Creating Legends: Graffiti Writers of the Past, Present, and Future
By Jordan Snowden
At the Carrie Blast Furnaces, energy and creativity have replaced molten iron as the leading commodities supporting their surrounding communities with the help of Rivers of Steel and local and non-local artists through festivals, events, and educational programming.
For the heritage nonprofit’s latest upcoming project, Creating Legends: Graffiti Writers of the Past, Present, and Future, graffiti artists from around the world will mix and mingle with one another and with residents of Pittsburgh and Mon Valley communities. The project is presented by Rivers of Steel in partnership with Hemispheric Conversations Urban Arts Project (HCUAP).
Running from October 14 – 20, this multilayered, community-based program serves as a weeklong residency for select artists to engage with youth, create new murals, and participate in free public events at The Warhol and Carrie Blast Furnaces.
Or, as Scott Brozovich, Rivers of Steel’s graffiti coordinator and teaching artist, put it: “Creating Legends serves as a way to work with legends—like New York graffiti writer pioneers and United Graffiti Artists, aka UGA, founding members Henry 161 and Mike 171—to create new legends.
“I think the part that gets slept on a little bit is the ‘creating,’” says Brozovich. “You know, because we’re bringing legends out, but that’s not the purpose of the program. The program, in my eyes, is to use people like Henry and Mike to inspire others to become legends themselves.”
Chris McGinnis, Rivers of Steel’s senior director of programs & regional partnerships, understands the excitement of bringing famous artists to the region and the impact it can make on youth but also acknowledges what programs like this can do for the communities over time.
“Our graffiti arts programs are anchored in the legacy of our region’s postindustrial past,” said McGinnis. “Not unlike a moth to a flame, creatives of all types have been lured by the Carrie Blast Furnaces, including the graf writers in the 1980s and ’90s. But more importantly, our program is also centered on our region’s future. By working with youth and partnering with an array of collaborators—HCUAP, individual artists, community centers including Rankin Christian Center and Dragon’s Den—we can build skills, create confidence, and spark interest among our communities’ youngest artists, while also crafting something beautiful for everyone whose eyes rest on the murals.”
The 2024 Program at a Glance
Creating Legends kicks off on Monday, October 14, with a community event during Rankin Christian Center’s Fall Festival. All of the Creating Legends artists—from the Netherlands’ hip-hop-leaning graphic muralist Mr. June to local artists working with HCUAP, including Shane Pilster who helped develop Rivers of Steel’s graffiti arts program—will be available for a meet and greet, as well as a live community painting session. Alongside music and food options are pumpkin carving, games, and a portrait mural session.
Come Wednesday, Mike 171 and Henry 161, known worldwide as The Boys from the Heights, join self-taught multimedia Venezuelan-American artist Ally Grimm at Homestead’s Dragon’s Den to speak with students about the artists’ backgrounds in the graffiti medium.
Front-runners of style-writing graffiti, The Boys from the Heights helped launch the graphic art form as a global cultural phenomenon and were some of the first graffiti artists to be written about in The New York Times during the 1970s. Grimm, meanwhile, will offer a more modern take on graffiti, as over the years her signature monochromatic style has evolved from paper to canvas, and now murals and digital installations found in cities across America, as well as the virtual world with augmented reality and non-fungible tokens.
That same day, across the river at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Creativity, Roberto Seminario aka Sef, a graffiti artist from Peru whose realistic aesthetic focuses on themes of innocence and purity, and renowned Parisian street artist REVER will share their stories while creating accompanying live paintings.
Thursday, Creating Legends offers another student-focused educational leg, when Sef, REVER, Mr. June, and Grimm visit associate professor of communication Caitlin Bruce’s class at the University of Pittsburgh to share their stories, followed by a Q&A session.
Creating Legends opens back up to the public on Friday at The Andy Warhol Museum’s theater for a Q&A panel discussion featuring all of the artists involved, moderated by Emma Riva, a member of HCUAP. Riva is an art writer based in Pittsburgh. Her work has appeared in Artforum, The Art Newspaper, Newcity, The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Belt Magazine, and more. She also serves as the managing editor of UP Magazine—an international graffiti and street art publication—and is the online editor of Pittsburgh’s TABLE Magazine.
Henry 161
Riva, who grew up in New York’s Washington Heights—where The Boys from the Heights did—is looking forward to the event. “I’ve done a couple of combinations at this point with different panelists, but this is the third discussion I’ve moderated with Mike [171] and Henry [161], so I feel like I know them pretty well, and they’re really fun people to talk to that have super inspiring stories.
“They’re both sweet people and positive examples of masculinity that are at a point in their lives where they want to share their stories with the world because they were some of the first graffiti writers in the U.S.,” says Riva. “They are some of the originators of the movement, and we’re lucky in Pittsburgh—in any of these arts institutions—that they speak and we get to be near them, to hear from them, while they’re still around.
