11 BRONX WEEKLY March 8, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
Bronx graffi ti artist selected for public art commission
NYPD Chief of Detectives leaves a lasting impression
BY KYLE VUILLE
Middle and high school students
in the Bronx Youth Empowerment
Program had the chance
to meet with the fi rst African
American Chief of Detectives for
the NYPD, Rodney Harrison, at
Evander Childs Educational Campus
on East Gun Hill Road.
“Growing up, I lost a lot of
friends to gun violence,” Harrison
told the packed classroom. “Cops
were disrespectful to me and a cop
is the last thing I ever wanted to
be.”
Harrison grew up in Jamaica,
Queens, but attended Benjamin
Cardozo High School in Bayside
where his peers were mostly
white.
Harrison told the class that he
changed his feelings towards law
enforcement while attending a
kids vs. cops basketball game that
was a part of the NYPD cadet program.
This was the fi rst time Harrison
experienced police helping and
making connections with the people
in the community.
Harrison went on to attend
Springfi eld College in Massachusetts
to play basketball and received
a degree in physical education with
the aspirations of becoming an athletic
director.
After serious consideration,
Harrison took the leap into police
cadet program after transferring
to York College in 1991 with the
forever-looming question that is
on his mind till this day, ‘How can
I give back?’
With 27 years on the force, Harrison
stressed to the children,
“Not all cops are bad.”
“We’re in the business of helping
people,” Harrison said.
Harrison briefl y spoke about
his two-year stint with the 47th
Precinct as second in command
for the precinct.
“It was everything from domestic
violence cases to traffi c issues,”
Harrison said. “I oversaw
everything in the precinct.”
According to Harrison, his
success in law enforcement and
ranking up through the years was
largely due to his highly competitive
native.
“I’ve always been a very competitive
person against my peers,”
Harrison said. “Whether it’s been
in sports or at work.”
When the Q&A was turned
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison speaks to the students in the Bronx Youth Empowerment Program at Evander
Childs Educational Campus on Gun Hill Rd. on Feb. 27. Harrison was joined by Councilman Andy King to talk to the children
about positive relations with local police. Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
over to the students, the YEP kid’s
hands went fl ying in the air, left
and right.
Harrison understands how
signifi cant it is to reach out to
younger children to create lasting
relationships with local law
enforcement to better community
ties.
“Kids are impressible and it’s
important to mold them to having
these positive views with police,”
Harrison said. “Sometimes they
are geared in the wrong direction
and that’s why I talk to them about
my own trials and tribulations
growing up.”
Harrison still lives by his ‘How
can I help?’ mantra since becoming
Chief of Detectives. Even with
the highly regarded position and
being the African American to
hold the position in the 200 years
of NYPD’s existence, he choses
to focus on why he joined law enforcement
in the fi rst place.
“It really hasn’t registered for
me yet,” Harrison said. “I just
want to sustain the work of my predecessors,
support all the investigators,
and provide them with the
proper resources for their needs to
keep the city as safe as possible.”
BY KYLE VUILLE
A one-time Bronx graffi ti artist
was recently awarded a commission
to produce a street piece for a
Westchester town.
Chances are, whether you live
in the Bronx or not, you may have
seen a vibrantly colored Wane One
tag painted on the side of a building,
box truck, or train over the
years and now in White Plains as
part of a mural project.
Wane One is now a sought after
artist and designer with 37 years
in the craft under his belt. Wane
has worked on collaborations with
companies like Nike, New Balance,
Reebok and Sean John.
Wane was born Wayne (who
does not disclose his last name), to
West Indie immigrants in London,
England, where he and his brother
were born and lived briefl y as well
as Granada, before immigrating to
the North Bronx.
As a young kid, Wane remembered
seeing graffi ti all around
him growing up on Allerton Avenue.
Wane was like a lot of kids his
age, hanging out, sketching in
their composition notepads, and
playing with spray paint.
“My friends and I learned the
culture, the tools you needed,
places to go, and the time you had
to get in and out,” Wane said.
Wane reminisced about a local
guy, Michelob, who took him to
paint his fi rst train.
“I felt this huge sense of accomplishment
and I defi nitely gained
some notoriety,” Wane said.
Wane said he never truly saw
graffi ti or art as a whole becoming
a career for him, just something he
did for fun.
He said he spent the following
two years painting train cars regularly
and honing his craft more
and more.
Wane decided at a certain juncture
in his life, that he was going to
pursue a career in the art world in
a more socially acceptable manner.
He said he was working at clothing
store called ‘Unique Boutique’
where he was airbrushing jackets
for stars like LL Cool J, Vanilla Ice
and New Kids on the Block.
Wane One continued painting
and traveling while collaborating
with artists from across the states
and Europe.
Fast forward to 2017, Wane One
applied and won a grant for the fi rst
time to create a large-scale mural
in White Plains, N.Y. in collaboration
with ArtsWestchester. Wane
wanted to thank ArtsWestchester
and Janet T. Langsam for the opportunity.
The catch was the mural had to
be painted on a black topped walkway.
“Some of the process was new to
me,” Wane said. “I had to put sealer
on the surface so you can paint on
it and once it that was done, laying
grit over the painted area so people
don’t slip.”
Prior to the grant, Wane had
only done commission based works
and nothing in a community-like
setting such as this.
He named the piece, ‘Brighter
colors Better Life.’
Wane’s plans for the future include
guided graffi ti tours on the
famed Boone Avenue while covering
the history of graffi ti in the
borough. He has also been collaborating
with more name brand companies.
Wane One working on a mural while traveling in South Africa. Wane One has traveled to Europe and Africa overs the years
to collaborate with other artists like himself. Photo credit by Lucky Liz
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com
/www.BXTimes.com