The first thing he ever made.
Kept mint for forty years.
Reason. “Air Balloon” was written by Halim A. Flowers in October 1987, at the age of seven, as a second-grade writing exercise assigned by his teacher, Mrs. Rutherford, at Kingsman Elementary School in Washington, D.C. By his own account it is the first creative work he ever produced in any discipline — a child's foray into Afro-Futurism, imagining an escape from the harsh realities of the Crack era in the nation's capital. It is the origin point of an artistic life that now spans museum-grade fine art, permanent public sculpture, and elite institutional exhibition.
Copyright. The work has never been licensed, sold, contracted, self-published, or awarded. The author has affixed a copyright notice and is registering the work with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. The only exploitation to date is a spoken-word audio reading — the author narrating the story on the “Picking Flowers” podcast (Spotify), 3 min 25 sec, released under his artist name PAY A10$ION.
Custody. The original was returned to the artist by his teacher and kept by his mother, Darlene Flowers — laminated, in mint condition, in her file cabinet — for nearly four decades before she returned both the original and a copy to him last year. She served at the Library of Congress for more than thirty years and functioned as the de facto archivist of his written work. Twenty-two of those ~38 years, the artist was incarcerated; the archive survived intact regardless.
Provenance is a pricing input. A mint original with an unbroken forty-year chain of custody is the scarcest input a first work can carry — and it is currently kept in a file cabinet.
| Registry Field | Value |
|---|---|
| TICKER | $HALIM · parent property · artist name PAY A10$ION |
| ASSET | “Air Balloon” — First Short Story · Asset 01 of 06 |
| CLASS | Literary Work — Short Story (Childhood Literature) + Spoken-Word Derivative |
| SECTOR | Literary / Publishing + Spoken-Word Entertainment (CDC 3.0×) |
| STAGE | Day-0 · Pre-commercial · unlicensed |
| STATUS | Registration in progress · © notice affixed · LOC filing pending |
| ORIGIN | 2nd-grade writing exercise · Mrs. Rutherford · Kingsman Elementary, Washington D.C. · Oct 1987 (author age 7) |
| CUSTODY | Mint · laminated · ~38 yrs single-custodian (Darlene Flowers, Library of Congress 30+ yrs) |
| EXPLOITATION | Audio only — “Air Balloon”, Picking Flowers podcast (Spotify), 3:25 |
| PRIOR RIGHTS | None — never licensed, sold, contracted, or published in written form |