When: Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 2pm

Where: Gary Lichtenstein Editions, 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247

Materials will be provided and refreshments will be served. RSVP appreciated but not required.

Free and open to the public. 

 

The Human Imagination Initiative is rooted in the fact that the creative process, fueled by imagination, is a spiritual journey inward towards our highest selves. It is through these explorations, and the difficult work they demand, that the individual, and therefore the human race overall, evolves and solves the hardest problems of our day. The awareness we cultivate from these personal discoveries reconnects us to the natural world and awakens us to the force that moves in and through all things. Grounded and true, we are able to expand our collective universe through creative acts by bringing to life that which did not previously exist. Artificial intelligence (AI), on the other hand, is a false idol to modern societal productivity, efficiency and perfection, and seeks to gratify us instantly. With AI, there is no longer any need to practice our craft or discover our unique voice. We can offload and outsource these antiquated and inefficient processes by prompting AI to create, think and answer for us. But by doing so, we bypass all the wisdom we gain from our inner struggles and forego the pure joy of learning how to express ourselves. In short, AI threatens to co-opt and decay the very essence of what it means to be human. If you choose to engage with AI at all, keep it where it belongs. As a tool for, and not a replacement of, your imagination. 

 

Al Díaz’s career spans five decades. Born and raised Puerto Rican in New York City, by age 15 he was an influential first-generation subway graffiti artist known as “BOMB-ONE.” His friendship and artistic collaboration with high school schoolmate Jean-Michel Basquiat on SAMO©… has been noted often in contemporary art history. Díaz later contributed percussion to numerous musical recordings and performances, including Basquiat’s historic 1983 record, “Beat Bop.”

Díaz is sought-after as an expert of New York City counterculture art. He appears often in publications and has been a highlighted speaker for a variety of panel discussions at universities and museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Brooklyn Museum, The New School and Christie’s Education. He has been featured in several films, including “Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” BBC’s American Masters presentation of “Basquiat: Rage to Riches” and “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.” In 2018, Díaz authored "SAMO© …WRITINGS: 1978-2018", an in-depth, color illustrated history of the street art legacy that he began with Basquiat in the late 70s. A notebook that Díaz made with Basquiat in his teens is currently held in the collection of the Yale University Beinecke Library.

 

Diaz’s work has been exhibited widely at galleries including Vanderplas Gallery, One Art Space, HOWL HAPPENING and Beyond the Streets and has been shown internationally in Canada, France and Spain.  In 2022 HOWL HAPPENING and HOWL Arts! Archive (NYC) presented “City of Kings, a history of New York City Graffiti” compiled by Al Diaz, Eric Felisbret and Mariah Fox.