Queens of Style brought in women style writers to transform a derelict building in the West End of Atlanta into a vibrant public art experience. (Photo by Arthur Rudick)
Graffiti has the power to consume abandoned properties as naturally as moss covers a damp rock, their artistic transformation serving as visible evidence of a vibrant and often secretive style writing culture. Style writing is considered by many to be the most skillfully executed, intricate and artistic level of graffiti.
In an art-imitates-life moment, the casual observer would probably mistake the Queens of Style event venue — a derelict roofless shell of a structure — for one of those organically occurring graffiti sites. But that’s exactly the point. When planning the Queens of Style event, the Atlanta Style Writers Association wanted to craft a genuine in-the-wild Atlanta style writing experience.
On August 23 and August 24, 1141 Allene Ave. was home to an invitational featuring eight women style writers from Atlanta, across the United States and Europe who were selected for their talent and long-standing dedicated service to the style writing community. As the artists painted their pieces, Atlanta street art legend Dr. Dax served as DJ, and vendors such as Cat Eye Creative gallery offered merchandise for sale. Atlanta Worldwide Gallery sponsored a photo contest and offered a new camera as first prize, while members of the Atlanta style writing community hosted pop-ups to sell their clothing brands. The all-women nature of the lineup may have helped overcome the stigma sometimes associated with graffiti, as many neighborhood residents enthusiastically attended the event.
“I was fortunate to already call most of them friends or crew mates before this event,” said Whims, curator of Queens of Style. “I realized I had the opportunity to bring together women from across the globe and to show Atlanta something it had never seen before.”
Here is the lineup of writers from the 2025 event:
RUTHE from Atlanta is a member of the Untouched Letters Crew. Her first foray into artistic vandalism was at age 7, when she took a crayon to her parents’ fireplace.
POLEN from Baltimore was introduced to graffiti in Washington, D.C., in 2010, when she photographed her friend’s painting.
MEME from Richmond, Virginia, is an ardent skateboarder with indigenous roots who founded the Few and Far collective for women street artists.
Wuna from Paris was first exposed to graffiti on the walls of her local skate park. She has been featured in several books and documentaries about graffiti.
Lady Nina from Rome chose her graffiti handle based on an anime character created by Hiroshi Sasagawa in 1976
Dizy, a trailblazer of graffiti in India, with residences in Berlin and Hamburg in Germany, uses style writing to defy the rules and norms of Indian culture.
Whims from Atlanta, began painting trains in 2012. Her evolving style sometimes features florals and landscapes.
KSRA – pronounced like the phrase “que será” – is a Seattle resident with roots in Atlanta. Her fine art features distorted images of iconic storefront signs from shuttered Seattle businesses.
“Queens of Style Atlanta has really been a long time coming,” said Naomi, founder of the Atlanta Style Writers Association, who declined to give her last name to avoid putting the spotlight on herself. “One of the main goals of the Atlanta Style Writers Association is to uplift the style writing culture in Atlanta. We were able to celebrate women in style writing, which was huge because style writing in general is not celebrated and women in style writing are a minority of a minority subculture. Style writers were the first people to put spray paint on walls. In terms of continuously evolving and improving the culture, one thing that’s really important is representation. And that means representation for women.” She said the event was a cultural, educational and community-building celebration of the art form.
“The event was such a joy,” said Whims. “We had a blast painting together, and it was powerful to look around and see so many different styles and perspectives represented. It showed just how much women bring to the world of graffiti.”
Whims navigates the male-dominated world of graffiti by holding herself to a higher standard and letting the work speak for itself. “Spending over a decade painting in Atlanta’s often misogynistic scene has made me tougher and more determined,” she continued. “It pushed me to work harder for the respect I’ve earned, which is why creating events like this feels so important.”
Grants from Atlanta Contemporary’s Nexus Fund and the Art Share Foundation supplied a small budget that enabled the team to fly in out-of-town participants, pay for lodging and purchase spray paint. The Atlanta Style Writers Association also wanted to give the featured artists a real taste of Atlanta’s style writing culture, so resident members of Atlanta’s style writing community served as an informal welcoming committee. VAYNE, a pre-eminent graffiti writer, led a tour of the So So Def Tunnel and historic graffiti sites on the Beltline.
The site of Queens of Style’s activation was one of the stars of the event. It’s a style writer’s dream: bare concrete, exposed rusting beams and gaping doorless loading docks on a weed-infested, rundown lot scattered with old pallets. Many countries don’t have the same pure, raw hip-hop aesthetic that we have here in the city. When Lady Nina from Italy first saw the site she exclaimed, “Wow, graffiti is THIS!”
Naomi had been eyeing 1141 Allene Ave. as a possible event venue for quite some time. Last year, in preparation for the 2024 Atlanta Style Writer’s Jam, Naomi and Dr. Dax were buffing the walls on the Beltline under the Lee Street Bridge. An old friend of Dax’s rode up on his bicycle and said, “Oh, you should paint my building — it’s right down the street.” By a happy coincidence, Dax’s friend’s building turned out to be 1141 Allene Ave.
The structure is currently behind a fence because there is still a tenant renting the property, but the graffiti pieces painted for the event are visible from the sidewalk. At some point in the future, the site will be more open to the public. Although upcoming plans are not yet finalized, it appears likely that Queens of Style will become more than a one-time event.
Want to take a self-guided tour of street art in the area? When you go to check out the Queens of Style pieces at 1141 Allene Ave., consider taking a short walk north on Allene Avenue, then west on the Beltline to see the Atlanta Style Writers Jam artwork under the Lee Street Bridge. Continuing down the Beltline offers a chance to see a wealth of style writing and murals all throughout the complex between the Beltline and along White Street.
As someone who has documented Atlanta’s street art since 2017, it seems to me that street art is often underrepresented in the overall art world, graffiti is often underrepresented in the genre of street art and women are often underrepresented in graffiti. In recent years, the city of Atlanta has begun to embrace and feature sanctioned graffiti, and the Queens of Style event is a big step toward elevating the presence of women in graffiti. I look forward to seeing these trends continue into the future.
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Arthur Rudick created the Atlanta Street Art Map in 2017 after retiring from a successful career as an engineer with Eastman Kodak and the Coca-Cola Company. His first experience of art was seeing an Alexander Calder mobile as a child in the Pittsburgh airport. Rudick is ArtsATL’s street art expert and a regular contributor.
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