Renowned Newark Poet, Artist Passes Away: Jerry Gant

NEWARK, NJ — Renowned Newark visual artist, poet and educator Jerry Gant has passed away, local arts organizations reported Sunday.

Newark Arts and the Newark Museum both posted memorial messages on social media, mourning Gant’s passing and calling him an iconic member of the local art community.

“RIP to our friend Jerry Gant,” the Newark Museum stated. “Thank you for everything you did to make the Newark art scene vibrant.”

“Newark Arts is heartbroken to learn of the passing of Jerry Gant, an iconic, prolific and inimitable artist who loved Newark to his very core,” the group wrote on social media. “We join the arts community in remembering and honoring his legacy. We send our deepest sympathy to his family, friends, and all who loved and cherished him.”

Lauren Craig of Newark Arts provided Patch with an additional statement about Gant’s passing:

“Jerry Gant has left an indelible mark on our city, and his contributions to the Newark Arts community cannot be overstated. He was certainly a pioneer of the spoken word scene in Newark, as well as a member of the famous African Globe Theater going back to the 1980's. His mantra, Detox the Ghetto, changed the visual arts landscape, and his graffiti, metal work and public murals are instantly recognizable around the city. In fact, Gant has the largest number of contemporary public art sculptures across Newark, including pieces in Nat Turner Park and Newark Penn Station. He was proud to be represented in the institutional collections of Rutgers University-Newark and the Newark Public Library. A man of style, grace, humor and humility, Gant made it his business to lend his support to young artists of every medium, and was truly the heartbeat of the Newark arts scene. We are comforted that his legacy as an artist, father and grandfather lives on.”

The members of the Frances E.W. Harper Literary Society at the Newark Public Library offered condolences for Gant.

“He was a great person as well as a great artist,” Chairperson Dorothea Moore said. “He will be greatly missed.”

The Greater Newark Conservancy also offered its condolences, writing that its members were saddened by the loss of their friend and partner.

"Jerry believed art is part of the environment and we were fortunate he shared his art in the Conservancy’s garden," the group stated. "Jerry was larger than life and we thought he’d always be here. Jerry we miss your smile, your laughter, your stories, your kindness. There is a huge void in Newark, and in our hearts."

JERRY GANT: A LEGACY OF ART

Gant got his start as a 1980's graffiti artist in New York City. His powerful street murals can be seen in major urban centers nation and worldwide - New York City, Boston, London - but most of all, in his home city of Newark.

“Artists are friendlier here than in New York," Gant previously said of Newark.

As Patch previously reported:

“Gant was born in Newark, grew up in a succession of Newark apartments, lost his dad young to alcohol and cirrhosis, graduated West Side High School and went to Essex County College to study graphic design — just as desktop publishing was coming in and decimating the print industry. He also took courses at the Newark School of Fine Arts.”

Gant soon ventured into New York City when the street artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat were making names for themselves. Andy Warhol was there, too, making his millions, but Gant didn’t know how to document, write about or capitalize on his street art. Instead, he went home and painted.

"I kept things in the closet or behind the couch," Gant said.

It was while studying at Newark-based NJIT that Gant had an important realization that would later influence his art: it wasn't liquor that killed his father.

"It was poverty beating him into submission," Gant said in 2011. "It was like a cloud opened up. He didn't die; he was killed. That's when the shift came."

By then, it was the early 1990s, and Gant was seeing African American men like filmmaker Spike Lee making a difference. Gant joined the New York City spoken word-open mic circuit, as well as performing often at Newark's old Café Genesis on Halsey Street. Gant found his voice as a poet, performer, artist, educator and activist.

Since that time, he was part of Planet Hip-Hop at the New Jersey Performing Art Center, had residencies in Newark and Princeton schools and at New York University and worked on projects with then-councilman Ras Baraka on an installation for the Newark Housing Authority, among many other accomplishments.

• See related article: Newark Visual, Performance Artist Jerry Gant: From Slave Ship to Mother Ship

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Patch file photo

With previous reporting by Carol Selman