Hello, I am Maceo and here I am writing the story of how in December 2023, I went to Art Basel with my girlfriend Gabrielle and my brother Genero to promote my media company. It was quite an adventure, below is a written reflection on the trip formatted kind of like a journal entry accompanied by a free mint of moments I put together as a collection to archive/commemorate the trip on-chain.

nft://7777777/0xaB88715dde9700Cc5D880Ed1ED7cDbE06a1F8408/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

The two of them have been a part of my journey over the past year in different ways as I have been learning about web3 and my role in it. Genero, earlier in the year would ride around with me as I drove Uber Eats delivery, listening to podcasts like Boys Club, Overpriced Jpegs, Building at the Edges & Acquired, which was probably our mutual favorite it has the broadest scope. Gabrielle on the other hand has been supporting me just by acting as an accountability partner for me and encouraging me to create daily goals and showing up to community calls. In a sweet gesture, she surprised Genero and me on the trip with these shirts and stickers. So them both being supportive of me and not as clear still on what exactly I am building, I thought it would be cool to expose them further to the world I am learning to build within. It was exciting getting to see the people I have connected with over the years meet the people I know intimately and see on a day-to-day basis. I do aspire to merge the world of web3 with the world I live in here in Philadelphia. I hope that by bringing Philadelphia I can start to bring web3 further into Philadelphia too. You can hear more about their experiences with Art Basel here. I went not only to immerse them in web3 conversations but also to further my level of immersion in the space and create some concrete documentation of the space.

I went to Miami to further connect with people from the Music NFT Scene, record content about the space, and connect with more people from the communities in web3 I have found some likeminded people in, namely, Water and Music, Boys Club, Refraction and Friends with Benefits (FWB). Additionally, I was fortunate to reconnect with two college friends, Laura and Anne, and introduce them to the world of web3 and the projects I have been working on. In interviews, Laura and Genero shared their respective experiences and reflections on this journey with me.

I will use this now though as an opportunity to recount and reflect upon my personal experience at Art Basel, starting with Day One.

12.07.23

We flew out of the Miami Airport early Thursday morning, my mom dropped the three of us off at the Philadelphia International Airport from which we flew to Miami, arriving around 11:00 am. It was nice to feel like my mom was a part of our journey and the radio acted as a relaxing yet exciting soundtrack setting the pace for what would be a fast-paced, eventful weekend and what would be my first time in Miami.

[Insert Relevant Content Here]

After we landed we got an Uber to our Airbnb in Brickell, after trying to leave our luggage there to no avail we made moves to the Apple Store in the nearby mall where I bought the iPhone lightning camera adapter for my microphones, a piece which I hadn’t realized I needed when I went out to get the microphones that night before at Best Buy. After getting some Starbucks, despite the Boycott happening in support of the movement for Palestinian liberation and for the Israeli and American governments to step up for the Palestinian civilians who have been and continue to be killed, starved, and tormented for the sake of an agenda that values the lives and safety of Israeli and Jewish people over the lives of the Palestinian people they are displacing an effort to further naturalize their right to land that England a settler colonial power handed over to a Jewish political body after World War 2. We condemn the actions of Israel, but were not sure where we were so we spent time at Starbucks and got coffee. From there, we made our way to a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana suggested by our Uber driver. We had originally planned to get lunch with Ashley Caines, a lawyer and friend in the web3 space I had as a guest on the podcast earlier this year, but after her schedule changed we took it as an opportunity to go on an adventure. Initially, she had suggested we go to a restaurant but our driver had a different idea. So we took his suggestion and rerouted. Our first Uber Driver was a Cuban man who went by Michelle, he told us about how his children were in schools where they learned English but were able to learn and take classes. He spoke to us about a good few things. All in Spanish essentially. This trip was the most Spanish I think I have spoken since high school.

These are some pictures of our lunch adventure we met another artist in the NFT space at the restaurant and had a great meal before heading back to our Airbnb…

When we got there though for our check-in time, our Airbnb host canceled the reservation on us and I had to find us somewhere new to stay. Gabrielle captured a clip that gives you a very clear sense of the moment.

