Basquiat’s oeuvre can now be said to constitute a Black male wall of fame, one exploding with markers of the fraught conquests, Pyrrhic victories, and traumatic vicissitudes of Black male being-and-nothingness in America.

Greg Tate
Greg Tate is a writer and musician who lives in Harlem. His books include Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America and Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader.