Meeting of Styles is an introductory graffiti art event by the Ghana Graffiti crew. The crew is set to challenge societal defects using street art as a medium to communicate with citizens of a disturbed community. Altering physical space with thought-provoking and creative content for social change and aesthetics is the function of the crew even as the members individually address various topics of a changing world. The graffiti crew hopes to be an artistic body of exclusively street artists pushing Ghana beyond corridors.
The crew consists of NMA’s Moh Awudu, Ian Quachi, satirist Bright Ackwerh, Hamid Nortey, Deff, Appiah Alicoe Art Attack aka Kali. These are the names that readily come to mind in what is probably an endless list of members.
While the three-day gig in May didn’t magnetize the usual swarm of Accra’s artsy, electric and diversified, it attracted sufficient onlookers and faithful Jamestown folk to make it a blast.
Work kicked off proper on Saturday and continued in the same energy into Sunday, the sunbathing the artists in glorious approval. The kids, like anxious gnomes loitering about to interact with the artists and the artists’ reciprocated love and appreciation is a most pleasant and treasured memory.
The exuberant Deff did not disappoint with his frequent rants and showcase of vocal dancehall prowess that screamed Shatta Wale fanboy. Hamid Nortey, the resident vernacular translator was on point helping muralists with proper spellings of some significant words in Ga, Accra’s indigenous dialect.
The nerdy romantic of the day was Ian Quhachi, Kali played master scribe and Moh Awudu held the fort as group leader. Jah Power was a silent ninja and Bright Ackwerh was the amusing sidekick imitating Moh’s hilarious poses whenever a camera smacked its lips.
Jamestown’s iconic lighthouse; beaconing to unknown futures while regaled by the sea’s historic songs; a poised child’s gloved fists capturing the enclaves’ boxing heritage; and broken shackles, a somber reminder of her Ussher and James forts, spaces once complicit in the dehumanizing slave trade; hailed the historic settlement as the ultimate muse in the finished murals.
Inspired words like teeshi (stand up/rise) and ekome feem) (unity) preached hope, community and perseverance and also acknowledged the fortitude of the people of (British) Accra.
Their vision is crystal clear and there’s no stopping them.
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Images via yoyo tinz, Asare Kofi and Ghana Graffiti.
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