My relationship with making commercial goods is well...turbulent to say the least. From around 2007-2013 i made thousands of garments, bags and accessories. During that time I create some #magic...but it was extremely unsustainable. My line had a gazillion skus, that required photography and marketing. I was doing custom orders and vending markets practically every weekend. Basically i was making every single idea that popped in my head and folks were definatly responding to the explosion of 'things' i was featured in the NY Times, The Post and tons of blogs. I did collaborative projects with Nickelodeon and Birkenstocks. I even had a studio that was sponsored by the founder of etsy. Honestly I was horrible at running that business. I didn't start 'making' to manage people and was really bad at delegating. Running a company that generates goods and requires space in a quickly gentrifying NYC is just not the best practice. Especially when you have an upcycling process that requires random deconstruction. I often found my self barely making ends meet, shuffling from one studio space to another pretty much right after i got things set up. I burnt out and was frustrated. So I decided to take a break get real with money and create a tactile service practice. Not quite sure what it was going to be but I knew I didn't want to sit behind a computer all day. That was around the time i started doing still life and prop styling. Hell, if i can make a bag i can certainly make a bag look good. In the mean time i saved my monies did some investing, studied the history and current state of economics and how that applied to my life. I developed regular yoga practice and decided to fill in the pieces that I felt were lacking...the boring stuff...the stuff 'i wasn't good at'.I always have creative ideas. I wake up with my mind swarming sometimes hurting with all the possibilities...but financial management might as well had been the language of starfish and that was really weighing me down. I learned so much about global markets, manufacturing economics, economies of services vs goods and fast fashion. I learned why 'making things look good' provides a better income than actually 'making things'. I learned to set up a better foundation... and give a business financial wiggle room. I learned that i was using goods a catalyst for my art because at the time i didn't know folks who bought art or how to go about creating art in public spaces...but i knew folks who buy sneakers and clothes. I also learned that was selling myself short and needed better boundaries. Styling came easy to me. It's a solution based occupation and I was very much in the practice of figuring out solutions. In some ways many shoots allowed me to be in my head. It was quite meditative. I have an awesome diverse creative clientele and work with some of the most talented photographers. Things are shifting as they always do. I'm making again but stuff that can be enjoyed my many vs worn by few. My creative practice is a lot less stresssed and it seems the universe is welcoming me in that direction on the form of shows, art sales, opportunities etc. Can't wait to see what's down this rabbit hole.
Dear Uncle Sam
Dear Uncle Sam, You are like a very creepy family member and behave more like a member if the mob then a member of the family, so from here on out I'm just gonna call you Sam and drop the uncle shit. I'm wondering if it would be possible to get an itemized break down of where my tax dollars go. Just send it to my address. You know where to find me...after all you find me every year at the same time. I read some where that 40% goes to fund our expansive military complex. I don't want to pay that much for that. Can I opt out? Let's do away with annual property taxes. A home isn't a slot machine, let's just have a sales tax and drop that fluctuating every year tax thing. Put it all into sales taxes. Also would it be possible to have taxes distributed to schools based on the numerical student population of the region verses dwelling location. I just think schools should get funding based on the amount of students they have not how rich their parents are. If rich people get really bugged out about that, they they can send their children to private school (most do that any way) and opt out of paying for public schools out of their taxes. Hey, if the education system gets better broader and more inclusive, I suspect that gentrification would be a thing if the past. Here's how it breaks down. In our current system annual property taxes fund schools in that area and the annual property tax increases and decreases based off of some complicated, secretive schematic that factors income, census records, what color morning poo, horoscope etc. Lets trash that and just do income and sales tax. Then distribute the funds evenly per student. The child grows up, with a head full of relevant knowledge and tools to work in the environment they live in. They will have the tools to foster more beneficial contracts particularly when it comes to real estate and development. Also what's up with this tax bracket stuff? Let's just tax 15% across the board...keep it simple. Oh yeah, and while I have your attention Sam, can civil servants get paid minimum wage? and minimum wage be a livable wage? Folks should want to serve their community with the intention of making it better, not getting rich. Speaking of civil servants let's touch on police and the judicial system. They get paid out of our taxes right? So they work for the people right? OK if that is so, they are doing a bad job (I know the intentions are good, but let's face it this isn't really working out) and maybe they should be let got and just start over. If we know that black people are not biologically prone to being criminals then why is that reflected in our prison, and all this brutality? Perhaps those departments have gotten lazy it's time to get some fancy consultants in and redo this system. I'm not saying everyone is a bad apple but the whole system needs a complete new thought process behind it. I'd opt in for tax fund allocation for that. Well Sam, that's all I have for now. It was a pleasure chatting with you. We should do this more often.
