Cornbread - available works

Darryl McCray, better known under the pseudonym “Cornbread”, was born in 1953 and grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of Philadelphia. From a modest background, he forged a strong, rebellious identity early on, in reaction to the difficult conditions of his environment. 

It was in juvenile prison that he earned his nickname. During his imprisonment, he continuously and resolutely demanded the right to have a bread he preferred to white bread: cornbread. He was given this nickname, which he began to inscribe on various surfaces around him. Carried along by the same rebellious, creative energy as before his incarceration, Cornbread resumed his activities as soon as he was released: he continued to inscribe his name on Philadelphia walls, asserting his existence with each spray of his distinctive tagging style. It was during this period that he returned to high school, where he fell in love with Cynthia. This love, as intense as it was spontaneous, led him to cover the city's walls with a message that has become legendary: “Cornbread Loves Cynthia”. This gesture, both intimate and audacious, marked a turning point in the history of urban art. It gave birth to a new form of graffiti: an act of personal expression, free from any political or territorial claims. While graffiti has existed in various forms over the centuries, and was practiced at the same time by certain gangs to mark the boundaries of their neighborhoods, Cornbread takes it up with an entirely different intention. For the first time, graffiti becomes a personal language, a cry from the heart, an art born of the individual, without belonging to a group or ideology. A simple name repeated everywhere, as a way of saying: "I'm here. I matter."