The diversity of the artist’s works is celebrated in the recent exhibition Basquiat: Boom For Real. Amongst the frenzy of brilliant imagery in his drawings, paintings, and objects one aspect is constant: the poetic presence of words, sprawled out across the canvas with a certain sense of purpose. Language was evidently a continuous platform in which Basquiat conveyed his voice, whether this was printed on a painting with chaotic yet controlled brushstrokes, or neatly spray painted on the decayed bricks of New York. As an audience, however, we return to the roots of captivity; the notebooks Basquiat left us - the most raw form of his writing. One particular page in these notebooks was striking; it read, with a loud and ominous voice: “I FEEL LIKE A CITIZEN ITS TIME TO GO AND COME BACK A DRIFTER”. The black blocked text, capitalized in his iconic style of handwriting especially states its presence against the white with authority- demanding to be read. Exploring the artist’s short but rich career as a whole, he has definitely ‘drifted’ in one way or another. Having left home at the age of seventeen, Basquiat has been forced to drift physically from home, but perhaps this also jump-started the awakening of his artistic abilities. The reader will never be able to decipher the true meaning behind the words he laid out on the seemingly unimportant notebook page, but one can certainly form notions from observing the text itself. “I FEEL LIKE A CITIZEN” could be touching on the fact that the familiarity of his surroundings is trapping or boring him- his surroundings being physical, mental, spiritual. It’s also clear that he possesses strong feelings about his environment, creating the label of SAMO as the city was at the edge of ruin with elevated crimes and being literally lit up in flames. As he made his mark freely on New York’s deteriorating surfaces, he was simultaneously learning about the city and teaching the people in it. It was a beautiful union, this drifting, and it truly feels like he travelled somewhere far and ‘came back a drifter’, an artist with a unique voice that will enlighten us for decades to come.