Al Diaz on SAMO©… and Jean Michel-Basquiat

Interviewed by Lucy A. Edwards on behalf of The Moniker Foundation.

Moniker sits down with New York artist (and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s teenage friend and collaborator) Al Diaz.

If you’re not already aware of the fact: Al Diaz – born 1959 in NYC – helped set the stage for an artistic revolution in the streets of 1970s Downtown New York City that continues to have a profound effect on today’s art world.

If you were living in (or visiting) the SoHo or Manhattan Lower East Side areas around this time, then you were probably lucky enough to have seen the letters SAMO tagged across the city’s walls, accompanied by painted messages like “SAMO© SAVES IDIOTS” or “SAMO© CAN SAVE THE AVERAGE JOE” – created by a pair of rebellious teenagers called Al Diaz and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The interview is posted here below in it’s entirety, and in 5 parts as featured on our @basquiat.by.moniker Instagram.

How and when did you meet Jean-Michel Basquiat?

In the fall of 1976, I transferred from High School of Art & Design to City-As-A-School. An experimental, alternative high school located in Brooklyn Heights. I had seen Jean Michel around the premises but it was at our mutual friend Peter Benedict’s house where I actually met and spoke with him for the first time. It was probably October and we were all just hanging out there after school. The late Chris Lee (brother of Spike Lee) was also there. He too had just transferred from Art & Design.They all had a previous connection from St Ann’s, a prestigious private school in Brooklyn Heights.

Did you get on as friends, or more as artistic collaborators? Or a bit of both?

Jean and I became fast friends and eventually best friends. He was like a younger brother for a couple of years. We shared many things in common including our Puerto Rican heritage, being bilingual, musical and literary tastes, and an interest/affinity for language as a “creative vehicle”. I was drawn to Jean’s affected BEAT style of delivery. He spoke with a slight stammer but eloquent and articulate. It was very unique and sometimes childlike. Our artistic collaborations started in late 1976 on our school newspaper THE BASEMENT BLUES PRESS. In 1978 we would create SAMO©…In 1979 we attempted some failed art performance project. In 1983 we worked on BEAT BOP with Rammellzee and K-Rob etc, as well as some other 4 track sound collages.

Flashback to the beginning of SAMO©… – what was it like around that time, being with “that” crowd?

We began the SAMO©… project in 1978 and its heyday lasted about a year and some months. After the Dec 1978 Village Voice article was published, I felt as though we had accomplished what we had set out to do with our HYPE CAMPAIGN. Jean continued to write and use the SAMO©… moniker as an “Art-Name” for some time afterwards. He would show his first 2-3 art events using the name. Our friend Shannon Dawson accompanied him during this brief period but tired of the routine and by 1980 was writing SAMO IS DEAD, for another brief period. I met Kenny Scharf through my friend Natalya who’s roommate. Kitty was Kenny’s girlfriend. Natalya was a Club 57 frequenter and like many of the CLUB 57 people, an. SVA student. I would shortly after meet Keith Haring, John Sex, Ann Magnuson and a host of other people from the club who would find success in their respective careers. There was always a group/open invitation art show usually with a theme. Everything was completely DIY and more for fun than ambitious.  During this time Jean and I had a falling out due to numerous conflicts and were nor spending any time together. He was not what you would call a “regular” at Club 57  – he had befriended Kenny and Keith during his visits to SVA on 23rd street. The CLUB 57 scene lasted a few years and then some people’s careers started to take off and everyone sort of GREW UP or burned out.

It must’ve been strange witnessing your friend and collaborator shoot to such meteoric fame – any opinions on any of the things produced about him? 

Jean was striving for fame more and more as he acquired it throughout the 1980s and became less and less accessible in the process. His old friends fell into his past as he moved quickly into a world that I am not too sure he fully embraced. He seemed exhausted and consumed with the responsibilities of fame. The film BASQUIAT (Schnabel) is a work of fiction that is generally misconstrued as a historically correct bio pic. ALL of the “friend” characters are composites. They have some of the characteristics of actual people but are not real. This can be misleading.  All of the documentaries (Rage to Riches, Boom For Real, Radiant Child, Shooting Star/BBC) are much more insightful and honest. The rare Sandy Nairne interview (in its entirety) is priceless.

SAMO: let’s here about it in your own words

• In the fall of 1977, Jean introduced me to two new friends, Elizabeth La Madrid and Shannon Dawson. They all met while in a therapeutic theatre class located in Spanish Harlem. “Family Life Theatre” was a type of group therapy where students acted out family conflict in an attempt to work out some of their issues. We all became friends and at some point Elizabeth (Titi) invited us all to her home in TriBeCa to smoke weed with her mom and stepdad. The idea seemed quite “novel”. Her stepdad was a well established Chilean FLUXUS artist and her mom was a rather sophisticated Cuban woman who practiced Santeria. At first it was all very new but the smoking sessions soon became routine and repetitive with predictable conversations. We began to refer to going to Titi’s as “Doing The Samo” (Yes , Samo Old Thing). Soon we had all of our friends using the phrase SAMO. It became part of our vernacular.

