EP.05: Voices on the Walls: Engaging and Empowering Youth Through Visual Story Telling

This PEP Talk episode features Todd Johnson, aka, Estria, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Estria Foundation. Estria is a world renowned urban art living legend. Across three decades of style writing, or what media has referred to as graffiti art, Estria has collaborated with non-profits and high profile corporations to lead a movement that centers around creating art in public spaces as a means to raise awareness of human and environmental issues.  

Estria was active in the San Francisco Bay Area during the “Golden Age Of Graffiti” and remained there to spearhead numerous initiatives combining his artistic and entrepreneurial talents to develop art programs targeting at-risk-youth.  

Within the last ten years, Estria has invested much of his efforts on working with schools throughout the state of Hawaii. In 2016, filmmaker, Tadashi Nakamura, directed and edited a full length award winning documentary titled Mele Murals, which featured Estria and a team of artists who engaged Native Hawaiian youth in a transformational experience that combined public art and indigenous traditions.  

Estria continues to engage students, teachers, and school leaders in the transformative power of visual-storytelling as evidenced by the increasing number of out-door Mele Mural art work adorning school walls and capturing student voices in a unique and powerful way.