Street Poet

In the artwork “Street Poet”, Ludumo uses opposing colors yellow and purple to separate background and middle ground. Using stencil-like street art techniques with layers of graffiti typography, he creates nuances of poems, rhymes, and words floating through the poet’s mind and the surrounding airwaves. Lost in a world of his own, Mos Def also known as Yassin Bey gazes contemplatively. Maqabuka’s composition uses spray-painted lines that direct the viewer’s focus to his face again and again, extracting the portrait from the chaos on the background. The poet’s face, highlighted in yellow, appears calm but the downward curve of the mouth and half-closed eyelid could be indicative of some private storm brewing within.