Poet x Poets

A pro skater from Brooklyn is rumored to have said that the only good thing about Long Island is that it's attached to Brooklyn. What this curmudgeon didn't mention is that the island also connects with Queens (so we LI'ers have that going for us, too, which is nice). In celebration of this connection, Wriders brings you Poet for Poets: a collaboration with legendary Queens writer, Poet CWK, and everyone's favorite skater's favorite skater, Long Island's Gino Iannucci (Poets).

When did you start skating?

Gino: The first thing that comes to mind is a young girl in my grade school that used to skateboard to school. This was probably around 1986. That's the first time I saw a legit skateboard. I was used to the Toys R' Us plastic boards, and she was riding a Town & Country wooden skateboard. I remember being intrigued.

When did you start writing?

Poet: Grade school, around '84 or '85, I was in class with a girl who wrote Boney D. I was intrigued. She knew a lot of people from the neighborhood, and that's how it all started. 

 

Available at Poets Brand

 

Where did Poets come from?

Gino: Poets Corner is a neighborhood in Westbury, Long Island, where I grew up. So I named the brand after the neighborhood.

Where did Poet come from?

Poet: There was a Poet from my neighborhood who stopped writing years earlier, so I went with the name.

Available at Poets Brand

In skating, filming at skateparks is frowned upon; in writing, painting legal walls is frowned upon. What are your thoughts on these "rules"?

Gino: I've filmed at skateparks as I've gotten older, and I think that's because I've gotten less and less interested in being in the streets. And less and less capable of the physical demand of skating through the streets from spot to spot. So parks became easier. If I was younger, I probably would have frowned upon park footage. I don't necessarily enjoy watching footage at parks as much as street footage, of course. So I don't frown upon it, that much, because I do it, but probably back in the day I would have.

Poet: Legal walls is street art. I have done them, and I will still do them. But not on a regular basis. Graffiti is illegal, and that's how it was and how it will always be.

Back in the day, skating and graffiti weren't as accepted by the mainstream as they are now. How do you think this warm welcome from the masses has affected the cultures?

Gino: Acceptance always seems to make things watered down and cheesy. That's my generation's way/my 50-year-old self's way of looking at it. To put it simply, there are pluses and minuses.

Poet: It's a 50/50 split. You have your pros, and you definitely have your cons. The cons are that they take something that was created by children and exploit it for their own needs while making millions of dollars with something that was created by kids; something that's frowned upon and they tell you that you can't do, you shouldn't do, yet corporate America has basically hijacked it. There are a few people that are getting paid off of it, yes, a few. Few and far between. There are countless others that ain't getting shit. And they're using their graphics and styles in commercials and clothing brands, so basically corporate America is robbing the poor. 

 

Last question goes to Poet: will you hit my book?

Poet: Yes.