Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Voice From the Streets and Beyond Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1960 to Haitian and Puerto Rican parents, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s life was a collision of cultures and experiences that profoundly shaped his art. His early years were marked by movement – leaving home at fifteen to live in Lower Manhattan, immersing himself in the vibrant, chaotic world of New York City's downtown scene. He found work as a messenger boy, a nightclub bouncer, and even a deckhand on a fishing boat, experiences that instilled a keen awareness of social inequalities and the complexities of u…