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cover art for Black Palms on being an anonymous street artist and the connections between butoh dancing and TV production

MigrAsians

Black Palms on being an anonymous street artist and the connections between butoh dancing and TV production

Season 1, Ep. 15

If you live in LA, you have probably seen an egg with a red yolk plastered on sidewalks and walls. This is the work of street artist Black Palms - @blk_plms on Instagram. Black Palms identifies as Hapa - he grew up in Hawaii and migrated to LA to work in TV production.

In this conversation, we talk about his migration story, how he fell in love with television, transitioned from directing to producing, and how butoh dancing helped him make this transition. You'll also hear the story about how his birthplace was blown up in front of his eyes for an episode of Magnum, P.I.!

And of course, we talk about his street art. What does the red yolk symbolize? How does Black Palms secretively create this art, and has he ever been caught? And why the name Black Palms?

What I loved most about our conversation is how everything we talked about had an artistic lens - TV production, dancing, street art. There was a common thread, and it was clear that Black Palms valued the power of art in everything he does.




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