The artist Naderson Saint-Pierre was painting in his Manhattan studio on Tuesday morning when he heard from a friend that his hero, Jean-Michel Basquiat, was being honored by New York City with a street-naming ceremony that afternoon.
In his paint-splotched overalls, he caught a subway downtown, where he joined the people gathered outside 57 Great Jones Street, the squat building where Mr. Basquiat lived and worked at the time of his death in 1988.
The crowd was filled with East Village residents, local TV journalists and fans wearing caps and T-shirts marked with Mr. Basquiat’s crown motif. There were also members of the Basquiat family — sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins — and city officials.
“It’s a beautiful day to see him honored like this,” Mr. Saint-Pierre, 30, said, “and having a street named after you is one of the great New York honors.”
“I’m Haitian, like Basquiat was,” he continued, “and when I first moved to the city with nothing, I was selling my art for $20 in Tompkins Square Park and sleeping in the subways. Basquiat also struggled on the streets before he found success. He’s proof to me that dreams as an artist in New York can come true.”
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