New mural celebrates Black music on Vine Street
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The colors are bolder in person! Photo: Abbey Higginbotham/Axios
A once-crumbling, 250-foot wall in KC's historic 18th and Vine Jazz District has become a hand-painted journey through Black music.
Why it matters: The World Cup will pack KC with visitors for a month, but the mural will outlast them as a free and permanent piece of the city's history.
Zoom in: Phil "Sike Style" Shafer and J.T. Daniels spent two years on the retaining wall at 2000 Vine, behind Vine Street Brewing and Vine Street Chicken Co. Their work blends Shafer's sharp-edged graffiti style with Daniels' warmer portraits.
- They named it "Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler," French for "let the good times roll," a phrase straight out of New Orleans that the artists chose to salute KC's own Mardi Gras crews.
- The painting moves through history: African drummers, a Lincoln High School band marching down the Paseo, jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams, then a 1990s block showing DJs remixing music into hip-hop.
- Look closer and you'll spot KC Easter eggs: a Negro Leagues Monarchs cap, baseball stitching and the chevrons Shafer also painted on the Buck O'Neil Bridge.
What they're saying: "This was that cultural epicenter, and it still can be in KC," Shafer tells Axios.
- He chose people still living, like saxophonist Bobby Watson, over the usual icons, then added everyday faces so neighbors can spot themselves.
- "I just love the idea that this mural can talk about what's going to happen in the future and not just talk about what's laid the foundation in the past," he says.
What's next: The artists release final photos next week, and Shafer is already at work on his next mural, a piece bridging the River Market and Columbus Park.
- Meanwhile, Tim Duggan, developer and owner of the buildings that sit in front of the mural, tells Axios the lawn out by the painting will host free youth soccer clinics and family-friendly concerts during the World Cup.