BASICALLY A MANIFESTO
COMMON STRANGERS
INTERVIEW
Stacia-Azriel Washington
/Jean-Michel Basquiat
COMMON STRANGERS: STACIA-AZRIEL WASHINGTON/JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
10.2026
Interview
SOKA: When did ambition begin feeling like a responsibility?
STACIA: Right at the beginning, because a definite decision was made to make art work for me. There was a necessity in this interest’s success. It was a weight that I wanted to carry.
STACIA: Right at the beginning, because a definite decision was made to make art work for me. There was a necessity in this interest’s success. It was a weight that I wanted to carry.
SOKA: What frightened you most about recognizing similarities between your work and Jean-Michel Basquiat?
STACIA: I felt my work carries a similar energy. The decisions and style were described exactly as I created much of my more impulsive work, and it grated at me—knowing that someone about forty years ago was able to do “my” thing and come to such critical acclaim. It made me feel a sort of pressure to be the same, to get my work out, to replicate a similar success. Not because I wanted to copy his style, but because there was a confrontation, an alignment of perspectives that I couldn’t ignore.
STACIA: I felt my work carries a similar energy. The decisions and style were described exactly as I created much of my more impulsive work, and it grated at me—knowing that someone about forty years ago was able to do “my” thing and come to such critical acclaim. It made me feel a sort of pressure to be the same, to get my work out, to replicate a similar success. Not because I wanted to copy his style, but because there was a confrontation, an alignment of perspectives that I couldn’t ignore.
SOKA: Do you want fame, or what fame appears to provide?
STACIA: I want a less restricted sense of opportunity. I desire to share my ideas, to exist in new places, to access environments and spaces. Without a sense of external successes and validation from a larger system, your access is limited. I want to simply be able to do everything.
STACIA: I want a less restricted sense of opportunity. I desire to share my ideas, to exist in new places, to access environments and spaces. Without a sense of external successes and validation from a larger system, your access is limited. I want to simply be able to do everything.
SOKA: What part of success feels dangerous?
STACIA: The desire. The ever-present threat of it consuming me, of circumstances never being enough, and being resigned to always pursuing it. I don’t want to be a slave to a concept, an idea, a desire. It needs to breed action and results.
SOKA: What do you want your work to outlive?
STACIA: Trends and quickly passing phases. I’d like to make work that sticks and resonates long after I'm here. It should outlast me, and my work that came before it.
STACIA: Trends and quickly passing phases. I’d like to make work that sticks and resonates long after I'm here. It should outlast me, and my work that came before it.
SOKA: What if none of this becomes what you imagine?
STACIA: I question that often, wondering if any of this matters, if any of it is real. But there’s always been this instinct, this drive to make something larger than myself, to find the community, to create something beautiful. In a way, I can’t imagine a future without this at least partially coming to fruition. It doesn’t have to happen all at once, but in part, it should always be in action.
STACIA: I question that often, wondering if any of this matters, if any of it is real. But there’s always been this instinct, this drive to make something larger than myself, to find the community, to create something beautiful. In a way, I can’t imagine a future without this at least partially coming to fruition. It doesn’t have to happen all at once, but in part, it should always be in action.
SOKA: Do you believe in destiny, or could this be pattern recognition mistaken for fate?
STACIA: An uneven mix of both. There can be a sense of destiny, of fate, or alignment. The pattern recognition exists because of how there was a natural gravitation toward something—because of fate. But it’s always influenced by choice: human choice, human direction, passion. In my case, there’s a pattern that supports my belief in a greater destiny not influenced by him.
I do not desire a similar fate by any standard.
STACIA: An uneven mix of both. There can be a sense of destiny, of fate, or alignment. The pattern recognition exists because of how there was a natural gravitation toward something—because of fate. But it’s always influenced by choice: human choice, human direction, passion. In my case, there’s a pattern that supports my belief in a greater destiny not influenced by him.
I do not desire a similar fate by any standard.
SOKA: You’ve described Crossroads as the peak of the transmission loop before you retreated behind the boundaries of burnout. Looking back at that 4:12 AM breaking point, how does it feel to look at that piece now? Is it a monument to a breakthrough, or a warning sign?
STACIA: It’s been hanging up for days now and I can’t see it as much other than a warning sign. I’m concerned about what the work will begin to look like once I make the next piece. I think the drive to pause that I feel right now is my opportunity to not join the tragic iconography I illustrated.
STACIA: It’s been hanging up for days now and I can’t see it as much other than a warning sign. I’m concerned about what the work will begin to look like once I make the next piece. I think the drive to pause that I feel right now is my opportunity to not join the tragic iconography I illustrated.
SOKA: The slogan REFE ("room enough for everyone") stands in direct conversation with SAMO. While SAMO felt like a cynical rejection of an elite industry, REFE feels like an act of creation and expansion. How do you protect the generous, inclusive spirit of REFE when the creative process itself demands something so exhausting and insular from you?
STACIA: The basis of my creative pursuit is access. I desire greater access to different areas in my life and my art is the means of executing that. Once I get my chance, or on the way along, I want to give people those same kinds of opportunities, a hope that no matter where they land on the spectrum of life, they need a chance to experience creativity. I’m just working as a bridge. It isn't about protection.
STACIA: The basis of my creative pursuit is access. I desire greater access to different areas in my life and my art is the means of executing that. Once I get my chance, or on the way along, I want to give people those same kinds of opportunities, a hope that no matter where they land on the spectrum of life, they need a chance to experience creativity. I’m just working as a bridge. It isn't about protection.
SOKA: You mentioned originally rejecting this master's work as overrated before being pulled into its gravitational slipstream. Now that you're standing at a necessary pause, how do you differentiate between honoring an artistic lineage and accidentally erasing your own perspective? Where does he end and you begin?
STACIA: I respect his work and I work to be an extension of it, while also trying hard to maintain my own individual means of creation. He exists in the books, in the colors, in the music, in the poetry. I’m the vehicle; I’m the heart that still beats. There is a necessity for both in this season. But because it began to feel like it’s overtaking too much of me, I'm currently working to create greater distance between that influence and how I work individually.
STACIA: I respect his work and I work to be an extension of it, while also trying hard to maintain my own individual means of creation. He exists in the books, in the colors, in the music, in the poetry. I’m the vehicle; I’m the heart that still beats. There is a necessity for both in this season. But because it began to feel like it’s overtaking too much of me, I'm currently working to create greater distance between that influence and how I work individually.
SOKA: If this intense, expressionist period was a trial by fire that tested the limits of your boundaries, what does the next season look like? When you decide to pick up the brush again, will it be to continue this conversation on your own terms, or are you looking for an entirely new language?
STACIA: I’m so tired. (laughs) I’m not sure where I'll go from here. It’s frightening because I've reached a point, so early on, too, where I don’t know how to separate my work from this experience. It’s intertwined; it's all mixed up. I’ve always believed that, as it has for the past year, my work will always evolve. The feelings, the life I currently lead, whatever that might look like, will definitely appear in the work. Just keep looking to see how that’s going.
STACIA: I’m so tired. (laughs) I’m not sure where I'll go from here. It’s frightening because I've reached a point, so early on, too, where I don’t know how to separate my work from this experience. It’s intertwined; it's all mixed up. I’ve always believed that, as it has for the past year, my work will always evolve. The feelings, the life I currently lead, whatever that might look like, will definitely appear in the work. Just keep looking to see how that’s going.