• Fast forward – The January 1978 issue of our school newspaper BASEMENT BLUES PRESS, Jean writes a very funny satirical short story about a guy who sells religions out of a kiosk. The SPECIAL of the DAY was a guilt-free do whatever you want now-pay later religion he called SAMO©… The word SAMO had now taken on a new meaning and purpose.

• I had been sort of out of the graffiti game for about a year or so. (I was a well established subway graffiti artist since 1971 BomB-1 ) The idea of a religion, cult, drug, elixir or any PRODUCT that could change/improve one’s life was wildly inspiring to both of us. I suggested that we create a GRAFFITI CAMPAIGN in the spirt of PRAY or JESUS SAVES to promote and spark HYPE about our new product, SAMO©… We generated a pamphlet complete with cartoon testimonials and proclamations of the life changing qualities that SAMO©… had to offer and distributed some on the street near our school. Soon we began writing the SAMO©… slogans on public walls. SAMO©… IS COMING, SAMO©…IS NOW, SAMO©…AS AN END 2 MASS PRODUCED INDIVIDUALITY, SAMO©… AS AN ALTERNATIVE 2 GOD, SAMO©… AS AN END 2 MIND-WASH RELIGION, BOGUS PHILOSOPHIES & NOWHERE POLITICS

• We became more and more articulate, prolific and selective as the year progressed. Our most frequently traveled route was from TriBeCa through So-Ho, West Village, Chinatown and into the East Village. What we refer to as DOWNTOWN. We would place comments on the art world in the ART district (So-Ho) and observations on consumerism in SHOPPING districts (St. Marks Place)etc. By the end of the year we had attracted the attention of local art community focused newspapers The SoHo Weekly News and The Village Voice. We ended up giving the much sought after interview to the Voice for $50 a piece (Phillip Faflick, Dec. 11, 1978) I believe they were surprised that it was two of us and that we were both still teenagers. Our HYPE campaign had succeeded with flying colors. By this point I felt we had accomplished what we set out to do and there was no reason to continue We had been outed and the thrill/charm was gone along with our anonymity. Jean was more interested in utilizing the local fame we had acquired as a springboard for even greater fame.

• There are a lot of misconceptions of what SAMO©… was. It was not anyone’s nickname nor was it a TAG in the conventional graffiti sense. SAMO©… was A PRODUCT that we were promoting. Most of the descriptions and explanations are either oversimplified or written by those who don’t actually GET IT. To say that SAMO©… “Stands for” Same Old Shit is also incorrect. After JMB used it as the name of a religion, it changed meaning.

• Ask yourself (from a literal point of view/reading comprehension) “How can the Same Old Shit “ be an alternative to anything?? SAMO©… was an exercise in HYPE which proved very effective. We took something that did not exist and gave it a life of its own… SAMO©…4-U !!!!

Now, let’s focus on you: tell us more about Al Diaz and your artwork

I am a mixed media artist. I have been creating art all my life. As a child I would draw habitually and take the occasional extracurricular art classes. I am rooted but not exclusively to NYC graffiti culture. I went to the High School of Art & Design to realize that I did not want to become either a commercial artist or a pro photographer. My studio work consists of sculptures/carvings, 3-dimensional objects, drawings, paintings photos and collage. My current work is strongly collage based , urban themed mixed media work that utilizes text and imagery to evoke memories/nostalgia, dreams, humour and maybe a little outrage. I lean towards socially conscious subject matter but ttry not to beat anyone overthe head with it. I often employ the use of subway signage for my text to maintain a very strong NYC signature look to my messages.

Favourite piece of art you’ve produced in the last year?

My current most favourite piece is a set of primary coloured geometric shapes ( triangle, circle and square) that I made in 2023. they are about 24” x 6” x 6’’each and are suspended from the ceiling by aviation cable in a close cluster. These are a scaled down version of a black and white set that West Chelsea Contemporary Gallery (Austin TX) has in their collection.

Do you have an upcoming/current exhibition of your work? Or tell us about a past one

I was just recently featured in the Evolution of Urban Art show at the Nassau County Art Museum as well as a solo show in Montreal Quebec (Arte Cavallo presents Al Diaz/ “Juvenescence”) I do have an upcoming solo in NYC art VanDerPlas Gallery in the lower east side this November.

Name a current artist that you like, why you like their work and want to give a shout out to

I like Richard McGuire’s work because of his sophisticated sense of design and motion as well as Stephen Hall’s realistic painting style and its in your face subject matter like pollution, war and consumerism. I admire people who work with many mediums and diverse materials, be it over time or simultaneously. I believe it helps us evolve as humans and as artists.