The most American, Chanel
Racist Rehab Project: Set Coversation
Set conversation: Important white studio photographer (IWSP for short): I love black people. I really do. I think they are the most...absolute coolest.
Me: [continuing to arrange the shoes onset into a clever composition, for a major fashion mag shoot we are doing]
IWSP: I just think that being a black guy is the ultimate...i mean, they have so much swagger and style....and hip hop...Honestly, I really wish I was a black guy
Me: bet you didn't want to be a black guys when you interviewed for your job [while continuing to put the final touched on the gravity defying shoes arranged on set]
Over all silence.......
Me: [looking up at IWSP] OK, this as ready to be shot.
The Race Card

by Chanel Kennebrew/Junkprints
How you see it and how I see it
Yesterday I met up with a long time friend and Brooklyn business owner and a commercial real estate developer pal. My friend is looking into expanding his business in Philly so I tagged along with them to scope out neighborhoods talk to other business owners and get a general feel of Philadelphia. We had some pretty interesting conversations regarding gentrification, the inevitable boring cloud that will roll over nyc due to pricing out creatives, and we also talked about our various view on what the future holds as far as urban development.
If you ever want to really get the lowdown on what's to come in your neighborhood, make friends with a real estate developer and members of city council. So much of the conversations about what will be allowed to go where are are determined by those two entities...with supposed input from the community residents. The part that was so startling to me about many of the views of the developer was how much money and aquisition of it seemed to be a primarily concern. For examples, the proposed plan to build a gated high rise luxury apartment building in an area of row houses. The community was completely against it. The developer was for it stating that by bring in higher earning residents the city could have more tax revenue. My concern is that property taxes are done based on average area incomes so that would inevitably push out old tenants by the tax increase. He argued that the schools and public facilities, such as parks would get more funding from that and get better...but better for whom? My concern was primarily for the residents that currently live in the neighborhood not the rich ones he hoped to invite. I understand that change is inevitable and cities are constantly in a state of flux. One thing that became very apparent in that conversation is that there is a huge gap in perspective in how residents view where they live and developers view that same region. I truely feel that most folks just want a decent roof over their head in a safe and neighborhoor. There are so many people in the business of shaping what that means to potential buyers, often done in a way that doesn't support diversity in age, backgrounds and socioeconomic position. Doing that isn't generally as profitable. So that gap in perspective of what the future of the neighborhood could be is so large that folks are often not even speaking the same language.
I don't think that all developers are bad folks and there are some beautiful examples of valuable developments such as Crane art and the teachers lofts on philadelphia. It's just that so much of the positive development is rarely enjoyed by people of color and old neighborhood residents. I'm sure alot of this has to do with the limited participation and involment if those parties with city planning, funding and development.
That limited involvement sounds like the same problem with every other sector (with the exclusion of activism) of business, from art, fashion, music, finance, tech, entertainment etc. At the end of our conversation I had a series of mixed emotions and thoughts.
What they don’t tell you about Cruises
New Space renovation Win/Fail
DETROIT AN OUTSIDERS PERSPECTIVE