So we ended up finding a new Airbnb, and getting a discount from Airbnb so that the prices would be comparable. We ended up at a place with more space though so it ended up working out for us in some ways. After about two hours of going back and forth about getting a refund on our first Airbnb, we were able to secure a second only ten minutes to the South East in Brickell. We made our way to our first at Art Basel activity, which was Taste, an event hosted by Erikson, a council member in FWB. This event was dope as our kick-off to Art Basel, FWB ended up being a throughline of our trip. They were meant to have 3 events during Art Basel and I was meant to shoot interviews at one which ended up getting canceled as they could not find a sponsor. Nonetheless, I think this just pushed me to lean more into capturing informal content with my friends and enjoying my time with the people around me. I ended up leaving Art Basel with a lot of pictures and videos capturing moments from the trip which can be accessed and collected for free here!

At the Taste event which was located at a bar called Over Under, at 151 E Flagler, we met some new people and connected with some of the FWB community too as Lia, Erikson, and Phelps all of whom part of our newly elected council, were there and thus able to be some of the first people Gabrielle and Genero saw as a reflection web3 space. FWB is cool because they are a web3 community created by and for people around music, media, and culture. They are by far the most diverse web3 community I have encountered over the past year. I was surprised to find that there is a relatively significant Spanish-speaking community within and around FWB. I discovered this at FWB Fest, the event FWB is most known for, which has been hosted for the past two years in Idyllwild, California as a music and technology festival catering to those interested in the intersection of media, technology, and community. I was excited to be able to meet so many people at Fest and learn so much about the state of the community and organization after having heard of them during the Bull Market of 2021. At Fest I was able to meet many of those deeply involved in the community and at Art Basel, I was able to introduce Genero, Gabrielle, and Laura to some of these people. As far as I can tell the future of FWB depends on its ability to reengage its established community and leverage its established brand power to drive resources and attention to said community in ways that drive value to the organization as a whole, the community, and the broader world as they aspire to grow. So Art Basel it was cool to see who turned out from Fest and get to know those in attendance a bit more, but also to gauge the kind of numbers the community can pull together at an event like Art Basel. The turnout was not the most impressive, but I remain optimistic about the Future of FWB because the experience of community I saw emerge at Fest was unlike anything I have seen at any web3 conferences I went to this year. People found belonging community and intimacy at FWB Fest and I do believe people hold on to those experiences and derive regard for communities when they find meaningful experiences to be a product of participation. So my mission was to scope them out further, get more clear on whether there is a role for this media company to collaborate with FWB, and bring my friends into contact with the communities I see as building at the edge of what’s possible with Blockchain tech.

After leaving, FWB we checked into our new Airbnb where we met up with my friend from undergrad Laura, a Miami native. She became our adventure leader and driver for the rest of the night and took us to the Boys Club’s 2nd Zine Launch party. I have been a member of the Boys Club community since the summer of 2022 and have a fan of their work since I first discovered them and I was excited to introduce my squad to the world of Boys Club. I told my friends I wanted them to be curious and ask questions to the people they met even if they were intimidated and they all took it on and had a blast. Laura learned in conversation with Phelps from FWB, Gabrielle in conversation with Sage, and Genero in conversation with Jack and Ade, two people on the ground from Chainlink. The Boys Club event was full of people presumably there for the promise of another high-quality event, which at this point Boys Club is coming to be known for a month other things. I was excited to be able to finally connect with Blake Finucane, lead advisor at Boys Club and host of the podcast Context. Just sharing with Blake my journey in web3 and the kinds of things I am excited about in this space was a highlight of my time at this event. This was probably my most meaningful conversation of the event that wasn’t with my friends. I had focused on introducing Genero, Gabrielle, and Laura to people up to this point and hadn’t been focused on actually talking to people I had yet to meet.

After about an hour we grabbed another round of drinks from the bar, said our goodbyes, and grabbed our copies of the zine before making our way to Jadyn Violet’s Underground Rave an event I knew would be central to the web3 music scene Art Basel experience. Sadly, by the time we arrived, the event was ending and we were just barely able to say hi to Jadyn before he left for another event where he and some other artists were set to perform. We were able to connect with Steph Guerrero outside the event and a few others before we left for the follow-up event. With the code UVR we were able to gain free entry to the next event at this event I saw creatives I have met through the NFT space, Yunice, Josh Sauceda, and GRL. We didn’t stay here long and soon closed out the night.

