Living Walls 2011 Breaths New Life Into Atlanta

The second annual Living Walls Conference popped off this weekend in Atlanta.
The conference was founded in 2009 by Monica Campana and Blacki Li Rudi Migliozzi with the intention of putting the work of a very small subset of the population (street artists, graffiti writers, etc), people who actually interact with space, and people who spend their time in discourse about public space all under the same roof. One hope is to simply broadcast to the attendees a wide spectrum of ideas about public space, hoping that everyone leaves the event looking at the city, its walls, and how we interact with space differently.

This year's conference brought street artists from all over the world to Atlanta. There were over 26 walls that Living Walls conferences artists transformed over the weekend and I must say, they are all pretty impressive.

The weekend brought more than amazing murals, it also created space for discourse on public space, the arts, and community organizing.

American Friends Service Committee was honored to be asked to sit in on a panel that addressed Conscious applications of street art to develop, criticize, and better communities. During a Q&A session someone asked, "How can street artists and community organizers build better relationships". One of my answers to that question was, "It's happening now, thanks to Living Walls organizers".

The weekend also brought several film screenings and a pretty amazing party at the Goat Farm that was free and open to the public. The party featured a gallery of art pieces by Living Walls artist, presentations by Living Walls artists, an out of this world performance by Atlanta's own Backpockets, and a ton of great vibes.

On Sunday there was a film screening of, "Megunica", a film about BLU by Lorenzo Fonda, followed by a 20 mile bike tour of all the official(I should note that I've seen a lot of amazing unofficial pieces)Living Walls murals around the city. I decided to go along for the ride and take a few pics with my less than amazing phone cam. Those are the pics I've included in this blogpost. Please visit the official Livings Walls website, or better yet, the map of all the murals to see them in all their glory.

We've all experienced the transformation power of art. Art has the power to open doors in our imaginations, doors of new possibility, doors to new unconsidered perspectives, and in some case art can even change the course of our life path. It must be should be said that art has also had a key role is every popular social justice movement. Art and activism have forever been intimately linked.

American Friends Service Committee applauds the Living Walls crew for what they bring to our city and we're excited to explore opportunities plug into organizing efforts for the conference next year.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Another Atlanta Is Possible?

During our 8th week in our ongoing Be The Change curriculum at Horizons school students began our two hour session by reporting back on all the progress they had made in the last week. They had fundraisers planned(big ups Monica!), graphics designed, music written, facebooks groups started, and more! We were impressed to say the least.

After report backs we again split up into working groups and spent the rest of our time learning how to wheat-paste, create stencils, spray paint, structure a song, build strategy, create and edit video footage, plan fundraisers, and create digital photos.

We invited all the students to come out to Student Career Alternative Programs, "Our Dreams Will Not Be Recruited" concert planned for Sunday(11/21). Student seemed excited about the concert, some even planned to carpool.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Atlanta, Prepare Yourself!!

Our pilot program, "Be The Change Curriculum" just keeps getting more and more interesting. This week we had the pleasure of pairing young Atlanta artists and community organizers with one of seven high school student groups.

Our goal was to help each student group create a stronger analysis of the issue they had chosen to address, sharpen their focus, explore community resources, develop clear next steps, and individual accountability.

We pretty much lucked out and roped in an amazing crew of young dynamic organizers. We had WonderRoot Community Art Center Co-founder Chris Appleton, WonderRoot program manager Kwajelyn Jackson, Sierra Club field organizer Erin Glynn, Student Career Alternatives Program organizer Josie Figueroa, LGBTQ advocate Christina Vega, Living Walls organizer and street artist Monica Campana, and myself each took on a group for 90 minutes before coming back together to and let each student group present their next steps.

We don't want to let all the details out about what each group is planning organizing in the coming months but I will say that everyone present was pretty excited about the campaigns that each group is getting closer to launching.

Atlanta, prepare yourself for an unstopable force.

Monica, Chris, Kwajelyn, Josie, Christina, and Erin
Thanks You,Thank You, Thank You!!! Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to spend with Horizons students. You all made a strong impression and your impact on the students campaign work was felt:)




Tim Franzen
America Friends Service Committee