Zoo York skatezine created by Mark 'Ali' Edmonds, 1979
date: label: date made
content: 1979
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Original skatezine created by Mark ‘Ali’ Edmonds, the leader of a group of graffiti artists and street skaters known as ‘The Soul Artists of Zoo York.’ The zine has a blue hand illustrated cover with a black and white pencil drawing of New York City in the center with "Zoo York written in large block letters at the top. There is a black and white hand drawn television set in the bottom left corner sinking into the blue water with the contents of the issue written on the screen. The zine has hand drawn and hand written content done by Ali.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This band of graffiti artists and skateboarders who occupied the streets of New York City in the mid-1970s converged, taking the name created by Edmonds while referring to New York as a city of animals, hence Zoo York was born.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The skate crew grew to 15 and with their artistic skills created a Zoo York logo emulating their California heroes and counterparts, the Dogtown skaters. The legend of Zoo York became cemented with the creation of this zine. In 1979, Edmonds published this one-off ‘zine that devoted its “Sports” page to a fictional championship contest between the Zoo York skaters and another crew. There were never any contests or even any skaters, but the outlaw legend was created.
label: Description (Brief)
content: And while the Zoo York crew only lasted for a few more years as skaters grew older and needed to earn a living away from skating, the legend lived on among the New York City skaters. Fast forward to 1993 and a new generation of street skaters had grown up on the streets of New York and were tired of being overlooked by the California centric skate industry. Smith, Gesner and Schatz, with the blessing of the original Zoo York crew set out to transform the New York City landscape and ended up creating a global enterprise.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In 1970s New York City, Mark ‘Ali’ Edmonds led a group of graffiti artists who happened to excel at street skating and formed ‘The Soul Artists of Zoo York’. This band of graffiti artists and skateboarders who occupied the streets of New York City in the mid-1970s converged, taking the name created by Edmonds while referring to New York as a city of animals, hence Zoo York was born.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport
content: skateboarding
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0046.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0046
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0046.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: zine, skateboarding
label: Object Name
content: skatezine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/2 in x 8 in x 1/8 in; 29.21 cm x 20.32 cm x .3175 cm