TACO BOOK

N.Y.C. in the 90’s was chaotic, dangerous and FREE...and oh what fun we had.
Ours was the time of Pre Giuliani, when the few cops that were left on the job had real crimes to worry about. We were left to our own,
as long as we held a line. Smoking blunts and drinking 40’s in the streets was daily life. Don’t bother nobody, don’t get bothered.
The crew was made of kids from all boroughs, all shades, but pretty much the same income bracket : broke. We leaned on each other a lot
and spent the majority of our time pooling funds from whatever hustle we had going on to buy a dime of dirt weed, a Philly or a Old E. 15
heads on a single spliff and mad backwash. It didn’t matter, we would be on the streets or in some dive diner getting coffee refills to hide
from the cold anywhere we could go so that we could all just stay hanging.
High’s was an open house, and the main meeting grounds. During this time, St. Marks off Avenue A. was a battleground for squatters and
homeless involved in the Tompkins Square Park Riots a far throw from the hipsterville, fro yo, don’t know my ass from my elbow crowd there now.
N.Y.C. was alive then, it’s in a coma now. N.Y.C. my sleeping giant, please wake up.
Putting together this book has been years in the making and emotional. High and I had photographed our friends for most of our teens,
creating this full portrait of what so many people had tried to capture from the outside.
The reality is that some of us made it out, some of us drowned and some are still in limbo. For whatever the outcome, we all have a tremendous
bond that is unbreakable. Those days shaped us forever.
I hope that this photographic memoir does it justice.
E. 9th Street & Avenue C