Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Happy 4th of July! See you on the Hudson River for the fireworks tonight. We are also cognizant that the rich inheritance of justice and freedom has not been extended to all people historically: “What to the Slave is 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech.

“…. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
– Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York 1852

Remember when you used to say that someone or something was “ON FIRE!”, and that meant it was something good, unable to be stopped?

This week half of the United States and a third of Canada were on fire, it would appear, including an underwater bloom of fire in the Gulf of Mexico that was being sprayed by nearby boats with, um, water.

While the West of the US was having an exceptional drought and extreme heat, when you looked north to Canada, you witnessed 710,000 lightning strikes; Western Canada was a literal firestorm. According to The Guardian, “The previous week, northern Europe and Russia also sweltered in an unprecedented heat bubble. June records were broken in Moscow (34.8C), Helsinki (31.7C), Belarus (35.7C), and Estonia (34.6C).” On the east coast of the US, we suffered 4 days of a heatwave, and many graffiti writers found themselves banished to underground tunnels to keep cool – which was okay with almost everybody.

Remember when you used to say that things were DOPE until you saw your cousin get hooked and spiral downward unglamorously? DOPE took on a new connotation after that. Maybe we have to stop saying, “Yo, that girl is FIRE!” because, you know, fire. That thing that is scorching the Earth, but not because of Climate Change, you freak.

But the graffiti and street art we have been finding here: some of these are FIRE!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Arcadio, Benjamin Keller, BMC, Cdre, Ditty, Luke Dragon, LWart, Mena, MeresOne, MHI, MoiOne, Rat Rockster, RH Doaz, and Scartoccio.