help).

    3.  What two languages are spoken in the nearby high school? 

    Couldn't find this one. The nearest I got was Morningside Elementary school that is an immersion school of English and Creole.

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  6. 1. The photograph was taken at 7925 NE Second Ave, Miami, FL.

    2. There are 12 artists. Serge Toussaint and Kevin Morris were two names I found.

    3. The nearest high school is Miami Edison, and given its proximity to Little Haiti and the fact that the student body is majority Haitian-American, I'm going to make an educated guess that the languages are English and Haitian Creole.

    Also, the photograph had to have been taken no earlier that January 12, 2011 - since that's when the mural was unveiled.

    It didn't take long. I used a google image search by image to get to a bigger picture of the mural on a Little Haiti website. Then I searched for high schools in Little Haiti. Then I started looking for mural little Haiti, and it came back with a bunch of news articles that gave the rest of the info.

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  7. I'm going to give this a go.

    1. The mural is on 79th Street and Northeast Second Avenue, Little Haiti, Miami.

    2. The artists are participants in The MLK Community Mural Project (including Kevin Morris). The artist depicted in the mural is Jean-Michel Basquiat.

    3. The closest high school seems to be Miami Edison High School. Because of the large Haitian population in the area, I'm going to guess that the other language spoken is French.

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  8. First part was easy but not sure I got definitive answers for the other 2 questions.

    Using the image search on Google I quickly found the mural was in Little Haiti in Miami which led to this article on the Mural -

    7901 NE 2nd Avenue. Miami Florida

    http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2011/01/local_artists_commemorate_the.php

    http://www.mlkmural.com/mlkmiami#!__mlkmiami


    Using Google street view I confirmed the location.

    For the artist the mural seems to have been a collaborative project but I think the lead artist was Kevin Morris for this part. From this webpage I found a thank you to the following artists -

    Kyle Holbrook, Chris “Punch” Purdy, Kevin “Smurf” Morris, Veronica Estrada, Serge Toussaint, Cairns “Nice” Athouris, Darrin Watson, Bayunga Kialeuka, Lordgyn “Gino” Belizaire and Guy Syllien.

    http://www.littlehaitioptimist.org/news.html

    And as Kevin Morris was mentioned in several other articles on the mural as the lead designer I am going with him.

    Using Google amps I tried to look at the various nearby high schools. The Miami Dade website lists these but I haven’t found a specific note on the languages at specific schools. The nearby middle school ( or Junior High as its listed on the map) has classes in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole and it’s the latter I think that you’re looking for.

    About an hour research time but only to try get the specific artist for the part of the mural in your photo and trying to get the specific language for the high schools. I had basic answers within 15 minutes.

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  9. I had a strong feeling that this was a painting of the artist Basquiat. My suspicions proved correct when I did an image match search. Two results confirmed it (http://www.theshoegawker.com/2011/06/sweetheart.html and http://youthleadmiami.org/locations/little-haiti/)

    The second link mentioned the neighbourhood "Little Haiti" in Miami, so I did a search for "little haiti" basquiat mural and came to the Wiki page for Little Haiti, which has a picture of the mural and places it at the corner of Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street.

    That part was easy and took no more than 10 minutes. The language bit was trickier.

    The nearby high school is Miami Edison Senior High School and since there are many Haitians in the area, I would assume the two languages are Creole and English, but I wanted to find proof. On the school's website, their newsletter is available in English, Creole, and Spanish (http://edison.dadeschools.net/edisonnews09.html) so I'm thinking there are THREE languages spoken there. I found that doing a search for Miami Edison High School creole.

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  10. This photo was taken in Little Haiti in Miami. The artist is actually artists. Kyle Holbrook, Chris “Punch” Purdy, Kevin “Smurf” Morris, Veronica Estrada, Serge Toussaint, Cairns “Nice” Athouris, Darrin Watson, Bayunga Kialeuka, Lordgyn “Gino” Belizaire and Guy Syllien.

    Other than English; Creole and Spanish are spoken at Miami Edison.

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  11. The picture appears in a place called Little Haiti, which is a neighborhood in Miami, FL. I have to stop searching now, but this lead should help. See http://youthleadmiami.org/locations/little-haiti/

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  12. Answers:

    The photograph is part of a mural commemorating the one year anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake. It is located in the "Little Haiti" district of Miami, FL.

    1. The part of the mural in the photograph is located at 7901 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33138. The mural wraps around a corner; the address around the corner is 219 NE 79th St.

    2. The mural was a collaboration involving several artists and students organized under the auspices of the MLK Community Mural Project. The mural was designed by Kevin Morris. Other artists include Cairns "Nice" Athouris, Drew Carry, Veronica Estrada, Lordgyn "Gino" Belizaire (a tattoo artist), Kyle Holbrook, Bayunga Kialeuka, Kevin "Smurf" Morris, Addonnis Parker, Jones Pierre, Serge Toussaint, Darrin Watson, and Chris "Punch" Purdy. Several students also participated. I was unable to determine exactly which artist was responsible for the portion depicted in the photo.

    3. As for the languages spoken at a nearby high school, my guess is that you are referring to the Creole language instruction available at Miami Edison Senior High School.

