Laura Patricia Calle
The woman who dreamt of a better Atlanta
Laura Patricia Calle was a friend, a member of Living Walls, and an active member of the Atlanta community who promoted arts and culture and demonstrated that passion in her life every day.
Laura Patricia Calle Grant
The Laura Patricia Calle Grant is designed to honor our dear friend Laura Patricia Calle's life, hard work, and immeasurable passion for equality for all people and the manifestation of diverse cultural expression in our public spaces. The mural should inform and promote awareness on the subject(s) of:
✴ Social Equality
✴ Feminism
✴ Immigrants' Rights
✴ LGBTQIA+ Rights
✴ Cultural Diversity
Past Projects
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As part of Living Walls' annual Laura Patricia Calle Grant, Chiomma Hall was selected to create "Speak and We Will Listen," a dynamic mural aimed at promoting positive mental health and emotional resilience by engaging students at Crawford W. Long Middle School. Inspired by Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach, vibrant imagery of students soaring toward their dreams, engaging in rest, play, and reflection becomes a catalyst for personal growth, determination, and resilience. Students from each grade created symbols in response to the following consecutive prompts:
What makes you feel happy and rested?
What are your favorite ways to express yourself?
What do you need from your community?
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“Please Stay” is a mural collage or kaleidoscope of hidden gems and meaning using text and sign language mixed with floral imagery and tangible trinkets to communicate a message of belonging to as many viewers as possible. A mix of signing hands, blooming flowers, and shiny trinkets each represent a celebration or struggle found in the everyday life of women. The collage arrangement mimics the defeats and successes we go through in life and how something beautiful can still be created within the experience.
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“Aspara” by KILLAMARI
"Aspara" is from Khmer culture with a modern twist. As a Cambodian, he's always seen these Aspara figures throughout Cambodian/Khmer religion and mythology - they're beautiful and powerful female figures often compared to angels or valkyries.
“As a husband and a father to a beautiful baby girl; I owe a lot of my happiness and support to strong women in my life. To paint an Apsara would be a great chance to pay my respects to my culture and to the women in my life.” - KILLAMARI
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Yehimi Cambrón painted “Monuments: Our Immigrant Mothers” to celebrate the diversity of the women in Atlanta’s immigrant community.
“I began looking for a wall in Decatur because I am a Scottie (Agnes Scott College) and as an art student there, I dreamed of painting a mural in the city whose walls had inspired me. We ended up with this wall for my mural for Living Wall’s Laura Patricia Calle grant because it was in bad condition and the two artists who originally painted are in different continents. The immigrant mothers in “Monuments: Our Immigrant Mothers” represent part of the diversity of our immigrant community.” - Yehimi Cambron
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A mural project by Lauren Pallotta, Jessica Caldas, Lela Burnet, Angela Davis Johnson, and Krista Jones was produced on Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta. “In Solidarity” represents Laura Patricia Calle’s constant fight for equality for all.
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"Bust It Open" by Danielle Deadwyler
As the inaugural recipient of the Laura Calle Grant, artist and actress Danielle Deadwyler put on a multimedia public performance that shed light on the role of black women's labor. While promoting black feminism, it also tackled gendered and racial confines for the backbone, main dame of southern hip-hop, and champion of civil disobedience: the black woman.
“The Atlanta black woman is someone fierce and special,” she says. “I want to take her private labor, show the public something they don’t always see, and create a space for us to have a conversation about it.”
Her performance gave way for spectators and bystanders to observe that the labor carried by the black woman is intensive and fierce; to shed light the black woman's perseverance at the face of prejudice, degradation, and disregard.
The performance allowed individual audience members an opportunity to step into an intimate circle as she interacted with them through dance and physical engagement. Danielle danced for four consecutive hours without break as she responded to each individual’s emotional weight with excitement, empathy, and compassion.
It was honest, powerful, and truly an honor for Living Walls to help Danielle bring her vision to life.
In Laura’s Honor
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“LAURA” is a project that was a long time in the making and is very close to our hearts. Laura Calle reached out to Boa Mistura in 2013 about bringing them to Atlanta because they shared our mission of using public art as a vehicle for social change. Laura passed away in late 2015 and was never able to bring this collective to Atlanta. 7 years later, Boa Mistura created this piece as an answer to one of the questions that Laura often asked, “What the hell are we doing with these large-scale murals?”
“The answer is soul. We are showing the soul of the cities. Recovering their stories, sometimes already lived and other times to be lived. Re-signifying them and incorporating them into the collective identity.” - Boa Mistura
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Laura Patricia Calle was a friend, a member of Living Walls, and an active member of the Atlanta community who promoted arts and culture and demonstrated that passion in her life every day. Through her passion, Laura sought to connect community and art while making the City of Atlanta a better place to live for all of its citizens. Laura was strongly committed to social justice, and she fought for equality and dignity for all people. She wanted to use art to transform and improve the city of Atlanta; she thought that the city should incorporate the citizens of Atlanta in the city itself, She acted as a leader in the battle to stall the effects of irresponsible development and the erosion of the culture.
Laura’s' biggest passion was urbanism and her love for Atlanta was second to none. She moved in several different social circles, including the arts, civic leadership, and the Atlanta drag scene. Her sweat, blood and tears are marked all over the city in the over 100 murals that she devoted her time to, in order to help beautify Atlanta and bring opportunity to local artists. In honor of her hard work the city proclaimed the 21st day of August of 2016 as the official Laura Patricia Calle day.
She had a promise to fight for the minorities, the less fortunate, and the marginalized. She studied at Georgia State University and graduated with honors in Cultural Anthropology. After graduation, Laura was a regularly invited guest speaker in the Anthropology Senior Seminar. She was the Programming Director and volunteer coordinator for Living Walls, which brought street artists from all over the world to Atlanta.
As a writer, she expressed her opinion in blogs such as Vandalog- A Viral and Street Art Blog. She wrote original content on contemporary tendencies of urban art and reviewed international gallery openings, shows, and community projects. She also introduced an anthropological review of urbanism, art, and globalism through various articles.
As an educator, she took her vision and ideas to her hometown of Bogotá in Colombia where she worked in the Universidad Central teaching and researching for an interdisciplinary project on urban culture. Laura programmed discussion topics and conference speakers for students and institutional activities. She also organized and presented lectures during two semesters in courses with up to 700 registered students.
Laura was an organizer/co-curator of the Atlanta Zine Festival. She organized and managed fundraising events that included gallery showings and workshops. She also curated zine art shows with over 20 national and international artists, managed volunteer duties for all fundraising events, and introduced communication strategies for the first Zine fest in Atlanta.
All forms of art were equally important forms of expressions for her; she did not limit her participation of art to murals. She participated twice in the 48 hour Atlanta film festival as both an artist and a producer, in the films “Taxi Etc” and “Lovebox”. Laura is also the inspiration for the short film “Interrupture.”
In her last year, Laura was also a member of the Center for Civic Innovation in Community Programming. Laura’s last contributions to the city of Atlanta was her hard work in organizing the Public Conversation “Condos over Culture” about the arts’ role in Atlanta’s future and the Special Event the Civic Impact Awards of 2015.
The great legacy of Laura Patricia is her optimistic and cheerful way of living, her work towards equality, and her passion for artistic, cultural, and social activism. She remains in the hearts of many of her sincere friends, family, and Atlanta.
“When the city speaks, it will scream your name.”