Courtesy of Paint Louis
This weekend, the annual graffiti art and hip-hop event Paint Louis will celebrate its 25th anniversary. With the permission of the City of St. Louis, more than 400 mural artists will gather to fill a two-mile stretch of the downtown flood wall with vibrant, eye-catching installations. Guests can also catch performances from about 30 musical artists, including headlining rapper KRS-One, while they watch the murals go up.
Before Paint Louis grew to an event attended by upward of 50,000 people, though, the flood wall was a place where hip-hop artists could find a welcoming community.
John Harrington, co-founder and longtime organizer of Paint Louis, remembers growing up in the St. Louis hip-hop scene. Anyone who was considered atypical in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, he says—skaters, hippies, Deadheads, punk rockers—hung out together at the flood wall. They began organizing their own parties, affectionately termed “jams,” where DJs, rappers, and breakdancers would gather to perform while the graffiti artists sprayed murals late into the night. For many of those original participants, Harrington recalls, the jams were the only place that they could practice their craft without being questioned by the police or encountering gang violence.
“The jams kept getting bigger and bigger every year, and finally, since it got so big, we were like, ‘We should name it,’” Harrington says. “Since it’s based off of the wall and how we value watching the artists paint, we called it Paint Louis.”
Courtesy of Paint Louis
According to Harrington, the general attitude toward graffiti was more hostile at the time. Of the four pillars of hip-hop, which include deejaying, rapping, breakdancing, and graffiti art, graffiti was the least understood by the public.
“We’ve had a weird relationship with the city,” Harrington says. “Back in the day, some of the mayors liked it, and some of them didn’t. It’s still the last outlaw element of hip-hop; everyone knows a DJ, everyone knows a rapper, everybody dances like a b-boy, but not a lot of people do graffiti art or know about graffiti art.”
There’s still work to be done, but Harrington finds that younger generations have been more understanding of graffiti’s cultural value. As the art form makes its way into the mainstream, many of the creators involved with Paint Louis have had their work displayed in galleries or purchased as home decor.
Courtesy of Paint Louis
For Harrington, the most rewarding part of Paint Louis is being able to introduce young people to the pillars of hip-hop. It’s in those moments, he says, that he’s reminded of his own coming-of-age within the scene—something that he credits with providing him with a strong sense of belonging.
“[Paint Louis] is just another way to give back to the community,” Harrington says. “I was born and raised in St. Louis, and this is [a] dangerous place in the world to grow up, especially for a Black man. So to have made it to 50 years old and still be in the community and the streets doing stuff … I still go to shows, I still go to events, I still go to parties in parks—you know, places to try to give back.”
Paint Louis is family-friendly and free to attend. Parents heading to Paint Louis can also swing by the flood wall on Saturday, September 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a Paint Littles event, organized to introduce kids to the art of spray painting. For more information, visit paint-louis.com.
