One hundred fifty fifth and Frederick Douglass: the fenced court under the lights, the bleachers packed, a game moving, the river and the Bronx beyond, the works on the fence.
Holcombe Rucker, a Parks Department worker, started a summer basketball tournament in Harlem in 1950 to keep young players in school. The park at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard was later named for him. Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant have all played on the court.
Source · NYC Parks ↗
The full court inside a chain link fence, the aluminium bleachers along both sidelines, the light towers, the Polo Grounds Towers behind, the Harlem River and the Macombs Dam Bridge, a crowd three deep at the fence. Mood: summer night game. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.