Casey Grabowski, CEO of the TRIXINE CHEMICAL CORP, is a creative genius! As a musician, artist, publisher, community organizer, and civil engineer, he’s been a vital force behind the cultural and physical infrastructure that makes our community work and grow.

I’ve seen the impossible work that he put into publishing a free and widely distributed representation of DE/Philly DIY culture, the Tric Zine, and the wonderful annual festival that it spawned, the Philly Zine Fest. Casey created a platform where unheard voices could be discovered, amplified, and celebrated. Not merely in the cacophonous echo chamber of the internet either! Casey did his building IRL.

I’ve also seen Casey be the smartest person in the room as critical decisions were made in how to prevent flooding, groundwater contamination, the collapse of Delaware’s waste disposal systems, etc, etc.

These are the kinds of things that are easy to take for granted. That young artists should have a venue to develop their talent. That toxic chemicals shouldn’t seep into our drinking water. That a community should have a vibrant culture outside of the mainstream pipeline. That your waste should be safely disposed of when you flush the toilet.

None of these things are guaranteed, they are maintained through the miraculous work of incredible forces, such as Casey Grabowski.

Speaking from personal experience, Casey was the first publisher to print and distribute my art to an audience outside of Newark, DE. He found some of the guerrilla art I’d been leaving around the University of Delaware campus and published it in the Tric Zine, much to my surprise and delight. He then invited me to join the Tric Zine in an editorial capacity, teaching me the technical/business side of self publishing along the way. Skillsets that I have been benefiting from ever since, providing me with a trade, that eventually would become my career. Also, upon finding out I was working a minimum wage job at an auto repair shop, he immediately procured me a better paying job at the engineering and architectural firm he worked at. I don’t think it even occurred to him that he was doing something “nice,” but rather to him, in his capacity as an optimizing force, he was just doing what he does.

I think it can be difficult to express gratitude for the invisible forces that support us, because to give thanks to that which we depend on, is to admit that we might one day lose those necessities. A harsh truth that gets conveniently lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Pushing back against this complacency, for whatever it’s worth, I’d like to express my infinite gratitude to Casey Grabowski, and the selflessness that he embodies, may it live forever & ever, in and around us all, connecting the latest & greatest big picture dots, in better & better ways.

P.S. Just as I finished typing this all out, with almost supernatural timing, my phone lit up with the news that Casey had passed away, but I think the verbs should remain in the present tense, in honor of that unstoppable force, DOVE STA MEMORIA.

bc
1/17/19