Aug. 07--A tribute honoring Frankie Knuckles, known as the godfather of house music, may have found a new Chicago home.
DJ Michael Tupak said he plans to meet with Mile of Murals, a public art initiative in the Rogers Park neighborhood, next week to discuss a spot for a new Knuckles mural. The last mural, created after Knuckles' death in 2014, was recently painted over as part of renovations to the Logan Square building showcasing the artwork.
"We want to properly locate this thing," said Tupak, who worked on the first mural along with BboyB, Flash ABC and other Chicago graffiti artists. Tupak, 32, said he's been offered two other spaces on the South Side for the mural but the Rogers Park location is the most promising.
Tupak, who lives in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, is trying to raise $2,000 through a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign for painting supplies and food for the volunteers during the project. More than $1,000 had been raised as of Friday morning. Tupak said any leftover money will go to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, a cultural and educational group.
Tupak said the intention is to re-create the original mural, which features a likeness of Knuckles with a vinyl record behind him as a halo, but if the new space is larger, organizers may add to it in some way that has yet to be determined. It took about four days in May 2014 to paint the original mural on the rooftop along the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line, Tupak said.
Knuckles died from complications of diabetes in March 2014 at the age of 59. He was long credited with revolutionizing the club culture in the '70s and '80s. In 2004, Chicago honored him by naming a stretch of Jefferson Street, the former site of the Warehouse nightclub he played, for him.
The mural "disappearing hurt people. Kind of like losing him twice," Tupak said.
