Photo: Olivia Obineme
Work that we’ve been following since close to its inception, local freelance music reporter, Lawrence Burney, 24, expands his readership in a more public and significant way with the release of his fifth volume of the zine True Laurels at the NY Art Book Fair presented by Printed Matter Inc. at MOMA PS1, last Saturday.
Long Island City (see historical roots) was filled with art and book lovers alike, scoping out the latest from zinesters, authors, photographers, and small presses themselves on what the art reading world has to offer. And it was great to see Baltimore take a splash -no dive- into that Brooklyn and beyond scene.
We checked out Burney’s showing at The Classroom exhibit, where he showcased a few photographs of some featured Baltimore artists in past True Laurel zines, including Chrissy Vasquez and Butch Dawson. With the new volume of zines, Burney gave away free mixtapes put together by Baltimore Club producer and DJ Matic 808, highlighting selected artists who have been featured in True Laurels. The hour-long show also showcased a looped animation, many of you would recognize from the KAHLON events at The Crown. And having recently moved to the Boroughs, well-known artist Abdu Ali was guest DJ and even gave fair goers a little performance.
It was a great assembly of pieces that perfectly showed the different talents Baltimore has to offer. We captured some moments of Burney’s show, and of course, some great looks of theses artistic bookworms.
True Laurels Vol. 5 is out now and available for purchase. Get your copy, here.