    Methodology:

    Google "search by image" yielded a match on this page:
    http://youthleadmiami.org/locations/little-haiti/
    This page named the area as the "Little Haiti" district of Miami. It also mentions Miami Edison Senior High School.

    [ "little haiti" murals ] search yielded
    http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2011/01/local_artists_commemorate_the.php
    This page gave the intersection of NE 2nd & NE 79th and also listed some of the groups/artists involved.

    [ "little haiti" mural earthquake ] search yielded
    http://www.sfltimes.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=6201
    This PDF has a complete list of all participants in the mural.

    The Wikipedia page for "Little Haiti" as weill as the "youthleadmiami.org" link above list Miami Edison Senior High School. On a hunch, I searched
    [ Miami Edison Senior High School creole ] which lead to
    http://edison.dadeschools.net/AcademyBrochure.pdf
    This PDF lists "Haitian-Creole" as one of the languages taught.

    Time: 10 minutes to find the main answers (though I spent additional time trying to identify the specific artist responsible for the part of the mural depicted in your photo).

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  13. 1. Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street
    2. Antonia Gerstacker
    3. English and, I believe, Spanish. I couldn't get that verified, but it seems to be the best bet according to the demographics. They do have a strong international program emphasizing other languages, so I could be wrong.

    As always, I started with a Google Image search, which brought me to the website of a Little Haiti youth group. It was stepping stones from there on out.

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  14. I think that's a Basquiat, or a portrait of Basquiat in a very similar style to his.

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  15. The Earthquake Memorial Mural is located near Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street in the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami, FL.

    It was painted by a group of local artists the week prior to the quake's anniversary.

    The nearby Morningside Elementary School provides education in Creole and English.

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  16. Building is Youth Expressions: 79th and 2nd in Little Haiti, Miami, FL.

    Artist is Wolf Senatus

    They have French and Spanish teachers at the Edison High School nearby.

    Image search brought me to another image of the big pictures which I then reimage searched and found a PRX audio series about the murals. Got the name and in the audio he mentions the mural on the Youth Expressions building. Searched for high schools nearby and found that they have French and Spanish.

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  17. Little Haiti or La Petite Haïti, and traditionally known as Lemon City, is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States known as a traditional center for Haitian immigrants, and Francophone culture in the city.

    Language will be French and Creole

    thanks for the fun challenge

    Luc

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  18. 1. Location: I'd guess the exact address is 7911 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33138 (in Little Haiti)

    2. Artist: Jean-Michel Basquiat (a self portrait, by the looks of it)

    3. Nearby high school is Miami Edison, where their newsletter is actually in *three* languages: English, Spanish and Creole

    All found by following a trail of breadcrumbs that I picked up through a Google Image Search.

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  19. 1. 7915 NE 2nd Ave
    2. Serge Toussaint
    3. Creole and English

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  20. 1) NE 79th St & NE 2nd Ave, Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida 33138

    2) Serge Toussaint

    3) English & Creole

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  21. First part - locating the address was 1-2 minutes.
    It's NE 2nd Avenue / 79th Street in Little Haiti / Lemon City in Miami. (Wikipedia gives this address).

    The artist was much more difficult. I managed to quickly (4 minutes or so maximum) identify that the mural was DESIGNED by Kevin Morris - so I guess that's the answer. However it was a collaborative effort with 10 artists involved - Cairns “Nice” Athouris, Drew Carry, Veronica Estrada, Gino (a tattoo artist), Kyle Holbrook, Bayunga Kialeuka, Kevin “Smurf” Morris, Addonnis Parker, Jones Pierre, Serge Toussaint and Darrin Watson.

    I couldn't find who painted that particular bit of the painting despite searching for ages. Serge Toussaint kept popping up as leading artist but I couldn't definitively link him to that bit of the painting - or any of the other artists, for that matter. (I checked most of them).
    http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6201&Itemid=42

    The area is predominantly Haitan so I'd guess the two languages are Haitan Creole and English.
    Unfortunately neither of the two High Schools nearby gave a good description of their language demographics. Also both are almost the same distance from the mural.
    Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School is 2.3miles (using Google Maps) but a 45 minute walk (51% Black, 29% Hispanic, 20% white / other). It's actually on NE 2nd Avenue and prides itself on its cultural diversity so I'd guess this was the school EXCEPT it would imply 3 languages: Spanish, Creole & English.
    - so marginally closer than Miami Edison Senior High School - also 2.3 miles but 47 minutes to walk. (7% Hispanic, 93% Black).

    The nearest non-elementary school is the Florida International Academy but that's a Middle School - 0.2miles away and 5 minutes to walk. The demographic mix in this school is 1% Asian 10% Hispanic and 89% Black. (http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/123442)

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  22. Hi Dan,
    Wall mural on the corner of Northeast 2nd Avenue and 79th Street in northern Little Haiti (Miami, Florida)

    Creole and English (Miami Edison Senior High School.)

    Serge Toussaint (http://wlrnunderthesun.org/2011/09/muralist-makes-his-mark-in-little-haiti/)

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  23. Hahaha! A bit late coming to the game...but the 1st image on google that came up with my query "southern high school mural black face yellow" was....the searchResearch blog :)

    Apparently I still have a lot to learn...(like google can search based on the image URL itself...)

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