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Volume 48, Number 10
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W I N S TO N - S A L E M , N . C .
THURSDAY, November 11, 2021
Mural pays tribute to memory of young rapper
Submitted photo
Nearly one year to the date of his untimely passing, a mural has been created to honor the life of Winston-Salem rapper Sauxe Paxk TB. Sauxe Paxk TB started rapping when he was seven years old and although he was still developing his style at the time of his death, his tracks “Out The Way” and “Motion” were beginning to make waves. The mural, which was completed last week, has already had dozens of people to stop by to get a photo beside the tribute to Sauxe Paxk TB. On Instagram more than 7,000 people from across the country have “liked” the image of the mural.
Rashaun Rucker’s art chosen for exhibit at WFU THE CHRONICLE
Award winning photographer and artist Rashaun Rucker has had his work shown across the country, at the Smithsonian, celebrities’ homes, colleges and universities, and in countless exhibitions and galleries. Now, for the first time since he was a student at East Forsyth High School, Rucker’s work is on display right here in his hometown of Winston-Salem. Rucker’s piece “Tapestry to my Soul” is a part of Wake Forest University’s Means of Identification exhibition
which is on display at the Hanes Gallery. “Tapestry of my Soul” is a print of several images quilted together that relate to Rucker’s upbringing, family, and other people and things that were influential in his life. The piece is part of a larger exhibit completed by Rucker earlier this year entitled “Up From the Red Clay,” a multimedia exhibition consisting of over 20 new works. Rucker said there is a lengthy vetting process when colleges and universities acquire pieces and he was ecstatic when he found out everything was finalized. “They probably had like 100 artists and they narrowed it down … so I was excited, but I wasn’t overjoyed until I knew it was a real thing and that it was going to happen,” Rucker said. “I was overjoyed that it was going to be in Winston-Salem, my hometown, because I don’t have any work in my hometown. All my work is in
Rashaun Rucker talks about his piece “Tapestry of my Soul”. New York, Miami, Detroit, some in LA … I don’t have any work in North Carolina and I probably haven’t shown any work since I was a student at East Forsyth.” Rucker said it was important for him to have his work shown in his hometown to give young people in the community something to aspire to be. “I wanted it to be in my hometown for young artists, students, everyone to
see it because sometimes representation is important; sometimes you need that to really believe you can do something,” he said. “As a kid growing up on 22nd Street, I would have loved to have seen that for myself, because I needed those types of things to push me further. My hope is that there’s a young artist in WinstonSalem that comes to see the exhibit and they’re in-
Photo by Tevin Stinson
spired to go further.” After graduating from East Forsyth, Rucker took his talents to N.C. Central University (NCCU), where his love for art continued to grow. NCCU is also where Rucker started to venture into photography and photojournalism. He said his sophomore year he was persuaded to sit in on a photography class. “There was a photography professor on campus
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who wanted me to take his class, but I didn’t want to take any extra classes. I told him I didn’t want to take it and he said ‘Why don’t you just come sit in on the class,’” Rucker continued. “He said, ‘Just come to class and do the assignments and you won’t get a grade but you will learn.’” Rucker sat in on the photography class and at the conclusion of the course he was offered an internship at the WinstonSalem Journal and the legend of Rashaun Rucker started to grow from there. After graduating from NCCU and serving as an intern at the Journal, Rucker took a full-time position as a photojournalist at the Detroit Free Press. For his photography, prints, and drawings over the years, Rucker has won more than 50 national and state awards. In 2008 Rucker became the first African American to be named Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. See Art on A3 6 89076 32439 7
BY TEVIN STINSON