Fab Five Freddy
The Barnes
2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.
Philadelphia
May 8, 2026
Painter and hip-hop pioneer Fred Brathwaite is probably best known to art and culture aficionados as Fab Five Freddy. As a mover and shaker in New York’s fertile punk and hip-hop scenes in the 1970s and ‘80s, a young Brathwaite found himself at the forefront of two of the most profound creative revolutions of the late 20th century. On May 8, The Barnes hosted a live public conversation between Brathwaite and Maori Karmael Holmes, founder of the renowned Black Star Film Festival. The event was in celebration of Brathwaite’s new memoir Everybody’s Fly: A Life of Art, Music and Changing the Culture. A whirlwind journey through Brathwaite’s formative years, the book is as vibrant, funny and uncategorizable as the man himself.
Holmes and Brathwaite opened by discussing Fred’s work in film and directing classic music videos like Queen Latifah’s “Ladies First" and Boogie Down Productions’ “My Philosophy." As the duo talked and Brathwaite shared anecdotes and stories, images of Brathwaite’s bold, colorful paintings and pictures of him hanging out with notable celebs like Madonna, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol simultaneously showed on a screen. Holmes probed Brathwaite about his early childhood years, and Brathwaite talked about his father’s friend circle of jazz musicians and told a hilarious story about how at age six, he got Thelonious Monks’ phone number from his dad’s address book and called the reclusive jazz great.
Lasting a little over an hour, the conversation between Brathwaite and Holmes was a winding, spirited meeting of two of the great, creative minds working in the arts today. Speaking on the ambitions of himself and his graffiti-writing peers, Brathwaite draws comparison between the street artists of ‘80s and pop artists of the ‘60s. “There was a bubble that we were all in and everybody was just trying to create.” Exuding effortless cool and boundless insight, Brathwaite’s talk and memoir solidified his place as hip-hop’s greatest raconteur.
