Graffiti Gangster: A Memoir by HENRY 161
BEYOND THE STREETS Publishing announces Graffiti Gangster: A Memoir of a Gangs, Guns, Murder Prison & Regret, by HENRY 161 MEDINA with Shawna Kenney.
A harrowing true-crime account of growing up gangster and developing a taste for violence, set in 1970s New York. Henry Medina, the son of Puerto Rican migrants, escaped the violence of his Washington Heights home by taking to the streets, where he proudly served as warlord of the Young Galaxies Gangs throughout the 70s. In a time of Savage Nomads, Black Spades, Phantom Lords, Ghetto Brothers, Hell’s Angels and more, HENRY 161 and his fellow Galaxies terrorized citizens and fought turf wars when he wasn't out tagging up the city with another group known as ‘wall writers,’ the pioneers of New York City’s graffiti explosion.
With them, HENRY 161 became part of UGA (United Graffiti Artists), a non profit collective founded by a City College student in 1972, one of the first to introduce graffiti onto canvases to be sold in downtown galleries. They even once took the stage with the Joffrey Ballet under the direction of Twyla Tharp, invited to spray paint the background while ballerinas leapt through the air. While some of the graffiti crew went on to become fine artists or live otherwise straight lives, HENRY 161 spiraled deeper into darkness, especially after fatally stabbing a rival gang member at the age of 14.
From Long Island stash houses to Lower East Side drug markets to hired hits in Harlem, through rooftop chases, stick-ups-gone-south, police shoot-outs, cross-country incarcerations, parole violations, two-timing women, backstabbing partners, and too many close calls with death, Henry tells all, with a dash of Goodfellas-style humor thrown in. HENRY 161’s life as a street soldier intersects with many cultural moments and figures, from losing his brother to the 80s AIDS epidemic, to being prosecuted by then-U.S. States Attorney Rudy Guiliani, becoming a Moorish Muslim under the tutelage of Dr. Mutulu Shakur (Tupac's Uncle) in prison, smoking and selling the first vials of crack cocaine in Upper Manhattan, training a teenager who would become notorious kingpin Jose ‘El Feo’ Reyes, and outrunning the NYPD’s Dirty Thirty precinct.
HENRY 161 reflects on his life from a mellowerplace, after having served his prison time and working with troubled youth in violence prevention programs. He maintains that his book is about choices:
“Addiction played a huge part in my life. And I don’t mean addiction to drugs. I've always been addicted to violence. I chose that addiction over all others. I got off on it. I loved it. I still struggle to keep it in check.”
History stands as evidence of old New York, left for bystanders to study like bullet holes in a wall.
Graffiti Gangster: A Memoir of a Gangs, Guns, Murder Prison & Regret is now available exclusively through our online store.
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Henry Medina appears in the BEYOND THE STREETS documentary, Wall Writers (2016; narrated by John Waters) as well as its accompanying book, Wall Writers: Graffiti in its Innocence by Roger Gastman. Medina is also depicted in The Stanford Graphic Novel Project book, All City. Today he lives in Puerto Rico. This is his first book.
Co-writer Shawna Kenney is an award-winning author and journalist whose stories of arts & pop-culture have appeared in Playboy, Ms. Narratively, Pitchfork, The New York Times, and more. She has collaborated with Roger Gastman and BEYOND THE STREETS Publishing for over 20 years.