This was just one day of our Basel.

12.08.23

On Day 2 of Art Basel, we woke up and made our way to an event hosted by Refraction another community I connected with through my involvement in the Music and Tech Research publication, Water and Music. I rushed them as we started the day late after a late night, which hadn’t concluded until close to 4 in the morning. After we arrived at the venue though we saw that few folx were actually in attendance despite the roundtable discussions being underway. In a back corner, we found Kaitlyn Davies, seemingly the on-the-ground lead for the event, a few people from the Sona project, Ruby, Sarah, and a few other faces I didn’t recognize. We hung out there for a bit before deciding to dip out to go and eat. When we finally did return it was not until the evening. In the meantime, we explored the local area in the end grabbing coffee and Checkers. It was already around 3 pm when we first arrived. So after eating and returning, it was probably closer to 6 pm. By this point the main reason to be there was to speak with new and old friends, which we did. Over the day reconnecting with Ladidai, KD, Wendellen as well as other familiar faces from FWB was a highlight of this event for me. By the end of the night, Laura was ready to continue to the night and our other friend Anne who we also went to undergrad with came out and met us as well so we ended up having a pretty amazing night. They took us to a local club called Blackbird and after dancing there for an hour or two we made our way to Miami Beach to watch the sunrise. This moment was unlike other moments at other events I have traveled to in the past year because it was an opportunity for people who were my friends to get to know one another in the context of a space I have been exploring.

12.09.23

We woke up pretty late in the day and just went grocery shopping before making our way out to an event that was focused on the history of House Music. We went here with Chris Goldstein and it was a blast. I never would have known about the event if he hadn’t brought it up, but it ended up being a highlight for all three of us. I reconnected with some faces from the Water and Music community I didn’t expect to see and I also got to learn about the history of house music with my friends and dance on a rooftop in an awesome environment. I feel like Chris did add to our trip by adding that stop. I think Genero might have even met his cousin there. This night continued as we headed to the Poolsuite and it was at this event that I got to speak and discuss the war between Israel and Palestine which is what had been top of mind for me the months prior and that was night. Shoutout to BoysClub for giving us access to the tickets for free, but I have to say it wasn’t my kind of event. What made it a good move additionally though was that I got to finally have a longer form conversation with Stefen Delevaux. A Bahamian Black man in the space I have been looking forward to getting to know for a long time. I am not finally writing this until late January and I just got back from the Oasis Onchain conference Stefen hosted in Nassau. After these few conversations, we went back home still tired from the night before so that we could be up in time for the FWB event on Sunday where I was keen to either shoot some content or just continue to figure out my role in the community.

12.10.23

The next day when we arrived, we were greeted by people from the Stellar Foundation. I wasn’t familiar with the project and hadn’t met anyone who worked there before this event but learning about it was a highlight of the event. The event did not have a lot of attendance, I brought my friend Genero and my girlfriend Gabrielle and the three of us made up a sizeable percentage of the overall attendees. I have to say that recognizing the sparse attendance made me more aware of how disengaged the existing community in FWB is at the moment and all also gave me time to speak more in-depth with Lia and Phelps on the council as well as to speak briefly with our new Mayor, Greg. Since going to Fest back in August I have been keen to better understand the state of the most established Social DAO in web3 and to learn that there is a 300,000-dollar treasury and little to no initiative being taken to spend it and execute things that amplify the brand or benefit the community I left this event feeling like I am excited to start taking initiative and sharing some proposals which would allow me to get paid to add value to the community. I noticed at Fest that their interviews or content documenting the events was lacking and feel that supporting them with media could be a meaningful contribution. My main reason for going to Miami was to connect further with the FWB Team and though I didn’t record any interview content I got to show people that matter to me what I have been working on and got to connect more deeply with artists like Leo Pastel, GRL, Jadyn Violet and other people who I have connected with and still wanted to get more familiar with. I am getting used to writing reflections and writing more in general outside of a school setting so this will be practice and hopefully, my writing can improve and you will be able to see the progress. My mother edited this also so shout out to her!

