Colorado Street Art Company
Colorado Street Art
Company
The full memorial wall at 21st and Lawrence, community gathered at the October 2020 unveiling

Featured project · Curated by Colorado Street Art

Memorial Wall
21st & Lawrence

Unveiled
October 4, 2020
Location
LAZ parking lot, 2100 Lawrence St, Ballpark / Five Points, Denver
Artists
Adam Clark, Ksenia Poteraj, Austin Zucchini-Fowler, Giovannie “Just” Dixon, Karlee Mariel, Robert Bowers
Support
La Popular Food Company

At the corner of 21st and Lawrence in Denver’s Ballpark neighborhood, a brick wall carries four faces and four stories. Kendrick Castillo. Mya Peña. Oluwatoyin Salau. Paul Childs. Each portrait was painted by a different artist, but they share a single purpose: to hold the memory of lives taken by violence and to refuse to let those lives be reduced to headlines.

The wall was curated by Colorado Street Art Company, which brought the portraits together as a unified memorial in the LAZ parking lot at 2100 Lawrence Street, a location chosen with care. The neighborhood is home to Samaritan House and other services for people in need, places that meant something to more than one person honored here. The wall looks out on movement and community rather than sitting behind closed doors.

The people on this wall

Kendrick CastilloAdam Clark & Ksenia Poteraj
Mya PeñaAustin Zucchini-Fowler
Oluwatoyin “Toyin” SalauGiovannie “Just” Dixon
Paul ChildsKarlee Mariel & Robert Bowers

Kendrick Castillo

Kendrick was eighteen years old when he gave his life protecting classmates during the 2019 STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting. He rushed the shooter, giving hundreds of other students time to escape or take cover. His actions allowed them to go home that night.

Colorado Street Art worked closely with Kendrick’s family to make sure the mural reflected who he really was, not just the act of heroism, but the person behind it. They chose an image of him smiling, glasses on, suit and tie sharp against a calm blue background. The location, a few blocks from Samaritan House homeless shelter, was meaningful to his family. “That was really something Kendrick was passionate about, taking care of people and spreading his love,” his father John said. “I hope that when people are struggling, I just hope they look over and Kendrick’s looking down and providing comfort to them in some way.”

The unveiling on October 4, 2020, organized by community member Donna Vander Baan, drew about 30 people to the parking lot. John and Maria Castillo spoke. District Attorney George Brauchler addressed the crowd: “There are family members, some of whom are here, who thank God for Kendrick Castillo because they don’t have to have a son or a daughter on a mural somewhere.” STEM student Lucy Sarkissian, then fifteen, spoke about Cupcakes 4 Change, started after the shooting to support victims of gun violence.

For Colorado Street Art, the project came through a community suggestion and the answer was immediate. “We jumped right on it,” said Adam Clark. “We were really inspired by the story.” Douglas County has since renamed a stretch of Lucent Boulevard in Highlands Ranch to Kendrick Castillo Way.

John Castillo speaks at the unveiling of the Kendrick Castillo mural
John Castillo speaks at the October 2020 unveiling · @coloradostart

“Kendrick was spreading love, and always with a smile. Every photograph, we never had to hand pick one that didn’t smile.”

John Castillo, Kendrick’s father
Mya's World mural by Austin Zucchini-Fowler
Mya Peña mural by Austin Zucchini-Fowler · 21st & Lawrence · @coloradostart

Mya Peña

Mya Peña was seventeen and a student at Mile High Academy in Highlands Ranch when she was killed on January 14, 2020. She had befriended a young man she knew was struggling with serious mental health challenges and was trying to help him. That afternoon, he took her life in a murder-suicide.

The people who knew Mya describe her the same way: unusually kind, deliberately and actively. She saved part of every paycheck to buy food for people experiencing homelessness. She made friends with kids who didn’t have any. “She had a heart for people who were less fortunate,” said her mother, Audra Peña. “She died because she was trying to be kind.”

Austin Zucchini-Fowler painted Mya’s portrait near the area downtown where she used to feed the homeless. Her family gathers at the mural on the anniversary of her death, bringing care kits for people in need. “I come here just to sit with her,” her mother said. “She looks over the city and that’s kind of what we’re proud of.” In Mya’s memory, her family founded Mya’s World, supporting young people dealing with domestic violence, unhealthy relationships, and mental health crises.

Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau

Toyin was a nineteen-year-old Nigerian-American activist from Tallahassee, Florida. In the summer of 2020 she was a visible and passionate presence at Black Lives Matter protests in her city, speaking publicly about justice, safety, and the protection of Black lives.

In the days before she was killed, Toyin shared that she had been sexually assaulted by a man who offered her a ride. On June 15, 2020, she was found murdered. Her death sent grief through activist communities across the country, with the painful irony that a young woman who marched for safety had not been kept safe herself.

Her portrait was painted by Giovannie “Just” Dixon. Her inclusion recognizes that the violence this wall stands against reaches beyond any single community or geography, and that her name, like every name here, deserves to be spoken.

Paul Childs

Paul Childs was fifteen when he was shot and killed by a Denver police officer inside his own home on July 5, 2003. Paul had developmental disabilities, and his family had called police for help when he became distressed. When officers arrived, Paul was holding a kitchen knife. He was shot multiple times at close range.

His death sparked protests in Denver and forced a public reckoning about how law enforcement responds to people with disabilities in mental health crisis, a conversation cities across the country continue to struggle with. His name became part of a larger call for reform in how communities protect their most vulnerable.

The portrait, painted by Karlee Mariel and Robert Bowers, stands as a reminder that the obligation to protect young people does not end at the door of a home, and that accountability is a form of honoring the dead.

Art as a stand against violence

The wall at 21st and Lawrence does not look away from hard things. Each portrait confronts the specific circumstances of a life ended by violence: a school shooting, a domestic violence murder, the killing of an activist, a police shooting in a family’s home. The differences matter. So does what they shared: youth, a community that loved them, and a story that deserved more time.

A wall can become a shrine, a touchstone, a place where grief, gratitude, and hope exist together.

“It is not only about looking back at what happened, but offering comfort in the present.”Adam Clark, Colorado Street Art Company
Close-up of the Kendrick Castillo mural
The Kendrick Castillo mural · 2100 Lawrence St · @coloradostart

Visiting the mural

The wall is in the LAZ parking lot at 2100 Lawrence Street, on the edge of Five Points. Cars come and go, games let out nearby, people walk to and from work or the shelters and services in the area. Above all that movement, four faces look out over the city. It is worth taking a moment to stand there, look up, and remember the people it honors.

Address2100 Lawrence Street, Denver, CO 80205LAZ parking lot · Ballpark / Five Points
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Media coverage

Kendrick Castillo mural unveiledCBS Colorado Mural unveiled in downtown DenverRocky Mountain PBS Kendrick Castillo mural unveiled (video)KDVR Fox31 Two new Denver murals dedicated to fighting violenceWestword Mya Peña identified as victim in murder-suicideCBS Colorado Mya’s mural: remembering murder victimsKDVR Fox31 Honoring Mya Peña’s legacy of kindness9News Gone, not forgotten: community remembers Mya PeñaSpectrum Magazine Mya Peña mural tribute (video)YouTube