Zoo York facts for kids

Zoo York is a cool style and idea that came from the New York City graffiti art scene in the 1970s. Its name comes from a subway tunnel under the Central Park Zoo. This tunnel was called the Zoo York Tunnel. It was a secret hangout for early graffiti artists. They often met there with hippies who gathered near the Central Park Bandshell in the late 1960s and 1970s.

The Zoo York Tunnel

A famous graffiti artist and rapper named ALI (Marc Edmonds) gave the tunnel the name "Zoo York." He was the founder of a group called Soul Artists. The subway tunnel was a special place where groups of Manhattan graffiti artists would meet at night.

The tunnel was built by digging a big trench through Central Park from 1971 to 1973. This was part of a project to extend subway lines. The construction site was left open and unguarded at night. A tall aluminum wall was put up to keep people out. But this wall did not stop the local graffiti writers. They would help each other climb over it and get into the tunnel below.

Inside the tunnel, there were four subway tracks on two levels. These tracks were about 100 feet (30 m) underground. It was like a hidden playground for the street kids. They would climb around and draw graffiti everywhere.

Tagging the Walls

Graffiti artists also marked their territory by "tagging" the wall around the construction site. "Tagging" means writing their unique name or symbol. A picture of this famous wall, called the Zoo York Wall, is shown in a well-known book from 1974. The book is called The Faith of Graffiti. It shows many pictures of New York City graffiti.

How the Name Started

ALI was a smart observer of society. He came up with the name "Zoo York" to describe how strange New Yorkers acted in the 1970s. He called this time the "Sick Seventies." He especially noticed this strange behavior at the Central Park subway tunnel site late at night.

The tunnel got its name one autumn night in 1971. A group of graffiti artists called The Underground (UND) met there. Some of them, including ALI, FINE, KITE, and ACEY, had just seen a funny show. The show made fun of the Woodstock Festival. It compared the whole hippie generation to lemmings, which are small animals that sometimes follow each other off cliffs. The teenagers in the graffiti crew made similar comparisons between themselves and the animals in the nearby zoo.

The Central Park Zoo at that time had wild animals in open cages. The animals would walk back and forth, hoping to escape. But they seemed to ignore the world outside their small cages. ALI noticed that these wild teenagers, including himself, lived in a free city. Yet, they wanted nothing more than to crowd together in a deep, dark hole underground.

ALI thought about how strange this was. He decided that all city people were a bit crazy for wanting to live in tiny apartments, offices, and subway cars. He declared that New York City was "not New, but a Zoo!" He named the tunnel "Zoo York." For him, it was a perfect symbol of the strange feeling of the inner city.

Fashion Line

Today, Zoo York is also a brand of clothing. It is inspired by skateboarding culture. A male model named Jonathan Jones helped make it popular. The brand is now owned and made by Eckō Unltd..

• The Faith of Graffiti, documented by Mervyn Kurlansky and John Naar, text by Norman Mailer, New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1974.