Hello, I am Maceo and here I am writing the story of how in December 2023, I went to Art Basel with my girlfriend Gabrielle and my brother Genero to promote my media company. It was quite an adventure, below is a written reflection on the trip formatted kind of like a journal entry accompanied by a free mint of moments I put together as a collection to archive/commemorate the trip on-chain.

nft://7777777/0xaB88715dde9700Cc5D880Ed1ED7cDbE06a1F8408/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

The two of them have been a part of my journey over the past year in different ways as I have been learning about web3 and my role in it. Genero, earlier in the year would ride around with me as I drove Uber Eats delivery, listening to podcasts like Boys Club, Overpriced Jpegs, Building at the Edges & Acquired, which was probably our mutual favorite it has the broadest scope. Gabrielle on the other hand has been supporting me just by acting as an accountability partner for me and encouraging me to create daily goals and showing up to community calls. In a sweet gesture, she surprised Genero and me on the trip with these shirts and stickers. So them both being supportive of me and not as clear still on what exactly I am building, I thought it would be cool to expose them further to the world I am learning to build within. It was exciting getting to see the people I have connected with over the years meet the people I know intimately and see on a day-to-day basis. I do aspire to merge the world of web3 with the world I live in here in Philadelphia. I hope that by bringing Philadelphia I can start to bring web3 further into Philadelphia too. You can hear more about their experiences with Art Basel here. I went not only to immerse them in web3 conversations but also to further my level of immersion in the space and create some concrete documentation of the space.

I went to Miami to further connect with people from the Music NFT Scene, record content about the space, and connect with more people from the communities in web3 I have found some likeminded people in, namely, Water and Music, Boys Club, Refraction and Friends with Benefits (FWB). Additionally, I was fortunate to reconnect with two college friends, Laura and Anne, and introduce them to the world of web3 and the projects I have been working on. In interviews, Laura and Genero shared their respective experiences and reflections on this journey with me.

I will use this now though as an opportunity to recount and reflect upon my personal experience at Art Basel, starting with Day One.

12.07.23

We flew out of the Miami Airport early Thursday morning, my mom dropped the three of us off at the Philadelphia International Airport from which we flew to Miami, arriving around 11:00 am. It was nice to feel like my mom was a part of our journey and the radio acted as a relaxing yet exciting soundtrack setting the pace for what would be a fast-paced, eventful weekend and what would be my first time in Miami.

[Insert Relevant Content Here]

After we landed we got an Uber to our Airbnb in Brickell, after trying to leave our luggage there to no avail we made moves to the Apple Store in the nearby mall where I bought the iPhone lightning camera adapter for my microphones, a piece which I hadn’t realized I needed when I went out to get the microphones that night before at Best Buy. After getting some Starbucks, despite the Boycott happening in support of the movement for Palestinian liberation and for the Israeli and American governments to step up for the Palestinian civilians who have been and continue to be killed, starved, and tormented for the sake of an agenda that values the lives and safety of Israeli and Jewish people over the lives of the Palestinian people they are displacing an effort to further naturalize their right to land that England a settler colonial power handed over to a Jewish political body after World War 2. We condemn the actions of Israel, but were not sure where we were so we spent time at Starbucks and got coffee. From there, we made our way to a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana suggested by our Uber driver. We had originally planned to get lunch with Ashley Caines, a lawyer and friend in the web3 space I had as a guest on the podcast earlier this year, but after her schedule changed we took it as an opportunity to go on an adventure. Initially, she had suggested we go to a restaurant but our driver had a different idea. So we took his suggestion and rerouted. Our first Uber Driver was a Cuban man who went by Michelle, he told us about how his children were in schools where they learned English but were able to learn and take classes. He spoke to us about a good few things. All in Spanish essentially. This trip was the most Spanish I think I have spoken since high school.

These are some pictures of our lunch adventure we met another artist in the NFT space at the restaurant and had a great meal before heading back to our Airbnb…

When we got there though for our check-in time, our Airbnb host canceled the reservation on us and I had to find us somewhere new to stay. Gabrielle captured a clip that gives you a very clear sense of the moment.

