AKAY Blackbook 1986-1990

Collectors item! This is a replica of Akay’s (VIM crew) blackbook from 1986-1990. This is a replica of Akay’s first blackbook. The production of the original began in the autumn of 1986, when 16-year-old Akay glued a spray paint color sample chart onto the first page of an unassuming, standard-sized sketchbook. Through his nightly additions of sketches and photographs and newspaper clippings until the spring of 1990, the personal document of a prolific graffiti writer became this unintentional chronicle of an era of Stockholm graffiti.

There’s a brief gap in Akay’s meticulous record-keeping from just before Christmas of 1988 when his dad confiscated his original blackbook and locked it inside a bank safety deposit box. His dad threatened to throw it in the fire if Akay didn’t stop painting graffiti. A few weeks after the blackbook was taken hostage, two policemen showed up at Akay’s dad’s house with a search warrant. Akay and Weird were told to wait in the kitchen while the police searched Akay’s basement bedroom looking for evidence to build their case against him—things like photos or sketches, or even better, all that evidence conveniently glued into a book along with the dates and locations written next to the pieces. But thanks to his dad’s failed attempts at parental extortion (and no thanks to his dad’s wife who kept offering the cops coffee and refreshments), the police didn’t find anything incriminating. The only slightly suspicious thing the police could find was an artfully arranged display of 280 colorful spray cans, Akay’s most prized possession at the time—second only to the imprisoned blackbook—that brightened up his windowless room.

Now, more than 30 years later, long after the contents can be used as evidence in any prosecutable crimes or for manipulative parenting tactics, the blackbook from Akay’s teenage years has been reproduced and made available for the first time. This is the second edition. Fold outs come in a package with instructions on how to glue them in. Including a glue stick.