Mike 171
“I’m always really excited to speak with people in the graffiti community because they are always such big personalities and take some elitism out of being creative,” says Riva.
Saturday, the fun moves to Carrie Blast Furnaces, where the artists will hang out and work on creating new pieces. Mr. June and Grimm are set to paint solo murals, while Sef and REVER are set to paint together. Meanwhile, The Boys from the Heights will lead a special version of the Hands-On Graffiti Tour before turning the spray cans over to guests, offering a chance to paint with the legends themselves.
Closing out the week on Sunday is a paint party at Trace Brewing’s Clement Way legal wall, featuring snacks, drinks, music, live painting, and murals by Dejouir Brown and Juliandra Jones, both of whom currently work with Brozovich to lead Rivers of Steel’s graffiti arts student programs.
For Brozovich, youth engagement is an essential element of the program. “This really means something to me because I didn’t get chances like this as a kid,” says Brozovich. “No one came into my school and was like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to go work in the local factory . . . you could do something else.’ That’s a big part of what the program is—showing youth that you can be something more than just your average worker; you can be a legend.”
Artworks by Michael Walsh (left) and Carlos Mare (right) created during the Industrial Grit and Graffiti program in 2022.
The Foundation for Creating Legends
In 2022, Rivers of Steel launched Industrial Grit and Graffiti, a program held at the Carrie Blast Furnaces that was dedicated to exploring the intersection between metal arts and graffiti.
For one week that summer, graffiti arts pioneers Carlos Mare, né Rodriguez, (aka Mare139) and Pittsburgh’s own Michael Walsh joined three local artists to collaborate, learn from one another, and push their personal boundaries and intersections of graffiti sculpture art. Some of those works, including Mare’s sculpture showcasing the movement of breakdancing, are still on display at the Carrie Blast Furnaces.
The program also connected with residents in the nearby communities in the Monongahela Valley—places shaped by both their industrial and postindustrial heritage—for interactive events, ranging from tours and workshops to internships and residencies. These activities, dubbed the Community Learning Series, also culminated with an artists’ talk at The Warhol Museum in December of 2022.
“What’s really nice about the organization is that it’s preserving this whole industrial space for artists to come look at it, be inspired by it, and then go make art,” said Mare in a 2023 video about Industrial Grit and Graffiti. “The opportunities that Rivers of Steel offers someone like me and Michael, who believe very strongly in the ethos of hard work, smart work, forward-thinking work, work that does not come easy—this is a place for people like us.”
Walsh echoed that sentiment, saying, “I was somehow, in these abandoned sites, almost taken over by this industry and the ghost of its spirit. The amount of energy that was expelled here, if you think about that, is pretty hard to grapple with. I think it’s only appropriate that someone from a city like Pittsburgh would work in this medium and continue to.”
While one of the purposes of Industrial Grit and Graffiti was to show how graffiti art can extend to other mediums and opportunities, the format was also a hit with the creatives who participated.
“I want to make this available in the way of encouraging other graffiti artists to work in the industrial arts and work with their hands . . . and 3D art and also work in the ever-emerging and expanding digital realm,” says Walsh.
“Industrial Grit and Graffiti was Rivers of Steel’s second major initiative that used graffiti as an inspiration for creative placemaking and community building,” said McGinnis. “It was borne out of the Murals on a Mission project. Now, picking up where the 2022 program left off, Creating Legends embraces that momentum and features public murals, community-based collaborations, and culminating public events.”
A canvas painted during a Murals on a Mission community event.
McGinnis also acknowledged the support he received from muralist Ashley Hodder. “Ashley was essential in getting Creating Legends off the ground, from early-stage collaboration in drafting the grant requests to connecting us with participating artists and helping coordinate their murals and locations. It was great to have the opportunity to work with her again.”
Creating Legends was made possible through contributions from The McKinney Charitable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, and the McElhattan Foundation.
Get Involved
Join Rivers of Steel & Hemispheric Conversations Urban Art Project for a panel discussion featuring nationally recognized muralists and graffiti artists Mr. June, Sef, Mike 171, and Henry 161 at The Warhol Museum on Friday, October 18. The conversation, moderated by Emma Riva, will reflect on how the project is bringing together local, national, and international muralists to celebrate the origins of graffiti and its influence across generations. It is co-presented with The Andy Warhol Museum. The event is free, but registration is required. Sign up here.
Also, don’t miss the opportunity to join the special version of the Hands-On Graffiti Tour at the Carrie Blast Furnaces on Saturday, October 19, led by Mike 171 and Henry 161—The Boys from the Heights. Register here.
So grab your spray paints or simply your listening ears, and come, learn, have fun, and who knows—you may just be the next graffiti legend!
Jordan Snowden is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh whose work has been published in The Seattle Times, Pittsburgh City Paper ,and elsewhere. She also runs @jord_reads_books, a book-focused Instagram account where she connects with other bookworms. In her free time, Jordan can be found with a book in her hand or DIYing something with her husband.
