A Story About Keith Haring by Lono Brasil

Keith Haring & I met officially one night outside a nightclub called Nell’s on 14th Street & 8th Avenue. I used to work the door there back in 86-87. I had been seeing him at The Paradise Garage (another legendary NY Nightclub) and ofcourse I knew who he was. Lots of famous & not so famous people hung out at both of these spots back then.

One night Keith came to a party at Nell’s for art dealer Tony Shafrazi. As he was leaving he turned back to me and offered me a button to put on my Levi’s Trucker’s Jacket. I asked him if he could tag my jacket, since I saw his tag all over the Village I figured I might as well ask. So he obliged. He always carried sharpies in his bag, so he drew a little man on the back with a black sharpie. I saw him not long after at the Garage again and he brought me into his group. I started hanging out at his studio at 676 Broadway in Greenwich Village. Lots of cool people used to come through that studio. And it put me in the loop in the Downtown 80’s art scene.

So in the Winter of 1988 while I was living in London doing music and modeling, a model friend of mine from Paris asked to wear my Levis jacket Keith tagged out to the club one night. He borrowed it that night and never returned. Once I got back to New York, Keith asked me to come help with what would turn out to be his last show before he died at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. I watched as he painted huge pieces like “A Pile Of Crowns for Jean Michel Basquait.”

I helped move it with the rest of the giant pieces from the studio to Shafrazi’s gallery. I was also the doorman at the gallery that night and we all went to Mr. Chow’s on 59th street for the after party. During that time Keith took a liking to an old vintage motorcycle jacket that I wore everyday. Old beat up brown leather. Knowing my jacket got stolen, he said to leave the jacket in his studio so he could  do a special piece for me. I thought woah! A few months before he died he called me to come and pick it up. I cried because it was so amazing, and so was he. A great person. A real friend. I get sad thinking about that moment. I have a few more small pieces he did for me as well, but nothing comes close to this.

Lono's Motorcycle Jacket Illustrated By Keith Haring.