Basquiat was a major figure in Life and Death on the NY Dance Floor, so I was delighted to be asked to feed into the Barbican's forthcoming Basquiat: Boom for Real season in several ways plus write this piece, just published, which contextualises it all, http://bit.ly/2iMdx0K

In addition to offering bits and pieces of help with the show itself I've been co-curating a music night, featuring Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Arto Linsday, Justin Strauss! That'll take place on 7 October. There's more info at http://bit.ly/2eLkElG

Earlier that day I'll be heading to a free screening of Downtown 81, the downtown film starring Basquiat, after which I'll be chairing a discussion with downtown designer/producer/scenester Maripol and (last I heard..) August Darnell of Kid Creole and Arto Lindsay. All were heavily involved with Downtown 81, Basquiat and the wider downtown scene.

In-between I'll be working with five young directors who'll be creating short films as part of the Barbican's Too Young For What? Creative Learning programme-which is what it's all about, in a way, http://bit.ly/2vxwHNQ

The basic argument of the article: we might like to think of Basquiat as a genius, but he only became Basquiat because of his immersion in the wider downtown scene, so creativity is in many respects collective, and we might do well to think more (in Eno's term) of scenius than genius...