Fresh take: Beasties name campaign rocks on
Artist Danielle Mastrion spruced up her Beastie Boys mural as co-naming advocate LeRoy McCarthy held a sign he hopes to see fly there.
Fresh take: Beasties sign campaign rocks on
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
A woman in paint-splattered
overalls grabbed a spray can off
the top of a trash bin outside
of Wolfnights on Ludlow St. Standing
atop the bin, she drew a giant pair of
black eyes that stared down from the
wall of the sandwich shop to a man on
the sidewalk below. The man, LeRoy
McCarthy, held a yellow sign reading,
“Beastie Boys Square.”
The artist, Danielle Mastrion, is repainting
her 2014 mural of the Beastie
Boys — again — to help McCarthy
rally support for his renewed push to
have the intersection of Rivington and
Ludlow Sts. named after the legendary
New York City hip-hop band.
Fans of the Beastie Boys regularly
visit the intersection, which was featured
on the cover of their 1989 album
“Paul’s Boutique.”
McCarthy fi rst proposed the idea in
2013 and submitted a renaming proposal
to Community Board 3 in 2014.
But the East Village community board
voted to reject the proposal since its
members did not believe the pitch met
co-naming guidelines.
“Hopefully, this is a new day,” Mc-
Carthy said, optimistically. He told this
paper that Deputy Manhattan Borough
President Aldrin Bonilla reached out
She’s a sure shot: Danielle Mastrion working on her Beastie Boys mural.
to help connect him with former local
City Councilmember Rosie Mendez to
“discuss what can happen.”
According to reporting from DNAinfo
in 2014, C.B. 3 co-naming guidelines
included that an honoree have been
dead at least two years and have been
of service within the board community
for 15 years. When McCarthy submitted
his proposal, Beastie Boys member
Adam “MCA” Yauch had died of cancer
two years earlier.
It currently states on C.B. 3’s Web
site that the board’s guidelines for street
co-namings are that the honoree have
been dead for at leaset two years and
have demonstrated an “extraordinary
and consistent long-term commitment
to benefi t the community.”
Making Beastie Boys Square a reality
is the last step on McCarthy’s mission
of honoring hip-hop’s New York roots
by co-naming a street in every borough
for the music’s pioneers and luminaries.
In Queens, part of Linden Boulevard,
at 192nd St. and St. Albans, has
been renamed for Malik “Phife Dawg”
Taylor, a rapper with A Tribe Called
PHOTOS BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
The mural took shape under the
hand of graffiti artist Danielle
Mastrion.
Quest. In Staten Island, Vanderbilt Ave.
and Targee St., were co-named the Wu-
Tang Clan District. A part of Sedgwick
Ave. in the Bronx has been co-named
Hip Hop Ave. and a block in Brooklyn
where the rapper The Notorious B.I.G.
grew up is called Christopher Wallace
Way.
“Even if you are not a fan of hip-hop,
hip-hop is such an integral part of life
and New York City culture,” Mastrion
said.
At the moment, McCarthy said he is
trying to rally political support for the
mural. He said he did not plan to make
another effort to win the approval of
C.B. 3.
6 May 2, 2019 TVG Schneps Media