So we ended up finding a new Airbnb, and getting a discount from Airbnb so that the prices would be comparable. We ended up at a place with more space though so it ended up working out for us in some ways. After about two hours of going back and forth about getting a refund on our first Airbnb, we were able to secure a second only ten minutes to the South East in Brickell. We made our way to our first at Art Basel activity, which was Taste, an event hosted by Erikson, a council member in FWB. This event was dope as our kick-off to Art Basel, FWB ended up being a throughline of our trip. They were meant to have 3 events during Art Basel and I was meant to shoot interviews at one which ended up getting canceled as they could not find a sponsor. Nonetheless, I think this just pushed me to lean more into capturing informal content with my friends and enjoying my time with the people around me. I ended up leaving Art Basel with a lot of pictures and videos capturing moments from the trip which can be accessed and collected for free here!

At the Taste event which was located at a bar called Over Under, at 151 E Flagler, we met some new people and connected with some of the FWB community too as Lia, Erikson, and Phelps all of whom part of our newly elected council, were there and thus able to be some of the first people Gabrielle and Genero saw as a reflection web3 space. FWB is cool because they are a web3 community created by and for people around music, media, and culture. They are by far the most diverse web3 community I have encountered over the past year. I was surprised to find that there is a relatively significant Spanish-speaking community within and around FWB. I discovered this at FWB Fest, the event FWB is most known for, which has been hosted for the past two years in Idyllwild, California as a music and technology festival catering to those interested in the intersection of media, technology, and community. I was excited to be able to meet so many people at Fest and learn so much about the state of the community and organization after having heard of them during the Bull Market of 2021. At Fest I was able to meet many of those deeply involved in the community and at Art Basel, I was able to introduce Genero, Gabrielle, and Laura to some of these people. As far as I can tell the future of FWB depends on its ability to reengage its established community and leverage its established brand power to drive resources and attention to said community in ways that drive value to the organization as a whole, the community, and the broader world as they aspire to grow. So Art Basel it was cool to see who turned out from Fest and get to know those in attendance a bit more, but also to gauge the kind of numbers the community can pull together at an event like Art Basel. The turnout was not the most impressive, but I remain optimistic about the Future of FWB because the experience of community I saw emerge at Fest was unlike anything I have seen at any web3 conferences I went to this year. People found belonging community and intimacy at FWB Fest and I do believe people hold on to those experiences and derive regard for communities when they find meaningful experiences to be a product of participation. So my mission was to scope them out further, get more clear on whether there is a role for this media company to collaborate with FWB, and bring my friends into contact with the communities I see as building at the edge of what’s possible with Blockchain tech.

After leaving, FWB we checked into our new Airbnb where we met up with my friend from undergrad Laura, a Miami native. She became our adventure leader and driver for the rest of the night and took us to the Boys Club’s 2nd Zine Launch party. I have been a member of the Boys Club community since the summer of 2022 and have a fan of their work since I first discovered them and I was excited to introduce my squad to the world of Boys Club. I told my friends I wanted them to be curious and ask questions to the people they met even if they were intimidated and they all took it on and had a blast. Laura learned in conversation with Phelps from FWB, Gabrielle in conversation with Sage, and Genero in conversation with Jack and Ade, two people on the ground from Chainlink. The Boys Club event was full of people presumably there for the promise of another high-quality event, which at this point Boys Club is coming to be known for a month other things. I was excited to be able to finally connect with Blake Finucane, lead advisor at Boys Club and host of the podcast Context. Just sharing with Blake my journey in web3 and the kinds of things I am excited about in this space was a highlight of my time at this event. This was probably my most meaningful conversation of the event that wasn’t with my friends. I had focused on introducing Genero, Gabrielle, and Laura to people up to this point and hadn’t been focused on actually talking to people I had yet to meet.

After about an hour we grabbed another round of drinks from the bar, said our goodbyes, and grabbed our copies of the zine before making our way to Jadyn Violet’s Underground Rave an event I knew would be central to the web3 music scene Art Basel experience. Sadly, by the time we arrived, the event was ending and we were just barely able to say hi to Jadyn before he left for another event where he and some other artists were set to perform. We were able to connect with Steph Guerrero outside the event and a few others before we left for the follow-up event. With the code UVR we were able to gain free entry to the next event at this event I saw creatives I have met through the NFT space, Yunice, Josh Sauceda, and GRL. We didn’t stay here long and soon closed out the night.

