This photo is a good reminder of how much the graffiti scene thrives on community. If you create a place for young writers to gather, blackbook, and swap stories, they’ll show up. The old-timers show up too, but it’s the younger people in the scene who need it the most.

I was already 40 when I opened the shop in Pedro and had almost nothing in common with the younger writers coming around. But graff can bridge the age gap to a certain degree. I still played more of a facilitator role and provided a place for them to gather, but we could see eye to eye on the graffiti stuff.

For the last few years, I’ve been pretty disconnected from that part of the scene. Sitting at the table and blackbooking with some of the younger writers today reminded me of what we started this for.

It was about providing a place for people to gather in a positive environment and bridging the gap between old heads and youngsters. There’s a lot of disconnect between the different generations of writers, but there’s really no need for that.

Maybe we aren’t all going to hang out with each other, but we can at least connect on the graff level and make the scene better.

— Bus