True Laurels

Available today at True Laurels ‘Along The Parkway’ premiere + pop up at .official’s Union Market location in DC Need the whole urrea to pop out. 5-8pm. Meet me there 🦀🤝🚨

🚨 THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH. 5-8pm🚨 True Laurels Presents: A premiere screening of ‘Along The Parkway’ Episode 1 before it’s released to the public + a pop up with magazines and limited run merch. Going down at SOMEWHERE’s Union Market location in NE DC. ⁣
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Screening will be followed by a discussion between Lawrence Burney, Kelow LeTesha, and 93.9 WKYS radio host & DJ, Bacon Bear. ⁣
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RSVP link in my bio. See y’all this weekend 🦀✌🏿❤️

oluwa shower me your blessing times 2 🦀🤝

Grateful to have stumbled upon an article that I was previously unaware before of this week: SPIN Magazine’s December 2005 issue with a five-page spread about the intriguing, yet insulated universe of Baltimore Club.⁣
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By this time, club music had locally been a thing for over 15 years and the sound was in a new phase — more chaotic and expansive than before. The Wire had been on TV for three years and its success was making outsiders curious about what was actually happening here. MIA and Diplo had already started interacting with the genre. ⁣
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The featured artists here were the obvious heavy hitters at the time: K-Swift, Rod Lee, Booman, Scottie B, Shawn Caesar & Blaqstarr. What I enjoy so much about this is that I think it’s the first article I’ve seen from a national publication capture the scene at the very moment it was starting to ascend. ⁣
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To locals, it was a part of their DNA but the producers & DJs were first starting to be booked to play to crowds outside of their communities and artists from elsewhere were wanting to take a part. But, the reluctance to give away the sauce was strong in a lot of folks at this time. And had always been strong from local artists. ⁣
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Little details that I especially love here: Blaq wearing a Mosions shirt (an East Baltimore-based apparel brand that was big in the mid-2000s), the writer phonetically spelling how Swift pronounced “serious” with a local accent (sir-ious 😭) and the little tab where the founders of Unruly Records (Scottie &!Shawn) list their top 10 club tracks of all time. 🦀❤️🥺

The next installment of True Laurels' summer film series is a super special one for me. Sunday at 6pm at The Parkway we'll be showing the amazing 'Two Gods' from Zeshawn & Aman Ali, a personal favorite from 2020. Then right after I’ll be having a discussion w/ the filmmakers + the doc’s main subject, brova Hanif. Slide thru! Flier by .el 🦀🚨🦀

Gonna be posted up at today for their second annual Design Week. First, an open meet at noon w/ some other great local minds. Then this evening, in conversation w/ True Laurels publication designer .el about developing brand identity over time. Pull up Baltimore ✌🏿🦀

Happy to share a fun lor series I’ve been planning for the last couples months along with the good people at : True Laurels Summer Film Series. Every 2nd and 4th Sunday this season I’ll be putting films that have inspired me and informed my work on the big screen. ⁣
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Films that I feel have done a great job zeroing in on specific communities and creative scenes with the necessary care and sensitivity needed. This Sunday’s selection is the iconic Les Blank’s 1973 film ‘Hot Pepper,’ which followed Louisiana zydeco artist Clifton Chenier. A beautiful film that everybody should see, in my opinion. ⁣
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Screenings will begin at 4pm. Proof of vaccination required for entry. Artwork by my brova 🚨🍿🦀

My baby goin to middle school 🥺 I’m not ready

Feelin vurry regal. Vurry presidential. 📸:

🦀🚨 All 10th Anniversary merchandise is now available for purchase in True Laurels online shop. Hit the bio link! 🦀🚨⁣
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1- True Laurels Issue 06⁣
2- Nu Chesapeake Trucker⁣
3- Crab Mallet Keychain⁣
4– 10th Anniversary Tee⁣
5- Nu Chesapeake Flag Bandana ⁣
6- True Laurels Tote

🚨 In 2004, one of the most important pieces of East Baltimore documentation was released when t.p. Luce’s Tha Bloc: Words, Photographs and Baltimore City in Black White and Gray was published. In it are beautifully-shot black and white photos (captured between 1995 and 2003) of people living their everyday lives: getting ready for church, loving on each other, shooting dice on the porch, playing video games with extension cords coming from inside the house. There’s poetry inspired by the community which serves as social commentary on what you’re seeing. It documents the transformation of a neighborhood in less than a decade. Tha Bloc is just as much an assessment of the things wrong with American society as it is one of the specific neighborhood that t.p. Luce lives in.⁣
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This book holds a special place in my heart because most of it is shot on Ramona Avenue, a street in Northeast Baltimore’s Belair-Edison neighborhood. My family lived on this block from the time I was 9 until about 15. A lot of the people photographed are people I saw everyday. I’ve known some since elementary school and some I still rock with today. And to make it even crazier, t.p. Luce is the father of one of my closest friends.⁣
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So it’s extra special to share this as the fourth and final cover of True Laurels Issue 06. For the story, I talk to t.p. in depth about the origins of the project, its legacy, and how he feels about it now that it’s almost 20 years old. Also extremely honored that he allowed me to dig through his archive of photos from the project (some that made the book and more that didn’t) and share them for this story. Link in bio! ⁣
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Words: Lawrence Burney⁣
Photos: Courtesy of t.p. Luce’s archive⁣
Publication Design: .el