I was drawn to this workshop because of the reviews. My 14-year-old son is an art lover who loves graffiti, and had been asking for months to come here. We drove from D.C. just for this experience, hoping it would be inspiring and memorable. Instead, we left feeling humiliated, ignored, and deeply hurt.
I paid extra for both of us to receive personal canvases and arrived 15 minutes early, just as instructed. A white family of four (including two teenage boys) arrived shortly after us. When “Leaf” opened the door at 3:00 p.m., he asked me for my name and then turned away to greet the white family—giving them instructions, chatting, and stepping outside with them. My son and I were left standing there confused, having received no direction. Trying not to jump to conclusions, we followed them upstairs into the studio.
Once upstairs, Leaf immediately pulled out two large canvases for the white boys and gave them further instruction. He did not acknowledge us again until 20 minutes later, when he casually asked what spray paint colors we wanted and told us to start painting on the wall. We tried to stay positive—for my son’s sake—but it was already clear we were being treated differently.
When I asked about our canvases (which I had paid for), Leaf told me, “You didn’t pay for that.” I pulled out my paper receipt to show him otherwise. He checked his phone and said, “Oh, I didn’t want to throw you to the big dogs without practice first.” Meanwhile, the white family was already working on their full-sized canvases with his help. We had been given no instruction or acknowledgment.
Finally, 40 minutes into the session, Gabe handed us tiny 4x6 canvases. This was supposed to be the individual canvas I paid for? The booking options only list two choices: paint on the wall or paint on a personal canvas. We paid for the same thing the other family received—so why were ours miniature?
My son kept painting, trying to make the most of it, but Leaf never offered any guidance or encouragement. He continued to help the other family while we were left to figure things out ourselves.
The final blow came at the end. Leaf signed the white boys’ canvases with his tag, and on the back of my son’s small canvas, he wrote: “Stay out of trouble, killa.” Why would you write that to a 14-year-old African American child? You didn’t write anything like that on the white boys’ work. What made you look at my son and associate him with trouble?
My son has never been in trouble, never done a drug, and comes from a loving, structured home. He simply loves graffiti art and was excited to learn more. That comment broke something in him. I tried so hard to shield him from how Leaf treated us throughout the workshop, but the message on the back of that canvas said it all. He wanted to know why was he being singled out and referred to as a killer?
This experience was traumatizing. I am reporting this business and writing this review to warn other families—especially families of color—that you may not be treated equally here. It is unacceptable for a white man profiting off a historically criminalized art form to stereotype a Black child for taking interest in that very art.
And yes-I spoke to the owner directly and he completely dismissed my concerns.