This was just one day of our Basel.

12.08.23

On Day 2 of Art Basel, we woke up and made our way to an event hosted by Refraction another community I connected with through my involvement in the Music and Tech Research publication, Water and Music. I rushed them as we started the day late after a late night, which hadn’t concluded until close to 4 in the morning. After we arrived at the venue though we saw that few folx were actually in attendance despite the roundtable discussions being underway. In a back corner, we found Kaitlyn Davies, seemingly the on-the-ground lead for the event, a few people from the Sona project, Ruby, Sarah, and a few other faces I didn’t recognize. We hung out there for a bit before deciding to dip out to go and eat. When we finally did return it was not until the evening. In the meantime, we explored the local area in the end grabbing coffee and Checkers. It was already around 3 pm when we first arrived. So after eating and returning, it was probably closer to 6 pm. By this point the main reason to be there was to speak with new and old friends, which we did. Over the day reconnecting with Ladidai, KD, Wendellen as well as other familiar faces from FWB was a highlight of this event for me. By the end of the night, Laura was ready to continue to the night and our other friend Anne who we also went to undergrad with came out and met us as well so we ended up having a pretty amazing night. They took us to a local club called Blackbird and after dancing there for an hour or two we made our way to Miami Beach to watch the sunrise. This moment was unlike other moments at other events I have traveled to in the past year because it was an opportunity for people who were my friends to get to know one another in the context of a space I have been exploring.

12.09.23

We woke up pretty late in the day and just went grocery shopping before making our way out to an event that was focused on the history of House Music. We went here with Chris Goldstein and it was a blast. I never would have known about the event if he hadn’t brought it up, but it ended up being a highlight for all three of us. I reconnected with some faces from the Water and Music community I didn’t expect to see and I also got to learn about the history of house music with my friends and dance on a rooftop in an awesome environment. I feel like Chris did add to our trip by adding that stop. I think Genero might have even met his cousin there. This night continued as we headed to the Poolsuite and it was at this event that I got to speak and discuss the war between Israel and Palestine which is what had been top of mind for me the months prior and that was night. Shoutout to BoysClub for giving us access to the tickets for free, but I have to say it wasn’t my kind of event. What made it a good move additionally though was that I got to finally have a longer form conversation with Stefen Delevaux. A Bahamian Black man in the space I have been looking forward to getting to know for a long time. I am not finally writing this until late January and I just got back from the Oasis Onchain conference Stefen hosted in Nassau. After these few conversations, we went back home still tired from the night before so that we could be up in time for the FWB event on Sunday where I was keen to either shoot some content or just continue to figure out my role in the community.

12.10.23

The next day when we arrived, we were greeted by people from the Stellar Foundation. I wasn’t familiar with the project and hadn’t met anyone who worked there before this event but learning about it was a highlight of the event. The event did not have a lot of attendance, I brought my friend Genero and my girlfriend Gabrielle and the three of us made up a sizeable percentage of the overall attendees. I have to say that recognizing the sparse attendance made me more aware of how disengaged the existing community in FWB is at the moment and all also gave me time to speak more in-depth with Lia and Phelps on the council as well as to speak briefly with our new Mayor, Greg. Since going to Fest back in August I have been keen to better understand the state of the most established Social DAO in web3 and to learn that there is a 300,000-dollar treasury and little to no initiative being taken to spend it and execute things that amplify the brand or benefit the community I left this event feeling like I am excited to start taking initiative and sharing some proposals which would allow me to get paid to add value to the community. I noticed at Fest that their interviews or content documenting the events was lacking and feel that supporting them with media could be a meaningful contribution. My main reason for going to Miami was to connect further with the FWB Team and though I didn’t record any interview content I got to show people that matter to me what I have been working on and got to connect more deeply with artists like Leo Pastel, GRL, Jadyn Violet and other people who I have connected with and still wanted to get more familiar with. I am getting used to writing reflections and writing more in general outside of a school setting so this will be practice and hopefully, my writing can improve and you will be able to see the progress. My mother edited this also so shout out to her!