#muralmondays: Frankie Knuckles

#MUSE #muralmondays kicks off with a tribute commemorating the Godfather of House Music, Frankie Knuckles. In 1977, the Bronx native began spinning at The Warehouse nightclub in Chicago’s West Loop, which was regarded as a safespace for a primarily Black and Latinx LGBTQ crowd prior to attracting a mainstream audience. It was that residency in which he pioneered and popularized the sound that became known as House Music (short for ‘warehouse‘ music). In 1998, Frankie Knuckles became the first-ever Grammy Award recipient for the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category. In 2004, August 25th was declared Frankie Knuckles Day by Chicago’s city council and the street of the nightclub Warehouse was rebranded ‘Frankie Knuckles Way’.

#MURAL Following the passing of Frankie Knuckles in March 2014, a collective of local artists adorned a rooftop near Chicago’s Blue Line (2900 block of West Fullerton Ave.) with the original mural. In May 2014, the artists spent four days putting up the memorial mural on their own dime. It was well received by the community and garnered some media attention. However, it became undone with brown paint the following year due to “renovations”. @38slugs launched a GoFundMe campaign in July 2015 to recreate the mural at another location. After exploring several offers for a new location, the collective arrived at the West Loop in August 2018.

#MOVES This piece is located at 815 W. Hubbard Street, which later became home to the Juice Wrld memorial mural (@coreypaneart) and is a short walk from Recess, Chicago’s new government-esque patio made of shipping containers. The H*A*S*H + Cold Hard Facts off the brunch menu are a great followup to viewing the murals here.